mitting two primary and incorruptible principles, God | rived from that Divine Reason which is the seat of and Matter. The passages quoted by those who main-the Ideal world; herein differing fundamentally from tain the contrary opinion are by no means sufficient the Stoical doctrine of the soul of the world, which for their purpose.-Matter, according to Plato, is an supposed the essence of the Divine nature diffused eternal and infinite principle. His doctrine on this through the universe. It is evident, from this account head is thus explained by Cicero (Acad. Quæst., 1, of the doctrine of Plato concerning God and the soul 8): "Matter, from which all things are produced and of the world, that it differs materially from the docformed, is a substance without form or quality, but trine of the Trinity afterward received into the Chriscapable of receiving all forms and undergoing every tian Church. Plato did not suppose three substances kind of change; in which, however, it never suffers in one divine essence, separate from the visible world; annihilation, but merely a solution of its parts, which but taught that the 2oyos, or Reason of God, is the are in their nature infinitely divisible, and move in seat of the intelligible world or of Ideas, and that the portions of space which are also infinitely indivisible. soul of the world is a third subordinate nature, comWhen that principle which we call quality is moved, pounded of intelligence and matter. In the language and acts upon matter, it undergoes an entire change, of Plato, the universe, being animated by a soul which and those forms are produced from which arises the proceeds from God, is the Son of God; and several diversified and coherent system of the universe." parts of nature, particularly the heavenly bodies, are This doctrine Plato unfolds at large in his Timæus, Gods. He probably conceived many subordinate diand particularly insists on the notion, that matter has vinities to have been produced at the same time with originally no form, but is capable of receiving any. the soul of the world, and imagined that the Supreme He calls it the mother and receptacle of forms, by the Being appointed them to the charge of forming animal union of which with matter the universe becomes per- bodies, and superintending the visible world: a docceptible to the senses; and maintains that the visible trine which he seems to have borrowed from the Pythworld owes its form to the energy of the divine intel-agoreans, and particularly from Timæus the Locrian. lectual nature. It was also a doctrine of Plato, that Plato appears to have taught, that the soul of man there is in matter a necessary, but blind and refracto- is derived by emanation from God; but that this em ry, force; and that hence arises a propensity in mat- anation was not immediate, but through the interter to disorder and deformity, which is the cause of vention of the soul of the world, which was itself deall the imperfection that appears in the works of God, based by some material admixture; and, consequently, and the origin of evil. On this subject Plato writes that the human soul, receding farther from the First with wonderful obscurity; but, as far as we are able Intelligence, is inferior in perception to the soul of the to trace his conceptions, he appears to have thought, world. He teaches, also, in express terms, the docthat matter, from its nature, resists the will of the Su- trine of the immortality of the rational soul; but he preme Artificer, so that he cannot perfectly execute has rested the proof of this doctrine upon arguments his designs; and that this is the cause of the mixture drawn from the more fanciful parts of his system. For of good and evil which is found in the material world. example: In nature, all things terminate in their conThe principle opposite to matter, in the system of traries; the state of sleep terminates in that of waPlato, is God. He taught that there is an intelligent king; and the reverse: so life ends in death, and death cause, which is the origin of all spiritual being, and in life. The soul is a simple indivisible substance, the former of the material world. The nature of this and therefore incapable of dissolution or corruption. great Being he pronounced it difficult to discover, and, The objects to which it naturally adheres are spiritual when discovered, impossible to divulge. The exist- and incorruptible; therefore its nature is so. All our ence of God he inferred from the marks of intelligence knowledge is acquired by the reminiscence of ideas which appear in the form and arrangement of bodies contemplated in a prior state: as the soul must have in the visible world; and, from the unity of the mate- existed before this life, is probable it will continue rial system, he concluded that the mind by which it to exist after it. Life being the conjunction of the was formed must be one. God, according to Plato, is soul with the body, death is