of Hermes Trismegistus in Pomander, without asking a single word respecting the age to which this work belongs. The critic cannot date it farther back than the fourth century of the Christian era, as it commingles Christian notions and in part New Testament expressions, with cabalistic and New Platonic ones. * Besides,

one would deceive himself should he expect to find the subject of which I am now speaking, mentioned in these Hermetical oracles. The passages collected together by Fessler contain nothing but such general religious views respecting the nature of God, the relation of God to the world, and raising one's self to him in language, as we might expect from the above named schools. The same writer farther appeals to the Pythagoreans and Essenes,† who founded religious communities in Egypt and Palestine. As regards those of the Pythagoreans, who, when this society was destroyed, fled into Egypt, there is not the least particle of proof that they ever thought of a universal kingdom of God in any of their connexions with this order. Such an idea seems to have been as foreign from their mind as from that of their master. Nor do those writers by whom the names of several of these Pythagoreans have been preserved, say a single syllable respecting such a plan. With respect to the

collected around them associates, and such as were susceptible of their own illumination, and, for the purpose of representing the infinite in the finite, united them together in churches." The passages are, as is evident from a comparison, taken, without any very accurate reference, from the translation of Pomander by Tiedemann, Berl., 1781; especially from S. 79. 87. 96. 45. 73, 74.

* Vid. Exercit. Antibar. according to Casaubon, I. c. 10. p. 66 -80, ed. Gen., 1663; Fabric., Biblioth. Graec., I. 46 seqq.; Cudworth, Syst. Int. ed. Mosh., Ien., p. 373-389; [True Intellect. Syst. of the Universe, Vol. I. pp. 319-334, 2d ed. Lond. 1743. Tr.]; Brucker, Hist. Crit. Philos., I. 260 seqq; especially Meiner, Versuch über die Religionsgesch. d. ält. Völker, bes. d. Aegypt. S. 202-249, which is not weakened by Kreuzer, Symbolik, I. 363 ff. 381 f.

In the Ansichten, S. 184 ff.

Diogen. Laert. 1. VIII. Segm. 46. p. 524, ed. Wetst.; Iamblich., De vita Pythag., c. 36. p. 215, ed. Kust.

Essenes, Fessler himself acknowledges, (S. 187 f.) " that they were occupied with the dignity and sanctity of their internal life, rather than possessed of the dignity and sanctity of religion itself, and hence, fell into absolute exclusiveness." It is in vain to seek for any thing among them, therefore, which can be opposed to the proof of Reinhard.

*

(b) But did not Plato, in the conception which he formed of his state, also include the conception of a kingdom of God? One might, perhaps, be inclined to admit this from the fact, that the state, a plan of which he projected, was an ideal one, the original of which was to be found only in the celestial world; and that his state was not merely a juridical, but an ethical commonwealth, in which, the moral culture of the citizenst was to be promoted by a good education and by religion, which he considered as essential parts of his state, and blended with all its regulations. Some intimations at least made with a reference to this subject, have been given in our time. These intimations, however, are not of such a

* De Republ., 1. V. p. 51. 1. IX. 281, (Bip. Tom. 7;) comp. Clem. Alex., Strom., 1. 4, extr. p. 543. Sylb., Ioμev de zaι Tyy IIατωνος πολιν, παραδειγμα εν ουρανῳ κειμενην.

De Republ., 1. IV. 378, (Tom. 6.) VI. 114. VII. 133. VIII. 186, (Tom. 7.) De Legg., I. 16 seqq. IV. 164. V. 203. 217, (Tom. 8.) ÌX. 4. 21, (Tom. 9.)

‡ De Republ., II. 246 seq. IV. 334; De Legg., I. 18 seq. 41 seq. VI. 279 seq., especially 1. VII. from the beginning p. 320, (Tom. 8.)

§ De Republ., II. 253; De Legg., 1. I. from the beginning, IV. 185. VI. 185, 266. VII. 352, and especially X. from the beginning p. 66 seqq. (Tom. 9.)

|| Köppen, Politik nach Platonischen Grundsätzen mit Anwendung auf unsre Zeit, S. 79, L. 1818. "Plato and Christ originally had precisely the same thing in view, namely, promoting the welfare of the human race, by putting them in possession of a very high degree of virtue and an internal moral harmony of the free mind, which should prove a source of many commendable deeds, and of lasting good to mankind."-S. 81. "We find essentially the same (namely the moral and religious perfection of the feelings by means of the church,) to be the object of a state constructed upon Plato's principles."-S. 97. "The object of Plato's state and of

character as to imply, that the idea which Plato had of his state, was identically that of the Christian church. Indeed, the outlines of Plato's conception will by no means justify such intimations.-Admit the state of which Plato conceived to be a mental creation, as he conceived of certain archetypes for all the objects of philosophical investigation, yet it was a mental creation only of a political, earthly state. The heavenly world in which the prototype of this state was to be found, was not such a heaven as the Christian has in view,-the glorious kingdom of spirits, but the intellectual world of ideas, (De Republ. VII. 157 seqq.;) and hence, the first thing to be done, is to find out the form of that conception. Now inspection is sufficient of itself to teach us that the republic of Plato was as far removed from bearing any resemblance to the church of Christ as the earth is from heaven. The church is a union which calls men to separate themselves from the world and become members of a higher and divine community. Plato's state, on the other hand, began altogether with the earth, was confined to the narrow sphere of a city, and constructed with a reference to sublunary wants, (De Republ. II. 230 seqq.) "Plato's object was to form a Grecian state, the inhabitants of which should be lovers of Greece, and for this purpose he projected one which should serve as a pattern for his nation and countrymen," (Köppen, l. c. S. 73 ;) but it was very far removed from being a universal kingdom of God, comprehending the whole human family. On the contrary, he often presupposes this state to be engaged in war with its neighbours, and one important object to be kept in view in all its acts, was to form bold defenders of the country; and hence, even women were to be pre

