this proc. dure was the Socratic elettchus, and it was
inainU conducted by means .. I the Socratic sorites a
e ion- form ot reasoning, but most piercing in
unveiling the holloU pretensions of arrogant sophistry.
It was a ken " examination ol conscience," intended to
lay bare the habitual sins ol ig 'ance, false knowledge,
and fraudulent conceit It was not designed to teach
anything but the knowledge of self, and Hie aconmpa- nying knowledge of ignorance disguised as wisdom.
This was the true N08Ce teipsum, and the ground on
which the Delphic I Iraele pmn iced Socrates the
wisest of m.n because be professed to know nothing. It u;e a contrivance for sweeping away error, a- the indispensable preliminary for the discovery of truth. It »;h not the announcement of truth, but the prepara- tion for its reception. It was the preaching of r< p. nt- ance, which must precede, and might induce, the n sto- ration of individual, social, and political health, moral- ity, and welfare. We see from the testimony of Plato, Xenophon, and even Aristophanes, to what cruel tor- tures, to what writhing reluctations, to what bin. r re- flections, to what irritating mortifications, the catechu- mem in this strange school were subjected. Some went away penitent, some Bought fuller knowledge, and at- tached themselves to the master with reverent love and eager desire to learn, some followed him to acquire the secret of his art. that they might apply it to tie \„ la- rious practices which be proposed to frustrate. Hence from the Socratic school issued Alcibiades, and Critias, and Charmides, and Xenophon the mercenary soldier and enemy of bis country. I!ut the most of the .ii-. i- ples departed in rage and confusion, to feed upon their husks, to repeat their old practices, ami to nurse enmity against the man and the process by which tiny had bet ii exposed and brought to shame.
The vocation of Socrates was exercised in the dock- yards, the workshops, the market.-, the streets, and all places of public gathering, lie straggled about, seizing upon every chance idler whom he might : and whom he fascinated, or button-holed, so that "he could not choose bin hear." l'lato changed the audit
l lie venue; but he pursued the same dialectical meth- od as his instructor, for the same purposes, with the same distant prospect-; but with greater elegance, higher culture, and in a loftier range of thought, illus- tration, and expression. Like Socrates, he aimed at co- ercing his hearers into an examination of the meaning of their terms and the contents of their propositions, single or connected, in order to induce them to put aside the misguiding ami corrupting influences of the t mpty pretence of know ledge, and of sophistical rul< s "i' action. When this was achieved, something more might be at- tempted; till this wa- done, nothing ben. ficial could be expected. The teachings ot Socrates and l'lato might train men in the legitimate employment of language and the instruments of thought, hut was not calculated for the establishment of -\ stematic doctrine ; and they had direct relation to the positive needs of the Hellenic communities of their lime, rather than to the intellect- ual aspirations of a few cultivated minds. It' these views be corrcct.it is manifest that l'lato could neither have contemplated nor executed any rounded scheme of philosophy in the writings that remain to us; and we know that we possess .'ill his important work-. The philosophy that may be ascribed to him must therefore be patiently, and in some degree at least conjecturally, developed from the hints that he has given, and from the scattered tenets that he has expressed.
There is another peculiarity w hich points in the same dire, tion. Artistic considerations, and the desire to re- produce the life of the time and the familiar intercourse
of Athenian-, may have induced l'lato to adopt the form of dialogue in nearly all hi- compositions. 'lbe truer
i. presentation both of Socrates and ofthe Socratic mode
ot procedure may also have concurred in recommending
i in dramatic presentation of his inquiries. Hut the di-
had another and still higher advantage for him :
il enabled him to conceal hi- opinion-, and to dissociate himself from any doctrine- calculate. 1 to give offence, or that might give offence, to the irritable people of Ath- ens, 'lbe tat.- of Socrates »a- always before hi- eyes; and with much more -inc. lily, a- well a- ait. than Des- cartes, he evaded responsibility lor his opinion-. He
did not only adopt the form ui' dialogue, but he made.
PLATO
PLATO
Socrates the principal speaker, illustrating the Socratic method under the mask of Socrates, and putting nearly everything of weight, moment, or originality into his mouth. He never appears in propria persona. There is nothing to connect him before the Athenian dicas- teries with any tenet in his writings. There is a con- stant avoidance of definite doctrine, a frequent censure of written instruction, a continual reference to the ob- stetrical procedure, and a deliberate renunciation of all responsibility. Everything is thus adverse to syste- matic unity of any kind in the Corpus Platonicum.
IV. Literary and Artistic Merits. — The dramatic form of nearly all the Platonic writings has just been mentioned as one of the instrumentalities by which the philosopher shrouded his personality, and withdrew himself from the malice of his fellow-citizens; but it constitutes one of the distinguishing excellences of his composition. Whatever construction may be put upon Plato's philosophic career, whatever value may be as- signed to his speculations, whatever censures of his doc- trines may be hazarded, his varied literary merits and graces have always won the most enthusiastic admira- tion. In a beautiful epigram on his great comic con- temporary attributed to him, Plato says that the Graces found in the soul of Aristophanes a temple which should never decay. The comedies of Aristophanes were Pla- to's constant companions. He caught from them many delicate turns of expression and attitudes of thought ; and he offered in his own Protean mind an equally im- perishable temple for the habitation of the Graces. Plato probably owes much more of his immortality to the beauties of his compositions than he does to his philosophic splendor and profundity ; and perhaps it was chiefly through the fascination of his manner that his doctrines secured the attention necessary for their ap- preciation and acceptance. The literary attractions of the Platonic writings furnish their first and most easily recognised claim to permanent renown, and can scarcely be regarded as accidental or undesigned characteristics. Plato's earliest efforts were in the direction of poetry. He is believed to have produced attempts of high pre- tension in the popular forms of poetic art. No literary ap- prenticeship equals poetical composition. When he first associated himself with Socrates he was fidl of dreams of political distinction, and he may have expected to derive from the intercourse the same aids for a political career which were derived by other illustrious pupils of the school. When he renounced the temptations of a political career, he converted to philosophic purposes all the knowledge of literary art and all the faculties of ef- fective expression which he had acquired by his pre- vious discipline. The result was a style unrivalled for variety, fertility, vivacity, ease, flexibility, and almost every form of literary excellence. The great difficulty of expression — to say simple things simply, and ordi- nary things with propriety (difficile est comma niu <//- cere)— was never surmounted by any writer with such felicity as by Plato. None has approached him in the natural facility with which he changes the mood of ex- pression with the changed mood of feeling, or with the requirements of the changing subject. He turns " from grave to gay, from lively to severe," with illimitable self-possession ; rising without effort to the highest sub- limities of imagination, descending without a fall to the playfulness of unchecked humor, and poising himself in the middle air without hazard and without uneasy flut- tering of his pinions.