,ver4#aj_/jd_/ja99;,,end99 ,this etext was produced by ,alfred ,j4 ,drake1 ,ph4,d4 ,,plato ,,and ,,platonism 7#aiaj7 ,,walter ,,horatio ,,pater ,,contents #a4 ,plato and the ,doctrine of ,motion3 #e-bf #b4 ,plato and the ,doctrine of ,rest3 #bg-ej #c4 ,plato and the ,doctrine of ,number3 #ea-gd #d4 ,plato and ,socrates3 #ge-ih #e4 ,plato and the ,sophists3 #ii-abc #f4 ,the ,genius of ,plato3 #abd-adi #g4 ,the ,doctrine of ,plato-- ,i4 ,the ,theory of ,ideas3 #aej-agc ,,ii4 ,dialectic3 #agd-aif #h4 ,lacedaemon3 #aig-bcd #i4 ,the ,republic3 #bce-bff #aj4 ,plato's ,aesthetics3 #bfg-bhc1 end ,,chapter #a3 ,,plato ,,and ,,the ,,doctrine ,,of ,,motion #e ,,with the world of intellectual production1 as with that of organic generation1 nature makes no sudden starts4 ,natura nihil facit per saltum2 and in the history of philosophy there are no absolute beginnings4 ,fix where we may the origin of this or that doctrine or idea1 the doctrine of reminiscence1 for instance1 or of the perpetual flux1 the theory of induction1 or the philosophic view of things generally1 the specialist will still be able to find us some earlier anticipation of that doctrine1 that mental tendency4 ,the most elementary act of mental analysis takes time to do2 the most rudimentary sort of speculative knowledge1 abstractions so simple that we can hardly conceive the human mind without them1 must grow1 and with difficulty4 ,philosophy itself1 mental and moral1 has its preparation1 its forethoughts1 in the poetry that preceded it4 ,a powerful generalisation thrown into some salient phrase1 such as #f that of ,heraclitus--,panta rhei1 all things fleet away--may startle a particular age by its novelty1 but takes possession only because all along its root was somewhere among the natural though but half- developed instincts of the human mind itself4 ,plato has seemed to many to have been scarcely less than the creator of philosophy2 and it is an immense advance he makes1 from the crude or turbid beginnings of scientific enquiry with the ,ionians or the ,eleatics1 to that wide range of perfectly finished philosophical literature4 ,his encyclopaedic view of the whole domain of knowledge is more than a mere step in a progress4 ,nothing that went before it1 for compass and power and charm1 had been really comparable to it4 ,plato's achievement may well seem an absolutely fresh thing in the morning of the mind's history4 ,yet in truth the world ,plato had entered into was already almost weary of philosophical debate1 bewildered by the oppositions of sects1 the claims of rival schools4 ,language and the processes of thought were already become sophisticated1 the very air he breathed sickly with off-cast speculative atoms4 ,in the ,timaeus1 dealing with the origin of the universe he figures less as the author of a new theory1 than as already an eclectic critic of older ones1 himself somewhat perplexed by theory and counter-theory4 ,and as we find there a #g sort of storehouse of all physical theories1 so in reading the ,parmenides we might think that all metaphysical questions whatever had already passed through the mind of ,plato4 ,some of the results of patient earlier thinkers1 even then dead and gone1 are of the structure of his philosophy4 ,they are everywhere in it1 not as the stray carved corner of some older edifice1 to be found here or there amid the new1 but rather like minute relics of earlier organic life in the very stone he builds with4 ,the central and most intimate principles of his teaching challenge us to go back beyond them1 not merely to his own immediate1 somewhat enigmatic master--to ,socrates1 who survives chiefly in his pages--but to various precedent schools of speculative thought1 in ,greece1 in ,ionia1 in ,italy2 beyond these into that age of poetry1 in which the first efforts of philosophic apprehension had hardly understood themselves2 beyond that unconscious philosophy1 again1 to certain constitutional tendencies1 persuasions1 forecasts of the intellect itself1 such as had given birth1 it would seem1 to thoughts akin to ,plato's in the older civilisations of ,india and of ,egypt1 as they still exercise their authority over ourselves4 ,the thoughts of ,plato1 like the language he has to use 7we find it so again1 in turn1 with those predecessors of his1 when we pass from him to them7 are covered with the traces of previous labour and have had their earlier #h proprietors4 ,if at times we become aware in reading him of certain anticipations of modern knowledge1 we are also quite obviously among the relics of an older1 a poetic or half-visionary world4 ,it is hardly an exaggeration to say that in ,plato1 in spite of his wonderful savour of literary freshness1 there is nothing absolutely new3 or rather1 as in many other very original products of human genius1 the seemingly new is old also1 a palimpsest1 a tapestry of which the actual threads have served before1 or like the animal frame itself1 every particle of which has already lived and died many times over4 ,nothing but the life-giving principle of cohesion is new2 the new perspective1 the resultant complexion1 the expressiveness which familiar thoughts attain by novel juxtaposition4 ,in other words1 the form is new4 ,but then1 in the creation of philosophical literature1 as in all other products of art1 form1 in the full signification of that word1 is everything1 and the mere matter is nothing4 ,there are three different ways in which the criticism of philosophic1 of all speculative opinion whatever1 may be conducted4 ,the doctrines of ,plato's ,republic1 for instance1 may be regarded as so much truth or falsehood1 to be accepted or rejected as such by the student of to-day4 ,that is the dogmatic method of criticism2 judging every product of human thought1 however alien #i or distant from one's self1 by its congruity with the assumptions of ,bacon or ,spinoza1 of ,mill or ,hegel1 according to the mental preference of the particular critic4 ,there is1 secondly1 the more generous1 eclectic or syncretic method1 which aims at a selection from contending schools of the various grains of truth dispersed among them4 ,it is the method which has prevailed in periods of large reading but with little inceptive force of their own1 like that of the ,alexandrian ,neo-,platonism in the third century1 or the ,neo- ,platonism of ,florence in the fifteenth4 ,its natural defect is in the tendency to misrepresent the true character of the doctrine it professes to explain1 that it may harmonise thus the better with the other elements of a pre-conceived system4 ,dogmatic and eclectic criticism alike have in our own century1 under the influence of ,hegel and his predominant theory of the ever-changing ,time-spirit or ,zeit-geist1 given way to a third method of criticism1 the historic method1 which bids us replace the doctrine1 or the system1 we are busy with1 or such an ancient monument of philosophic thought as ,the ,republic1 as far as possible in the group of conditions1 intellectual1 social1 material1 amid which it was actually produced1 if we would really understand it4 ,that ages have their genius as well as the individual2 that in every age there is a peculiar ensemble of conditions which determines #aj a common character in every product of that age1 in business and art1 in fashion and speculation1 in religion and manners1 in men's very faces2 that nothing man has projected from himself is really intelligible except at its own date1 and from its proper point of view in the never-resting secular process2 the solidarity of philosophy1 of the intellectual life1 with common or general history2 that what it behoves the student of philosophic systems to cultivate is the historic sense3 by force of these convictions many a normal1 or at first sight abnormal1 phase of speculation has found a reasonable meaning for us4 ,as the strangely twisted pine-tree1 which would be a freak of nature on an ,english lawn1 is seen1 if we replace it1 in thought1 amid the contending forces of the ,alpine torrent that actually shaped its growth1 to have been the creature of necessity1 of the logic of certain facts2 so1 beliefs the most fantastic1 the communism of ,plato1 for instance1 have their natural propriety when duly correlated with those facts1 those conditions round about them1 of which they are in truth a part4 ,in the intellectual as in the organic world the given product1 its normal or abnormal characteristics1 are determined1 as people say1 by the environment4 ,the business of the young scholar therefore1 in reading ,plato1 is not to take his side in a controversy1 to adopt or refute ,plato's opinions1 to modify1 or make apology for1 #aa what may seem erratic or impossible in him2 still less1 to furnish himself with arguments on behalf of some theory or conviction of his own4 ,his duty is rather to follow intelligently1 but with strict indifference1 the mental process there1 as he might witness a game of skill2 better still1 as in reading ,hamlet or ,the ,divine ,comedy1 so in reading ,the ,republic1 to watch1 for its dramatic interest1 the spectacle of a powerful1 of a sovereign intellect1 translating itself1 amid a complex group of conditions which can never in the nature of things occur again1 at once pliant and resistant to them1 into a great literary monument4 ,to put ,plato into his natural place1 as a result from antecedent and contemporary movements of ,greek speculation1 of ,greek life generally3 such is the proper aim of the historic1 that is to say1 of the really critical study of him4 ,at the threshold1 then1 of ,the ,republic of ,plato1 the historic spirit impresses upon us the fact that some of its leading thoughts are partly derivative from earlier thinkers1 of whom we happen to possess independent information4 ,from that brilliant and busy1 yet so unconcerned press of early ,greek life1 one here another there stands aside to make the initial act of conscious philosophic reflexion4 ,it is done with something of the simplicity1 the immediate and visible effectiveness1 of the visible world in action all around4 ,among ,plato's many intellectual #ab predecessors1 on whom in recent years much attention has been bestowed by a host of commentators after the mind of ,hegel1 three1 whose ideas1 whose words even1 we really find in the very texture of ,plato's work1 emerge distinctly in close connexion with ,the ,republic3 ,pythagoras1 the dim1 half-legendary founder of the philosophy of number and music2 ,parmenides1 ,my father ,parmenides1 the centre of the school of ,elea2 ,heraclitus1 thirdly1 author of the doctrine of the ,perpetual ,flux3 three teachers1 it must be admitted after all1 of whom what knowledge we have is to the utmost degree fragmentary and vague4 ,but then1 one way of giving that knowledge greater definiteness is by noting their direct and actual influence in ,plato's writings4 ,heraclitus1 a writer of philosophy in prose1 yet of a philosophy which was half poetic figure1 half generalised fact1 in style crabbed and obscure1 but stimulant1 invasive1 not to be forgotten--he too might be thought1 as a writer of prose1 one of the fathers of ,plato4 ,his influence1 however1 on ,plato1 though himself a ,heraclitean in early life1 was by way of antagonism or reaction2 ,plato's stand against any philosophy of motion becoming1 as we say1 something of a fixed idea with him4 ,heraclitus of ,ephesus 7what ,ephesus must have been just then is denoted by the fact that it was one of the twelve cities of the ,ionian ,league7 died about forty years before #ac ,plato was born4 ,here then at ,ephesus1 the much frequented centre of the religious life of ,ionia1 itself so lately emancipated from its tyrants1 ,heraclitus1 of ancient hereditary rank1 an aristocrat by birth and temper1 amid all the bustle of still undiscredited ,greek democracy1 had reflected1 not to his peace of mind1 on the mutable character of political as well as of physical existence2 perhaps1 early as it was1 on the mutability of intellectual systems also1 that modes of thought and practice had already been in and out of fashion4 ,empires certainly had lived and died around2 and in ,ephesus as elsewhere1 the privileged class had gone to the wall4 ,in this era of unrestrained youthfulness1 of ,greek youthfulness1 one of the haughtiest of that class1 as being also of nature's aristocracy1 and a man of powerful intellectual gifts1 ,heraclitus1 asserts the native liberty of thought at all events2 becomes1 we might truly say1 sickly with the pale cast of his philosophical questioning4 ,amid the irreflective actors in that rapidly moving show1 so entirely immersed in it superficial as it is that they have no feeling of themselves1 he becomes self-conscious4 ,he reflects2 and his reflexion has the characteristic melancholy of youth when it is forced suddenly to bethink itself1 and for a moment feels already old1 feels the temperature of the world about it sensibly colder4 ,its very ingenuousness1 its sincerity1 will make the utterance of what comes #ad to mind just then somewhat shrill or overemphatic4 ,yet ,heraclitus1 thus superbly turning aside from the vulgar to think1 so early in the impetuous spring-tide of ,greek history1 does but reflect after all the aspect of what actually surrounds him1 when he cries out--his philosophy was no matter of formal treatise or system1 but of harsh1 protesting cries--,panta chrei kai ouden menei4 ,all things give way3 nothing remaineth4 ,there had been enquirers before him of another sort1 purely physical enquirers1 whose bold1 contradictory1 seemingly impious guesses how and of what primary elements the world of visible things1 the sun1 the stars1 the brutes1 their own souls and bodies1 had been composed1 were themselves a part of the bold enterprise of that romantic age2 a series of intellectual adventures1 of a piece with its adventures in unknown lands or upon the sea4 ,the resultant intellectual chaos expressed the very spirit of gifted and sanguine but insubordinate youth 7remember1 that the word neots1 youth1 came to mean rashness1 insolence67 questioning1 deciding1 rejecting1 on mere rags and tatters of evidence1 unbent to discipline1 unmethodical1 irresponsible4 ,those opinions too1 coming and going1 those conjectures as to what under-lay the sensible world1 were themselves but fluid elements on the changing surface of existence4 #ae ,surface1 we say2 but was there really anything beneath it8 ,that was what to the majority of his hearers1 his readers1 ,heraclitus1 with an eye perhaps on practice1 seemed to deny4 ,perpetual motion1 alike in things and in men's thoughts about them1--the sad1 self-conscious1 philosophy of ,heraclitus1 like one1 knowing beyond his years1 in this barely adolescent world which he is so eager to instruct1 makes no pretence to be able to restrain that4 ,was not the very essence of thought itself also such perpetual motion8 a baffling transition from the dead past1 alive one moment since1 to a present1 itself deceased in turn ere we can say1 ,it is here8 ,a keen analyst of the facts of nature and mind1 a master presumably of all the knowledge that then there was1 a vigorous definer of thoughts1 he does but refer the superficial movement of all persons and things around him to deeper and still more masterful currents of universal change1 stealthily withdrawing the apparently solid earth itself from beneath one's feet4 ,the principle of disintegration1 the incoherency of fire or flood 7for ,heraclitus these are but very lively instances of movements1 subtler yet more wasteful still7 are inherent in the primary elements alike of matter and of the soul4 ,legei pou ,hrakleitos1 says ,socrates in the ,cratylus1 hoti panta chrei kai ouden menei4 ,but the principle of lapse1 of waste1 was1 in fact1 in one's self4 ,no one has ever passed #af twice over the same stream4 ,nay1 the passenger himself is without identity4 ,upon the same stream at the same moment we do1 and do not1 embark3 for we are1 and are not3 eimen te kai ouk eimen4 ,and this rapid change1 if it did not make all knowledge impossible1 made it wholly relative1 of a kind1 that is to say1 valueless in the judgment of ,plato4 ,man1 the individual1 at this particular vanishing-point of time and place1 becomes the measure of all things4 ,to know after what manner 7says ,socrates1 after discussing the question in what proportion names1 fleeting names1 contribute to our knowledge of things7 to know after what manner we must be taught1 or discover for ourselves1 the things that really are 7ta onta7 is perhaps beyond the measure of your powers and mine4 ,we must even content ourselves with the admission of this1 that not from their names1 but much rather themselves from themselves1 they must be learned and looked for4 4 4 4 ,for consider1 ,cratylus1 a point ,i oft-times dream on--whether or no we may affirm that what is beautiful and good in itself1 and whatever is1 respectively1 in itself1 is something8 ,cratylus4 ,to me at least1 ,socrates1 it seems to be something4 ,socrates4 ,let us consider1 then1 that 'in-itself'2 not whether a face1 or anything of that kind1 is beautiful1 and whether all these things seem to flow like water4 ,but1 what is beautiful in itself--may we say8--has not this the qualities that define it1 always8 ,cratylus4 ,it must be so4 ,socrates4 ,can we then1 if it is ever passing out below1 predicate about it2 first1 that it is that2 next1 that it has this or that quality2 or must it not be that1 even as we speak1 it should straightway become some other thing1 and go out under on its way1 and be no longer as it is8 ,now1 how could that which is never in the same state be a thing at all8 4 4 4 #ag ,socrates4 ,nor1 in truth1 could it be an object of knowledge to any one2 for1 even as he who shall know comes upon it1 it would become another thing with other qualities2 so that it would be no longer matter of knowledge what sort of a thing it is1 or in what condition4 ,now1 no form of knowing1 methinks1 has knowledge of that which it knows to be no-how4 ,cratylus4 ,it is as you say4 ,socrates4 ,but if1 ,cratylus1 all things change sides1 and nothing stays1 it is not fitting to say that there is any knowing at all4 4 4 4 ,and the consequence of this argument would be1 that there is neither any one to know1 nor anything to be known4 ,if1 on the other hand1 there be always that which knows1 and that which is known2 and if the ,beautiful is1 and the ,good is1 and each one of those things that really are1 is1 then1 to my thinking1 those things in no way resemble that moving stream of which we are now speaking4 ,whether1 then1 these matters be thus1 or in that other way as the followers of ,heraclitus affirm and many besides1 ,i fear may be no easy thing to search out4 ,but certainly it is not like a sensible man1 committing one's self1 and one's own soul1 to the rule of names1 to serve them1 and1 with faith in names and those who imposed them1 as if one knew something thereby1 to maintain 7damaging thus the character of that which is1 and our own7 that there is no sound ring in any one of them1 but that all1 like earthen pots1 let water4 ,cratylus1 #dci4 ,yet from certain fragments in which the ,logos is already named we may understand that there had been another side to the doctrine of ,heraclitus2 an attempt on his part1 after all1 to reduce that world of chaotic mutation to cosmos1 to the unity of a reasonable order1 by the search for and the notation1 if there be such1 of an antiphonal rhythm1 or logic1 which1 proceeding uniformly from movement to movement1 as in some intricate musical theme1 might link together in one those contending1 infinitely diverse #ah impulses4 ,it was an act of recognition1 even on the part of a philosophy of the inconsecutive1 the incoherent1 the insane1 of that ,wisdom which1 reacheth from end to end1 sweetly and strongly ordering all things4 ,but if the weeping philosopher1 the first of the pessimists1 finds the ground of his melancholy in the sense of universal change1 still more must he weep at the dulness of men's ears to that continuous strain of melody throughout it4 ,in truth1 what was sympathetic with the hour and the scene in the ,heraclitean doctrine1 was the boldly aggressive1 the paradoxical and negative tendency there1 in natural collusion1 as it was1 with the destructiveness of undisciplined youth2 that sense of rapid dissolution1 which1 according to one's temperament and one's luck in things1 might extinguish1 or kindle all the more eagerly1 an interest in the mere phenomena of existence1 of one's so hasty passage through the world4 ,the theory of the perpetual flux was indeed an apprehension of which the full scope was only to be realised by a later age1 in alliance with a larger knowledge of the natural world1 a closer observation of the phenomena of mind1 than was possible1 even for ,heraclitus1 at that early day4 ,so1 the seeds of almost all scientific ideas might seem to have been dimly enfolded in the mind of antiquity2 but fecundated1 admitted to their full working prerogative1 one by one1 in after ages1 by good favour of the special #ai intellectual conditions belonging to a particular generation1 which1 on a sudden1 finds itself preoccupied by a formula1 not so much new1 as renovated by new application4 ,it is in this way that the most modern metaphysical1 and the most modern empirical philosophies alike have illustrated emphatically1 justified1 expanded1 the divination 7so we may make bold to call it under the new light now thrown upon it7 of the ancient theorist of ,ephesus4 ,the entire modern theory of development1 in all its various phases1 proved or unprovable1--what is it but old ,heracliteanism awake once more in a new world1 and grown to full proportions8 ,panta chrei1 panta rhei--,it is the burden of ,hegel on the one hand1 to whom nature1 and art1 and polity1 and philosophy1 aye1 and religion too1 each in its long historic series1 are but so many conscious movements in the secular process of the eternal mind2 and on the other hand of ,darwin and ,darwinism1 for which type itself properly is not but is only always becoming4 ,the bold paradox of ,heraclitus is1 in effect1 repeated on all sides1 as the vital persuasion just now of a cautiously reasoned experience1 and1 in illustration of the very law of change which it asserts1 may itself presently be superseded as a commonplace4 ,think of all that subtly disguised movement1 latens processus1 ,bacon calls it 7again as if by a kind of anticipation7 which #bj modern research has detected1 measured1 hopes to reduce to minuter or ally to still larger currents1 in what had seemed most substantial to the naked eye1 the inattentive mind4 ,to the observation and experiment of the physical enquirer of to-day1 the eye and the sun it lives by reveal themselves1 after all1 as ,heraclitus had declared 7scarcely serious1 he seemed to those around him7 as literally in constant extinction and renewal2 the sun only going out more gradually than the human eye2 the system meanwhile1 of which it is the centre1 in ceaseless movement nowhither4 ,our terrestrial planet is in constant increase by meteoric dust1 moving to it through endless time out of infinite space4 ,the ,alps drift down the rivers into the plains1 as still loftier mountains found their level there ages ago4 ,the granite kernel of the earth1 it is said1 is ever changing in its very substance1 its molecular constitution1 by the passage through it of electric currents4 ,and the ,darwinian theory--that species1 the identifying forms of animal and vegetable life1 immutable though they seem now1 as of old in the ,garden of ,eden1 are fashioned by slow development1 while perhaps millions of years go by3 well6 every month is adding to its evidence4 ,nay1 the idea of development 7that1 too1 a thing of growth1 developed in the progress of reflexion7 is at last invading one by one1 as the secret of their explanation1 all the products of mind1 the very #ba mind itself1 the abstract reason2 our certainty1 for instance1 that two and two make four4 ,gradually we have come to think1 or to feel1 that primary certitude4 ,political constitutions1 again1 as we now see so clearly1 are not made1 cannot be made1 but grow4 ,races1 laws1 arts1 have their origins and end1 are themselves ripples only on the great river of organic life2 and language is changing on our very lips4 ,in ,plato's day1 the ,heraclitean flux1 so deep down in nature itself-- the flood1 the fire--seemed to have laid hold on man1 on the social and moral world1 dissolving or disintegrating opinion1 first principles1 faith1 establishing amorphism1 so to call it1 there also4 ,all along indeed the genius1 the good gifts of ,greece to the world had had much to do with the mobility of its temperament4 ,only1 when ,plato came into potent contact with his countrymen 7,pericles1 ,phidias1 ,socrates being now gone7 in politics1 in literature and art1 in men's characters1 the defect naturally incident to that fine quality had come to have unchecked sway4 ,from the lifeless background of an unprogressive world--,egypt1 ,syria1 frozen ,scythia--a world in which the unconscious social aggregate had been everything1 the conscious individual1 his capacity and rights1 almost nothing1 the ,greek had stepped forth1 like the young prince in the fable1 to set things going4 ,to the philosophic eye however1 #bb about the time when the history of ,thucydides leaves off1 they might seem to need a regulator1 ere the very wheels wore themselves out4 ,mobility6 ,we do not think that a necessarily undesirable condition of life1 of mind1 of the physical world about us4 ',tis the dead things1 we may remind ourselves1 that after all are most entirely at rest1 and might reasonably hold that motion 7vicious1 fallacious1 infectious motion1 as ,plato inclines to think7 covers all that is best worth being4 ,and as for philosophy--mobility1 versatility1 the habit of thought that can most adequately follow the subtle movement of things1 that1 surely1 were the secret of wisdom1 of the true knowledge of them4 ,it means susceptibility1 sympathetic intelligence1 capacity1 in short4 ,it was the spirit of ,god that moved1 moves still1 in every form of real power1 everywhere4 ,yet to ,plato motion becomes the token of unreality in things1 of falsity in our thoughts about them4 ,it is just this principle of mobility1 in itself so welcome to all of us1 that1 with all his contriving care for the future1 he desires to withstand4 ,everywhere he displays himself as an advocate of the immutable4 ,the ,republic is a proposal to establish it indefectibly in a very precisely regulated1 a very exclusive community1 which shall be a refuge for elect souls from an ill-made world4 ,that four powerful influences made for the political unity of ,greece was pointed out by #bc ,grote3 common blood1 common language1 a common religious centre1 the great games in which all alike communicated4 ,he adds that they failed to make the ,greeks one people4 ,panhellenism was realised for the first time1 and then but imperfectly1 by ,alexander the ,great4 ,the centrifugal tendency had ever been too much for the centripetal tendency in them1 the progressive elements for the element of order4 ,their boundless impatience1 that passion for novelty noted in them by ,saint ,paul1 had been a matter of radical character4 ,their varied natural gifts did but concentrate themselves now and then to an effective centre1 that they might be dissipated again1 towards every side1 in daring adventure alike of action and of thought4 ,variety and novelty of experience1 further quickened by a consciousness trained to an equally nimble power of movement1 individualism1 the capacities1 the claim1 of the individual1 forced into their utmost play by a ready sense and dexterous appliance of opportunity1--herein1 certainly1 lay at least one half of their vocation in history4 ,the material conformation of ,greece1 a land of islands and peninsulas1 with a range of sea-coast immense as compared with its area1 and broken up by repellent lines of mountain this way and that1 nursing jealously a little township of three or four thousand souls into an independent type of its own1 conspired to the same effect4 ,independence1 local and personal1--it was the ,greek ideal6 #bd ,yet of one side only of that ideal1 as we may see1 of the still half-,asiatic rather than the full ,hellenic ideal1 of the ,ionian ideal as conceived by the ,athenian people in particular1 people of the coast who have the roaming thoughts of sailors1 ever ready to float away anywhither amid their walls of wood4 ,and for many of its admirers certainly the whole ,greek people has been a people of the sea-coast4 ,in ,lacedaemon1 however1 as ,plato and others thought1 hostile1 inaccessible in its mountain hollow where it had no need of any walls at all1 there were resources for that discipline and order which constitute the other ingredient in a true ,hellenism1 the saving ,dorian soul in it4 ,right away thither1 to that solemn old mountain village1 now mistress of ,greece1 he looks often1 in depicting the ,perfect ,city1 the ideal state4 ,perfection1 in every case1 as we may conceive1 is attainable only through a certain combination of opposites1 ,attic aleipha with the ,doric oxos2 and in the ,athens of ,plato's day1 as he saw with acute prevision1 those centrifugal forces had come to be ruinously in excess of the centripetal4 ,its rapid1 empiric1 constitutional changes1 its restless development of political experiment1 the subdivisions of party there1 the dominance of faction1 as we see it1 steadily increasing1 breeding on itself1 in the pages of ,thucydides1 justify ,plato's long-drawn paradox that it is easier to wrestle against many than against one4 ,the soul1 #be moreover1 the inward polity of the individual1 was the theatre of a similar dissolution2 and truly stability of character had never been a prominent feature in ,greek life4 ,think of the end of ,pausanias failing in his patriotism1 of ,themistocles1 of ,miltiades1 the saviours of ,greece1 actually selling the country they had so dearly bought to its old enemies4 ,it is something in this way that1 for ,plato1 motion and the philosophy of motion identify themselves with the vicious tendency in things and thought4 ,change is the irresistible law of our being1 says the ,philosophy of ,motion4 ,change1 he protests1 through the power of a true philosophy1 shall not be the law of our being2 and it is curious to note the way in which1 consciously or unconsciously1 that philosophic purpose shapes his treatment1 even in minute detail1 of education1 of art1 of daily life1 his very vocabulary1 in which such pleasant or innocent words1 as manifold1 embroidered1 changeful1 become the synonyms of what is evil4 ,he1 first1 notes something like a fixed cycle of political change2 but conceives it 7being change7 as1 from the very first1 backward towards decadence4 ,the ideal city1 again1 will not be an art-less place3 it is by irresistible influence of art1 that he means to shape men anew2 by a severely monotonous art however1 such art as shall speak to youth1 all day long1 from year to year1 almost exclusively1 of the loins girded about4 #bf ,stimulus1 or correction1--one hardly knows which to ask for first1 as more salutary for our own slumbersome1 yet so self-willed1 northern temperaments4 ,perhaps all genuine fire1 even the ,heraclitean fire1 has a power for both4 ,athens1 says ,dante1 --,athens1 aye and ,sparta's state ,that were in policy so great1 ,and framed the laws of old1 ,how small a place they hold1 ,how poor their art of noble living ,shews by thy delicate contriving1 ,where what ,october spun ,november sees outrun6 ,think in the time thou canst recall1 ,laws1 coinage1 customs1 places all1 ,how thou hast rearranged1 ,how oft thy members changed6 ,couldst thou but see thyself aright1 ,and turn thy vision to the light1 ,thy likeness thou would'st find ,in some sick man reclined2 ,on couch of down though he be pressed1 ,he seeks and finds not any rest1 ,but turns and turns again1 ,to ease him of his pain4 ,purgatory3 ,canto ,,vi3 ,shadwell's ,translation4 ,now what ,dante says to ,florence1 contrasting it with ,athens and ,sparta as he conceives them1 ,plato might have said to ,athens1 in contrast with ,sparta1 with ,lacedaemon1 at least as he conceived it4 ,,notes #f4 ,transliteration3 ,panta rhei4 ,translation3 ,all things give way or flow4 ,plato1 ,cratylus #djb ,a1 cites ,heraclitus' fragment more fully-- ,legei pou ,hrakleitos hoti panta chrei kai ouden menei1 or ,heracleitus says somewhere that all things give way1 and nothing remains4 ,pater cites the same fragment in ,the ,renaissance1 ,conclusion4 ,the verb rhe means flow1 while the verb chore means give way4 #ad4 ,transliteration3 ,panta chrei kai ouden menei4 ,pater's translation3 ,all things give way3 nothing remaineth4 ,plato1 ,cratylus #djb;,a4 #ad4 ,transliteration3 neots4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 youth3 also 444 youthful spirit1 rashness4 #ae4 ,transliteration3 ,legei pou ,hrakleitos hoti panta chrei kai ouden menei4 ,pater's translation in ,the ,renaissance1 ,conclusion3 ,herakleitos says somewhere that ,all things give way2 nothing remains4 ,plato1 ,cratylus #djb;a4 #af4 ,transliteration3 eimen te kai ouk eimen4 ,e-text editor's translation3 ,we are and are not4 ,heraclitus1 ,fragments4 ,fragmenta ,philosophorum ,graecorum1 ,vol4 #a1 #cbf4 ,ed4 ,f4,w4,a4 ,mullach4 ,darmstadt3 ,scientia ,verlag ,aalen1 #aifg 7reprint of the ,paris1 #ahfj edition74 ,in the same fragment1 ,heraclitus is described as having said1 ,potamois tois autois embainomen te kai ouk embainomen1 which translates as we go into the same river1 and yet we do not go into the same river4 ,plato cites that thought in the passage alluded to above1 ,cratylus #djb;a4 #af4 ,transliteration3 ta onta4 ,definition3 the things that are4 #ag4 ,rather than retain the original's very small print for such quotations1 ,i have indented them throughout ,plato and ,platonism4 ,as ,pater indicates1 the source of his quotation is the ,cratylus1 #dci4 #ai4 ,transliteration3 ,panta chrei1 panta rhei4 ,see above1 notes for pages #f1 #ad1 #ae1 and #af4 ,the verb rhe means flow1 while the verb chore means give way4 #bd4 ,transliteration3 aleipha 4 4 4 oxos4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 unguent1 oil 4 4 4 sour wine1 vinegar4 ,,chapter #b3 ,,plato ,,and ,,the ,,doctrine ,,of ,,rest #bg ,,over against that world of flux1 ,where nothing is1 but all things seem1 it is the vocation of ,plato to set up a standard of unchangeable reality1 which in its highest theoretic development becomes the world of eternal and immutable ideas1 indefectible outlines of thought1 yet also the veritable things of experience3 the perfect ,justice1 for instance1 which if even the gods mistake it for perfect ,injustice is not moved out of its place2 the ,beauty which is the same1 yesterday1 to-day and for ever4 ,in such ideas or ideals1 eternal as participating in the essential character of the facts they represent to us1 we come in contact1 as he supposes1 with the insoluble1 immovable granite beneath and amid the wasting torrent of mere phenomena4 ,and in thus ruling the deliberate aim of his philosophy to be a survey of things sub specie eternitatis1 the reception of a kind of absolute and independent knowledge #bh 7independent1 that is1 of time and position1 the accidents and peculiar point of view of the receiver7 ,plato is consciously under the influence of another great master of the ,pre- ,socratic thought1 ,parmenides1 the centre of the ,school of ,elea4 ,about half a century before the birth of ,plato1 ,socrates being then in all the impressibility of early manhood1 ,parmenides1 according to the witness of ,plato himself--,parmenides at the age of sixty-five--had visited ,athens at the great festival of the ,panathenaea1 in company with ,zeno the ,eleatic1 a characteristic specimen of ,greek cleverness1 of the acute understanding1 personally very attractive4 ,though forty years old1 the reputation this ,zeno now enjoyed seems to have been very much the achievement of his youth1 and came of a mastery of the sort of paradox youth always delights in4 ,it may be said that no one has ever really answered him2 the difficulties with which he played so nicely being really connected with those antinomies1 or contradictions1 or inconsistencies1 of our thoughts1 which more than two thousand years afterwards ,kant noted as actually inherent in the mind itself--a certain constitutional weakness or limitation there1 in dealing by way of cold-blooded reflexion with the direct presentations of its experience4 ,the ,eleatic ,palamedes1 ,plato calls him1 whose dialectic art causes one and the same thing to appear both like and #bi unlike1 one and many1 at rest and in motion4 ,ah6 you hear already the sort of words that seem sometimes so barren and unprofitable even in ,plato4 ,it is from extant fragments of a work of his1 not a poem1 but1 appropriately1 ,to ,syngramma1 ,the ,prose1 of ,zeno1 that such knowledge as we have of his doctrine1 independently of the ,parmenides of ,plato1 is derived4 ,the active principle of that doctrine then lies in the acuteness with which he unfolds the contradictions which make against the very conceivability of the fundamental phenomena of sense1 in so far as those phenomena are supposed to be really existent independently of ourselves4 ,the truth of experience1 of a sensible experience1 he seems to protest3--,why6 sensible experience as such is logically inconceivable4 ,he proved it1 or thought1 or professed to think1 he proved it1 in the phenomenon which covers all the most vivid1 the seemingly irresistible facts1 of such experience4 ,motion was indeed1 as the ,heracliteans said1 everywhere3 was the most incisive of all facts in the realm of supposed sensible fact4 ,think of the prow of the trireme cleaving the water4 ,for a moment ,zeno himself might have seemed but a follower of ,heraclitus4 ,he goes beyond him4 ,all is motion3 he admits4--,yes3 only1 motion is 7,i can show it67 a nonsensical term4 ,follow it1 or rather stay by it1 and it transforms itself1 agreeably enough for the #cj curious observer1 into rest4 ,motion must be motion in space1 of course2 from point to point in it1--and again1 more closely1 from point to point within such interval2 and so on1 infinitely2 'tis rest there3 perpetual motion is perpetual rest3--the hurricane1 the falling tower1 the deadly arrow from the bow at whose coming you shake there so wretchedly1 ,zeno's own rapid word-fence--all alike at rest1 to the restful eye of the pure reason6 ,the tortoise1 the creature that moves most slowly1 cannot be overtaken by ,achilles1 the swiftest of us all2 or at least you can give no rational explanation how it comes to be overtaken4 ,zeno had an armoury of such enigmas4 ,can a bushel of corn falling make a noise if a single grain makes none8 ,again1 that motion should cease1 we find inconceivable3 but can you conceive how it should so much as begin8 at what point precisely1 in the moving body8 ,ubiquitous1 tyrannous1 irresistible1 as it may seem1 motion1 with the whole so dazzling world it covers1 is-- nothing6 ,himself so striking an instance of mobile humour in his exposure of the unreality of all movement1 ,zeno might be taken so far only for a master1 or a slave1 of paradox2 such paradox indeed as is from the very first inherent in every philosophy which 7like that of ,plato himself1 accepting even ,zeno as one of its institutors7 opposes the seen to the unseen as #ca falsehood to truth4 ,it was the beginning of scholasticism2 and the philosophic mind will perhaps never be quite in health1 