'We, the representatives in our meeting, have not discovered the ultimate source of conjugial love, because it lies too deeply hidden in the inmost recesses of the mind. Even the most masterly wisdom cannot cast a ray of light on that love at its source. We have made many conjectures, but having to no purpose debated its subtleties, we do not know whether our guesses are trifles or sound judgments. Anyone therefore wishing to extract the source of that love from the inmost recesses of the mind and present it to view is advised to resort to the Delphic oracle.

'We have thought about that love below its source as being a spiritual movement in people's minds, resembling there a spring of sweet water, from where it flows down into the breast, becoming there pleasant and being called bosom-love. This regarded in itself is full of friendship and full of trust, as a result of an unqualified mutual propensity. On passing through the breast it turns into fervent love. When a young man ponders such things in his thoughts, as he does when he chooses for himself one in particular of the opposite sex, the fire of conjugial love is lighted in his heart; and since this fire is the first sign of that love, it is its source.

'We cannot make out any other source for its strength or potency than the love itself, since these are inseparable companions, but of such a nature that sometimes one takes precedence and sometimes the other. When love takes precedence, and its strength or potency follows, both are noble, because potency is then the strength of conjugial love. But if potency takes precedence and love follows, then both are ignoble, because love is then the result of carnal potency. We therefore judge the quality of either to be dependent upon the order in which loves comes down or goes up, thus advancing from its source to its goal.' This paper was signed with the letter D.