In dialectical procedure, the first thing to be deter- mined is the essential nature of the object under con- sideration. The essence is established by definition, division, and resolution. The accidents are separated by induction and ratiocination, or deduction from first principles. In detecting the essence we reduce the many to the one; in inferring consequences, we trace the one in the muni/. The Platonic scheme is present- ed in the Republic, (vii). It is noticeable that hypoth- eses are admitted by Plato among the processes for discovering truth. The abstract theory thus sanctions the large use of imagination which presides over its •whole development. It may be advantageous to com- pare the dialectics of Plato with the severe logic of Aristotle, and with the elaborate devices proposed in the second book of Bacon's Organon. Words are no criteria of the character of things. They are loosely imposed, in consonance with popular impressions, and do not agree with realities. Yet words and language are of grave importance, and require to be used with propriety and precision, to avoid indistinctness and am- biguity, and consequent delusion or deception. The art of effectual speech springs from a just knowledge of the intellectual powers and emotions, of the disposi- tions of men, and of the different forms of expression. The perfect orator is one who has these endowments, knows the arts of persuasion, and can apply them to his purposes (Phcedrus, p. 259). The value which Plato attached to the graces of composition is attested by the skill and beauty of his own compositions. He has also strongly declared it (ibid. p. 258). Hence, when we find him ridiculing and denouncing rhetoric in the Gorgias, and comparing it to unwholesome cookery, we must accept the explanation of Quintilian that the Gorgias was eristic, and designed only for the refutation of the Sophists and sophistical teachers of rhetoric (Inst. Or. ii, 15). The dialectics of Plato thus embraced every- thing connected with the discovery, determination, and communication of truth, in its subjective aspect. But it will be remembered there was, in addition to the truth of knowing, the truth of being also; and this forms the second part of the Platonic philosophy.
II. Theoretical, Contemplative, or I'la/sical Philoso- phy.— This grand division of Platonic speculation is distributed into three branches: Theology, Physics Proper, and Mathematics, which is a sort of appendix to the other two. It will be observed that the term Physics is employed in a very wide and unrestricted sense, to include not merely nature, but everything ex- trinsic to the intellectual operations and the ethical conduct of man. It is contradistinguished from dia- lectics by embracing the real constitution of tilings. while the latter is confined to their mental apprehen- sion and exposition. It is contrasted with ethics, as it is concerned with essential being, while the latter deals only with human action. The division is made in the Phasda (li, p. 103; comp. De Rep. ii, 19, p. 381). It is further to be observed that the Platonic doctrines are rarely conveyed in explicit propositions, but must be gathered from fragmentary statements, from inci- dental expressions, from poetic fancies, and from the
general tenor of discussion. In the Phcedo, Plato ex- plains the utter abnegation of physical inquiries by Socrates. In the opening of the Timceus, he announces the impossibility of giving anything more than a plau- sible account (eikotec. Xdyot) of things becoming, and not permanent (rid. Ariston. ap. Stob. lxxx, § 7). Rec- ognising, then, the difficulties and the uncertainties clue to the character of the procedure and the pre- sumed complexion of the subject, we continue to note the peculiarities of the Platonic philosophy.
1. Theology. — •• In the beginning the world was with- out form." The universal chaos was reduced to order by the Supreme and Intelligent Cause, who framed the creation in accordance with the perfect and eternal pat- terns ever present to the divine mind. It is the best of all generated existences, the best of all possible worlds, because it was fashioned by the Highest Good- ness and Wisdom working after the absolutely perfect models, or ideas (Timceus, p. 28). It was not made, however, out of nothing, but out of eternally existing matter. Being formed out of matter, it is not free from grave blemishes and defects, which are due to the in- herent stubbornness and ineradicable perversity of mat- ter. God and formless matter are thus the two con- curring but antagonistic causes of the universe. By matter is understood something very different from the palpable substance or body which is habitually con- templated under that name— something totally different also from anything that we can conceive. It is that remnant or substratum of body which subsists after every cognizable property of body has been removed | Timceus, p. 51 ; comp. Porph. Sentent. xx; Plotin. En- nead. ii, 4; Berkeley, Sir is, § 317). By ascribing to God the creation of the Cosmos out of unformed matter, Plato avoids the heresy of pantheism. Still he in- dulges in fantasies which readily lead to it. From the nature of matter as co-eternal with the Divine Intelli- gence, and from its reluctation in yielding to the cre- ative energy, originate the necessary existence and the inevitable presence of evil in all created things (The- cetet. p. 176). The antagonism of matter suggested the presence of subtle aptitudes and occult qualities. We are thus brought within the range of hypotheses sim- ilar to those which underlie the recent theories of Dar- win. Spencer, and Huxley.