quite sane or natural1 again4 ,the objective1 unconscious1 pleasantly sensuous mind of the ,greek1 becoming a man1 as he thinks1 and putting away childish thoughts1 is come with ,zeno one step towards ,aristotle1 towards ,aquinas1 or shall we say into the rude scholasticism of the pedantic ,middle ,age8 ,and we must have our regrets4 ,there is always something lost in growing up4 ,the wholesome scepticism of ,hume or ,mill for instance1 the scepticism of the modern world1 beset now with insane speculative figments1 has been an appeal from the preconceptions of the understanding to the authority of the senses4 ,with the ,greeks1 whose metaphysic business was then still all to do1 the sceptical action of the mind lay rather in the direction of an appeal from the affirmations of sense to the authority of newly-awakened reason4 ,just then all those real and verbal difficulties which haunt perversely the human mind always1 all those unprofitable queries which hang about the notions of matter and time and space1 their divisibility and the like1 seemed to be stirring together1 under the utterance of this brilliant1 phenomenally clever1 perhaps insolent1 young man1 his master's favourite4 ,to the work of that grave master1 nevertheless--of ,parmenides--a very different person certainly from his rattling disciple1 ,zeno's #cb seemingly so fantastic doctrine was sincerely in service4 ,by its destructive criticism1 its dissipation of the very conceivability of the central and most incisive of sensible phenomena1 it was a real support to ,parmenides in his assertion of the nullity of all that is but phenomenal1 leaving open and unoccupied space 7emptiness1 we might say7 to that which really is4 ,that which is1 so purely1 or absolutely1 that it is nothing at all to our mixed powers of apprehension3--,parmenides and the ,eleatic ,school were much occupied with the determination of the thoughts1 or of the mere phrases and words1 that belong to that4 ,motion discredited1 motion gone1 all was gone that belonged to an outward and concrete experience1 thus securing exclusive validity to the sort of knowledge1 if knowledge it is to be called1 which corresponds to the ,pure ,being1 that after all is only definable as ,pure ,nothing1 that colourless1 formless1 impalpable existence 7ousia achrmatos1 aschmatistos1 anaphs7 to use the words of ,plato1 for whom ,parmenides became a sort of inspired voice4 ,note at times1 in reading him1 in the closing pages of the fifth book of ,the ,republic for instance1 the strange accumulation of terms derivative from the abstract verb ,to be4 ,as some more modern metaphysicians have done1 even ,plato seems to pack such terms together almost by rote4 ,certainly something of paradox may always be felt even in his #cc exposition of ,being1 or perhaps a kind of paralysis of speech--aphasia4 ,parmenides himself had borrowed the thought from another1 though he made it his own4 ,plato1 in ,the ,republic1 as a critic of ,homer1 by way of fitting ,homer the better for the use of the schoolboys of the ideal city1 is ready to sacrifice much of that graceful polytheism in which the ,greeks anticipated the dulia of saints and angels in the catholic church4 ,he does this to the advantage of a very abstract1 and as it may seem disinterested1 certainly an uninteresting1 notion of deity1 which is in truth3--well6 one of the dry sticks of mere natural theology1 as it is called4 ,in this he was but following the first1 the original1 founder of the ,eleatic ,school1 ,xenophanes1 who in a somewhat scornful spirit had urged on men's attention that1 in their prayers and sacrifices to the gods1 in all their various thoughts and statements1 graceful or hideous1 about them1 they had only all along with much fallacy been making gods after their own likeness1 as horse or dog too1 if perchance it cast a glance towards heaven1 would after the same manner project thither the likeness of horse or dog3 that to think of deity you must think of it as neither here nor there1 then nor now2 you must away with all limitations of time and space and matter1 nay1 with the very conditions1 the limitation1 of thought itself2 apparently not #cd observing that to think of it in this way was in reality not to think of it at all3--,that in short ,being so pure as this is pure ,nothing4 ,in opposition then to the anthropomorphic religious poetry of ,homer1 ,xenophanes elaborates the notion1 or rather the abstract or purely verbal definition1 of that which really is 7to on7 as inconclusive of all time1 and space1 and mode2 yet so that all which can be identified concretely with mode and space and time is but antithetic to it1 as finite to infinite1 seeming to being1 contingent to necessary1 the temporal1 in a word1 to the eternal4 ,once for all1 in harshest dualism1 the only true yet so barren existence is opposed to the world of phenomena--of colour and form and sound and imagination and love1 of empirical knowledge4 ,objects1 real objects1 as we know1 grow in reality towards us in proportion as we define their various qualities4 ,and yet1 from another point of view1 definition1 qualification1 is a negative process3 it is as if each added quality took from the object we are defining one or more potential qualities4 ,the more definite things become as objects of sensible or other empirical apprehension1 the more1 it might be said from the logician's point of view1 have we denied about them4 ,it might seem that their increasing reality as objects of sense was in direct proportion to the increase of their distance from that perfect ,being which is everywhere and at all times in every possible mode of being4 ,a #ce thing visibly white is found as one approaches it to be also smooth to the touch2 and this added quality1 says the formal logician1 does but deprive it of all other possible modes of texture2 ,omnis determinatio est negatio4 ,vain puerilities6 you may exclaim3--with justice4 ,yet such are the considerations which await the mind that suffers itself to dwell awhile on the abstract formula to which the rational theology of ,xenophanes leads him4 ,it involved the assertion of an absolute difference between the original and all that is or can be derived from it2 that the former annuls1 or is exclusive of1 the latter1 which has in truth no real or legitimate standing-ground as matter of knowledge2 that1 in opposite yet equally unanswerable senses1 at both ends of experience there is-- nothing6 ,of the most concrete object1 as of the most abstract1 it might be said1 that it more properly is not than is4 ,from ,xenophanes1 as a critic of the polytheism of the ,greek religious poets1 that most abstract and arid of formulae1 ,pure ,being1 closed in indifferently on every side upon itself1 and suspended in the midst of nothing1 like a hard transparent crystal ball1 as he says2 ,the ,absolute2 ,the ,one2 passed to his fellow-citizen ,parmenides1 seeking1 doubtless in the true spirit of philosophy1 for the centre of the universe1 of his own experience of it1 for some common measure of the experience of all men4 ,to enforce a reasonable unity and order1 to impress some larger likeness of reason1 #cf as one knows it in one's self1 upon the chaotic infinitude of the impressions that reach us from every side1 is what all philosophy as such proposes4 ,kosmos2 order2 reasonable1 delightful1 order2 is a word that became very dear1 as we know1 to the ,greek soul1 to what was perhaps most essentially ,greek in it1 to the ,dorian element there4 ,apollo1 the ,dorian god1 was but its visible consecration4 ,it was what1 under his blessing1 art superinduced upon the rough stone1 the yielding clay1 the jarring metallic strings1 the common speech of every day4 ,philosophy1 in its turn1 with enlarging purpose1 would project a similar light of intelligence upon the at first sight somewhat unmeaning world we find actually around us3--project it2 or rather discover it1 as being really pre-existent there1 if one were happy enough to get one's self into the right point of view4 ,to certain fortunate minds the efficacious moment of insight would come1 when1 with delightful adaptation of means to ends1 of the parts to the whole1 the entire scene about one1 bewildering1 unsympathetic1 unreasonable1 on a superficial view1 would put on1 for them at least1 kosmiots1 that so welcome expression of fitness1 which it is the business of the fine arts to convey into material things1 of the art of discipline to enforce upon the lives of men4 ,the primitive ,ionian philosophers had found1 or thought they found1 such a principle 7arch7 in the force of some omnipresent physical element1 #cg air1 water1 fire2 or in some common law1 motion1 attraction1 repulsion2 as ,plato would find it in an eternally appointed hierarchy of genus and species2 as the science of our day embraces it 7perhaps after all only in fancy7 in the expansion of a large body of observed facts into some all-comprehensive hypothesis1 such as evolution4 ,for ,parmenides1 at his early day1 himself1 as some remnants of his work in that direction bear witness1 an acute and curious observer of the concrete and sensible phenomena of nature1 that principle of reasonable unity seemed attainable only by a virtual negation1 by the obliteration1 of all such phenomena4 ,when we have learned as exactly as we can all the curious processes at work in our own bodies or souls1 in the stars1 in or under the earth1 their very definiteness1 their limitation1 will but make them the more antagonistic to that which alone really is1 because it is always and everywhere itself1 identical exclusively with itself4 ,phenomena6--by the force of such arguments as ,zeno's1 the instructed would make a clean sweep of them1 for the establishment1 in the resultant void1 of the ,one1 with which it is impossible 7para panta legomena7 in spite of common language1 and of what seems common sense1 for the ,many--the hills and cities of ,greece1 you and me1 ,parmenides himself1 really to co-exist at all4 ,parmenides1 says one1 had stumbled upon #ch the modern thesis that thought and being are the same4 ,something like this--this impossibly abstract doctrine--is what ,plato's father in philosophy had had to proclaim1 in the midst of the busy1 brilliant1 already complicated life of the recently founded colonial town of ,elea4 ,it was like the revelation to ,israel in the midst of picturesque idolatries1 ,the ,lord thy ,god is one ,lord2 only that here it made no claim to touch the affections1 or even to warm the imagination4 ,israel's ,greek cousin was to undergo a harder1 a more distant and repressive discipline in those matters1 to which a peculiarly austere moral beauty1 at once self-reliant and submissive1 the aesthetic expression of which has a peculiar1 an irresistible charm1 would in due time correspond4 ,it was in difficult hexameter verse1 in a poem which from himself or from others had received the title--,peri physes 7,de ,natur ,rerum7 that ,parmenides set forth his ideas4 ,from the writings of ,clement of ,alexandria1 and other later writers large in quotation1 diligent modern scholarship has collected fragments of it1 which afford sufficient independent evidence of his manner of thought1 and supplement conveniently ,plato's1 of course highly subjective1 presentment in his ,parmenides of what had so deeply influenced him4-- #ci ,now come6 7this fragment of ,parmenides is in ,proclus1 who happened to quote it in commenting on the ,timaeus of ,plato7 ,come6 do you listen1 and take home what ,i shall tell you3 what are the two paths of search after right understanding4 ,the one1 h men hops estin te kai hs ouk esti m einai8 that what is1 is2 and that what is not1 is not2 or1 in the ,latin of scholasticism1 here inaugurated by ,parmenides1 esse ens3 non esse non ens-- peithous esti keleuthos2 althei gar opdei8 this is the path to persuasion1 for truth goes along with it4 ,the other--that what is1 is not2 and by consequence that what is not1 is3-- ,i tell you that is the way which goes counter to persuasion3 tn d toi phraz panapeithea emmen atarpon8 oute gar an gnois to ge m eon ou gar ephikton8 ,that which is not1 never could you know3 there is no way of getting at that2 nor could you explain it to another2 for ,thought and ,being are identical4--,famous utterance1 yet of so dubious omen6--,to gar auto voein estin te kai einai ---idem est enim cogitare et esse4 ,it is one to me1 he proceeds1 at what point ,i begin2 for thither ,i shall come back over again3 tothi gar palin hixomai authis4 ,yes1 truly6 again and again1 in an empty circle1 we may say2 and certainly1 with those #dj dry and difficult words in our ears1 may think for a moment that philosophic reflexion has already done that delightfully superficial ,greek world an ill turn1 troubling so early its ingenuous soul2 that the ,european mind1 as was said1 will never be quite sane again4 ,it has been put on a quest 7vain quest it may prove to be7 after a kind of knowledge perhaps not properly attainable4 ,hereafter1 in every age1 some will be found to start afresh quixotically1 through what wastes of words6 in search of that true ,substance1 the ,one1 the ,absolute1 which to the majority of acute people is after all but zero1 and a mere algebraic symbol for nothingness4 ,in themselves1 by the way1 such search may bring out fine intellectual qualities2 and thus1 in turn1 be of service to those who can profit by the spectacle of an enthusiasm not meant for them2 must nevertheless be admitted to have had all along something of disease about it2 as indeed to ,plato himself the philosophic instinct as such is a form of mania4 ,an infectious mania1 it might seem1--that strange passion for nonentity1 to which the ,greek was so oddly liable1 to which the human mind generally might be thought to have been constitutionally predisposed2 for the doctrine of ,the ,one had come to the surface before in old ,indian dreams of self-annihilation1 which had been revived1 in the second century after ,christ1 in the ecstasies 7ecstasies of the pure #da spirit1 leaving the body behind it7 recommended by the ,neo-,platonists2 and again1 in the ,middle ,age1 as a finer shade of ,christian experience1 in the mystic doctrines of ,eckhart and ,tauler concerning that union with ,god which can only be attained by the literal negation of self1 by a kind of moral suicide2 of which something also may be found1 under the cowl of the monk1 in the clear1 cold1 inaccessible1 impossible heights of the book of the ,imitation4 ,it presents itself once more1 now altogether beyond ,christian influence1 in the hard and ambitious intellectualism of ,spinoza2 a doctrine of pure repellent substance--substance in vacuo1 to be lost in which1 however1 would be the proper consummation of the transitory individual life4 ,spinoza's own absolutely colourless existence was a practical comment upon it4 ,descartes2 ,malebranche1 under the monk's cowl again2 ,leibnitz2 ,berkeley with his theory of the ,vision of all things in ,god2 do but present variations on the same theme through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries4 ,by one and all it is assumed1 in the words of ,plato1 that to be colourless1 formless1 impalpable is the note of the superior grade of knowledge and existence1 evanescing steadily1 as one ascends towards that perfect 7perhaps not quite attainable7 condition of either1 which in truth can only be attained by the suppression of all the rule and outline of one's own actual experience and thought4 #db ,something like that certainly there had been already in the doctrine of ,parmenides1 to whom ,plato was so willing to go to school4 ,and in the nineteenth century1 as on the one hand the philosophy of motion1 of the perpetual flux1 receives its share of verification from that theory of development with which in various forms all modern science is prepossessed2 so1 on the other hand1 the philosophy of rest also1 of the perpetual lethargy1 the ,parmenidean assertion of the exclusive reign of ,the ,one1 receives an unlooked-for testimony from the modern physical philosopher1 hinting that the phenomena he deals with--matter1 organism1 consciousness--began in a state of indeterminate1 abstract indifference1 with a single uneasy start in a sort of eternal sleep1 a ripple on the dead1 level surface4 ,increasing indeed for a while in radius and depth1 under the force of mechanic law1 the world of motion and life is however destined1 by force of its own friction1 to be restored sooner or later to equilibrium2 nay1 is already gone back some noticeable degrees 7how desirably67 to the primeval indifference1 as may be understood by those who can reckon the time it will take for our worn-out planet1 surviving all the fret of the humanity it housed for a while1 to be drawn into the sun4 ,but it is of ,plato after all we should be thinking2 of the comparatively temperate thoughts1 the axiomata media1 he was able to derive1 by a #dc sort of compromise1 from the impossible paradox of his ancient master4 ,what was it1 among things inevitably manifest on his pages as we read him1 that ,plato borrowed and kept from the ,eleatic ,school6 ,two essential judgments of his philosophy3 ,the opposition of what is1 to what appears2 and the parallel opposition of knowledge to opinion2 7heteron epistms doxa2 eph' heter ara heteron ti dynamen hekatera autn pephyke8 ouk enchrei gnston kai doxaston tauton einai87 and thirdly1 to illustrate that opposition1 the figurative use1 so impressed on thought and speech by ,plato that it has come to seem hardly a figure of speech at all but appropriate philosophic language1 of the opposition of light to darkness4-- ,well1 then 7,socrates is made to say in the fifth book of ,the ,republic7 if what is1 is the object of knowledge1 would not something other than what is1 be the object of opinion8 ,yes6 something else4 ,does opinion then opine what is not2 or is it impossible to have even opinion concerning what is not8 ,consider6 does not he who has opinion direct his opinion upon something8 or is it impossible1 again1 to have an opinion1 yet an opinion about nothing8 ,impossible6 ,but he who has an opinion has opinion at least about something2 hasn't he8 ,yet after all what is not1 is not a thing2 but would most properly be denominated nothing4 ,certainly4 ,now to what is not1 we assigned of necessity ignorance3 to what is1 knowledge4 ,rightly3 he said4 #dd ,neither what is1 then1 nor what is not1 is the object of opinion4 ,no6 ,opinion therefore would be neither ignorance nor knowledge4 ,it seems not4 ,is it1 then1 beyond these2 going beyond knowledge in clearness1 beyond ignorance in obscurity8 ,neither the one1 nor the other4 ,but1 ,i asked1 opinion seems to you 7doesn't it87 to be a darker thing than knowledge1 yet lighter than ignorance4 ,very much so2 he answered4 ,does it lie within those two8 ,yes4 ,opinion1 then1 would be midway1 between these two conditions8 ,undoubtedly so4 ,now didn't we say in what went before that if anything became apparent such that it is1 and is not1 at the same time1 a thing of that kind would lie between that which is in unmixed clearness1 and that which wholly is not2 and that there would be1 in regard to that1 neither knowledge nor ignorance2 but1 again1 a condition revealing itself between ignorance and knowledge8 ,rightly4 ,and now1 between these two1 what we call 'opinion' has in fact revealed itself4 ,clearly so4 ,it would remain for us therefore1 as it seems1 to find that which partakes of both--both of ,being and ,not-being1 and which could rightly be called by neither term distinctly2 in order that1 if it appear1 we may in justice determine it to be the object of opinion2 assigning the extremes to the extremes1 the intermediate to what comes between them4 ,or is it not thus8 ,thus it is4 ,these points then being assumed1 let him tell me6 let him