Christianity and its exalted faith is the free choice of the highest good together with the harmonious dispositions and charitable emotions before which, selfishness and physical enjoyment shrink away in silence."-S. 347. "The republic of Plato, though very far from ever having been realized, kept the nature of all right, and moral harmony, in view, and, in its civil regulations, sought to furnish means for producing genuine and lasting moral effects."

pared by education_to_share in the labors of war, (De, Republ. V. p. 8; De Legg. VII. 373.) Of course this state could not be left destitute of moral education; for as it contained no church or ecclesiastical institutions which aimed at the moral and religious education of its members, so it was obliged to furnish a remedy for these defects; to accomplish which object, political education and moral were blended together, as ethics and politics were always united among the ancients.* The result of this, however, was, that the idea of a purely moral and religious community of men, exalted above all civil relations, was kept entirely out of view.

The first requisite, however, in forming a kingdom of God, is to lay a pure religion at the basis, and form a creed adapted for community at large, and of universal authority, and at the same time of such a character as to unite all hearts together and bind them to God himself. If Plato, therefore, ever had any idea of a genuine kingdom of God, we ought to discover hints in his works respecting the introduction of a pure religious creed instead of the Polytheism then prevalent and so prejudicial to the union of mankind. So far, however, are we from finding any thing in them respecting the abolition of a religion which had once been sanctioned by the state, that on the other hand, he urges the legislator with all earnestness to preserve it unchanged. "No man," says he, "who has sense, whether he undertakes to erect a new state from the very foundation, or merely to restore an old one which has been broken down, will attempt to change those things relative to the gods and to sacred ceremonies which ought to be stable,-from whatever gods or demons they may have received their ap

* Köppen, 1. c. S. 1-35. 58, shows this very circumstantially and goes so far as to recommend this combination at the present time. He even asserts, S. 79, that, for this very reason, modern states when compared with the ancient, would scarcely have retained any spiritual life, had not Christianity by its mighty operation excited higher reflection, and proved the means of advancing an internal virtue at which the state had not aimed.

pellation. Nor should the legislator touch in any respect that which is founded upon the authority of the oracle, or upon sacred old sayings." In perfect accordance with this serious admonition is his prescription that every archon should offer sacrifice for himself and the state every day of the 365, (De Legg. VIII. 396,) as well as for those who have been guilty of bitter resentment against the gods, and contemning the old religion which they drew in from their mother's breast, (lib. X. 71. Tom. 9.) It cannot appear strange that as long as this Polytheistical religion existed, their remained no sacred, internal bond for uniting together the hearts of the members of this community; and hence, that, in order to produce such a close connexion between thern, Plato fell into the error of recommending to his state, a community of wives ;t thinking in this way to induce all to consider each other as brothers and sisters. Such they would have been indeed, but in what sense Certainly none but a physical one. Such a regulation

* De Legg. 1. V. 226, 227, (Bip. Tom. 8.) Out' av an eχης τις ποιῇ, ουτ' αν παλαιαν διεφθαρμένην επισκευάζηται, περί θεών τε και ἱερων άττα τε εν τῇ πόλει ἕκαστοις ίδρυσθαι δει, και ὧν τινων επονομαζεσθαι θεων η δαιμονων, ουδείς επιχειρήσει κινειν νουν εχων. Όσα εκ Δελφων-η τινες επεισαν παλαιοι λόγοι, τουτων νομοθέτη το σμικράτατον απαντων ουδεν κινητεον. So also Plutarch, De Is. et Osiris, Opp. VII. 419, afterwards called a wish to make changes in an established religion,—a wish, azıvyta zivɛiv, and hence, p. 420, bitterly censured Evemerus; Max. Tyr. Diss. 8. I. 146, Reisk. τα κει μενα εσμεν, τας φήμας των θεων αποδεχόμενοι, και φυλαττοντες αυτων τα σύμβολα, ώσπερ και τα ονόματα.

Not merely in the De Republ. 1. V. 19 seqq., but also in the De Legg. 1. V. 229, which books relate more to practical legislation, and were written in the latter part of his life.

De Republ. V. 32. 24 seq., where he expresses a belief that a better race of men can be produced by physical means. Comp. III. 319, where he evinces an anxiety to have the citizens persuaded by means of fiction to consider themselves as autochthons, as sprung entirely from the earth, in order that, as ynyeres, they might think and feel towards each other, like brethren. The idea which he had of his community as well as much of a general character, was probably borrowed from the Spartan constitution, in which state, according to Plutarch, Lycurg., Opp. I. 194 s., something of this kind was actually to be found, and the women were celebrated for being you