nothing more than their the Supreme Intelligence, incorporeal, without begin- separation. Whatever is the principle of motion must ning, end, or change, and capable of being perceived be incapable of destruction. Such is the substance of only by the mind. The Divine Reason, the eternal the arguments for the immortality of the soul, containregion of Ideas or forms, Plato speaks of as having al-ed in the celebrated dialogue of the Phædo. It is ways existed, and as the Divine principle which estab-happy for mankind that their belief of this important lished the order of the world. He appears to have doctrine rests upon firmer grounds than this futile conceived of this principle, as distinct not merely from reasoning. (Enfield's History of Philosophy, vol. I, matter, but from the efficient cause, and as eternally p. 229, seqq.)-The interesting research which Plato containing within itself Ideas, or intelligible forms, carried so far, respecting the Supreme Good, belongs which, flowing from the fountain of the divine essence, to the subject of Morals. Virtue he defined to be the have in themselves a real existence, and which, in the imitation of God, or the effort of man to attain to a reformation of the visible world, were, by the energy of semblance of his original; or, in other terms, a unison the efficient cause, united to matter, to produce sensi- and harmony of all our principles and actions accordble bodies. It was another doctrine in the Platonic ing to reason, whence results the highest degree of system, that the Deity formed the material world after happiness. Virtue is one, but compounded of four ela perfect archetype, which had eternally subsisted in ements: Wisdom, Courage or Constancy, Temperhis Reason, and endued it with a soul. "God," says ance, and Justice; which are otherwise termed the he, "produced mind prior in time as well as in excel- four cardinal virtues. Such virtues he describes as lence to the body, that the latter might be subject to arising out of an independence of, and superiority to, the former. From that substance, which is indivisible the influence of the senses. In his practical philosoand always the same, and from that which is corporeal phy Plato blended a right principle of moral obligation and divisible, he compounded a third kind of sub-with a spirit of gentleness and humanity; and educastance, participating in the nature of both."-This substance, which is not eternal, but produced, and which derives the superior part of its nature from God, and the inferior from matter, Plato supposed to be the animating principle in the universe, pervading and adorning all things. This third principle in nature is, in the Platonic system, inferior to the Deity, being de

tion he described as a liberal cultivation and moral discipline of the mind. Politics he defined to be the application, on a great scale, of the laws of morality; society being composed of individuals, and therefore under similar obligations; and its end to be liberty and concord. In giving a sketch of his Republic, as governed according to reason, Plato had particularly

an eye to the character and the political difficulties of the Greeks, connecting at the same time the discussion of this subject with his metaphysical opinions respecting the soul.-Beauty he considered to be the sensible representation of moral and physical perfection; consequently it is one with Truth and Goodness, and inspires love which leads to virtue, forming what is called Platonic love. (Tennemann, Manual, p. 117.) I. General View of the Philosophy of Plato.

supported corruption. No men have more mistaken the nature of Plato's system than those who have regarded it as a speculative fabric, such as men of powerful intellect have wrought out at times in schools and cloisters, when the tranquillity of society enabled them to think, without any necessity for action. Much, if not all, of the Eastern philosophy was of this caste. It sprung up like a tree in the desert, very beautiful but very useless, under an atmosphere fixed and changeless, perfect in all its outlines from the absence of anyIt requires, indeed, considerable knowledge of the thing to disturb it. Such, also, was much of the new history of philosophy to appreciate the whole influence Alexandrean speculations, until Julian brought them which Plato has exercised upon the human mind; to bear practically upon the purification of the heathen and, still more, a thorough acquaintance with his works polytheism. Such also was scholasticism, and such to comprehend their real scope and depth. It is, many of the rival theories which have since sprung up therefore, not surprising that such an erroneous esti- in Germany under the stimulus of a craving curiosity, mate of his character should generally prevail; so that, which found nothing to do but to think. We shall, as Schleiermacher well observes (Pref. to Introd. to however, never understand the value of Plato's