speak and give his answer--that excellent person1 who on the one hand thinks there is no ,beauty itself1 nor any idea of ,beauty itself1 ever in the same condition in regard to the same things 7aei kata tauta hsauts echousan7 yet1 on the other hand1 holds #de that there are the many beautiful objects3--that lover of sight 7ho philotheamn7 who can by no means bear it if any one says that the beautiful is one2 the just also2 and the rest1 after the same way4 ,for good ,sir6 we shall say1 pray tell us1 is there any one of these many beautiful things which will not appear ugly 7under certain conditions7 of the many just or pious actions which will not seem unjust or impious8 ,no6 he answered4 ,rather it must be that they shall seem1 in a manner1 both beautiful and ugly2 and all the rest you ask of4 ,well6 ,the many double things3--,do they seem to be at all less half than double8 ,not at all4 ,and great1 in truth1 and little1 and light1 and heavy--will they at all more truly be called by these names which we may give them1 than by the opposite names8 ,no6 he said2 but each of them will always hold of both4 ,every several instance of ',the ,many1' then--is it1 more truly than it is not1 that which one may affirm it to be8 ,it is like people at supper-parties he said 7very ,attic supper- parties67 playing on words1 and the children's riddle about the eunuch and his fling round the bat--with what1 and on what1 the riddle says he hit it2 for these things also seem to set both ways1 and it is not possible1 fixedly1 to conceive any one of them either to be1 or not to be2 neither both1 nor the one1 nor the other4 ,have you anything then you can do with them2 or anywhere you can place them with fairer effect than in that position between being and the being not8 ,for presumably they will not appear more obscure than what is not1 so as not to be1 still more2 nor more luminous than what is1 so as to be1 even more than that4 ,we have found then that the many customary notions of the many1 about ,beauty and the rest are revolved somewhere between not-being and being unmixedly4 ,so we have4 ,and agreed1 at least1 at the outset1 that if anything of this sort presented itself1 it must be declared matter not of knowledge1 but of opinion2 to be apprehended by the intermediate faculty2 as it wanders unfixed1 there1 between4 ,republic1 #dgh4 #df ,many a train of thought1 many a turn of expression1 only too familiar1 some may think1 to the reader of ,plato1 are summarised in that troublesome yet perhaps attractive passage4 ,the influence then of ,parmenides on ,plato had made him1 incurably 7shall we say87 a dualist4 ,only1 practically1 ,plato's richly coloured genius will find a compromise between the ,one which alone really is1 is yet so empty a thought for finite minds2 and the ,many1 which most properly is not1 yet presses so closely on eye and ear and heart and fancy and will1 at every moment4 ,that which really is 7to on7 the ,one1 if he is really to think about it at all1 must admit within it a certain variety of members2 and1 in effect1 for ,plato the true ,being1 the ,absolute1 the ,one1 does become delightfully multiple1 as the world of ideas-- appreciable1 through years of loving study1 more and more clearly1 one by one1 as the perfectly concrete1 mutually adjusted1 permanent forms of our veritable experience3 the ,bravery1 for instance1 that cannot be confused1 not merely with ,cowardice1 but with ,wisdom1 or ,humility4 ,one after another they emerge again from the dead level1 the ,parmenidean tabula rasa1 with nothing less than the reality of persons face to face with us1 of a personal identity4 ,it was as if the firm plastic outlines of the delightful old ,greek polytheism had found their way back after all into a repellent monotheism4 ,prefer as he may in theory that #dg blank white light of the ,one--its sterile1 formless1 colourless1 impalpable1 eternal identity with itself--the world1 and this chiefly is why the world has not forgotten him1 will be for him1 as he is by no means colour-blind1 by no means a colourless place4 ,he will suffer it to come to him1 as his pages convey it in turn to us1 with the liveliest variety of hue1 as in that conspicuously visual emblem of it1 the outline of which 7essentially characteristic of himself as it seems7 he had really borrowed from the old ,eleatic teacher who had tried so hard to close the bodily eye that he might the better apprehend the world unseen4-- ,and now 7he writes in the seventh book of ,the ,republic7 take for a figure of human nature1 as regards education and the lack thereof1 some such condition as this4 ,think you see people as it were in some abode below-ground1 like a cave1 having its entrance spread out upwards towards the light1 broad1 across the whole cavern4 ,suppose them here from childhood2 their legs and necks chained2 so that there they stay1 and can see only what is in front of them1 being unable by reason of the chain to move their heads round about3 and the light of a fire upon them1 blazing from far above1 behind their backs3 between the fire and the prisoners away up aloft3 and see beside it a low wall built along1 as with the showmen1 in front of the people lie the screens above which they exhibit their wonders4 ,i see3 he said4 ,see1 then1 along this low wall1 men1 bearing vessels of all sorts wrought in stone and wood2 and1 naturally1 some of the bearers talking1 other silent4 ,it is a strange figure you describe3 said he3 and strange prisoners4-- ,they are like ourselves3 ,i answered6 ,republic1 #ead4 #dh ,metaphysical formulae have always their practical equivalents4 ,the ethical alliance of ,heraclitus is with the ,sophists1 and the ,cyrenaics or the ,epicureans2 that of ,parmenides1 with ,socrates1 and the ,cynics or the ,stoics4 ,the ,cynic or ,stoic ideal of a static calm is as truly the moral or practical equivalent of the ,parmenidean doctrine of the ,one1 as the ,cyrenaic monochronos hdon--the pleasure of the ideal now--is the practical equivalent of the doctrine of motion2 and1 as sometimes happens1 what seems hopelessly perverse as a metaphysic for the understanding is found to be realisable enough as one of many phases of our so flexible human feeling4 ,the abstract philosophy of the ,one might seem indeed to have been translated into the terms of a human will in the rigid1 disinterested1 renunciant career of the emperor ,marcus ,aurelius1 its mortal coldness4 ,let me however conclude with a document of the ,eleatic temper1 nearer in its origin to the age of ,plato3 an ancient fragment of ,cleanthes the ,stoic1 which has justly stirred the admiration of ,stoical minds2 though truly1 so hard is it not to lapse from those austere heights1 the ,one1 the ,absolute1 has become in it after all1 with much varied colour and detail in his relations to concrete things and persons1 our father ,zeus4 ,an illustrious athlete2 then a mendicant dealer in water-melons2 chief pontiff lastly of the sect of the ,stoics2 ,cleanthes1 as we see him in anecdote #di at least1 is always a loyal1 sometimes a very quaintly loyal1 follower of the ,parmenidean or ,stoic doctrine of detachment from all material things4 ,it was at the most critical points perhaps of such detachment1 that somewhere about the year three hundred before ,christ1 he put together the verses of his famous ,hymn4 ,by its practical indifference1 its resignation1 its passive submission to the ,one1 the undivided ,intelligence1 which dia pantn phoita--goes to and fro through all things1 the ,stoic pontiff is true to the ,parmenidean schooling of his flock2 yet departs from it also in a measure by a certain expansion of phrase1 inevitable1 it may be1 if one has to speak at all about that chilly abstraction1 still more make a hymn to it4 ,he is far from the cold precept of ,spinoza1 that great re-assertor of the ,parmenidean tradition3 ,that whoso loves ,god truly must not expect to be loved by ,him in return4 ,in truth1 there are echoes here from many various sources4 ,ek sou gar genos esmen3--that is quoted1 as you remember1 by ,saint ,paul1 so just after all to the pagan world1 as its testimony to some deeper ,gnsis than its own4 ,certainly ,cleanthes has conceived his abstract monotheism a little more winningly1 somewhat better1 than dry1 pedantic ,xenophanes2 perhaps because ,socrates and ,plato have lived meanwhile4 ,you might even fancy what he says an echo from ,israel's devout response to the announcement3 ,the ,lord thy ,god is one ,lord4 ,the ,greek #ej certainly is come very near to his unknown cousin at ,sion in what follows3-- kydist'1 athanatn1 polynyme1 pankrates aiei ,zeu1 physeos archge1 nomou meta panta kybernn1 chaire se gar pantessi themis thntoisi prosaudan1 k4t4l4 ,mullach1 ,fragmenta ,philosophorum ,graecorum1 ,i4 p4 #aea4 ,thou ,o ,zeus art praised above all gods3 many are ,thy names and ,thine is all power for ever4 ,the beginning of the world was from ,thee3 and with law ,thou rulest over all things4 ,unto ,thee may all flesh speak3 for we are ,thy offspring4 ,therefore will ,i raise a hymn unto ,thee3 and will ever sing of ,thy power4 ,the whole order of the heavens obeyeth ,thy word3 as it moveth around the earth3 ,with little and great lights mixed together3 how great art ,thou1 ,king above all for ever6 ,nor is anything done upon earth apart from ,thee3 nor in the firmament1 nor in the seas3 ,save that which the wicked do3 by their own folly4 ,but ,thine is the skill to set even the crooked straight3 what is without fashion is fashioned and the alien akin before ,thee4 ,thus hast ,thou fitted together all things in one3 the good with the evil3 ,that ,thy word should be one in all things3 abiding for ever4 ,let folly be dispersed from our souls3 that we may repay ,thee the honour1 wherewith ,thou hast honoured us3 ,singing praise of ,thy works for ever3 as becometh the sons of men4 ,,notes #bi4 ,transliteration3 ,to ,syngramma4 ,translation3 ,the ,prose4 #cb4 ,transliteration3 ousia achrmatos1 aschmatistos1 anaphs4 ,e-text editor's translation3 the colorless1 utterly formless1 intangible essence4 ,plato1 ,phaedrus #bdg;c4 ,see also ,appreciations1 ,coleridge1 where ,pater uses the same quotation4 #cc4 ,transliteration3 aphasia4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 speechlessness4 #cd4 ,transliteration3 to on4 ,translation3 that which is4 #ce4 ,the principle is that of ,baruch ,spinoza4 #cf4 ,transliteration3 ,kosmos4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 ,i4 #a4 order2 #b4 good order1 good behaviour1 decency2 #c4 a set form or order3 of states1 government2 #d4 the mode or fashion of a thing2 ,,ii4 an ornament4442 ,,iii4 the world or universe1 from its perfect arrangement4 #cf4 ,transliteration3 kosmiots4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 propriety1 decorum1 orderly behaviour4 #cf4 ,transliteration3 arch4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 ,i4 beginning1 first cause1 origin4 ,,ii4 #a4 supreme power1 sovereignty1 dominion2 #b4 office4 #cg4 ,transliteration3 para panta legomena4 ,pater's translation3 in spite of common language4 #ch4 ,the ,lord thy ,god4 4 4 4 ,deuteronomy #f3d4 ,hear1 ,o ,israel3 ,the ,,lord our ,god is one ,,lord3 4 4 4 ,see also ,mark #ab3bi3 ,and ,jesus answered him1 ,the first of all the commandments is1 ,hear1 ,o ,israel2 ,the ,lord our ,god is one ,lord3 4 4 4 #ch4 ,transliteration3 ,peri physes4 ,e-text editor's translation3 ,regarding ,nature--i4e4 the title ,de ,natur ,rerum4 #ci4 ,transliteration3 h men hops estin te kai hs ouk esti m einai4 ,pater's translation3 that what is1 is2 and that what is not1 is not4 ,parmenides1 ,epen ,leipsana ,fragmentary ,song or ,poem1 line #ce4 ,fragmenta ,philosophorum ,graecorum1 ,vol4 #a1 #aag4 ,ed4 ,f4,w4,a4 ,mullach4 ,darmstadt3 ,scientia ,verlag ,aalen1 #aifg 7reprint of the ,paris1 #ahfj edition74 #ci4 ,transliteration3 peithous esti keleuthos2 althei gar opdei4 ,pater's translation3 this is the path to persuasion1 for truth goes along with it4 ,parmenides1 ,epen ,leipsana ,fragmentary ,song or ,poem1 line #cf4 ,fragmenta ,philosophorum ,graecorum1 ,vol4 #a1 #aah4 ,although ,i have left the quotation as ,pater renders it1 the semicolon should be a comma1 as in the ,mullach collection ,pater used--otherwise the first half of the sentence would be a question1 and that is not how ,pater himself translates the verse4 #ci4 ,transliteration3 tn d toi phraz panapeithea emmen atarpon2 oute gar an gnois to ge m eon ou gar ephikton4 ,pater's translation3 ,i tell you that is the way which goes counter to persuasion3 ,that which is not1 never could you know3 there is no way of getting at that4 ,parmenides1 ,epen ,leipsana1 lines #ch-i4 ,fragmenta ,philosophorum ,graecorum1 ,vol4 #a1 #aah4 #ci4 ,transliteration3 ,to gar auto voein estin te kai einai4 ,pater's translation in ,latin3 idem est enim cogitare et esse2 in ,english1 that may be translated1 ,thinking and being are identical4 ,parmenides1 ,epen ,leipsana1 line #dj4 ,fragmenta ,philosophorum ,graecorum1 ,vol4 #a1 #aah4 #ci4 ,transliteration3 tothi gar palin hixomai authis4 ,pater's translation3 at what point ,i begin2 for thither ,i shall come back over again4 ,parmenides1 ,epen ,leipsana1 line #db4 ,fragmenta ,philosophorum ,graecorum1 ,vol4 #a1 #aah4 #dc4 ,transliteration3 heteron epistms doxa2 eph' heter ara heteron ti dynamen hekatera autn pephyke2 ouk enchrei gnston kai doxaston tauton einai4 ,e-text editor's translation3 opinion differs from scientific knowledge444,to each of them belongs a different power1 so to each falls a different sphere444it is not possible for knowledge and opinion to be one and the same4 ,plato1 ,republic1 #dgh;a-b4 #dd4 ,transliteration3 aei kata tauta hsauts echousan4 ,pater's translation3 ever in the same condition in regard to the same things4 ,plato1 ,republic #dgh4 #de4 ,transliteration3 ho philotheamn4 ,liddell and ,scott definition fond of seeing1 fond of spectacles or shows4 ,this word is from the same passage just cited1 note for page #dd4 #df4 ,transliteration3 to on4 ,translation3 that which is4 #dh4 ,transliteration3 monochronos hdon4 ,pater's definition the pleasure of the ideal now4 ,the adjective monochronos means1 literally1 single or unitary time4 ,see also ,marius the ,epicurean1 ,vol4 #a1 ,cyrenaicism1 and ,vol4 #b1 ,second ,thoughts1 where ,pater quotes the same key ,cyrenaic language4 #di4 ,transliteration3 dia pantn phoita4 ,e-text editor's translation3 which courses through all things4 ,cleanthes 7#cjj-bbj ,b4,c471 ,hymn to ,zeus1 lines #ab-ac4 ,fragmenta ,philosophorum ,graecorum1 ,vol4 #a1 #aea4 ,ed4 ,f4,w4,a4 ,mullach4 ,darmstadt3 ,scientia ,verlag ,aalen1 #aifg 7reprint of the ,paris1 #ahfj edition74 ,pater has translated ,cleanthes' phrase koinos logos as undivided ,intelligence4 ,the relevant verse reads1 su kateuthyns koinon logon1 hos dia pantn phoita1 which may be translated1 ,you guide the ,universal ,thought that courses through all things4 ,but the word logos is multivalent and subject to philosophical nuance1 so any translation of it is bound to be limited4 #di4 ,transliteration3 ,ek sou gar genos esmen4 ,e-text editor's translation3 ,for we are born of you4 ,cleanthes 7#cjj-bbj ,b4,c471 ,hymn to ,zeus1 line #d4 ,fragmenta ,philosophorum ,graecorum1 ,vol4 #a1 #aea4 ,pater alludes also to ,saint ,paul's words in ,acts #ag3bh3 ,for in him we live1 and move1 and have our being4 #ej4 ,here ,pater provides a somewhat abbreviated translation of the ,hymn to ,zeus4 ,as above1 the ,greek is from ,fragmenta ,philosophorum ,graecorum1 ,vol4 #a1 #aea4 ,,chapter #c3 ,,plato ,,and ,,the ,,doctrine ,,of ,,number #ea ,his devotion to the austere and abstract philosophy of ,parmenides1 its passivity or indifference1 could not repress the opulent genius of ,plato1 or transform him into a cynic4 ,another ancient philosopher1 ,pythagoras1 set the frozen waves in motion again1 brought back to ,plato's recognition all that multiplicity in men's experience to which ,heraclitus had borne such emphatic witness2 but as rhythm or melody now--in movement truly1 but moving as disciplined sound and with the reasonable soul of music in it4 ,pythagoras1 or the founder of the ,pythagorean philosophy1 is the third of those earlier masters1 who explain the intellectual confirmation of ,plato by way of antecedent4 ,what he said1 or was believed to have said1 is almost everywhere in the very texture of ,platonic philosophy1 as vera vox1 an authority with prescript claim on sympathetic or at least reverent consideration1 to be developed generously in the natural growth of ,plato's own thoughts4 #eb ,nothing remains of his writings3 dark statements only1 as occasion served1 in later authors4 ,plato himself attributes those doctrines of his not to ,pythagoras but to the ,pythagoreans4 ,but if no such name had come down to us we might have understood how1 in the search for the philosophic unity of experience1 a common measure of things1 for a cosmical hypothesis1 number and the truths of number would come to fill the place occupied by some omnipresent physical element1 air1 fire1 water1 in the philosophies of ,ionia2 by the abstract and exclusive idea of the unity of ,being itself in the system of ,parmenides4 ,to realise unity in variety1 to discover cosmos--an order that shall satisfy one's reasonable soul--below and within apparent chaos3 is from first to last the continuous purpose of what we call philosophy4 ,well6 ,pythagoras seems to have found that unity of principle 7arch7 in the dominion of number everywhere1 the proportion1 the harmony1 the music1 into which number as such expands4 ,truths of number3 the essential laws of measure in time and space3--,yes1 these are indeed everywhere in our experience3 must1 as ,kant can explain to us1 be an element in anything we are able so much as to conceive at all4 ,and music1 covering all it does1 for ,pythagoras1 for ,plato and ,platonism--music1 which though it is of course much besides1 is certainly a formal development of purely numerical laws3 that too surely is something1 #ec independently of ourselves1 in the real world without us1 like a personal intelligible soul durably resident there for those who bring intelligence of it1 of music1 with them2 to be known on the favourite ,platonic principle of like by like 7homoion homoi7 though the incapable or uninstructed ear1 in various degrees of dulness1 may fail to apprehend it4 ,the ,golden ,verses of ,pythagoras parted early into dust 7that seems strange1 if they were ever really written in a book7 and antiquity itself knows little directly about his doctrine4 ,yet ,pythagoras is much more than a mere name1 a term1 for locating as well as may be a philosophical abstraction4 ,pythagoras1 his person1 his memory1 attracted from the first a kind of fairy-tale of mystic science4 ,the philosophy of number1 of music and proportion1 came1 and has remained1 in a cloud of legendary glory2 the gradual accumulation of which ,porphyry and ,iamblichus1 the fantastic masters of ,neo-,platonism1 or ,neo-,pythagoreanism1 have embodied in their so-called ,lives of him1 like some antique fable richly embossed with starry wonders4 ,in this spirit there had been much writing about him3 that he was a son of ,apollo1 nay1 ,apollo himself--the twilight1 attempered1 ,hyperborean ,apollo1 like the sun in ,lapland3 that his person gleamed at times with a supernatural brightness3 that he had exposed to those who loved him a golden thigh3 how ,abaris1 the minister of that god1 #ed had come flying to him on a golden arrow3 of his almost impossible journeys3 how he was seen1 had lectured indeed1 in different places at the same time4 ,as he walked on the banks of the ,nessus the river had whispered his name3 he had been1 in the secondary sense1 various persons in the course of ages2 a courtesan once1 for some ancient sin in him2 and then a hero1 ,euphorbus1 son of ,panthus2 could remember very distinctly so recent a matter as the ,trojan war1 and had recognised in a moment his own old armour1 hanging on the wall1 above one of his old dead bodies1 in the temple of ,athene at ,argos2 showing out all along only by hints and flashes the abysses of divine knowledge within him1 sometimes by miracle4 ,for if the philosopher really is all that ,pythagoras or the ,pythagoreans suppose2 if the material world is so perfect a musical instrument1 and he knows its theory so well1 he might surely give practical and sensible proof of that on occasion1 by himself improvising music upon it in direct miracle4 ,and so there1 in ,porphyry and ,iamblichus1 the appropriate miracles are4 ,if the mistaken affection of the disciples of dreamy ,neo-,platonic ,gnsis at ,alexandria1 in the third or fourth century of our era1 has thus made it impossible to separate later legend from original evidence as to what he was1 and said1 and how he said it1 yet that there was a brilliant1 perhaps a showy1 personality there1 infusing the #ee most abstract truths with what would tell on the fancy1 seems more than probable1 and1 though he would appear really to have had from the first much of mystery or mysticism about him1 the thaumaturge of ,samos1 whom even the vulgar might follow as a conjuror1 must have been very unlike the lonely weeping philosopher of ,ephesus1 or the almost disembodied philosopher of ,elea4 ,in the very person and doings of this earliest master of the doctrine of harmony1 people saw that philosophy is ,not harsh and crabbed1 as dull fools suppose1 ,but musical as is ,apollo's lute4 ,and in turn he abounded in influence on the deeds1 the persons1 of others1 as if he had really carried a magic lute in his hands to charm them4 ,as his fellow-citizens had all but identified ,pythagoras with him1 so ,apollo remained the peculiar patron of the ,pythagoreans2 and we may note1 in connexion with their influence on ,plato1 that as ,apollo was the chosen ancestral deity1 so ,pythagoreanism became especially the philosophy1 of the severely musical ,dorian ,greeks4 ,if1 as ,plato was aware1 or fancied1 true ,spartans knew more of philosophy than they let strangers suppose--turned them all out from time to time and feasted on it in secret1 for the strengthening of their souls--it was #ef precisely the ,pythagorean philosophy of music1 of austere music1 mastering1 remoulding1 men's very bodies1 they would then have discussed with one another4 ,a native of ,ionia1 it is in one of the ,dorian cities of ,magna ,graecia1 at ,crotona1 that ,pythagoras finds the fitting scene of his mysterious influence4 ,he founds there something like an ideal republic1 or rather a religious brotherhood1 under a rule outwardly expressive of that inward idea of order or harmony1 so dear to the ,dorian soul1 and1 for it1 as for him1 ever the peculiar pledge of the presence of philosophic truth4 ,altheian de ametria hgei syngen einai1 emmetria2 asks one in ,the ,republic2 and ,emmetria8 of course1 is the answer4 ,recalling the student of ,plato to penetrate as far as he can into that mysterious community1 there1 long before1 in the imagination of ,pythagoras is the first dream of the ,perfect ,city1 with all those peculiar ethical sympathies which the ,platonic ,republic enforces already well defined--the perfect mystic body of the ,dorian soul1 built1 as ,plato requires1 to the strains of music4 ,as a whole1 and in its members severally1 it would reproduce and visibly reflect to others that inward order and harmony of which each one was a part4 ,as such1 the ,pythagorean order 7it was itself an order7 expanded and was long maintained in those cities of ,magna ,graecia which had been the scene of the practical #eg no less than of the speculative activity of its founder2 and in one of which1 ,metapontum1 so late as the days of ,cicero what was believed to be the tomb of ,pythagoras was still shown4 ,order1 harmony1 the temperance1 which1 as ,plato will explain to us1 will convince us by the visible presentment of it in the faultless person of the youthful ,charmides1 is like a musical harmony1--that was the chief thing ,pythagoras exacted from his followers1 at least at first1 though they were mainly of the noble and wealthy class who could have done what they liked--temperance in a religious intention1 with many singular scruples concerning bodily purification1 diet1 and the like4 ,for if1 according to his philosophy1 the soul had come from heaven1 to use the phrase of ,wordsworth reproducing the central ,pythagorean doctrine1 from heaven1 as he says1 trailing clouds of glory1 so the arguments of ,pythagoras were always more or less explicitly involving one in consideration of the means by which one might get back thither1 of which means1 surely1 abstinence1 the repression of one's carnal elements1 must be one2 in consideration also1 in curious questions1 as to the relationship of those carnal elements in us to the pilgrim soul1 before and after1 for which he was so anxious to secure full use of all the opportunities of further perfecting which might yet await it1 in the many revolutions of its existence4 ,in the midst of that aesthetically #eh so brilliant world of ,greater ,greece1 as if anticipating ,plato1 he has1 like the philosophic kings of the ,platonic ,republic1 already something of the monk1 of monastic ascsis1 about him4 ,its purpose is to fit him for1 duly to refine his nature towards1 that closer vision of truth to which perchance he may be even now upon his way4 ,the secrecy again1 that characteristic silence of which the philosopher of music was1 perhaps not inconsistently1 a lover1 which enveloped the entire action of the ,pythagoreans1 and had indeed kept ,pythagoras himself1 as some have thought1 from committing his thoughts to writing at all1 was congruous with such monkish discipline4 ,mysticism--the condition of the initiated--is a word derived1 as we know1 from a ,greek verb which may perhaps mean to close the eye that one may better perceive the invisible1 but more probably means to close the lips while the soul is brooding over what cannot be uttered4 ,later ,christian admirers said of him1 that he had hidden the words of ,god in his heart4 ,the dust of his golden verses perhaps1 but certainly the gold-dust of his thoughts1 lies scattered all along ,greek literature from ,plato to the latest of the ,greek ,fathers of the ,church4 ,you may find it serviceably worked out in the notes of ,zeller's excellent work on ,greek philosophy1 and1 with more sparing comment1 in ,mullach's ,fragmenta ,philosophorum ,graecorum4 ,no one of those ,pre-,socratic philosophers has #ei been the subject of a more enthusiastic erudition4 ,for his mind's health however1 if in doing so he is not making a disproportionate use of his time1 inconsistent certainly with the essential temper of the doctrine he seeks for1 and such as a true ,pythagorean would instantly condemn1 the young scholar might be recommended to go straight to the pages of ,aristotle--those discreet1 unromantic pages1 salutary therefore to listen to1 concerning doctrines in themselves so fantastic499 ,in the ,ethics1 as you may know1 in the ,metaphysics1 and elsewhere1 ,aristotle gives many not unsympathetic notices at least of the disciples1 which1 by way of sober contrast on a matter from the first profusely1 perhaps cheaply1 embroidered1 is like quiet information from ,pythagoras himself4 ,only1 remember always in reading ,plato--,plato1 as a sincere learner in the school of ,pythagoras--that the essence1 the active principle of the ,pythagorean doctrine1 resides1 not as with the ancient ,eleatics1 nor as with our modern selves too often1 in the infinite1 those eternities1 infinitudes1 abysses1 ,carlyle invokes for us so often--in no cultus of the infinite 7to apeiron7 but in the finite 7to peras74 ,it is so indeed1 with that exception of the ,parmenidean sect1 through all ,greek philosophy1 congruously with the proper vocation of the #fj people of art1 of art as being itself the finite1 ever controlling the infinite1 the formless4 ,those famous systoichiai tn enantin1 or parallel columns of contraries3 the ,one and the ,many3 ,odd and ,even1 and the like3 ,good and ,evil3 are indeed all reducible ultimately to terms of art1 as the expressive and the inexpressive4 ,now observe that ,plato's theory of ideas is but an effort to enforce the ,pythagorean peras1 with all the unity-in-variety of concerted music1--eternal definition of the finite1 upon to apeiron1 the infinite1 the indefinite1 formless1 brute matter1 of our experience of the world4 ,for it is of ,plato again we should be thinking1 and of ,pythagoras or the ,pythagoreans1 only so far as they explain the actual conformation of ,plato's thoughts as we find them1 especially in ,the ,republic4 ,let us see1 as much as possible in his own words1 what ,plato received from that older philosophy1 of which the two leading persuasions were2 first1 the universality1 the ultimate truth1 of numerical1 of musical law2 and secondly1 the pre-existence1 the double eternity1 of the soul4 ,in spirit1 then1 we are certainly of the ,pythagorean company in that most characteristic dialogue1 the ,meno1 in which ,plato discusses the nature1 the true idea1 of ,virtue1 or rather how one may attain thereto2 compelled to this subordinate and accessory question by the intellectual #fa cowardice of his disciple1 though after his manner he flashes irrepressible light on that other primary and really indispensable question by the way4 ,pythagoras1 who had founded his famous brotherhood by way of turning theory into practice1 must have had1 of course1 definite views on that most practical question1 how virtue is to be attained by us2 and ,plato is certainly faithful to him in assigning the causation of virtue partly to discipline1 forming habit 7asksis7 as enforced on the monk1 the soldier1 the schoolboy1 as he is true to his own experience in assigning it partly also to a good natural disposition 7physei7 and he suggests afterwards1 as ,i suppose some of us would be ready to do1 that virtue is due also in part 7theia moira7 to the good pleasure of heaven1 to un-merited grace4 ,whatever else1 however1 may be held about it1 it is certain 7he admits7 that virtue comes in great measure through learning4 ,but is there in very deed such a thing as learning8 asks the eristic ,meno1 who is so youthfully fond of argument for its own sake1 and must exercise by display his already well-trained intellectual muscle4 ,is not that favourite1 that characteristic1 ,greek paradox1 that it is impossible to be taught1 and therefore useless to seek1 what one does not know already1 after all the expression of an empirical truth8-- ,meno4 ,after what manner ,socrates will you seek for that which you do not know at all--what it is8 ,for what sort of thing1 among the things you know not1 will you propose as your #fb object of search8 ,or even if you should have lighted full upon it1 how will you know that it is this thing which you knew not8 ,socrates4 ,ah6 ,i understand the kind of thing you mean to say1 ,meno4 ,do you see what a contentious argument this is you are bringing down on our heads8--that forsooth it is not possible for a man to seek either for what he knows1 or for what he knows not2 inasmuch as he would not seek what he knows1 at least2 because he knows it1 and to one in such case there is no need of seeking4 ,nor would he seek after what he knows not2 for he knows not what he shall seek for4 ,meno1 #hj4 ,well6 that is true in a sense1 as ,socrates admits2 not however in any sense which encourages idle acquiescence in what according to common language is our ignorance4 ,there is a sense 7it is exemplified in regard to sound and colour1 perhaps in some far more important things7 in which it is matter of experience that it is impossible to seek for1 or be taught1 what one does not know already4 ,he who is in total ignorance of musical notes1 who has no ear1 will certainly be unaware of them when they light on him1 or he lights upon them4 ,where could one begin8 we ask1 in certain cases where not to know at all means incapacity for receiving knowledge4 ,yes1 certainly2 the ,pythagoreans are right in saying that what we call learning is in fact reminiscence- -3 anamnsis famous word6 and ,socrates proceeds to show in what precise way it is impossible or possible to find out what you don't know3 how that happens4 ,in full use of the dialogue1 as itself the instrument most #fc fit for him of whatever what we call teaching and learning may really be1 ,plato1 dramatic always1 brings in one of ,meno's slaves1 a boy who speaks ,greek nicely1 but knows nothing of geometry3 introduces him1 we may fancy1 into a mathematical lecture-room where diagrams are to be seen on the walls1 cubes and the like lying on the table--particular objects1 the mere sight of which will rouse him when subjected to the dialectical treatment1 to universal truths concerning them4 ,the problem required of him is to describe a square of a particular size3 to find the line which must be the side of such a square2 and he is to find it for himself4 ,meno1 carefully on his guard1 is to watch whether the boy is taught by ,socrates in any of his answers2 whether he answers anything at any point otherwise than by way of reminiscence and really out of his own mind1 as the reasonable questions of ,socrates fall like water on the seed-ground1 or like sunlight on the photographer's negative4 ,see him now6 he cries triumphantly1 ,how he remembers2 in the logical order2 as he ought to remember6 ,the reader1 in truth1 following closely1 scrupulously1 this pretty process1 cannot help seeing that after all the boy does not discover the essential point of the problem for himself1 that he is more than just guided on his way by the questioning of ,socrates1 that ,plato has chosen an instance in itself illusively clear as being concerned with elementary space4 ,it is #fd once for all1 however1 that he recognises1 under such questioning1 the immovable1 indefectible certainty of this or that truth of space4 ,so much1 the candid reader must concede1 is clearly to the advantage of the ,pythagorean theory3 that even his false guesses have a plausibility1 a kinship to1 a kind of claim upon1 truth1 about them3 that as he remembers1 in logical order 7hs dei7 so he makes the mistakes also which he ought to make--the right sort of mistakes1 such as are natural and ought to occur in order to the awakening mind1 a kind of properly innate errors4 ,nyn aut hsper onar arti anakekintai hai doxai autai4--,just now1 as in a dream1 these opinions have been stirred up within him2 and he will perform1 ,socrates assures us1 similar acts of reminiscence on demand1 with other geometrical problems1 with any and every problem whatever4 ,if then1 observes ,socrates in the ,phaedo1 wistfully pondering1 for such consolation as there may be in it1 in his last hours1 the larger outlook suggested by this hopeful doctrine3-- ,if1 having apprehended it 7having apprehended a certain mathe- matical principle1 that is7 before birth1 we were born already possessed of this principle1 had we not knowledge1 both before and immediately upon our begetting here1 not merely about the equal and the greater and the less1 but about all other things of the kind8 ,for our theory 7of an innate knowledge1 that is to say1 independent of our experience here7 our theory holds not a bit more about two equal lines1 than about the absolute ,beauty 7was he going now to see its very face again1 after the dim intermediate life here87 and about what is absolutely just and good1 and about all things whatever1 upon #fe which1 in all our past questioning and answering1 we set this seal--hois episphragizometha touto --,that1 which really is4 ,phaedo1 #ge4 ,but to return to the cheerful pages of the ,meno--from the prison-cell to the old mathematical lecture-room and that psychological experiment upon the young boy with the square3-- ,oukoun oudenos didaxantos1 all' ertsantos1 epistsetai1 analabn1 autos ex hautou1 epistmn2 ,through no one's teaching1 then1 but by a process of mere questioning1 will he attain a true science1 knowledge in the fullest sense 7epistm7 by the recovery of such science out of himself8--,yes6 and that recovery is an act of reminiscence4 ,these opinions therefore1 the boy's discoverable right notions about side and square and diagonal1 were innate in him 7ensan de ge aut autai hai doxai7 and surely1 as ,socrates was observing later1 right opinions also concerning other things more important1 which too1 when stirred up by a process of questioning1 will be established in him as consciously reasoned knowledge 7ertsei epegertheisai1 epistmai gignontai74 ,that at least is what ,plato is quite certain about3 not quite so confident1 however1 regarding another doctrine1 fascinating as he finds it1 which seemed to afford an explanation of this leading psychological fact of an antecedent knowledge within us--the doctrine namely of metempsychsis1 of the transmigration of souls through various forms of the bodily life1 #ff under a law of moral retribution1 somewhat oracularly suggested in the ancient poets1 by ,hesiod and ,pindar1 but a matter of formal consciousness with the ,pythagoreans1 and at last inseparably connected with the authority of ,socrates1 who in the ,phaedo discourses at great length on that so comfortable theory1 venturing to draw from it1 as we saw just now1 a personal hope in the immediate prospect of death4 ,the soul1 then1 would be immortal 7athanatos an h psych ei7 prospectively as well as in retrospect1 and is not unlikely to attain to clearer levels of truth over the way1 there1 as1 in the ,meno1 ,socrates drew from it an encouragement to the search for truth1 here4 ,retrospectively1 at all events1 it seemed plain that the soul is eternal4 ,it is right therefore to make an effort to find out things one may not know1 that is to say1 one does not remember1 just now4 ,those notions were in the boy1 they and the like of them1 in all boys and men2 and he did not come by them in this life1 a young slave in ,athens4 ,ancient1 half- obliterated inscriptions on the mental walls1 the mental tablet1 seeds of knowledge to come1 shed by some flower of it long ago1 it was in an earlier period of time they had been laid up in him1 to blossom again now1 so kindly1 so firmly6 ,upon a soul thus provided1 puzzled as that seed swells within it under the spring-tide influences of this untried atmosphere1 it would be the proper vocation of the philosophic teacher #fg to supervene with his encouraging questions4 ,and there was another doctrine--a persuasion still more poetical or visionary1 it might seem1 yet with a strong presumption of literal truth about it1 when seen in connexion with that great fact of our consciousness which it so conveniently explains-- reminiscence4 ,socrates had heard it1 he tells us in the ,meno1 in the locus classicus on this matter1 from the venerable lips of certain religious persons1 priests and priestesses1 --who had made it their business to be able to give an account concerning their sacred functions4 ,pindar too asserts this1 and many other of the poets1 so many as were divinely inspired4 ,and what they say is as follows4 ,but do you observe1 whether they seem to you to speak the truth4 ,for they say that the soul of man is immortal2 and that at one time it comes to a pause1 which indeed they call dying1 and then is born again2 but that it is never destroyed4 ,that on this account indeed it is our duty to pass through life as religiously as possible 7because there's 'another world1' namely74 ',for those1' says ,pindar1 'from whom ,persephone shall have received a recompense of ancient wrong--she gives back their soul again to the sun above in the ninth year1 of