Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/99

 CONDUCT OF PLATO. ,3 personal appetite is a third stage, higher and rarer still. Now Dionysius had reached the first stage only. He had contracted a warm and profound admiration for Plato. He had imbibed this feeling from the exhortations of Dion ; and we shall see by his subsequent conduct that it was really a feeling both sincere and durable. But he admired Plato without having either inclination or talent to ascend higher, and to acquire what Plato called phi- losophy. Now it was an unexpected good fortune, and highly creditable to the persevering enthusiasm of Dion, that Dionysius should have been wound up so far as to admire Plato, to invoke his presence, and to instal him as a sort of spiritual power by the side of the temporal. Thus much was more than could have been expected ; but to demand more, and to insist that Dionysius should go to school and work through a course of mental regene- ration was a purpose hardly possible to attain, and positively mischievous if it failed. Unfortunately, it was exactly this error which Plato, and Dion in deference to Plato, seem to have com- mitted. Instead of taking advantage of the existing ardor of Dionysius to instigate him at once into active political measures beneficial to the people of Syracuse and Sicily, with the full force of an authority which, at that moment, would have been irresisti- ble instead of heartening him up against groundless fears or difficulties of execution, and seeing that full honor was done to him for all the good which he really accomplished, meditated, or adopted Plato postponed all these as matters for which his royal pupil was not yet ripe. He and Dion began to deal with Dio- nysius as a confessor treats his penitent ; to probe the interior man 1 to expose him to his own unworthiness to show that 1 Plato, Epistol. vii. p. 332 E. "A dq nal ^.'.ovvff'ia ffvveflovfavofiEv eyti mil Afwf, eneidTj TU. Trapd TOV Trarpbg avT(f> %vve@eprjK.ei, ovruf uvoftihrjTu uzv 7rat<5af, avofii^r^t 6s avvovai.uv TUV wpoariKovauv yeyovevai, irpuTov tni ravra oppjaavra tyil.ovf a/U.ot>f avT& ruv oiKeiuv uua Kal ^IKIUTUV Kal avutyuvovf Trpdf upETijv KTT]aao-&ai, ftuhiara 6e avrbv airoj, TOVTOV yap av TOV & av paaT u<; LvSea y eyov ivai' "keyovre^ ov K ev ap- )c>f oiiTUf oti yap fyv aatyahef (if OVTU ftsv iruf uvrjp avrov re nai EKeivovf uv av f/ye/j.uv yevrjTai auaei, urj ravrr/ 6s rpair6[j.f.vog Tavavria jruvra aTrore/leZ Tropevdelf <5e wf heyonsv, Kal tavrbv I fj. fy p o v a nal autypova Troiijaa/tevof, el raj- i!;i}pi)[iu/ivaf Si/ce/ljaf Tro/lftf Ka~o< Kiaets vojjioif re ^vvdrjasie Kal irohiTeiaif, etc. Compare also p. 331 F % OL. XL 7