phiDialogues), his brilliant passages should have dazzled losophy, and still less the arrangement and dependance the eyes of students until they forgot that in the mind of its parts, without viewing it in this light, as a pracof Plato these were but resting-stones and reliefs (ne- tical, not a speculative, system. Even considered as cessary concessions to human weakness) to enable a revival of the modified doctrine of Pythagoras, which, the mind to ascend to a far higher range of thought. probably, is the true point of view, it is still practical. And yet there are certain eras in the history of hu- Pythagoras was full of other thoughts than the abstract man reason, in which the operation of Platonism comes relation of numbers, when he organized his wonderful out in a form too striking to permit any doubt of its society to restore something like right government power or disrespect to its memory. It was something and religious subordination in the republics of Magna more than eloquence and fancy which Cicero, perplexed Græcia. He was as far from dreaming away his reaas he sometimes seems to be with the dialectical mason in empty metaphysics, though high and abstract nœuvres of Plato, discovered in those theories through truth was a necessary condition of his system, as Loywhich he proposed to conduct the spirit of philosophy ola was from resting in the subtleties of scholastic into Rome. It was not mere ingenuity and abstraction theology when he created his singular polity for upwhich induced the reformers of heathenism to adopt holding the Romanist faith. Plato's great object was his name, so that, in the words of Augustine (De Civit. man. He lived with man, felt as a man, held inDei, 8, 10), "recentiores quique philosophi nobilissi- tercourse with kings, interested himself deeply in the mi, quibus Plato sectandus placuit, noluerint se dici political revolutions of Sicily, was the pupil of one Peripateticos aut Academicos, sed Platonicos." Some- whose boast it was to have brought down philosophy thing more than ordinary reason (and so the wisest from heaven to earth, that it might raise man up from Christians always thought) must have informed that earth to heaven; and, above all, he was a witness and spirit which, after lying dormant for three centuries, actor in the midst of that ferment of humanity exhibitwas resuscitated in the first age of Christianity, and ed in the democracy of Athens. When states are at entered into that body of rationalism which, whether peace and property secure, and the wheels of common under the name of Gnosticism or the Alexandrean life move on regularly and quietly upon their fixed School, rose up by the side of the true faith, to wres- lines, men with active minds may sit and speculate tle with its untried strength, and to bring out its full upon the stars, or analyze ideas. But it is not so in form, in precision, by struggles with an antagonist like the great convulsions of society. The object conitself. Once more, at the revival of literature, Plato stantly before the eyes of Plato was the incorporated was selected as the leader of the new philosophical spirit, the μéya péμμa of human lawlessness. (Respirit, which was to throw off the yoke of Romanism, pub., 6, p. 219.) He saw it, indeed, in an exhausted and with it the law of Christianity. Wherever Plato state, its power passed away, its splendour torn off, has led, he has elevated and improved the human mind. and all the sores and ulcers (Gorgias, p. 109) which He has been followed too far-farther than the Chris- other demagogues had pampered and concealed, now tian may follow him; and many fatal errors have laid bare and beyond cure. But it was still a spectabeen sheltered under his name. But those which cle to absorb the mind of every good and thoughtful have really sprung from him have been errors of the man. The state of the Athenian democracy is the heart; errors which have not degraded human nature, real clew to the philosophy of Plato. It would be nor stifled the principle of virtue. Even the scepti-proved, if by nothing else, by one little touch in the cism of the later academics offers no exception, for it had no authority whatever in the general principles of Plato. Enthusiasm, mysticism, and fanaticism have been the extravagances of Platonism; coldness, materialism, and scepticism the perversions of Aristotle. Each, when retained in his proper subordination, has been a useful servant to the cause of Christianity. But the work which Plato has performed is far higher than that of Aristotle; one has drilled the intellect, the other disciplined the affections; one aided in sinking deep the truths of Christianity, and expanding its form, the other complicated and entangled its parts by endeavouring to reduce them to system; one supplied materials, the other lent instruments to shape them; one fairly met the enemies of Christianity upon the ground of reason, the other secretly gave way to them without deserting the standard of authority; one, when it rebelled, rebelled openly, and threw up heresies; the other never rebelled, but engendered and

