Page:The religion of Plutarch, a pagan creed of apostolic times; an essay (IA religionofplutar00oakeiala).pdf/236

 their adoption of the Soul of the Universe as Deity. But Plutarch's God is a personal God. The God of the "De Sera Numinis Vindicta" approaches nearer to the Christian conception of God as a Father than the Deity as conceived by any Faith which has not been permeated by Christian feeling, and the God of the "De Superstitione" presents the same characteristics as the God of the "De Sera Numinis Vindicta." Plutarch's

a personal god in Plato's philosophy, Plato himself was in distinct opposition to his own views as systematically expounded in his writings. "We may regard him as fully aware of the conditions of the problem, and, though unable to solve it without lesion of his dialectic, yet deliberately pronouncing judgment on the side of his religious feeling." But pace tantorum virorum it will be admitted that the personality of God is not very evident in Plato when those who understand him best can only maintain that it is not essentially interwoven with his philosophy, having only an indirect and accidental existence which is not possible "without lesion of his dialectic."]
 * [Footnote: closely-reasoned pages to show that, although there was no room for