We are not of the number of those who accept with- out inquiry the tenets of Plato, or approve the whole tendency of his teachings. We are of another school. We recognise, however, that his aims are always noble, and that an invigorating morality breathes through nearly all his writings. To him we are indebted for many glorious visions of supernal beauty, which beam
upon us like the unattainable stars disclosed through rifts in the clouds which envelop the earth. But the philosophy of Plato is essentially mystical, and conse- quently unsubstantial; and, though mysticism may in- flame, spiritualize, and refine natures already spiritual and refined, it is heady and intoxicating, and apt to justify wilful aberrations, and to place every fantastic conviction on the same level with confirmed truth." The Socratic elenchus, with its appropriate instrument, the Socratic sorites, is invaluable in certain rare con- junctures, but it is a dangerous procedure. It reveals the baselessness of error, but it weakens all convicl ions: and it was a natural consequence of its employment that Platonism so soon passed into the scepticism of the New Academy. The spirit of Plato's philosophy is through- out idealistic, though it is not pure idealism ; and ideal- ism, in all its forms, inevitably runs into pantheism, which resolves everything into phenomenal evolutions of divinity, and thus destroys the distinctions of right and wrong, and all moral responsibility. Hence, when the best of the Romans under the later republic and early empire experienced the necessity of corroborating the moral sense, and instituting a rigorous rule of con- duct, it was not to the Platonists but to the Stoics that they recurred. Notwithstanding the purity of Plato's sentiments, his devotion to the abstract and ideal in preference to the actual, and his absolute submission to the tyranny of his rich imagination, tempted him into political and social heresies of the worst type of com- munism.
It is thus necessary to distinguish between the vari- ous tendencies of the Platonic doctrine, and, while ad- miring with reverent enthusiasm its rare excellences and elevating impulses, we must not overlook the germs of corruption which were also present, and which, like rust on iron or mould on bread, contaminated the whole- some body on which they preyed.
VII. Literature. — The literature of Platonism is end- less. A complete collection of the works treating of this subject, directly or indirectly, would equal in ex- tent the Library of Alexandria, and would include the writings of all subsequent philosophers. The professed historians of philosophy necessarily devote a large share of attention to Plato and his speculations; and in the treatment of the subsequent developments of metaphys- ical inquiry they are constantly compelled to refer to his system, in its original or derivative form, in conse- quence of the unceasing influence which it has exer- cised on the highest and most abstract departments of human thought. The special treatises which have been written on the general philosophy of Plato, or on particular Platonic theses, arc practically innumerable. Under these circumstances it would be a cumbrous and inappropriate task to undertake to present here a Pla- tonic bibliography. Such a labor would be inevitably incomplete, if fullness were contemplated. A selection of tb,' best or most accessible authorities would be open to many objections, on the score of both omissions and admissions. It would be, moreover, a vain repetition of what has already been done in a sufficient manner by the historians of philosophy. It is consequently more advisable to direct attention to the copious enumeration of illustrative treatises found in the notice of Plato in Ueberweg's History of Philosophy, and to specify here only those recent, works which are most useful or most accessible to the English student.
The basis of all intelligent study of the Platonic doc- trine must.ofcourse.be the writings of Plato. Of these there are three versions in the English language. Henry Rogers complained, nearly thirty years ago, that there was no translation creditable to English scholarship, the only complete attempt being that of Thomas Taylor, the Platonist, whose sins and imbecilities arc severely casti- gated by him. This translation is. The Works of Plato, riz.his Flfttj-jire Dialogue* and Twelve Epistles, trans- lated from the'G reek. Nineofthi Dialogues by th< late Floyer Sydenham < aid t lie remainder by Thomas Taylor;
PLATON
282
PLAT< >XIC PHILOSOPHY
Kiihocc '■■ v/" Dialogues irons- but established a number of minor sol 1- for religious
t, „,,//,, ; copious Notes by the latter Trans- instruction, and drew up two separate treatises^one for
:. 1804, 5 vols.
.\t the very time 'a complaint a new and respectable version was „„ the eve of appearance : The Works of Plat and Literal Version, chiefly from the Text ofStallbaum, by Henrv Cary and others i Bohn, Lond. 1848,6 vols. A third and admirable version, recently pro- duced, satisfies the desires and removes the grounds of [bj Rogers: Jow< n. Thi Dialogues of l nglish, with Analyses and Intro- republished X. \ . 1874, 1 vols. 8vo). A new and revised edition of the work has recently appeared. The other aids deserving of notice in this connection are, Day, Summary and Analysis of tht Dialogues of 370, 8vo); Grote,Plato and t hi other Compan- 5 >krates (2d ed. 1867,3 vols.8vo); Lewes, Bio- graphical Hist, of Philosophy; Rogers, Essays, " Plato and Socrates" (in the Edinb. Rev. April. L848, art ii. Zellcr, Plato and the Older Academy, translated by Al- leyne and Goodwin (Lond. 1876, 8vo). It maybeadded tli.-ii indispensable assistance is still rendered by Cicero's QucBstior, etc. by Cudworth's Intellectual