Page:The Dialogues of Plato v. 1.djvu/33



Rh which troubled the pre-Socratic philosophy and came to the front in Aristotle, are variously discussed and explained. Thus far we admit inconsistency in Plato, but no further. He lived in an age before logic and system had wholly permeated language, and therefore we must not always expect to find in him systematic arrangement or logical precision : — ' poema magis putandum! But he is always true to his own context, the careful study of which is of more value to the interpreter than all the commentators and scholiasts put together.

(3). The conclusions at which Dr. Jackson has arrived are such as might be expected to follow from his method of procedure. For he takes words without regard to their connexion, and pieces together different parts of dialogues in a purely arbitrary manner, although there is no indica- tion that the author intended the two passages to be so combined, or that when he appears to be experimenting on the different points of view from which a subject of philosophy may be regarded, he is secretly elaborating a system. By such a use of language any premises may be made to lead to any conclusion. I am not one of those who believe Plato to have been a mystic or to have had hidden meanings ; nor do I agree with Dr. Jackson in thinking that ' when he is precise and dogmatic, he gener- ally contrives to introduce an element of obscurity into the exposition' (J. of Philol. x. 150). The great master of language wrote as clearly as he could in an age when the minds of men were clouded by controversy, and philo- sophical terms had not yet acquired a fixed meaning. I have just said 'that Plato is to be interpreted by his context ; and I do not deny that in some passages, especially in the Republic and Laws, the context is at a greater distance than would be allowable in a modern

VOL. I.