Republic. The Republic is the summary of his whole system, and the keystone of all the other dialogues are uniformly let into it. But the object of the Republic is to exhibit the misery of man let loose from law, and to throw out a general plan for making him subject to law, and thus to perfect his nature. It is exhibited on a large scale in the person of a state, and in the masterly historical sketch with which, in the eighth and ninth books, he draws the changes of society. Having painted in the minutest detail the form of a licentious democracy, he fixes it by the slightest allusion (it was, perhaps, all he could hazard) on the existing state of Athens; and then passes on to a frightful prophecy of that tyranny which would inevitably follow. All the other dialogues bring us to the Republic, and the Republic brings us to this as its end and aim. On this view every part of his system will fall naturally into place. Even questions apparently farthest from any practical intention are thus connected

with his plan. If in the Sophist he indulges in the | tion to his end, absolute unity of purpose inculcated in most subtle analysis of our notion of being, it is to all his doctrines, and exhibited in the outlines of his overthrow the fundamental fallacy of that metaphysical work, should have stood before any scene of humanischool which was denying all virtue by confounding ty, least of all before the spectacle of an Athenian all truth, and thus poisoning human nature at its democracy, without having his whole soul possessed source, and justifying the grossest crimes both of the by man and the relations of man, instead of things and state and of its leaders. If he returns again and the relations of things; that he should have wasted again to his noble theory of Ideas, it is to fix certain those powers, so elevated and so pure, m idle subtleimmutable distinctions of right and wrong, good and ties; that he should have thrown out his fancies in evil; and to raise up the mind to the contemplation fragments, as one whose life was aimless; or that, of a being of perfect goodness, prior in existence, su- wrought as they are in every line with a consummate perior in power, unamenable in its independence to art, linked together to the observing eye by ten thouthose fancies and passions of mankind which had be- sand of the finest reticulations, they were not intended come, before the eyes of Plato, in individuals unbri- as a system; and as a system will come out to us dled lusts, and in the state an insanity of tyranny. If when the focus is rightly adjusted, and the whole is in the Parmenides he takes us into the obstrusest regarded as a mighty effort to elevate man to his permysteries of metaphysics-the nature of unity and fection, and his perfection where only it can be reached, number--this also was rendered necessary, not only to in a social and political form. We are most anxious obviate objection to his own theory of ideas, but to fix to fix attention on this point (let it be a fancy-take it the great doctrine of unity in a Divine Being-unity in as hypothesis, only try it), because, wherever it bas goodness one truth in action and thought as opposed been lost (and we cannot name the commentator who to that polytheism of reason which makes every man's has wholly found it), the whole of Plato's works have conscience his god. It grappled also with a mystery been viewed in inextricable confusion. Even Schleierwhich meets us at the foundation of every deep theory, macher has failed in his clew. Men seem to have and in the forms of every popular belief, in Christianity wandered about as in a maze; here admiring, there as well as in heathenism; a mystery which, true in perplexed, there completely at a stand. No order, itself, as wholly distinct from man, has yet a corre- no limits, no end. Fragments have been dealt with sponding mystery in the constitution of the human as wholes, and wholes as fragments; irony mistaken mind; and which compelled even the heathen philoso- for earnestness, and earnestness for irony; play for the pher to state the same seeming paradox for the very fancy gravely dealt with as meditation for the reason, foundation of his system, which Christianity lays down and exercises for boys treated as the serious occupaat once as its grand and all-comprehensive doctrine. tion of men. Spurious pieces have been admitted All unity implies plurality-all plurality must end in which destroyed all consistency of thought. Doubts unity. So also the inquiry in the Theatetus into the raised to remove error or rouse curiosity, have been nature of science bore no resemblance whatever in its carried off as final decisions, until Plato, the very dogobject to any mere speculative theories of Kant or his matist of philosophy, has been made the ringleader