and Plato, travelled hy different mutes to reach the
same end. though Aristotle alone accomplish) d the task which all contemplated. '1 he pursuit of the summvm bonum, or supreme good, became after Plato the special Object .'fall philosophy (Cicero. I h Fin. Bon. et MaL). Divergent were the tracks of the inquirers, and dissimi- lar the forms of good which wire contemplated, but
with all the schools virtue and happiness, w hi. h vva- iis
promised fruit, were the aim. The utter rottenness of the communities of Greece, the irreparable disintegra- tion of Hellenic society, prevented the 11. w s| iril from
infusing health into the diseased political fabric; hut the unexampled integrity of Lycurgus, and the exalted morality of Demosthenes in hi- Orations, loth alleged
pupils of Plato, may he taken as e\ ideiice of the whole-
some reaction produce. I. To the lofty ami pun- senti- ments of Plato, even more than to the beauty "I his style, may he applied i he observation of Quintilian : •• l'i mihi mm hominis ingenio sed quodam Delphico videatur oraculo instructus" (Or. Inst. x. i. 81).
Ihe philosophy ami the habitual -. ntimt nts .•) < rr< ece wen- purified and elevated by the teachings of Plato, ami the world never wholly lost the vantage-ground which had thus been gained. There is indeed nothing more remarkable in the history of Greek intellect than the purity of sentiment, the spirituality of aspiration, ration of virtue and holiness and justice ami right, the fervid enthusiasm for a virtuous life, irre- spective of consequences, ami the intuitive apprehen- sion of the highest precepts of morality, which shine
PLATO
281
PLATO
through all the writings of Plato. They are blended, occasionally, it is true, with coarse views contracted from the habitual practice of the pagan world around. Some of these views are too disgusting to be commem- orated here. Others are aberrations unworthy of Plato. When he advocates the community of goods and the community of women, and the paternal abnegation of children, in the governing class of his ideal common- wealth, we see how far fantasy betrayed him into per- nicious error (Z>e Rep. v). There was no greater ser- vice rendered to humanity by Aristotle than his confu- tation of these dangerous and immoral extravagances. But when we contemplate the positions of Plato in re- gard to the perfections of God, to the nature of virtue and holiness; when we consider his declaration that man should assimilate himself to the Deity, that God is the source of good, but not of evil, that the regenera- tion of the spiritual nature is not to be attained by ar- gumentative reasoning, and cannot be taught as a sci- ence or an art; when we regard his assertion of the immortality of the soul, his belief in future retribution, his allegation that the highest truth must be revealed, his delineation of the Son of God (tov Seou tyyoi'og) — it is impossible to overlook his vast superiority over all former schemes of morality, and his near approxima- tion to the doctrines of Christianity — some of which he announces almost in the language of the apostles. We know no more terrible and sublime picture than the passage in which he depicts the dead presenting them- selves for judgment in the other world, scarred and blotched and branded with the ineradicable marks of their earthly sins {fyvxftv . . ■ haiiEfiaariyhyjJikvnv
KCII OvXlOV [ll<JT))l' VTTU tTTlOpiClMl' KCU dSuCLCtQ, 8. SKa-
(TT(to >) Trpu^iQ avrou tE,iofi6[)£,aTO ei'c ti)i> i^v\i]v, k. t. A. Gorg. c. lxxx). Yet this is but one of many analo- gous passages. This approximation to revealed truth is among the most insoluble problems bequeathed to us by antiquity. It has often been thought that Plato de- rived much of his theological and ethical doctrine from the Hebrew prophets, either circuitously or by direct acquisition during his supposed travels in Palestine. But his tenets arc not to be found in those prophets in such a form as to be apprehended by a Gentile; nor can they be detected in them except through the illu- mination of the later revelation. It has been alleged that the spiritual interpretation of these utterances, which gives them their startling significance, is unwar- rantably deduced from the Neo-Platonists, who were posterior to the evangelists. But the tenets are in Plato's text, were commented on by Cicero, and affected the speculation of Philo-Judieus, before Christianity had secured definite establishment, or Neo-Platonism was distinctly constituted. It has been suggested that these anticipations of the teachings of the Great .Master are hesitating and only problematic — dreams thrown out as possibilities, the vague longings of the ecstatic fancy — but the mystery remains; how could such dreams and longings arise in the midst of paganism, and of Athe- nian degradation and corruption? We otter no solu- tion of the enigma, which awaits its (Edipus. We only note the existence of the riddle. There are marvels in the life of men and of nations which no plummet in man's hands can fathom, but which justify the convic- tion that, as the spirit of God brooded over the face of the deep, and brought order and beauty and life out of chaos, so it incessantly broods over the dark confusion of earthly change, regulating all issues, and preparing She world, in the midst of manifold disorder, for the higher and purer phases of being for which it is de- signed, and towards which it is blindly striving.