The living word
SocratesBut do we see another speech, the written one’s legitimate brother—how it is born, and how much better and stronger it grows?
PhaedrusWhich speech do you mean, and how is it born?
SocratesThe speech written with knowledge in the soul of a learner. It can defend itself and knows whom to address and before whom to be silent.
PhaedrusYou mean the living, breathing speech of someone who knows; the written speech might rightly be called its image.
SocratesExactly. Now tell me: if a sensible farmer cared for his seeds and wanted them to bear fruit, would he seriously sow them in the gardens of Adonis in summer and rejoice to see them grow fine in eight days? Or would he do that for play and celebration, if he did it at all, while sowing the seeds he took seriously in suitable ground by the art of farming and taking pleasure when they bore fruit eight months later?
PhaedrusI think, Socrates, he would do the one in earnest and the other just as you say.