of followers. It was a necessary part of that system Pyrrhonists and sceptics. And even the holiest and which was to become the antagonist of the Sophists, purest of ethics, which never stopped short of its oband to contend for the preservation of truth against [ject till man's mind was withdrawn from sense and a ruinous sensualism and empiricism, which was sap- his heart was fixed upon its God, has been calumniated ping all the foundations of society. Even the seem- and perverted. But take this central position: look ingly frivolous and often wearisome subtleties which as a philosopher on man, and on man, in his whole peroccur in the Sophist, the Euthydemus, and the Politi-sonality, as a living, immortal soul, instinct with affeccus, are intended as dialectical exercises for the pupil tion and feeling, which cannot rest except in beings whom Plato is forming to become the saviour and like himself. See him vainly struggling to realize that guardian of a state. Even the philological absurdities noble creation for which he was formed at first, and to of the Cratylus are to be explained in the same way. raise up a polity or church in the faculties of his own He perpetually suggests the fact in the dialogues them- nature, and from the members of civil society; then selves. And in the Republic (lib. 7) he gives at length contemplate the wreck of such a plan in the contamthe principles on which they are introduced. Very inated youth and remorseless tyranny of the Athenian much of the plan of his dialogues, for reasons which he commonwealth; all that was noble in its nature, its himself supplies, is purposely left in obscurity. And "lion heart" and "human reason" (Repub., lib. 9, p. the test of the statement here made must lie in a 345), "starved, emaciated, and degraded;" and the careful reference to the works themselves. But it is "many-headed monster of its passions,” πоÀUKε¢¤Ãòv impossible to believe that Plato, the first of philoso-péuua, "howling round and tearing it to pieces:" and phers," who made practical goodness and duty the one then a new light will fall upon the meaning and order great end of life; whose whole history, as well as his of these works, which were intended to do all that theories, are full of views, not of speculative fancies, but mere philosophy could do-to raise a solemn protest of practical improvement to society (Conviv., p. 260); against the sins which it witnessed; to overthrow the the friend of Dion, the adviser of Dionysius, the pupil sophistries which pandered to those corruptions; to of Socrates, the writer of the Republic and the Laws; open a nobler scene; and to create some yearning for who recognised, indeed, intellect and truth as neces- its attainment in those few untainted minds which nasary conditions of man's perfection, but made "the ture had prepared for its enjoyment. In this view all good and the beautiful," his heart and his affections, will be clear: the grand close of all the dialogues in the ruling principle of his actions; who never looked the Republic and Laws; the striking mode in which down upon minds beneath him without thinking of the all the rest are worked into these two; the commencetask of education, and never raised his eyes to that ment of them in the Phædrus, and the perfect consistimage of the Deity which he had formed from all im-ency of that piece, in any other view so wild and hetaginable perfection, without seeing in it, not merely an abstraction of intellect, unity, identity, eternity, but goodness, and love, and justice; the Maker of the world, because he delighted in the happiness of his creatures; the Dispenser of rewards beyond the grave, the Cause of all good things (Repub., lib. 10), the Father and King of all: it is impossible to believe that such a man, with strong affections, consummate devo

erogeneous; the deep, melancholy tone which pervades every allusion of Plato to scenes before his eyes; the anticipation of coming evil; the sort of prophetic elevation as he opens his "dream" of that city wherein all goodness should dwell-"whether such has ever existed in the infinity of days gone by, or even now exists in the East far from our sight and knowledge, or will be perchance hereafter"—but "which, though

treading on holy ground. So heathens always felt it. So even Christianity confessed. (Clem. Alex., 1, p. 39, 316.) And we may stand among his venerable works as in a vast and consecrated fabric; vistas and aisles of thoughts opening on every side; high thoughts, that raise the mind to heaven; pillars, and niches, and cells within cells, mixing in seeming confusion, and a veil of tracery, and foliage, and grotesque imagery thrown over all, but all rich with a light streaming through "dim religious forms;" all leading up to God; all blessed with an effluence from Him, though an effluence dimmed and half lost in the contaminated reason of man. (British Critic and Quarterly Theological Review, No. 47, p. 3, seqq.)

