Page:The religion of Plutarch, a pagan creed of apostolic times; an essay (IA religionofplutar00oakeiala).pdf/19

 nul moins que le sage de Chéronée n'a porté dans ses écrits une pensée systématique." Volkmann, in our opinion, attaches far too much importance both to Plutarch's discipular relation to Plato, and to his polemic against the Stoics and Epicureans. Plutarch's opposition to Plato is frequently as strongly marked as his opposition to Stoics and Epicureans; and his indebtedness to Stoics and Epicureans is frequently as strongly marked as his indebtedness to Plato.

Volkmann's work had been preceded in 1854 by an interesting and well-written Thesis, entitled "De Apologetica Plutarchi Chæronensis Theologia." The author, C. G. Seibert, gives a brief review of Greek Philosophy, with the object of showing the attitude assumed by each of the great schools to the gods of the national tradition. He demonstrates conclusively, and Volkmann follows in his steps, that Plutarch owed something to all the Schools, to Stoics, to Peripatetics, and to Epicureans. Yet he, too, insists that Plutarch's attitude towards the popular religion was identical with that assumed by Plato—eadem ratione (qua Plato)