whom are begotten kings1 illustrious and swift in strength1 and men greatest in wisdom2 and for remaining time they are called holy heroes among us4' ,inasmuch then as the soul is immortal1 and has been born many times1 and has seen both things here and things in ,hades1 and all things1 there is nothing that it has not learned2 so that it is by no means surprising that it should be able to remember both about virtue and about other matters what it knew at least even aforetime4 ,for inasmuch as the whole of nature is akin to itself 7homogeneous7 and the soul has learned all things1 nothing hinders one1 by remembering one thing only1 which indeed people call 'learning' 7though it is something else in fact1 you see67 from finding out all other things for himself1 if he be brave and fail not through weariness in his search4 ,for in truth to #fh seek and to learn is wholly ,recollection4 ,therefore one must not be persuaded by that eristic doctrine 7namely that if ignorant in ignorance you must remain7 for that on the one hand would make us idle and is a pleasant doctrine for the weak among mankind to hear2 while this other doctrine makes us industrious and apt to seek4 ,trusting in which that it is true1 ,i am willing along with you to seek out virtue3--what it is4 ,meno1 #ha4 ,these strange theories then are much with ,socrates on his last sad day- -sad to his friends--as justifying more or less1 on ancient religious authority1 the instinctive confidence1 checking sadness in himself1 that he will survive--survive the effects of the poison1 of the funeral fire2 that somewhere1 with some others1 with ,minos perhaps and other righteous souls of the national religion1 he will be holding discourses1 dialogues1 quite similar to these1 only a little better as must naturally happen with so diligent a scholar1 this time to-morrow4 ,and that wild thought of metempsychsis was connected with a theory1 yet more fantastic1 of the visible heaven above us4 ,for ,pythagoras1 the ,pythagoreans1 had had their views also1 as became the possessors of a first principle--of a philosophy therefore which need leave no problem untouched--on purely material things1 above all on the structure of the planets1 the mechanical contrivances by which their motion was effected 7it came to just that67 on the relation of the earth to its atmosphere and the like4 ,the doctrine of the transmigration1 #fi the pilgrimage or mental journeys1 of the soul linked itself readily with a fanciful1 guess-work astronomy1 which provided starry places1 wide areas1 hostelries1 for that wanderer to move or rest in4 ,a matter of very lively and presentable form and colour1 as if making the invisible show through1 this too pleased the extremely visual fancy of ,plato2 as we may see1 in many places of the ,phaedo1 the ,phaedrus1 the ,timaeus1 and most conspicuously in the tenth book of ,the ,republic1 where he relates the vision of ,er--what he saw of the other world during a kind of temporary death4 ,hell1 ,purgatory1 ,paradise1 are briefly depicted in it2 ,paradise especially with a quite ,dantesque sensibility to coloured light--physical light or spiritual1 you can hardly tell which1 so perfectly is the inward sense blent with its visible counter-part1 reminding one forcibly of the ,divine ,comedy1 of which those closing pages of ,the ,republic suggest an early outline4 ,that then is the third element in ,plato derivative from his ,pythagorean masters3 an astronomy of infant minds1 we might call it1 in which the celestial world is the scene1 not as yet of those abstract reasonable laws of number and motion and space1 upon which1 as ,plato himself protests in the seventh book of ,the ,republic1 it is the business of a veritable science of the stars to exercise our minds1 but rather of a machinery1 which the mere star-gazer may peep into as best he can1 with its levers1 its spindles and revolving #gj wheels1 its spheres1 he says1--like those boxes which fit into one another1 and the literal doors opened in heaven1 through which1 at the due point of ascension1 the revolving pilgrim soul will glide forth and have a chance of gazing into the wide spaces beyond1 as he stands outside on the back of the sky--that hollow partly transparent sphere which surrounds and closes in our terrestrial atmosphere4 ,most difficult to follow in detailed description1 perhaps not to be taken quite seriously1 one thing at least is clear about the planetary movements as ,plato and his ,pythagorean teachers conceive them4 ,they produce1 naturally enough1 sounds1 that famous music of the spheres1 which the undisciplined ear fails to recognise1 to delight in1 only because it is never silent4 ,that it really is impossible after all to learn1 to be taught what you are entirely ignorant of1 was and still is a fact of experience1 manifest especially in regard to music4 ,now that music of the spheres in its largest sense1 its completest orchestration1 the harmonious order of the whole universe 7kosmos7 was what souls had heard of old2 found echoes of here2 might recover in its entirety1 amid the influences of the melodious colour1 sounds1 manners1 the enforced modulating discipline1 which would make the whole life of a citizen of the ,perfect ,city an education in music4 ,we are now with ,plato1 you see6 in his reproduction1 so fully detailed for us in ,the #ga ,republic1 of the earlier and vaguer ,pythagorean brotherhood4 ,musical imagery1 the notions of proportion and the like1 have ever since ,plato wrote played a large part in the theory of morals2 have come to seem almost a natural part of language concerning them4 ,only1 wherever in ,plato himself you find such imagery1 you may note ,pythagorean influence4 ,the student of ,the ,republic hardly needs to be reminded how all- pervasive in it that imagery is2 how emphatic1 in all its speculative theory1 in all its practical provisions1 is the desire for harmony2 how the whole business of education 7of gymnastic even1 the seeming rival of music7 is brought under it2 how large a part of the claims of duty1 of right conduct1 for the perfectly initiated1 comes with him to be this1 that it sounds so well4 ,plmmeleia1 discordancy1--all faultiness resolves itself into that4 ,canst play on this flute8 asks ,hamlet3-- on human nature1 with all its stops1 of whose capricious tuneableness1 or want of tune1 he is himself the representative4 ,well6 the perfect state1 thinks ,plato1 can4 ,for him1 music is still everywhere in the world1 and the whole business of philosophy only as it were the correct editing of it3 as it will be the whole business of the state to repress1 in the great concert1 the jarring self-assertion 7pleonexia7 of those whose voices have large natural power in them4 ,how1 in detail1 rhythm1 the limit 7peras7 is enforced in ,plato's ,republic there is no time to #gb show4 ,call to mind only that the perfect visible equivalent of such rhythm is in those portrait-statues of the actual youth of ,greece--legacy of ,greek sculpture more precious by far than its fancied forms of deity--the quoit-player1 the diadumenus1 the apoxyomenus2 and how the most beautiful type of such youth1 by the universal admission of the ,greeks themselves1 had issued from the severe schools of ,sparta1 that highest civic embodiment of the ,dorian temper1 like some perfect musical instrument1 perfectly responsive to the intention1 to the lightest touch1 of the finger of law4--,yet with a fresh setting of the old music in each succeeding generation4 ,for in truth we come into the world1 each one of us1 not in nakedness1 but by the natural course of organic development clothed far more completely than even ,pythagoras supposed in a vesture of the past1 nay1 fatally shrouded1 it might seem1 in those laws or tricks of heredity which we mistake for our volitions2 in the language which is more than one half of our thoughts2 in the moral and mental habits1 the customs1 the literature1 the very houses1 which we did not make for ourselves2 in the vesture of a past1 which is 7so science would assure us7 not ours1 but of the race1 the species3 that ,zeit-geist1 or abstract secular process1 in which1 as we could have had no direct consciousness of it1 so we can pretend to no future personal interest4 ,it is humanity itself now--abstract humanity--that #gc figures as the transmigrating soul1 accumulating into its colossal manhood the experience of ages2 making use of1 and casting aside in its march1 the souls of countless individuals1 as ,pythagoras supposed the individual soul to cast aside again and again its outworn body4 ,so it may be4 ,there was nothing of all that1 however1 in the mind of the great ,english poet at the beginning of this century whose famous ,ode on ,the ,intimations of ,immortality from ,recollections of ,childhood1 in which he made metempsychsis his own1 must still express for some minds something more than merely poetic truth4 ,for ,pythagoreanism too1 like all the graver utterances of primitive ,greek philosophy1 is an instinct of the human mind itself1 and therefore also a constant tradition in its history1 which will recur2 fortifying this or that soul here or there in a part at least of that old sanguine assurance about itself1 which possessed ,socrates so immovably1 his masters1 his disciples4 ,those who do not already know ,wordsworth's ,ode ought soon to read it for themselves4 ,listen instead to the lines which perhaps suggested ,wordsworth's3 ,the ,retreat1 by ,henry ,vaughan1 one of the so- called ,platonist poets of about two centuries ago1 who was able to blend those ,pythagorean doctrines with the ,christian belief1 amid which indeed1 from the unsanctioned dreams of ,origen onwards1 those doctrines have shown themselves not otherwise than at home4 #gd ,happy1 those days1 he declares1 ,before ,i understood this place1 ,appointed for my second race2 ,or taught my soul to fancy ought ,but a white celestial thought2 ,when yet ,i had not walked above ,a mile or two from my first love2 ,but felt through all this fleshly dress ,bright shoots of everlastingness4 ,o6 how ,i long to travel back ,and tread again that ancient track6 ,that ,i might once more reach that plain1 ,where first ,i left my glorious train4-- ,but ,ah6 my soul with too much stay ,is drunk2 and staggers in the way4 ,some men a forward motion love1 ,but ,i backward steps would move2 ,and when this dust falls to the urn ,in that state ,i came return4 ,summing up those three philosophies antecedent to ,plato1 we might say1 that if ,heraclitus taught the doctrine of progress1 and the ,eleatics that of rest1 so1 in such quaint phrase as ,vaughan's1 ,pythagoreanism is the philosophy of re-action4 ,,notes #eb4 ,transliteration3 arch4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 ,i4 beginning1 first cause1 origin4 ,,ii4 #a4 supreme power1 sovereignty1 dominion2 #b4 office4 #ec4 ,transliteration3 homoion homoi4 ,translation3 like by like4 #ef4 ,transliteration3 ,altheian de ametria hgei syngen einai1 emmetria4 ,e-text editor's translation3 ,and do you suppose that truth is close kin to measure and proportion1 or to disproportion8 ,plato1 ,the ,republic1 ,book ,,vi1 #dhf;d4 #ef4 ,transliteration3 ,emmetria4 ,e-text editor's translation3 ,to measure and proportion4 ,plato1 ,the ,republic1 ,book ,,vi1 #dhf;d4 #ei4 99,or to ,mr4 ,burnet's ,early ,greek ,philosophy2 which ,i have read since these pages went to press1 with much admiration for its learning and lucidity1 and its unconventionality of view4 #ei4 ,transliteration3 to apeiron 4 4 4 to peras4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 ,i4 without trial or experience of a thing 4 4 4 ,,ii4 boundless1 endless1 countless _/ an end1 extremity4 ,as ,pater indicates1 in ,plato the terms mean something like infinite and finite1 or bounded and unbounded4 #fj4 ,transliteration3 systoichiai tn enantin4 ,co-ordinates consisting of opposites4 #fj4 ,transliteration3 peras4 ,see above1 second note for page #ei4 #fj4 ,transliteration3 to apeiron4 ,see above1 second note for page #ei4 #fa4 ,transliteration3 asksis4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 excercise1 training4 #fa4 ,transliteration3 physei4 ,liddell and ,scott definition of physis3 the nature1 inborn quality1 property or constitution of a person or thing4 ,thus1 the dative form cited by ,pater means1 with regard to nature4 #fa4 ,transliteration3 theia moira4 ,translation3 one's lot by divine appointment4 #fb4 ,transliteration3 anamnsis4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 a calling to mind1 recollection4 #fd4 ,transliteration3 hs dei4 ,e-text editor's translation3 as is necessary4 #fd4 ,transliteration3 ,nyn aut hsper onar arti anakekintai hai doxai autai4 ,pater's translation3 ,just now1 as in a dream1 these opinions have been stirred up within him4 ,plato1 ,meno1 #he;c4 #fe4 ,transliteration3 hois episphragizometha touto4 ,e-text editor's translation3 these things upon which we set this seal4 ,plato1 ,phaedo1 #ge;d4 #fe4 ,transliteration3 ,oukoun oudenos didaxantos1 all' ertsantos1 epistsetai1 analabn1 autos ex hautou1 epistmn4 ,e-text editor's translation3 ,no-one having taught him a thing1 but rather through questioning alone1 he will understand for certain1 retrieving the knowledge out of himself8 ,plato1 ,meno1 #he;d4 #fe4 ,transliteration3 epistm4 ,liddell and ,scott definition #a4 knowledge1 understanding1 skill1 experience1 wisdom2 #b4 scientific knowledge4 #fe4 ,transliteration3 ensan de ge aut autai hai doxai4 ,e-text editor's translation3 ,yet these notions were already implanted in him1 weren't they8 ,plato1 ,meno #he;c4 ,source1 if any4 #fe4 ,transliteration3 enesontai auti altheis doxai1 ertsei epegertheisai1 epistmai gignontai4 ,e-text editor's translation3 ,he holds within himself true opinions1 which a questioning process may awaken into certain knowledge4 ,plato1 ,meno #hf;a4 #ff4 ,transliteration3 athanatos an h psych ei4 ,pater's translation3 ,the soul1 then1 would be immortal4 ,plato1 ,meno #hf;b4 #gj4 ,transliteration3 kosmos4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 ,i4 #a4 order2 #b4 good order1 good behaviour1 decency2 #c4 a set form or order3 of states1 government2 #d4 the mode or fashion of a thing2 ,,ii4 an ornament4442 ,,iii4 the world or universe1 from its perfect arrangement4 #ga4 ,transliteration3 ,plmmeleia4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 a false note 4 4 4 error1 offense4 #ga4 ,transliteration3 pleonexia4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 a disposition to take more than one's share4 #ga4 ,transliteration3 peras4 ,see above1 note two1 page #ei4 ,,chapter #d3 ,,plato ,,and ,,socrates #ge ,,plato1 we say habitually when we talk of our teacher in ,the ,republic1 the ,phaedrus1 cutting a knot2 for ,plato speaks to us indirectly only1 in his ,dialogues1 by the voice of the ,platonic ,socrates1 a figure most ambiguously compacted of the real ,socrates and ,plato himself2 a purely dramatic invention1 it might perhaps have been fancied1 or1 so to speak1 an idolon theatri--,plato's self1 but presented1 with the reserve appropriate to his fastidious genius1 in a kind of stage disguise4 ,so we might fancy but for certain independent information we possess about ,socrates1 in ,aristotle1 and in the ,memorabilia of ,xenophon4 ,the ,socrates of ,xenophon is one of the simplest figures in the world4 ,from the personal memories of that singularly limpid writer the outline of the great teacher detaches itself1 as an embodiment of all that was clearest in the now adult ,greek understanding1 the adult ,greek conscience4 ,all that ,socrates is seen to be in #gf those unaffected pages may be explained by the single desire to be useful to ordinary young men1 whose business in life would be mainly with practical things2 and at first sight1 as delineators of their common master1 ,plato and ,xenophon might seem scarcely reconcilable4 ,but then1 as ,alcibiades alleges of him in the ,symposium1 ,socrates had been ever in all respects a two-sided being2 like some rude figure of ,silenus1 he suggests1 by way of an outer case for the image of a god within4 ,by a mind1 of the compass ,plato himself supposes1 two quite different impressions may well have been made on two typically different observers4 ,the speaker1 to ,xenophon so simple1 almost homely1 earthy1 vernacular1 becomes with ,plato the mouth-piece of high and difficult and extraordinary thoughts4 ,in the absence1 then1 of a single written word from ,socrates himself1 the question is forced upon us3 had the true ,socrates been really ,socrates according to ,xenophon1 and all besides only a generous loan from the rich treasury of ,plato's quite original and independent genius3 or1 had the master been indeed something larger and more many-sided than ,xenophon could have thoroughly understood1 presenting to his simpler disciple only what was of simpler stamp in himself1 to the mystic and susceptible ,plato all that far-reaching and fervid intellectuality1 with which the ,platonic ,dialogues credit him4 ,it is a problem about which probably no reader of #gg ,plato ever quite satisfies himself3--how much precisely he must deduct from ,socrates1 as we find him in those ,dialogues1 by way of defining to himself the ,socrates of fact4 ,in ,plato's own writing about ,socrates there is1 however1 a difference4 ,the ,apology1 marked as being the single writing from ,plato's hand not in dialogue form1 we may naturally take for a sincere version of the actual words of ,socrates2 closer to them1 we may think1 than the ,greek record of spoken words however important1 the speeches in ,thucydides1 for instance1 by the admission of ,thucydides himself1 was wont to be4 ,and this assumption is supported by internal evidence4 ,in that unadorned language1 in those harsh grammatic 7or rather quite ungrammatic7 constructions we have surely the natural accent of one speaking under strong excitement4 ,we might think1 again1 that the ,phaedo1 purporting to record his subsequent discourse1 is really no more than such a record1 but for a lurking suspicion1 which hangs by the fact that ,plato1 noted as an assistant at the trial1 is expressly stated by one of the speakers in the ,dialogue to have been absent from the dying scene of ,socrates4 ,that speaker however was himself perhaps the veracious reporter of those last words and acts2 for there are details in the ,phaedo too pedestrian and common-place to be taken for things of mere literary invention3 the rubbing of the legs1 for instance1 now released from the chain2 the rather #gh uneasy determination to be indifferent2 the somewhat harsh committal of the crudely lamenting wife and his child to any one who will take the trouble--details1 as one cannot but observe in passing1 which leave those famous hours1 even for purely human1 or say6 pagan dignity and tenderness1 wholly incomparable to one sacred scene to which they have sometimes been compared4 ,we shall be justified then1 in the effort to give reality or truth to our mental picture of ,socrates1 if we follow the lead of his own supposed retrospect of his career in the ,apology1 as completed1 and explained to wholly sympathetic spirits1 by the more intimate discourses of the ,phaedo4 ,he pleads to be excused if in making his defence he speaks after his accustomed manner3 not merely in home-spun phrase1 that is to say1 very different from what is usually heard at least in those sophisticated law-courts of ,athens1 nor merely with certain lapsing into his familiar habit of dialogue1 but with a tacit assumption1 throughout his arguments1 of that logical realism which suggested the first outline of ,plato's doctrine of the ideas4 ,everywhere1 with what is like a physical passion for what is1 what is true--as one engaged in a sort of religious or priestly concentration of soul on what ,god really made and meant us to know--he