II. Works of Plato.

it be not on earth, must have a pattern of it laid up in heaven, for him who wishes to behold it, and, beholding, resolves to dwell there." (Repub., lib. 9, p. 349.) So also we shall enter into the educational character of his works; their high practical morality, the mode in which every question is carried up into the nature of truth, and, through truth, is connected with virtue; the position which theology occupies, and the practical mode in which it is applied; the absence of those abstract metaphysical speculations on the nature of the Deity, into which human reason always falls when it analyzes mental conceptions beyond what practical duty requires; and into which the Neo-Platonicians did fall, and, still more, the Gnostics, while they boasted of their own ingenuity, and ridiculed Plato as one who had not, like them, penetrated "into the depths of the Intelligible Essence." (Porphyr., Vit. Plato, c. 14.) We have thirty-five dialogues generally ascribed to Even the form of Plato's works will derive new light Plato, and thirteen epistles; or fifty-six dialogues, if and beauty from considering them as instruments of we count each book of the Republic and Laws sepinstruction, not vehicles for speculation. The mode arately. These dialogues have somewhat of a drain which curiosity is roused by the fractured lines of matic form, and are intended for the more intelligent the dialogue; the arresting the attention by demand- class of readers, and those who are habituated to the ing an answer to every position; the gradual opening exercise of reflection. The brilliant imagination of of difficulties; the carrying of the eye and imagination the author has strewed upon them all the flowers of to the truth by portions of broken winding-stairs of eloquence, and adorned them with all the graces of the argument, leading to dark recesses, and ruinously hung Attic diction; and he has frequently interwoven with together in masses, rather than the throwing open be- them poetic allegories, and political and theological fore the reader an easy ascending plane, which requires fictions. The analogy between the dialogues of Plato no labour and stimulates no thought. So also the and dramatic pieces is in many respects so great, that, successive overthrow of opinions; the sudden starting according to Diogenes Laertius, a certain Thrasyllus up of doubts in apparently the most open ground; the formed the idea of dividing them into so many tetralskill with which the drama of the argument is broken ogies. Still we must not imagine from this that Plato up into scenes and acts, heightened by a stage dec- had proposed to himself to treat of the same subject in oration, and relieved with the solemn or the grotesque; a series of works.-Schleiermacher, the celebrated the rich melo-dramatic myths which so often close German translator of Plato, divides these dialogues them; the character of Socrates himself imbodying into four classes: those of the first class comprehend the attributes and duties of the Greek chorus; the se- the elements of philosophy; as the Phædrus, Protagolection of the parties among the young; the tests ras, Parmenides, Lysis, Laches, Charmides, and Euwhich are applied to ascertain if they possess the qual- thyphron. In the dialogues of the second class, these ities of mind which, in the Republic (lib. 7), are de- principles receive their application; as in the Gorclared to be necessary for those who make any prog-gias, Theatetus, Menon, Euthydemus, Sophists, Poress in goodness; the gradual development of the sys- liticus, Phædon, and Philebus. In the dialogues of tem in exact proportion to the industry and ingenuity the third class, the investigations are of a more proof the hearer; and the order of the sceptical dialogue, found character; as the Timæus, Critias, Republic, all more or less destructive of errors without any dec- and Laws. The fourth class comprehends what he laration of the truth, and forming series of enigmas, terms dialogues of circumstance, as the Crito, and the to lead, like an avenue of sphinxes, to the grand, open Defence of Socrates. This distribution is certainly portal of the Republic: all these and many other an ingenious one; but, in order to be of any real value, points will assume a wholly different character, whether the first three classes ought to form also three chronwe consider Plato's work as intended to declare his ological series, and we ought thus to see the system opinions, or as constructed for the purpose of extrica- of Plato come into existence, develop itself, and atting, by a tried and thoughtful process, the minds which tain to maturity: this, however, is not the case.