For the bad is the love of the body alone, through its being overcome by what is pleasant; and this is after the manner of beasts; but the well-behaved is for the sake of the naked soul, in which there is seen a fitness for virtue; but the intermediate has a longing for the body, and a longing likewise for the beauty of the soul. He too, who is worthy to be loved, is himself a mean, as being neither ill-conducted nor well-behaved; from whence we must call the love, that lays claim to the body, some demon rather than a god, who has never been generated in an earthly body, (and) is the conveyer of what is sent by the gods to man, and conversely. The amatory then, being thus commonly divided into the three kinds before mentioned, the one, which relates to the love of the good, being freed from an affection, becomes a thing of art; from whence it is placed in the rational (portion) of the soul; and its contemplations are to know the person worthy to be loved, and to possess and make use of him; and further to judge of him from his propensities and impulses, whether they are noble, and tending to what is honourable, and whether they are violent and fervid. And he, who strives to possess it, shall possess it, not by rendering delicate or praising the object of his love, but by repressing it rather, and showing that by a person, being in the state he is now, life is not to be lived. And when he gets the party loved into his power, he will make use of him, after having enjoined the things, through which he will, after being practised in them, become perfect; and the end to them (will be), that, instead of a lover and a beloved, they will become friends. — Alcinous, *Handbook of Platonism*, Ch. 32, trans. George Burges (1854), pp. 310–311. *Surface Gloss:* Love has three grades: beastly (for body alone), intermediate (for body and soul), and noble (for the naked soul's virtue). Because it mediates between flesh and spirit, Love is a *daimon*—an unembodied courier between gods and men. Noble love becomes a rational art that wins the beloved not by flattery, but by humbling him into perfection, turning asymmetrical passion into equal friendship. **The Anti-Flattery Capture (Socratic Mentorship as an Art):** Cheap suitors, bad managers, and sycophants try to win high-potential talent by praising and spoiling them. The master-practitioner treats mentorship as a three-step rational art: 1. **Screen for Voltage:** Look for raw impulses that are noble, intense, and "fervid." 2. **Capture by Humbling:** Win them not with flattery, but by dismantling their vanity and showing them that their current level of existence is unlivable compared to what they could be. 3. **Graduate to Equals:** Put them through the regimen until the asymmetrical mentor-protege dynamic dissolves into peer friendship.
— In our words · Source: Handbook of Platonism (Alcinous)