is driving earnestly1 yet with method1 at those universal conceptions or definitions which serve to establish #gi firmly the distinction1 attained by so much intellectual labour1 between what is absolute and abiding1 of veritable import therefore to our reason1 to the divine reason really resident in each one of us1 resident in1 yet separable from1 these our houses of clay--between that1 and what is only phenomenal and transitory1 as being essentially implicate with them4 ,he achieved this end1 as we learn from ,aristotle1 this power1 literally1 of a criticism of life1 by induction 7epagg7 by that careful process of enquiry into the facts of the matter concerned1 one by one 7facts most often of conscience1 of moral action as conditioned by motive1 and result1 and the varying degrees of inward light upon it7 for which the fitting method is informal though not unmethodical question and answer1 face to face with average mankind1 as in those famous ,socratic conversations1 which again are the first rough natural growth of ,plato's so artistic written ,dialogues4 ,the exclusive preoccupation of ,socrates with practical matter therein1 his anxious fixing of the sense of such familiar terms as just and good1 for instance1 was part of that humble bearing of himself by which he was to authenticate a claim to superior wisdom1 forced upon him by nothing less than divine authority1 while there was something also in it of a natural reaction against the intellectual ambition of his youth4 ,he had gone to school eagerly1 as he tells his friends in the #hj ,phaedo1 in his last discourse1 to a physical philosopher1 then of great repute1 but to his own great disappointment4-- ,in my youth he says ,i had a wonderful desire for the wisdom which people call natural science--peri physes historian4 ,it seemed to me a proud thing to know the causes of every matter3 how it comes to be2 ceases to be2 why it is4 ,i lost my sight in this enquiry to the degree of un-learning what ,i had hitherto seemed to myself and others to know clearly enough4 ,but having heard one reading from a book written1 as he said1 by ,anaxagoras1 which said that it is ,reason that arranges and is the cause of all things1 ,i was delighted with this cause2 and thought to myself1 if this be so1 then it does with each what may be best for it4 ,thus considering1 it was with joy ,i fancied ,i had found me a teacher about the cause--,anaxagoras3 that he would show me for instance1 first1 whether the earth was round or flat2 and then that it was best for it to be so3 and if he made these points clear ,i was prepared to ask for no other sort of causes4 ,phaedo1 #if4 ,well6 ,socrates proceeds to the great natural philosopher1 and is immensely discouraged to find him after all making very little use of ,reason in his explanation why natural things are thus and not otherwise2 explaining everything1 rather1 by secondary and mechanical causes4 ,it was as if1 he concludes1 some one had undertaken to prove that ,socrates does everything through ,reason2 and had gone on to show that it was because my body is constructed in a certain way1 of certain bones and muscles1 that ,socrates is now sitting here in the prison1 voluntarily awaiting death4 ,the disappointment of ,socrates with the #ha spirit in which ,anaxagoras actually handled and applied that so welcome sapiential proposition that ,reason panta diakosmei1 kai pantn aitios estin --arranges and is the cause of all things--is but an example of what often happens when men seek an a posteriori justification of their instinctive prepossessions4 ,once for all he turns from useless1 perhaps impious1 enquiries1 into the material structure of the stars above him1 or the earth beneath his feet1 from all physical enquiry into material things1 to the direct knowledge of man the cosmical order in man1 as it may be found by any one who1 in good faith with himself1 and with devout attention1 looks within4 ,in this precise sense it was that1 according to the old saying1 ,socrates brought philosophy down from heaven to earth4 ,montaigne1 the great humanist1 expands it4--',twas he who brought again from heaven1 where she lost her time1 human wisdom1 to restore her to man with whom her most just and greatest business lies4 ,he has done human nature a great service1 he adds1 in showing it how much it can do of itself4 ,and a singular incident gave that piercing study1 that relentless exposure1 of himself1 and of others1 for the most part so unwelcome to them1 a religious or mystic character4 ,he has a vocation thus to proceed1 has been literally called1 as he understands1 by the central religious authority of ,greece4 ,his seemingly invidious testing of men's pretensions #hb to know1 is a sacred service to the ,god of ,delphi1 which he dares not neglect4 ,and his fidelity herein had in turn the effect of reinforcing for him1 and bringing to a focus1 all the other rays of religious light cast at random in the world about him1 or in himself4 ,you know ,chaerephon1 he says1 his eagerness about any matter he takes up4 ,well6 once upon a time he went to ,delphi1 and ventured to ask of the oracle whether any man living was wiser than ,i2 and1 amazing as it seems1 the ,pythia answered that there was no one wiser than ,i4 ,socrates must go in order1 then1 to every class of persons pre-eminent for knowledge2 to every one who seems to know more than he4 ,he found them--the ,athenian poets1 for instance1 the potters who made the vases we admire1 undeniably in possession of much delightful knowledge unattained by him4 ,but one and all they were ignorant of the limitations of their knowledge2 and at last he concludes that the oracle had but meant to say3 ,he indeed is the wisest of all men who like ,socrates is aware that he is really worth little or nothing in respect of knowledge4 ,such consciousness of ignorance was the proper wisdom of man4 ,that can scarcely be a fiction4 ,his wholesome appeal then1 everywhere1 from what seems1 to what really is1 is a service to the ,delphic god1 the god of sanity4 ,to prove that the oracle had #hc been right after all1 improbable as it seemed1 in the signal honour it had put upon him1 would be henceforward his proper business4 ,committing him to a sort of ironical humility towards others1 at times seemingly petty and prosaic1 certainly very irritating1 in regard to himself1 in its source and motive1 his business in life as he conceived it was nothing less than a divine possession4 ,he becomes therefore literally an enthusiast for knowledge1 for the knowledge of man2 such knowledge as by a right method of questioning1 of self-questioning 7the master's questioning being after all only a kind of mid-wife's assistance1 according to his own homely figure7 may be brought to birth in every human soul1 concerning itself and its experience2 what is real1 and stable1 in its apprehensions of ,piety1 ,beauty1 ,justice1 and the like1 what is of dynamic quality in them1 as conveying force into what one does or creates1 building character1 generating virtue4 ,auto kath' hauto ztein ti pot' estin aret--to seek out what virtue is1 itself1 in and by itself--there's the task4 ,and when we have found that1 we shall know already1 or easily get to know1 everything else about and about it3 how we are to come by virtue1 for instance4 ,well6 largely by knowing1 says naturally the enthusiast for knowledge4 ,there is no good thing which knowledge does not comprehend--,mden estin agathon ho ouk epistm periechei --a strenuously #hd ascertained knowledge however1 painfully adjusted to other forms of knowledge which may seem inconsistent with it1 and impenetrably distinct from any kind of complaisant or only half-attentive conjecture4 ,one and the same species in every place3 whole and sound3 one1 in regard to1 and through1 and upon1 all particular instances of it3 catholic993 it will be all this--the ,virtue1 for instance1 which we must seek1 as a hunter his sustenance1 seek and find and never lose again1 through a survey of all the many variable and merely relative virtues1 which are but relative1 that is to say1 to every several act1 and to each period of life1 in regard to each thing we have to do1 in each one of us--kath' hekastn tn praxen1 kai tn hlikin pros hekaston ergon1 hekast hmn -- ,that1 about which ,i don't know what it is1 how should ,i know what sort of a thing it is--ho m oida ti esti1 ps an hopoion ge ti eidein2 what its poiottes1 its qualities1 are8 ,do you suppose that one who does not know ,meno1 for example1 at all1 who he is1 can know whether he is fair and rich and well-born1 or the reverse of all that8 ,yes6 already for ,socrates1 we might say1 to know what justice or ,piety or ,beauty really is1 will be like the knowledge of a person2 only that1 as ,aristotle carefully notes1 his scrupulous habit of search for universal1 or catholic1 definitions 7kath' holou7 was after all but #he an instrument for the plain knowledge of facts4 ,strange6 out of the practical cautions of ,socrates for the securing of clear and correct and sufficient conceptions about one's actual experience1 for the attainment of a sort of thoroughly educated common-sense1 came the mystic intellectualism of ,plato--,platonism1 with all its hazardous flights of soul4 ,a rich contributor to the philosophic consciousness of ,plato1 ,socrates was perhaps of larger influence still on the religious soul in him4 ,as ,plato accepted from the masters of ,elea the theoretic principles of all natural religion--the principles of a reasonable monotheism1 so from ,socrates he derived its indispensable morality4 ,it was ,socrates who first of pagans comprised in one clear consciousness the authentic rudiments of such natural religion1 and gave them clear utterance4 ,through him1 ,parmenides had conveyed to ,plato the notion of a ,perfect ,being1 to brace and satisfy the abstracting intellect2 but it was from ,socrates himself ,plato had learned those correspondent practical pieties1 which tranquillise and re-assure the soul1 together with the genial hopes which cheer the great teacher on the day of his death4 ,loyal to the ancient beliefs1 the ancient usages1 of the religion of many gods which he had found all around him1 ,socrates pierces through it to one unmistakable person1 of perfect intelligence1 power and goodness1 who takes note #hf of him4 ,in the course of his seventy years he has adjusted that thought of the invisible to the general facts and to many of the subtler complexities of man's experience in the world of sight4 ,sitivit anima mea1 the ,athenian philosopher might say1 in ,deum1 in ,deum vivum1 as he was known at ,sion4 ,he has at least measured devoutly the place1 this way and that1 which a religion of infallible authority must fill2 has already by implication concurred in it2 and in fact has his reward at this depressing hour1 as the action of the poison mounts slowly to the centre of his material existence4 ,he is more than ready to depart to what before one has really crossed their threshold must necessarily seem the cold and empty spaces of the world no bodily eye can ever look on4 ,but1 he is asked1 if the prospect be indeed so cheerful1 at all events for the just1 why is it forbidden to seize such an advantage as death must be by self-destruction8--,tois anthrpois1 m hosion einai1 autous heatous eupoiein1 all' allon dei menein euergetn4 ,his consistent piety straightway suggests the solution of that paradox3 we are the property1 slaves1 of the gods4 ,now no slave has any sort of right to destroy himself2 to take a life that does not really belong to him4 ,comfort himself and his friends1 however1 as he may1 it does tax all his resources of moral and physical courage to do what is at last required of him3 and it was something quite new1 unseen #hg before in ,greece1 inspiring a new note in literature--this attitude of ,socrates in the condemned cell1 where1 fulfilling his own prediction1 multitudes1 of a wisdom and piety1 after all1 so different from his1 have ever since assisted so admiringly1 this anticipation of the ,christian way of dying for an opinion1 when1 as ,plato says simply1 he consumed the poison in the prison--to pharmakon epien en t desmtri4 ,it was amid larger consolations1 we must admit1 that ,christian heroes did that kind of thing4 ,but bravery1 you need hardly be reminded1 was ever one of the specially characteristic virtues of the pagan world-- loyalty even unto death4 ,it had been loyalty however hitherto to one's country1 one's home in the world1 one's visible companions2 not to a wholly invisible claimant1 in this way1 upon one1 upon one's self4 ,socrates1 with all his singleness of purpose1 had been1 as ,alcibiades suggested1 by natural constitution a twofold power1 an embodied paradox4 ,the infinitely significant ,socrates of ,plato1 and the quite simple ,socrates of ,xenophon1 may have been indeed the not incompatible oppositions of a nature1 from the influence of which1 as a matter of fact1 there emerged on one hand the ,cynic1 on the other the ,cyrenaic ,school1 embodying respectively those opposed austerities and amenities of character1 which1 according to the temper of this or that disciple1 had seemed to predominate in their common master4 ,and so the courage which declined to act as almost #hh any one else would have acted in that matter of the legal appeal which might have mitigated the penalty of death1 bringing to its appropriate end a life whose main power had been an unrivalled independence1 was contrasted in ,socrates1 paradoxically1 with a genuine diffidence about his own convictions which explains some peculiarities in his manner of teaching4 ,the irony1 the humour1 for which he was famous--the unfailing humour which some have found in his very last words--were not merely spontaneous personal traits1 or tricks of manner2 but an essential part of the dialectical apparatus1 as affording a means of escape from responsibility1 convenient for one who has scruples about the fitness of his own thoughts for the reception of another1 doubts as to the power of words to convey thoughts1 such as he thinks cannot after all be properly conveyed to another1 but only awakened1 or brought to birth in him1 out of himself1--who can tell with what distortions in that secret place8 ,for we judge truth not by the intellect exclusively1 and on reasons that can be adequately embodied in propositions2 but with the whole complex man4 ,observant therefore of the capricious results of mere teaching1 to the last he protests1 dissemblingly1 and with that irony which is really one phase of the ,socratic humour1 that in his peculiar function there have been in very deed neither teacher nor learners4 #hi ,the voice1 the sign from heaven1 that new deity he was accused of fabricating 7his singularly profound sense of a mental phenomenon which is probably not uncommon7 held perhaps of the same characteristic habit of mind4 ,it was neither the playful pretence which some have supposed2 nor yet an insoluble mystery2 but only what happens naturally to a really diffident spirit in great and still more in small matters which at this or that taxing moment seem to usurp the determination of great issues4 ,such a spirit may find itself beset by an inexplicable reluctance to do what would be most natural in the given circumstances4 ,and for a religious nature1 apt to trace the divine assistance everywhere1 it was as if1 in those perilous moments--well6 as if one's guardian angel held one back4 ,a quite natural experience took the supernatural hue of religion2 which1 however1 as being concerned now and then with some circumstance in itself trifling1 might seem to lapse at times into superstition4 ,and as he was thus essentially twofold in character1 so ,socrates had to contend against two classes of enemies4 ,an offence to the whole tribe of ,sophists1 he was hated also by those who hated them1 by the good old men of ,athens1 whose conservatism finds its representative in ,aristophanes1 and who saw in the ,socratic challenge of first principles1 in that ceaseless testing of the origin and claims of what all #ij honest people might seem to take for granted1 only a further development of the pernicious function of the ,sophists themselves1 by the most subtly influential of them all4 ,if in the ,apology he proves that the fathers of sons had no proper locus standi against him1 still1 in the actual conduct of his defence1 as often in ,plato's ,dialogues1 there is 7the candid reader cannot but admit it7 something of sophistry1 of the casuist4 ,claiming to be but a simple argument1 the ,apology of ,socrates moves sometimes circuitously1 after the manner of one who really has to make the worse appear the better reason 7ton htt logon kreitt poiein7 and must needs use a certain kind of artificial1 or ingenious1 or ad captandum arguments1 such as would best have been learned in the sophistic school4 ,those young ,athenians whom he was thought to have corrupted of set purpose1 he had not only admired but really loved and understood2 and as a consequence had longed to do them real good1 chiefly by giving them that interest in themselves which is the first condition of any real power over others4 ,to make ,meno1 ,polus1 ,charmides1 really interested in himself1 to help him to the discovery of that wonderful new world here at home--in this effort1 even more than in making them interested in other people and things1 lay and still lies 7it is no sophistical paradox67 the central business of education4 ,only1 the very thoroughness of the sort of self-knowledge he #ia promoted had in it something sacramental1 so to speak2 if it did not do them good1 must do them considerable harm2 could not leave them just as they were4 ,he had not been able in all cases to expand the better self1 as people say1 in those he influenced4 ,some of them had really become very insolent questioners of others1 as also of a wholly legitimate authority within themselves2 and had but passed from bad to worse4 ,that fatal necessity had been involved of coming to years of discretion4 ,his claim to have been no teacher at all1 to be irresponsible in regard to those who had in truth been his very willing disciples1 was but humorous or ironical2 and as a consequence there was after all a sort of historic justice in his death4 ,the fate of ,socrates 7says ,hegel1 in his peculiar manner7 is tragic in the essential sense1 and not merely in that super- ficial sense of the word according to which every misfortune is called 'tragic4' ,in the latter sense1 one might say of ,socrates that because he was condemned to death unjustly his fate was tragic4 ,but in truth innocent suffering of that sort is merely pathetic1 not tragic2 inasmuch as it is not within the sphere of reason4 ,now suffering--misfortune--comes within the sphere of reason1 only if it is brought about by the free- will of the subject1 who must be entirely moral and justifiable2 as must be also the power against which that subject proceeds4 ,this power must be no merely natural one1 nor the mere will of a tyrant2 because it is only in such case that the man is himself1 so to speak1 guilty of his misfortune4 ,in genuine tragedy1 then1 they must be powers both alike moral and justifiable1 which1 from this side and from that1 come into collision2 and such was the fate of ,socrates4 ,his fate therefore is not merely personal1 and as it were part of the romance of an individual3 #ib it is the general fate1 in all its tragedy--the tragedy of ,athens1 of ,greece1 which is therein carried out4 ,two opposed ,rights come forth3 the one breaks itself to pieces against the other3 in this way1 both alike suffer loss2 while both alike are justified the one towards the other3 not as if this were right2 that other wrong4 ,on the one side is the religious claim1 the unconscious moral habit3 the other principle1 over