-Anit was still possible to save from the follies, and sins, other German writer (Socher, über Platons Schriften, and miseries in which the madness of the age and a Munchen, 1820, 8vo) proposes to group the dialogues vicious system of education were plunging them. All in the following manner: 1. Dialogues relative to the this, to persons who never read Plato, or read him trial and death of Socrates: the Euthyphron, Defence, carelessly and contemptuously, as men in this day do Crito, Phædrus, Cratylus: 2. Dialogues which form read whatever they do not understand, at the first a kind of continuation to each other: the Theatetus, glimpse will appear exaggerated and enthusiastic. Sophists, Politicus, Republic, Timæus, and Critias: And no answer can be given but a demand that the 3. Dialogues directed against false philosophy the trial should be made, and the hypothesis taken as a Euthydemus, Protagoras, Gorgias, Ion, Hippias: 4. clew. If it is false, it will fail. But none whom wise Dialogues treating of speculative questions: the Phamen would wish to follow have ever approached the don, Theætetus, Sophists, Philebus, Timæus, and Parname of Plato without reverence and gratitude. All menides: 5. Dialogues devoted to politics, or the art have been impressed especially with his exquisite skill of government: the Politicus, Minos, Republic, Laws, as an artist or constructor of his works (Schleier- Epinomis: 6. Dialogues treating of rhetorical topics: macher, Introd. Pref.); and none have drawn a plan the Gorgias, Menexenus, Phædrus, Banquet: 7. Diwhich gives harmony and symmetry to them all. alogues relative to individuals accustomed to associate Some plans, however, must exist. If we want to form with Socrates: the Theages, first Alcibiades, Laches, a judgment on the grandeur of some vast cathedral, Theaetetus: 8. Dialogues in which the question is we do not plant ourselves in a nook, before some dis- discussed, whether virtue can be taught: the Euthyproportioned arch, or out of sight of the central aisle. demus, Protagoras, and Menon: 9. Dialogues in which We seek for that point of view in which the builder false opinions are considered: the Theatetus, Sophhimself beheld it before he commenced the work, and ists, Euthydemus, Cratylus: 10. Dialogues, the titles then the whole fabric comes out. And the illustration of which indicate particular subjects; as the Charmiwill bear to be dwelt on. Whoever studies Plato is des, or of Moderation; the Laches, or of Bravery;

:

the Lysis, or of Friendship; the Euthyphron, or of | in assigning to Plato the greater part of the dialogues Piety, &c.-It will appear from this classification, that which Schleiermacher and Ast consider spurious, is the same dialogue may thus belong to different cate- unwilling himself to acknowledge the legitimacy of the gories at the same time, according to the point of view Sophists, Politicus, and Parmenides. Another interin which we regard it; which destroys, of course, all esting question is that which has reference to the the utility of the arrangement.-We come now to an- chronological order of the dialogues. This question other question of much greater importance. Inde- has a double aspect: it regards both the time when pendently of the thirty-five dialogues commonly at- the dialogue is supposed to have taken place, and that tributed to Plato, there are eight which the unanimous when the author is thought to have composed it. It opinions of the grammarians, at the commencement of is often impossible to fix the former of these periods, our era, has rejected as spurious. In the number, by reason of the numerous anachronisms with which however, of the thirty-five, there are several, of the au- Plato is justly chargeable. So numerous, indeed, are thenticity of which doubts have been entertained from they, that we are tempted to believe that Plato attachtime to time, until, in our own days, the rigid criticism ed no importance whatever to the giving an air of hisof Germany has undertaken to eliminate a large num- toric probability to his dialogues. The second period, ber of these dialogues from the list of the works of that of their composition, is important in a different Plato. Four writers, in particular, have turned their point of view; for, were it possible to fix with cerattention to this subject: Tennemann, Schleiermacher, tainty the time when each dialogue was written, and Ast, and Socher. (Tennemann, System der Platonis- thus to determine the chronological order of the whole chen Philosophie, 4 vols. 8vo, 1792.-Schleiermacher, collection, we would be much better able to mark the Platons Werke, 8 vols. 8vo, Berlin, 1817-26.-Ast, development of his system. We must bear in mind, Platons Leben und Schriften, Leipzig, 1816, 8vo.—however, that the historical data afforded by any one Socher, über Platons Schriften, München, 1820, 8vo.) dialogue is often insufficient for fixing the period when To these may be added Thiersch, the author of an able it was written, because Plato is very negligent in point criticism on the work of Ast (Jahrbuch der Literatur., of chronology -The literary life of Plato has been diWien., 1818, vol. 3, p. 59, seqq.). What renders the vided into four periods: the first ends with the death decision of this question peculiarly difficult is, that, of of Socrates, and reaches to the thirtieth year of Plathe writers contemporary with Plato, Xenophon alone to's life; the second extends to the founding of the remains to us, and he makes no mention of him. Ar- Academy, or Plato's fortieth year; the third embraces istotle, his disciple, refers but seldom to his master's the maturity of his life, or about twenty years; the dialogues: sometimes he mentions his opinions, but fourth his old age, also of twenty years.