Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/221

Rh 211 amending the laws should thus be admitted into the state, is sufficiently remarkable, when the would-be finality of ancient legislation is considered. Plato even comes near to the reflexion that &quot; constitutions are not made, but grow &quot; (iv. 709 A). Plato in the Laivs desists finally from impersonating Socrates. But he is in some ways nearer to his master in spirit than when he composed the Phsedrus. The sympathy with common life, the acceptance of Greek religion, the deepening humanity, are no less essentially Socratic than the love of truth which breathes in every page. And some particular aspects of Socratism reappear, such as the question about courage 1 and that concerning the unity of virtue. 2 .1 Of the dialogues forming part of the &quot; Platonic canon,&quot; and not included in the preceding survey, the Lesser Hippias, First Alcibiades, and Menexenus are the most Platonic, though probably not Plato s. The Greater Hippias and the Clitopkon are also admitted to have some plausibility. The Second Alcibiades (on Prayer), the Hipparchus (touching on Pisistratus and Homer), Minos (&quot;de lege&quot;), Epinomis, Erastse, Theayes, are generally con demned, though most of them are very early forgeries or Academic exercises. 3 And the Axiochus (though some times prized for its subject, &quot;the contempt of death&quot;), the De Justo, De Virtute, Demodocus, Sisyphus, Eryxias (a not-uninteresting treatise on the use of money), together with the so-called Definitions, were rejected in ancient times, and are marked as spurious in the MSS. Two great forces are persistent in Plato, the love of truth and zeal for human improvement. In the period culminating with the Republic^ these two motives, the speculative and the practical, are fused in one harmonious working. In the succeeding period, without excluding one another, they operate with alternate intensity. In the varied outcome of his long literary career, the metaphysical &quot; doctrine of ideas &quot; which has been associated with Plato s name underwent many important changes. But pervading all of these there is the same constant belief in the supremacy of reason and the identity of truth and good. From that abiding root spring forth a multitude of thoughts concerning the mind and human things, turning chiefly on the principles of psychology, education, and political reform, thoughts which, although unverified, and often needing correction from experience, still constitute Plato the most fruitful of philosophical writers. &quot;While general ideas are powerful for good or ill, while abstractions are necessary to science, while mankind are apt to crave after perfection, and ideals, either in art or life, have an acknowledged value, so long the renown of Plato will continue. &quot; All philosophic truth is Plato rightly divined ; all philosophic error is Plato misunderstood &quot; is the verdict of one of the keenest of modern metaphysicians. 4 Plato s followers, however, have seldom kept the propor tions of his teaching. The diverse elements of his doctrine have survived the spirit that informed them. The Pythagorizing mysticism of the Timseus has been more prized than the subtle and clear thinking of the Thextetus. Logical inquiries have been hardened into a barren ontology. Semi-mythical statements have been construed literally, and mystic fancies perpetuated without the genuine thought which underlay them. A part (and not the essential part) of his philosophy has been treated as the whole. But the influence of Plato has extended far beyond the limits of the Platonic schools. The debt of 1 Comp. Laches. &quot; Comp. Protagoras. 3 According to Schaarschmidt, only nine dialogues are genuine, Protay., Phsedr., Symp., Apol., Crito, Phsedo, Rep., Tim., Leges. Aristotle to his master has never yet been fully estimated. Zeno, Chrysippus, Epicurus borrowed from Plato more than they knew. The moral ideal of Plutarch and that of the Iloman Stoics, which have both so deeply affected the modern world, could not have existed without him. Neopythagoreanism was really a crude Neoplatonism. And the Sceptics availed themselves of weapons either forged by Plato or borrowed by him from the Sophists. A wholly distinct line of infiltration is suggested by the mention of Philo and the Alexandrian schools, and of Clement and Origen, while Gnostic heresies and even Talmudic mysticism betray perversions of the same influence. The effect of Hellenic thought on Christian theology and on the life of Christendom is a subject for a volume, and has been pointed out in part by Professor E. Zeller and others (comp. NEOPLATONISM). Yet when Plotinus in the 3d century (after hearing Ammonias), amidst the revival of religious paganism, founded a new spiritualistic philosophy upon the study of Plato and Aristotle combined, this return to the fountain-head had all the effect of novelty. And for more than two centuries, from Plotinus to Proclus, the great effort to base life anew on the Platonic wisdom was continued. But it was rather the ghost than the spirit of Plato that was so &quot;unsphered.&quot; Instead of striving to reform the world, the Neoplatonist sought after a retired and cloistered virtue. Instead of vitalizing science with fresh thought, he lost hold of all reality in the contemplation of infinite unity. He had some skill in dealing with abstractions, but laid a feeble hold upon the actual world. &quot; Hermes Trismegistus &quot; and &quot; Dionysius Areopagita &quot; are names that mark the continuation of this influence into the Middle Ages. The pseudo-Dionysius was translated by Erigena in the 9th century. Two more &quot; Platonic &quot; revivals have to be recorded, at Florence in the 15th and at Cambridge in the 17th century. Both were enthusiastic and both uncritical. The translation of the dialogues into Latin by Marsiglio Ficino was the most lasting effect of the former movement, which was tinged with the unscientific ardour of the Renaissance. The preference still accorded to the Timseus is a fair indication of the tendency to bring fumum ex fulgore which probably marred the discussions of the Florentine Academy concerning the &quot;chief good.&quot; The new humanism had also a sentimental cast, which was alien from Plato. Yet the effect of this spirit on art and literature was very great, and may be clearly traced not only in Italian but in English poetry. &quot; The Cambridge Platonists &quot; have been described by Principal Tulloch in his important work on Rational Theo logy in England in the llth Century. Their views were mainly due to a reaction from the philosophy of Hobbes, and were at first suggested as much by Plotinus as by Plato. It is curious to find that, just as Socrates and Ammonias (the teacher of Plotinus) left no writings, so Whichcote, the founder of this school, worked chiefly through conversation and preaching. His pupils exercised a considerable influence for good, especially on English theology ; and in aspiration if not in thought they derived something from Plato, but they seem to have been incapable of separating his mean ing from that of his interpreters, and Cudworth, their most consistent writer, was at once more systematic and less scientific than the Athenian philosopher. The trans lations of Sydenham and Taylor in the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th are proofs of the continued influence of Platonism in England. The critical study of Plato begins from Schleiermacher, who did good work as an interpreter, and tried to arrange the dialogues in the ordev of composition. His attempt, i which, like many efforts of constructive criticism, went far
 * Terrier, Institutes of Metaphysics, p. 169 (sect, i., prop. vi. 12).