Philosophy. There is no distinctive system of phi- losophy to h, ascribed to Pletho. He was a revivalist and restorer only, except in the d< pan men t of politics; and even here he was a legitimate disciple of Plato. He asserted the exclusive doctrine of Plato against
Aristotle and the Aristotelians, and also against the ex- periment of the Neo-Platonists to conciliate the prin- ciple- ,.f Aristotle with those of Plato. He did not. however, avoid the transcendental excesses of the Alex- andrian school, or refrain from following the example of the later members of that school, in blending ( Iriental fantasies with the speculations "i the First Academy. Still his restitution of Platonism exercised a great and beneficial influence on the intellect of the loth century, i,\ presenting a new object of regard, by quickening in- telligence through the conflict of opinions and through the controversies excited, and by liberating inquiry
from the solitary predominance of the one great t' a, her,
rs had been converted into a tyrannical au- thority, distorted and cramped in their application, and
PLETHO
293
PLINY
deflected into the perilous systems of the Alexandrists and Averroists. The institution of the Florentine Acad- emy was one of the most potent agencies in the emanci- pation of modern thought; and its establishment may fairly be credited to the labors and to the impulse of Pletho. What is truly distinctive of his philosophical career is his political project for the reformation and amelioration of the Peloponnesus. Though some of its outlines were derived from antiquity, and the route was in some sort indicated by Plato and Plotinus, yet it pos- sesses originality of its own, and was immediately in- duced by an active desire of ministering to present needs, and of supplying practical remedies, even if they were impracticable, to the actual miseries of-the society around him.
The plan proposed by Pletho was a sweeping agra- rianism, resembling in some respects the system of Ly- curgus and that of Cleomenes II in the same region of Laconia; resembling in others the socialism of Plato, but resembling still more the extreme projects of land-reform which have recently been proposed in England, Ireland, Prance, and other countries. The evils which he pro- posed to redress by a complete alteration of the fabric of society were the insecurity of person and property ; the squalor occasioned by ravages and multitudinous taxes, ill -imposed and unfairly levied; the uncertain and defective administration of justice; and the varied and degraded currency in circulation. Like Plato, he proposed to divide the people into three classes, but the classes were different from those of Plato: they were to be the agriculturists, the capitalists, and the guar- dians. The farmers or agriculturists were intended to include the greater part of the industrial body; the cap- italists were to embrace the owners of all the appliances for the assistance of labor, and apparently the lessors of the land ; the guardians, or defenders, comprehended all who were engaged in the protection of the society and its members, or in the maintenance of right and order: princes, magistrates, lawyers, doctors, and sol- diers— priests also, probably. There was to be no pri- vate property in land; it was to belong exclusively to the state, and to be leased out, from time to time, to landlords or capitalists. A right of temporary occu- pancy was all that was admitted. Of the produce of the soil, one third was to be paid to the government for the maintenance of the guardians, and for other public burdens; one third went to the landlords or capitalists; and one third was to be the remuneration of the act- ual cultivators. Pletho, like the French Economistes, thought that all wealth was the production of land, and that all impositions should be charged upon it. The guardians, whether princes or soldiers or magis- trates, were a class entirely apart from the rest of the community. They paid no taxes, but protected the people from external violence and internal disorders, and were supported by the government from the proceeds of the public third. The soldiers were quartered on the farmers to consume the government thirds, so far as required for their support: "fruges consumere nati." No money-taxes were imposed : the funds required for the public service were to be derived exclusively from the export and sale of the surplus which remained out of the government's share of the produce. Such is a brief abstract of Pletho's plethoric state. The plan was never completed: the book was burned; its author died; and the Turks conquered the Morea before the experi- ment could be tried.
Literature. — Gass, Gennadii et /'/< ///<>„;.< Scripta quce- dam edita et inedita (Breslau, 1841) ; Pellissier, PUtkon, Traite des Lois, ou Recueil des Fragments, en Partie in- iditsdecet Ouvrage,par C. Alexandn (Paris, 1851) ; Leo Allatius, l)e Georgiis diatriha ( ibid. 1061) ; Poivin, Qite- relledes Pkilosophes du XVme Steele; Hody, De Greeds IUustribus, etc. (Lond. 174-2 ) ; Bayle, THct.Hist. et Cri- tique; Brucker, Hist. Crit. Phil. per. iii. ps. i. lib. i. c. ii. § 1 : c. iii, § 4, 5; Tiraboschi, Storia della Letteratura Italiana; Ginguene, Hist, de la Littirature Italienne;
Smith, Dirt. Anc. Mythol. and Bioff.; Ilallam, Hist, of the Lit. of Europe, ch. ii, § ii, p. 13, 14; Finlay, Hist, of the Byzantine Empire, bk. iv, ch. ii, § 5, vol. ii, p. G08 ; id. Hist, of Med. Greece, etc., ch. ix, § 2, p. 282 ; Ueber- weg, Hist, of Philosophy, § 109. (G. F. H.)