THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
intelligent soul; then the inferior deities made man under his direction, and in substantially the same way. God made the world because he is good, and because, free from all envy or jealousy, he wished everything to be as much like himself as the creature can be like the creator (Timceus, 30 A). Therefore he made the world good; and when he saw it he was delighted (ib. 37 C; cf. Gen. i. 31). God is the author of all good, and of good only, not of evil. " Every good gift cometh down from the Father of the celestial luminaries "; " for it is morally impossible for the best being to do any thing else than the best " {Timceus, 30 A; cf. Jas. i. 17). God exercises a providential care over the world as a whole, and over every part (chiefly, however, through the inferior deities who thus fulfil the office of angels, " Laws," 905 B-906), and makes all things, the least as well as the greatest, work for good to the righteous and those who love God, and are loved by him (Phcedo, 62; " Republic," 613). Atheism is a disease, and a corruption of the soul; and no man ever did an unrighteous act, or uttered an impious word, unless he was a theoretical or practical atheist (" Laws," 885 B), that is, in the language of the indictment at common law, he did it, " not having the fear of God before his eyes."
The Platonic philosophy is teleological. Final causes, together with rational and spiritual agencies, are the only causes that are worthy of the study of the philosopher: indeed, no others deserve the name (Phcedo, 98 sqq.). \If mind is the cause of all things, mind must dispose all things for the best; and when it is known how anything may best be made or disposed, then, and then only, is it known how it is and the cause of its being so (Phcedo, 97). Material causes are no causes; and in- 4. Platonic quiry into them is impertinent, unphil- Philosophy osophical, not to say impious and ab- Teleological surd. Thus did Plato build up a and Ethical, system of rational psychology, cosmology, and theology, all of which are largely teleological, on the twofold basis of a priori reasoning and mythology, in other words, of reason and tradition, including the idea of a primitive revelation. The eschatology of the Phcedo, the Gorgias, and the " Republic," is professedly a mythos, though he insists that it is also a logos (" Republic," 523). His cosmology he professes to have heard from some one (Phcedo, 108 D) ; and his theology in the Timceus purports to have been derived by tradition from the ancients, who were the offspring of the gods, and who must, of course, have known the truth about their own ancestors (40 C). Yet the whole structure is manifestly the work of his own reason and creative imagination; and the central doctrine of the whole is, that God made and governs the world with constant reference to the highest possible good; and " ideas " are the powers, or, in the phraseology of modern science, the "-forces," by which the end was to be accomplished^ The philosophy of Plato is preeminently ethical, and his ethics are remarkably Christian. Only one of his dialogues was classified by the ancients as " physical," and that (the Timceus) is largely theological. The political dialogues treat politics as a part of ethics, — ethics as applied to the State. Besides
the four virtues as usually classified by Greek moralists,— viz., temperance, courage, justice, and wisdom,— Plato recognized as virtues humility and meekness, which the Greeks generally despised, and holiness, which they ignored (Euthyphron) ; afird he teaches the duty of non-retaliation and non-resistance as strenuously, not to say paradoxically, as it is taught in the Sermon on the Mount (Critias, 49). That it is better to suffer wrong than to do wrong is a prominent doctrine of the Gorgias (479 E, 508 C). But as the highest " idea " is that of the good, so the highest excellence of which man is capable is likeness to God, the supreme and absolute good. A philosopher, who is Plato's ideal, is a lover of wisdom, of truth, of justice, of goodness (" Republic," book vi.), of God, and, by the contemplation and imitation of his virtues, becomes like him as far as it is possible for man to resemble God (ib. 613 A, B).
Plato is preeminently a religious philosopher. His ethics, his politics, and his physics are all based on his theology and his religion. Natural and moral obligations, social and civil duties, duties to parents
and elders, to kindred and strangers,
5. Religion, to neighbors and friends, are all relig-
Rewards, ious duties (" Laws," ix. 881 A, xi.
and Punish- 931 A). Not only is God the lawgiver
ment in and ruler of the universe, but his law
Plato. is the source and ground of all human
law and justice. " That the gods not only exist, but that they are good, and honor and reward justice far more than men do, is the most beautiful and the best preamble to all laws " ("Laws," x. 887). Accordingly, in the "Republic " and the " Laws," the author often prefaces the most important sections of his legislation with some such preamble, exhortation, or, as Jowett calls it, sermon, setting forth the divine authority by which it is sanctioned and enforced. Plato gives prominence also to the doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments. At death, by an inevitable law of its own being, as well as by the appointment of God, every soul goes to its own place; the evil gravitating to the evil, and the good rising to the supreme good. When they come before their judge, perhaps after a long series of transmigrations, each of which is the reward or punishment of the preceding, those who have lived virtuous and holy lives, and those who have not, are separated from each other. The wicked whose sins are curable are subjected to sufferings in the lower world, which are more or less severe, and more or less protracted, according to their deserts. The incurably wicked are hurled down to Tartarus, whence they never go out, where they are punished forever as a spectacle and warning to others (Gorgias, 523 sqq.; Phcedo, 113 D). Those, on the other hand, who have lived virtuously and piously, especially those who have purified their hearts and lives by philosophy, will live without bodies (Phcedo, 114 C), with the gods, and in places that are bright and beautiful beyond description.
Allusion only may be made to other characteristic features of Plato's philosophy, such, for example, as his doctrine of " ideas," — the true, the beautiful, the good, the holy, and the like, — which,