to the third part, or appendix, which was intended to serve at once a- a discipline and as an instrument.
;;. Mathematics. — The importance attached by Plato to mathematical science is familiar to every student, and is illustrated by the inscription supposed to have been placed over the entrance t.> the Academy:
Mil', i (Wain, T/uiTof uaiTta.
The commendations bestowed by him on this 1. ranch of learning ( l>< Rep. vii, p. •">•_'•_> | may he compared with the similar eulogies of Roger Bacon tt>j,n.< Majus, pt. iv) in an age of somewhat analogous speculative devel- opment, and of Francis Bacon i De Aug. Set. iii. vi : Es- says, 1). They may also he contrasted with the views
As the universe, or orderly Cosmos, hail a producing presented in the diatribe of Sir William Hamilton.
was created in time. It was generated or Under the head of mathematics were included, in ac-
broughl into being, and was therefore subject to sensible cordance with the Pythagorean practice, and with the :. h was consequently corporeal, visible, and general conception of antiquity, arithmetic, geometry,
tangible. It could not he visible except through the astronomy, and music.
presence of lire, nor tangible without the presence of III. Practical Philosophy. — Plato's practical philoso-
earth. An intermediate bond is needed to link two phy was in many respects consentaneous with his phys- ics, or theory of nature. Ii would not he corre< t to say
things together, and the fairest of bonds is a mean pro- portion. Thus, as tire is to air. so is air to water; and as an- i- to water, so is water to earth. Here are the
It would
that it was founded upon it, for this would be inconsist- ent with the position that there was no orderly, con-
lour elements, corresponding to the mystical tetrad of secutive, or concatenated development of the Platonic
the Pythagoreans. They were held together in their doctrine in the mind of its author. There is close cor-
binations by the attraction of love. The respondence in parts between Plato's physical and prac-
whole theorj i- largely Pythagorean, and blends itself deal philosophy, but in others much separation and in-
with the Pythagorean imaginations about the secret dependence. The agreement must therefore be ascribed
virtues of numbers. The universe is an animated whole, to the consonance of the developments of the same mind
composed of perfect part-, and exempt from the inlirtni- in different directions, rather than to intentional cohe-
ties of age and of disease I Timaus, p. 35). A spherical rence between successive applications of doctrine. The
Ggure and orbicular motion are given to it and its chief practical philosophy of Plato falls under two heads,
its because a circle is the most perfect of fig- Ethics and Politics.
least liable to injury and obstruction, returns 1. Ethics. Moral questions occupy the largest part
upon itself, and thus promises the greatest duration f the Platonic writings; but they are treated in the
the vast living organism in which all things temporal Socratic manner, by question and answer, and are thus
■are e dind. A- the universe had a Bpherical form proposed in diffuse and disconnected fragments. Plato's
.and a circular motion conferred upon it, each of the ele- ments had it- own appropriate figure. Earth was cu- bical, lire pyramidal, air octahedral, and water eicosi- ln dial, or twenty-sided. These were combined in apt proportions, and all things were ordered "by measure, by number, and by weight."
The details of the cosmogony must be omitted. P ma) be added thai the earth and the seven moving lights of heaven were arranged in concentric spheres, at harmonic interval-, around a mighty spindle resting
aims, his leading tenets, and his modes of explication arc derived from Socrates; but hi- discussions, so far as ma\ be conjectured, are conducted in a much broader spirit and loftier strain. He includes also within the
domain of eihics much lli.it would now hi' referred to theology.
As in the physics everything is traced back to the First Intelligence, the Divine Creator, so in the eihics everything is referred ultimate!} to the perfect and be- neficent character of God. The good is the summit of
on the i. >ity; an I that their revolutions all conceivable things. God is absolute goodness. The
PLATOXIC PHILOSOPHY
287
PLATONIC PHILOSOPHY
supreme good of man (sumtnum bonum) is the knowledge and imitation of God, and approximation thereby to the divine nature. " Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father is perfect." Everything is good and beautiful so far as it proceeds from God, retains the impress of its divine original, and possesses the characteristics of the pure archetypal ideas of moral perfection. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, in whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." Ordinary blessings or advantages in popular estimation, such as health, strength, high birth, riches, renown, honors, are good only in conjunction with virtue; otherwise they are evil (Protag. p. 351-353). The honorable (the right) alone is good (Alcibiad. i, 11G). This is contin- ually and strenuously asserted in opposition to the gen- eral practice and current sentiment among the contem- poraneous Greeks. Virtue is lovely in itself, ami to be loved irrespective of its rewards. Being of heavenly origin, the best reproduction of the divine ideas, and approximating to the divine nature, it is itself divine. Being divine, it is not an art that can be taught, but must be divinely communicated (Euthydem. p. 282). Goodness can be acquired only by the influx and in- working of the Good.