The object of all knowledge, and it should be the ob- ject of all effort, is assimilation to the highest good — that is, to God. This assimilation consists in the habit and practice of wisdom, fortitude, temperance, justice, and holiness (Thecetet. p. 176; Be Lege), iv, 71G). The first stage of this approximation is tvcatj.iovia, usually translated happiness, but which implies good disposi- tions, and a conscience tranquil, innocent, and void of offence towards God and towards man (Gorg. p. 470; Sympos. p. 188). The Critias breaks off unfinished just at the opening of a full discussion of the conditions of a happy life. The word is also used for the future beati- tude which it anticipates. The requirements for such bli-s correspond, as nearly as a pagan dream can agree with revelation, to the Scripture rule "to do justly, to Love mercy, and to walk humbly with God."
As has been observed, the body was regarded as a prison, because composed of malignant matter. Hence humanity was miserable by congenital constitution. The progress towards virtue and holiness was to be achieved by the subjugation of material antagonisms. by the renunciation of worldly aims and temptations, and by the purgation of mind and heart from sensual appetites and corporeal satisfactions (l)e Rep. vii. p. 515). There is here a pronounced tendency in the direction of Oriental asceticism. There is much also that in- clines towards the pessimism of Schopenhauer, but it is wrought out to a very different issue. These tendencies readily explain the growth of the Xeo-I'latonic reveries which may always be detected in the egg in the writ- ings of Plato himself. How far such results may be due to the difficulty of framing abstract conceptions at the commencement of ethical inquiry, and to the at- tendant difficulty of clothing such conceptions in precise terms before a philosophical language had been invented, it would be hazardous to say. Plato may have simply designed, in a blind, heathen, tentative way. to prescribe "the purification of the tlesh." and "the overcoming of the world," and " the righteousness which is of God."
The morality of Plato was much higher in aim and sentiment than it was possible to be in its expression. yet in many single precepts it uses nearly the language of revealed truth. It habitually insists upon the charms of virtue and "the beauty of holiness;" and in the de- lineation of the several virtues, which he represents as indissoluble connected (Charmides, p. 161), and at times as united in one, he maintains an uncompromising ele- vation of view. His illustrations, indeed, are often tainted with the prevalent vices of his age and country. Thus, in treating of the passions, he is led by his rich and mythical fancy into hypothetical explanations. which have been very easily abused, and which are re-
pulsive in their original proposition. We refer to his comments on friendship and love. Friendship, or at- traction, is ascribed even to the particles of matter; and the like proclivities are bestowed upon primordial souls. Like is attracted to like, and hence arises friendship. Souls of similar nature are drawn towards each other by the instinct of resemblance resulting from preadap- tation. The attraction proceeding from conformity in" their pure state exercises its due influence only between spirits retaining in some measure their primordial pu- rity. Hence true friendship can exist only between the good {Lysis, p. 214).
Love is a species of friendship, or friendship in its highest intensity. It is of three orders: sensual, ani- mal, or bestial; honorable, having regard to psychical virtues; and mixed, which unites the characteristics of both {Sympos. p. 201). Love, in its two forms of heav- enly and earthly. " half beast, half deity." appears in Plato in many ambiguous and Protean shapes, rising from the coarsest pagan sensualism to the puresl aspi- rations for the beautiful and the good. But the dia- logue in which its nature is chiefly discussed is so tan- talizing, shifting, and bewildering — it is woven with threads of such changing and returning hues — that it furnishes treacherous foundation for any dogmatic con- clusions.
2. Political Philosophy. — The two most extensive and elaborate of Plato's treatises are devoted to political questions. Of these, the Republic is the most complete and characteristic triumph of his genius. The Laws is in a rough and unfinished state, and has often been ex- cluded from his works. In narrating the life of I'lato, his predilections for political life, his early and unsuc- cessful intervention in Athenian affairs, his political expeditions to Sicily, and his consultation in matters of stately princes and states, were duly commemorated. The contemplative habits of his mind, his eager fancy, his tone, his temperament, his associations, his heredi- tary tastes, his party proclivities, all unfitted him for success in actual politics; and from every effort to en- gage in them he retired discomfited and disappointed. The more congenial domain of speculation was Mill open to him. lie might organize a state, regulate its citizens, and determine their duties, in the vast realm of fancy, with none to make him afraid of either failure or obstruction. He might look forward to the ultimate adoption of- his projects or his principles in some hap- pier time, when philosophers had become rulers, or when rulers had become philosophers, and when later generations, instructed by his lessons, might give real- ity to his dreams (De Lei/;/, v. 739). In strange modes, and in unrecognised forms, his visions have been par- tially accomplished.