ond fruitage that never ripens — that Plato enounces principles which are neither inductions nor deductions, and propounds dogmas which are rather germs of un- developed speculation than the partial representation of the conclusions of a system already completed and formulated. However greatly he may have travestied and sublimated the character of his teacher and philo- sophical protagonist, his procedure was in the main and throughout honestly and earnestly Socratic, and his aim was Socratic also. His object was not the establish- ment of a doctrine, but the stimulation of candid inves- tigation, in order to free his hearers from the stagnation of thought and the obsession of vulgar or treacherous errors. He was not a doctrinaire, but an inquirer; or, rather, he taught the need and practice of investigation, not a body of conclusions. Undoubtedly there is an intellectual unity, vague, unformed, and in great meas- ure unconscious, in the constitution of every man , there is a mental identity, through innumerable and often wide changes of opinion, in the entire career of every thinker, and this unity and this identity, intuitively recognised by the pupil or student, will suggest purpose where no purpose was present, and furnish the elements of an imaginary system which never revealed itself to its parent. To this cause may be largely assigned the strange and divergent developments of the Platonic philosophy in the several schools which sheltered their reveries under the prestige of his great name. It would lead us too far from our proper subject to pursue further this line of reflection. We return, therefore, to the text that there was no conscious scheme, no unity of execu- tion, in the writings of Plato, and approve of the spirit in which they have been regarded by Grote, who says, •• I shall not affect to handle them as contributions to one positive doctrinal system, nor as occupying an in- tentional place in the gradual unfolding of one pre- conceived scheme, nor as successive manifestations of change, knowable anil determinable, in the views of the author. For us they exist as distinct imaginary con- versations, composed by the same author at unknown times and under unknown specialties of circumstance" (Plato,vol. i, ch. vi, p. 279).
The mode in which these questions may be decided regulates the interpretation to be given to the Platonic philosophy, both in the original conception of its author and in its subsequent developments. It explains the origin, the cause, and the filiation of the later divergen- cies, and their wide separation from each other. It de- termines our appreciation of the nature and extent of Plato's services to his own and future times, fixes his position in the history of philosophy and in the devel- opment of human intellect. It affects our estimate of his relation to his disciples, to his country, and to his times; and, indeed, penetrates and colors every part of the criticism which may be hazarded on his personal and speculative career.
III. Relations to his Times. — For the just and ade- quate conception of Plato it is indispensable to ascertain his actual position in the Hellenic world, and his atti- tude towards Attic thought, the thought both of the general public and of the cultivated intelligences in that period of mental activity which followed the death of Pericles. To do this it is necessary to consider the re- markable mission of Socrates ; for, however Plato may have transmuted and glorified his master, he unques- tionably continued his labors in a higher sphere, and both spoke in his name and contemplated the same pub- lic results. The extreme democracy of Athens, which was only the fullest and most pronounced exhibition of the general Hellenic tendency, threw all (tower — politi- cal, social, and. we may almost say, religious— into the hands of the multitude. The populace became more wilful, arrogant, and reckless after the demoralization produced by the Peloponnesian War ami the plague. But the intractable Demus, described in burning linea- ments by Aristophanes, is always under the guidance or at the mercy of demagogues, flatterers, and time-serving
PLATO
27S
PLATO
politicians. The sense of power produced in fch<
ig of right, for with mere numbers "might is right ;" and the i secrable maxim, " Stel pro ratione vc-
lore than it i- ,,i .-in autocrat. 1 he mob cannot be led by considera- abstracl morality; it may be wheedled by per- Buasion, by adroil catch-words, by dexterous appeals to it- whims, passions, and immediate interests. At Ath- ens it had losl nil reverence for the cardinal principles of right ; it had been greatly corrupted by the incidents an. I consequences ■•!' tin- war; it was habitually mis- guided for Belfish purposes by its dissolute leaders; gen- nercy, justice, prudence, were all discredited; and everything was sacrificed to momentary caprice, to insane suspicion, and to blind fury (Plato, /'< Rep. viii. x \iii: Xenoph. fit Rep. Ath. Oratores Attici, passim). In these respects the Athenians were merely tin- high- est exemplification of the contemporaneous spiril of the t Iret l.-. The leaders, who debauched the people, could hope i" gain or u> retain their ascendency only by en- couraging the debauched sentiments by which they throve. Under these circumstances professed teachers • i Ireek cities and thronged to Athens, under- taking t'> communicate for paj tin- corroding arts by which tin- populace might lie swayed, and office, power, honor, and emolument acquired. By the union of these bad influences truth lost all respect; virtue all author- ity; the sense of right was destroyed; every ancient rule, custom, or institution was deprived of its sanction: everj venerable principle was brought into contempt; morality was supplanted by passion or apparent expe- diency: nothing stable was suffered to remain; words became jiiLri,ders' tools, reason was degraded to chican- ery, casuistry, and sonorous plausibility: and specious rhetoric or ambiguous commonplaces took the place of No hope could be entertained for the renewed health of society, tor the welfare of the community, for I he restoration of order in the state, till this vicious cir- cle of delusions had been broken and suppressed. I'.ut the delusions, and the pernicious practices which at- tended them, were fortified by the conceit of know ledge and of practical sagacity; and this conceit could not be overcome without exposingthe ignprance which it con- oid compelling the vain tribe of blind leaders of the blind to confess their ignorance with shame and remorse. The most effectual mode of reaching this re- sult might well seem to be the examination of the nat- ure, import, and ambiguities of word-, habitually and loosely used without reference to their special signifi- cance or insignificance; the investigation of the shad- owy and unsettled notions attached to current phrases and accepted aphorisms; the discovery of the cbarac- t. ristics and relations of propositions, both in particular employ mentS and in their general constitution ; and the detection of the conditions under which valid conclu- sions might be drawn. Lessons of this character could ii-t be effectually communicated to persons confident in their own knowledge and perspicacity, and contemning all who were, of a different communion, otherwise than rit - of interrogations growing not out of each other, but out of the answers to each ques- tion, and thus leading the respondents into a labyrinth of perplexities, absurdities, ii sistencies, and impo- tent coufusiou. No .-cap., would then be left from the i ion of pre\ ious ignorance and error. The better natures would be stimulated to further inquiry, and to persistent efforts to attain a knowledge of momentous truths. .,r. at least, to abstain from the preconization of manifest uncertainties, unmeaning verbiage, or inter- ested misrepresentations, a- unquestionable truth. Now