-To the first always under the name of Socrates, and that, too, when of these periods belong the four dialogues in which he even refers to dialogues in which the last-mention- reference is made to the trial and death of Socrates, ed philosopher is not one of the interlocutors, as in the such as the Euthyphron, Crito, Defence of Socrates, Laws. All the works of the philosophers of the three and Phædo. Socher is undoubtedly right in conjecfollowing centuries are lost, down to Dionysius of turing that this latter was written immediately after Halicarnassus, who is one of the principal authorities the death of Socrates. The reasons urged by Schleierin this inquiry. The number of witnesses increases macher for placing it in a later period are purely very considerably after this; but they lived at a period speculative, and advanced merely for the purpose of when that species of criticism which is able to separ- supporting his system.-In the same period, and even ate the false from the true was as yet completely un- prior to the four dialogues just named, are ranged the known. The classification of Thrasyllus makes us Theages, one of the first of Plato's productions, the acquainted with the opinion of the grammarians of his Laches, first Alcibiades, Hipparchus, Minos, Rivals, time, relative to the authenticity of the dialogues of Charmides, Lysis, second Hippias, Clitophon, CratyPlato those which he excludes from his categories lus, and Meno, supposing all these to be the composi were regarded as supposititious, but we are unacquaint- tions of Plato. -Ten dialogues are placed in the seced with the grounds on which the claim of legitimacy ond period, either because they contain some chronowas allowed to the rest, unless it be that the claim in logical particular which enables us to assign them to their case was never contested. Amid this array of the time that intervened between the death of Socnegative authorities, Ast, who of all the moderns rates and the founding of the Academy; or because, has pushed his scepticism on this head the farthest, though wanting such an index of their age, they still thinks that the only one deserving of being combated evidently belong to this period. In all these producis that of Aristotle, and he endeavours to destroy the tions, Plato appears to have had for his object the conweight of his testimony by denying Aristotle any au- tinuation of the enterprise which had been interrupted thority in matters of criticism. But can any one for a by the death of Socrates, namely, the war against the moment imagine that a man of high intellectual en- Sophists. These dialogues are the Ion, Euthydemus, dowments, after having passed twenty years of his life the first Hippias, the Protagoras, Gorgias, Theætetus, with Plato, could be so grossly deceived respecting Sophist, Politicus, Parmenides, and Philebus.-All the the works of his master? Admitting, too, the possi- other dialogues of Plato, excepting the Timæus and bility that one so eminently gifted with discernment Critias, namely, the Phædrus, Menexenus, Banquet, and taste could mistake to such a degree the style of Republic, were written by him in the prime of his life, his master, is it at all probable that he could have been and before age had impaired his mental powers, or deceived also as to the fact whether Plato did com- during the twenty years in which he directed the Acadpose such or such a work? After having rid himself emy. In the fourth period, Plato wrote the letters that in this unsatisfactory manner of the testimony of Aris- have come down to us (supposing that these are actutotle, Ast, acknowledging the authority of fourteen dia- ally his), his great work on the laws, and the two dialogues, attacks at the same time the remaining twenty-logues entitled Timæus and Critias. - We will now one by arguments deduced from the style in which they are written. He finds them inferior in this point of view to the others, and against some no doubt the charge will hold good; but the question may fairly be asked in reply, whether a writer, in other respects classic, ought, in all his productions, to attain to that perfection which he appears to have reached in some? Most of the arguments advanced by Ast have been refuted by Thiersch and Socher. The latter writer, however,

proceed to give a brief sketch of the individual productions of the philosopher, premising that most of the Platonic dialogues have, as will presently be perceived, a double title. The former of these is commonly the name of the individual who bears the most prominent part in the dialogue; the second is the addition of some later hand, and has reference to the contents of the dialogue itself. As these contents, however, are, for the most part, very diversified in their nature, this