against it1 is the equally religious claim--the claim of the consciousness1 of the reason1 creating a world out of itself1 the claim to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil4 ,the latter remains the common principle of philosophy for all time to come4 ,and these are the two principles which come forth over against each other1 in the life and in the philosophy of ,socrates4 ,geschichte der ,philosophie1 vol4 ii4 p4 #ajb4 ,i can easily conceive ,socrates in the place of ,alexander1 says ,montaigne1 again1 but ,alexander in the place of ,socrates ,i cannot2 and we may take that as typical of the immense credit of ,socrates1 even with a vast number of people who have not really known much about him4 ,for the sake of no long period of years1 says ,socrates himself1 now condemned to death--the few years for which a man of seventy is likely to remain here-- ,you will have a name1 ,men of ,athens6 and liability to reproach from those who desire to malign the city of ,athens--that ye put ,socrates to death1 a wise man4 ,for in very truth they will declare me to have been wise--those who wish to discredit you-- even though ,i be not4 ,now had you waited a little while this thing would have happened for you in the course of nature4 ,for ye see my estate3 that it is now far onward on the road of life1 hard by death4 ,apology1 #ch4 ,plato1 though present at the trial1 was absent when ,socrates consumed the poison in the #ic prison4 ,prevented by sickness1 as ,cebes tells us in the ,phaedo1 ,plato would however almost certainly have heard from him1 or from some other of that band of disciples who assisted at the last utterances of their master1 the sincerest possible account of all that was then said and done4 ,socrates had used the brief space which elapsed before the officers removed him to the place1 whither he must go1 to die 7hoi elthonta me dei tethnanai7 to discourse with those who still lingered in the court precisely on what are called ,the four last things4 ,arrived at the prison a further delay awaited him1 in consequence 7it was so characteristic of the ,athenian people67 of a religious scruple4 ,the ship of sacred annual embassy to ,apollo at ,delos was not yet returned to ,athens2 and the consequent interval of time might not be profaned by the death of a criminal4 ,socrates himself certainly occupies it religiously enough by a continuation of his accustomed discourses1 touched now with the deepening solemnity of the moment4 ,the ,phaedo of ,plato has impressed most readers as a veritable record of those last discourses of ,socrates2 while in the details of what then happened1 the somewhat prosaic account there given of the way in which the work of death was done1 we find what there would have been no literary satisfaction in inventing2 his indifferent treatment1 for instance1 of the wife1 who had not been very dutiful but was now in violent #id distress--treatment in marked contrast1 it must be observed again1 with the dignified tenderness of a later scene1 as recorded in the ,gospels4 ,an inventor1 with mere literary effect in view1 at this and other points would have invented differently4 ,the prison1 says ,cebes1 the chief disciple in the ,phaedo1 was not far from the court-house2 and there we were used to wait every day till we might be admitted to our master4 ,one morning we were assembled earlier than usual2 for on the evening before we heard that the ship was returned from ,delos4 ,the porter coming out bade us tarry till he should call us4 ,for1 he said1 the ,eleven are now freeing ,socrates from his bonds1 announcing to him that he must die to-day4 ,they were very young men1 we are told1 who were with ,socrates1 and how sweetly1 kindly1 approvingly1 he listened to their so youthfully sanguine discussion on the immortality of the soul4 ,for their sakes rather than his own he is ready to treat further1 by way of a posteriori arguments1 a belief which in himself is matter of invincible natural prepossession4 ,in the court he had pleaded at the most for suspended judgment on that question3--,if ,i claimed on any point to be wiser than any one else it would be in this1 that having no adequate knowledge of things in ,hades so ,i do not fancy ,i know4 ,but1 in the privacy of these last hours1 he is confident in his utterance on the #ie subject which is so much in the minds of the youths around him2 his arguments like theirs being in fact very much of the nature of the things poets write 7poimata7 or almost like those medicinable fictions 7pseud en pharmakou eidei7 such as are of legitimate use by the expert4 ,that the soul 7beautiful ,pythagorean thought67 is a harmony2 that there are reasons why this particular harmony should not cease1 like that of the lyre or the harp1 with the destruction of the instrument which produced it2 why this sort of flame should not go out with the upsetting of the lamp3--such are the arguments1 sometimes little better than verbal ones1 which pass this way and that around the death-bed of ,socrates1 as they still occur to men's minds4 ,for himself1 whichever way they tend1 they come and go harmlessly1 about an immovable personal conviction1 which1 as he says1 came to me apart from demonstration1 with a sort of natural likelihood and fitness3 7,moi gegonen aneu apodeixes1 meta eikotos tinos1 kai euprepeias74 ,the formula of probability could not have been more aptly put4 ,it is one of those convictions which await1 it may be1 stronger1 better1 arguments than are forthcoming2 but will wait for them with unfailing patience4--,the soul therefore ,cebes1 since such provisional arguments must be allowed to pass1 is something sturdy and strong 7ischuron ti estin7 imperishable by accident or wear2 and we shall really exist in ,hades4 ,indulging a little #if further the poetry turned logic of those youthful assistants1 ,socrates too1 even ,socrates1 who had always turned away so persistently from what he thought the vanity of the eye1 just before the bodily eye finally closes1 and his last moment being now at hand1 ascends to1 or declines upon1 the fancy of a quite visible paradise awaiting him4-- ,it is said that the world1 if one gaze down on it from above1 is to look on like those leathern balls of twelve pieces1 variegated in divers colours1 of which the colours here--those our painters use--are as it were samples4 ,there1 the whole world is formed of such1 and far brighter and purer than they2 part sea-purple of a wonderful beauty2 a part like gold2 a part whiter than alabaster or snow2 aye1 composed thus of other colours also of like quality1 of greater loveliness than ours-- colours we have never seen4 ,for even those hollows in it1 being filled with air and water1 present a certain species of colour gleaming amid the diversity of the others2 so that it presents one continuous aspect of varied hues4 ,thus it is3 and conform- ably tree and flower and fruit are put forth and grow4 ,the mountains again and the rocks1 after the same manner1 have a smoothness and transparency and colours lovelier than here4 ,the tiny precious stones we prize so greatly are but morsels of them--sards and jasper and emerald and the rest4 ,no baser kind of thing is to be found in that world1 but finer rather4 ,the cause of which is that the rocks there are pure1 not gnawed away and corrupted like ours by rot and brine1 through the moistures which drain together here1 bringing disease and deformity to rocks and earth as well as to living things4 ,there are many living creatures in the land besides men and women1 some abiding inland1 and some on the coasts of the air1 as we by the sea1 others in the islands amidst its waves2 for1 in a word1 what the water of the sea is to us for our uses1 that the air is to them4 ,the blending of the seasons there is such that they have no sickness and come to years more numerous far than ours3 while #ig for sight and scent and hearing and the like they stand as far from us1 as air from water1 in respect of purity1 and the aether from air4 ,there are thrones moreover and temples of the gods among them1 wherein in very deed the gods abide2 voices and oracles and sensible apprehensions of them2 and occasions of intercourse with their very selves4 ,the sun1 the moon and the stars they see as they really are2 and are blessed in all other matters agreeably thereto4 ,phaedo1 #aaj4 ,the great assertor of the abstract1 the impalpable1 the unseen1 at any cost1 shows there a mastery of visual expression equal to that of his greatest disciple4--,ah1 good master6 was the eye so contemptible an organ of knowledge after all8 ,plato was then about twenty-eight years old2 a rich young man1 rich also in intellectual gifts2 and what he saw and heard from and about ,socrates afforded the correction his opulent genius needed1 and made him the most serious of writers4 ,in many things he was as unlike as possible to the teacher--rude and rough as some failure of his own old sculptor's workshop--who might seem in his own person to have broken up the harmonious grace of the ,greek type1 and carried people one step into a world already in reaction against the easy ,attic temper1 a world in which it might be necessary to go far below the surface for the beauty of which those homely lips had discoursed so much4 ,perhaps he acted all the more surely as a corrective force on ,plato1 henceforward an opponent of the #ih obviously successful mental habits of the day1 with an unworldliness which1 a personal trait in ,plato himself there acquired1 will ever be of the very essence of ,platonism4--,many are called1 but few chosen3 ,narthkophoroi men polloi1 bakchoi de te pauroi4 ,he will have1 as readers of ,the ,republic know1 a hundred precepts of self-repression for others--the self-repression of every really tuneable member of a chorus2 and he begins by almost effacing himself4 ,all that is best and largest in his own matured genius he identifies with his master2 and when we speak of ,plato generally what we are really thinking of is the ,platonic ,socrates4 ,,notes #gi4 ,transliteration3 epagg4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 a bringing on1 to1 or in 4 4 4 argument from induction4 #hj4 ,transliteration3 peri physes historian4 ,e-text editor's translation3 inquiry into nature4 ,plato1 ,phaedo #if;a4 #ha4 ,transliteration3 panta diakosmei1 kai pantn aitios estin4 ,pater's translation3 arranges and is the cause of all things4 ,plato1 ,phaedo #ig;c1 offers a close paraphrase of ,anaxagoras' saying4 #hc4 ,transliteration3 ,auto kath' hauto ztein ti pot' estin aret4 ,pater's translation3 to seek out what virtue is1 itself1 in and by itself4 ,plato1 ,meno #ajj;b4 #hc4 ,transliteration3 ,mden estin agathon ho ouk epistm periechei4 ,pater's translation3 ,there is no good thing which knowledge does not comprehend4 ,plato1 ,meno #hg;d4 #hd4 99,tauton pantachou eidos--holon kai hygies--hen kata pantn1 dia pantn1 epi pasi-kath' holou4 ,pater's translation3 ,one and the same species in every place3 whole and sound3 one1 in regard to1 and through1 and upon1 all particular instances of it3 catholic4 ,perhaps ,pater is combining phrases here2 only the first phrase was locatable4 ,plato1 ,meno #gb;d4 #hd4 ,transliteration3 kath' hekastn tn praxen1 kai tn hlikin pros hekaston ergon1 hekast hmn4 ,pater's translation3 to every several act1 and to each period of life1 in regard to each thing we have to do1 in each one of us4 ,plato1 ,meno #gb;a4 #hd4 ,transliteration3 ho m oida ti esti1 ps an hopoion ge ti eidein4 ,pater's translation3 ,that1 about which ,i don't know what it is1 how should ,i know what sort of a thing it is4 ,plato1 ,meno #ga;b4 #hd4 ,transliteration3 poiottes4 ,pater's translation3 qualities4 #hd4 ,transliteration3 kath' holou4 ,pater's translation3 universal1 or catholic1 definitions2 the phrase might be translated1 in accordance with the whole4 #hf4 ,transliteration3 ,tois anthrpois1 m hosion einai1 autous heatous eupoiein1 all' allon dei menein euergetn4 ,pater's translation3 why is it forbidden to seize such an advantage as death must be by self- destruction4 ,plato1 ,phaedo #fb;a4 #hg4 ,transliteration3 to pharmakon epien en t desmtri4 ,pater's translation3 he consumed the poison in the prison4 ,plato1 ,phaedo #eg;a4 #ij4 ,transliteration3 ton htt logon kreitt poiein4 ,pater's translation3 to make the worse appear the better reason4 ,plato1 ,apology #bc;d4 #ic4 ,transliteration3 hoi elthonta me dei tethnanai4 ,pater's translation3 whither he must go1 to die4 ,the pronoun should be first person--whither ,i must go4 ,plato1 ,apology #ci;e4 #ie4 ,transliteration3 poimata4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 anything made or done 4 4 4 a poetical work4 #ie4 ,transliteration3 pseud en pharmakou eidei4 ,pater's translation3 medicinable fictions4 ,plato1 ,republic #chi;b contains a similar phrase4 #ie4 ,transliteration3 ,moi gegonen aneu apodeixes1 meta eikotos tinos1 kai euprepeias4 ,pater's translation3 came to me apart from demonstration1 with a sort of natural likelihood and fitness4 ,plato1 ,phaedo #ib;c4 #ie4 ,transliteration3 ischuron ti estin4 ,pater's translation3 is something sturdy and strong4 ,plato1 ,phaedo #ie;c4 #ih4 ,transliteration3 ,narthkophoroi men polloi1 bakchoi de te pauroi4 ,pater's translation3 ,many are called1 but few chosen4 ,plato1 ,phaedo1 #fi;c4 ,,chapter #e3 ,,plato ,,and ,,the ,,sophists #ii ,,sophist1 professional enemy of ,socrates3--it became1 chiefly through the influence of ,plato1 inheriting1 expanding1 the preferences and antipathies of his master1 a bad name4 ,yet it had but indicated1 by a quite natural verbal formation1 the class of persons through whom1 in the most effectual manner1 supply met demand1 the demand for education1 asserted by that marvellously ready ,greek people1 when the youthful mind in them became suddenly aware of the coming of virile capacity1 and they desired to be made by rules of art better speakers1 better writers and accountants1 than any merely natural1 unassisted gifts1 however fortunate1 could make them4 ,while the peculiar religiousness of ,socrates had induced in him the conviction that he was something less than a wise man1 a philosopher only1 a mere seeker after such wisdom as he might after all never attain1 here were the sophistai1 the experts--wise men1 who proposed to make other people as wise as themselves1 wise in that sort of wisdom #ajj regarding which we can really test others1 and let them test us1 not with the merely approximate results of the ,socratic method1 but with the exactness we may apply to processes understood to be mechanical1 or to the proficiency of quite young students 7such as in fact the ,sophists were dealing with7 by those examinations which are so sufficient in their proper place4 ,it had been as delightful as learning a new game1 that instruction1 in which you could measure your daily progress by brilliant feats of skill4 ,not only did the parents of those young students pay readily large sums for their instruction in what it was found so useful to know1 above all in the art of public speaking1 of self-defence1 that is to say1 in democratic ,athens where one's personal status was become so insecure2 but the young students themselves felt grateful for their institution in what told so immediately on their fellows2 for help in the comprehension of the difficult sentences of another1 or the improvement of one's own2 for the accomplishments which enabled them in that busy competitive world to push their fortunes each one for himself a little further1 and quite innocently4 ,of course they listened4 ,love not the world6--that1 on the other hand1 was what ,socrates had said1 or seemed to say2 though in truth he too meant only to teach them how by a more circuitous but surer way to #aja possess themselves of it4 ,and youth1 naturally curious and for the most part generous1 willing to undergo much for the mere promise of some good thing it can scarcely even imagine1 had been ready to listen to him too2 the sons of rich men most often1 by no means to the dissatisfaction of ,socrates himself1 though he never touched their money2 young men who had amplest leisure for the task of perfecting their souls1 in a condition of religious luxury1 as we should perhaps say4 ,as was evident in the court-house at the trial of the great teacher1 to the eyes of older citizens who had not come under his personal influence1 there had been little to distinguish between ,socrates and his professional rivals4 ,socrates in truth was a ,sophist2 but more than a ,sophist4 ,both alike handled freely matters that to the fathers had seemed beyond question2 encouraged what seemed impious questioning in the sons2 had set the hearts of the sons against the fathers2 and some instances there were in which the teaching of ,socrates had been more conspicuously ruinous than theirs4 ,if you ask people at ,athens1 says ,socrates in the ,meno1 how virtue is to be attained1 they will laugh in your face and say they don't so much as know what virtue is4 ,and who was responsible for that8 ,certainly that ,dialogue1 proposing to discover the essential nature of virtue1 by no means re-establishes one's old prepossessions about it in the vein of #ajb ,simonides1 or ,pindar1 or one's elders4 ,sophist1 and philosopher2 ,protagoras1 and ,socrates2 so far1 their effect was the same3--to the horror of fathers1 to put the minds of the sons in motion regarding matters it were surely best to take as settled once and for ever4 ,what then after all was the insuperable difference between ,socrates and those rival teachers1 with whom he had nevertheless so much in common1 bent like him so effectively1 so zealously1 on that new study of man1 of human nature and the moral world1 to the exclusion of all useless meteoric or subterranean enquiries into things4 ,as attractive as himself to ingenuous youth1 uncorrupt surely in its early intentions1 why did the ,sophists seem to ,socrates to be so manifestly an instrument of its corruption8 ,the citizen of ,athens1 observed that great ,athenian statesman of the preceding age1 in whom1 as a ,german philosopher might say1 the mobile soul of ,athens became conscious1--,the citizen of ,athens seems to me to present himself in his single person to the greatest possible variety 7pleista eid7 of thought and action1 with the utmost degree of versatility4 ,as we saw1 the example of that mobility1 that daring mobility1 of character has seemed to many the special contribution of the ,greek people to advancing humanity4 ,it was not however of the ,greek people in general that ,pericles was speaking at the beginning of the ,peloponnesian #ajc war1 but of ,athens in particular2 of ,athens1 that perfect flower of ,ionian genius1 in direct contrast to1 and now in bitter rivalry with1 ,sparta1 the perfect flower of the ,dorian genius4 ,all through ,greek history1 as we also saw1 in connexion with ,plato's opposition to the philosophy of motion1 there may be traced1 in every sphere of the activity of the ,greek mind1 the influence of those two opposing tendencies3--the centrifugal and the centripetal tendencies1 as we may perhaps not too fancifully call them4 ,there is the centrifugal1 the irresponsible1 the ,ionian or ,asiatic1 tendency2 flying from the centre1 working with little forethought straight before it in the development of every thought and fancy2 throwing itself forth in endless play of undirected imagination2 delighting in colour and brightness1 moral or physical2 in beautiful material1 in changeful form everywhere1 in poetry1 in music1 in architecture and its subordinate crafts1 in philosophy itself4 ,in the social and political order it rejoices in the freest action of local and personal influences3 its restless versatility drives it towards the assertion of the principles of individualism1 of separatism--the separation of state from state1 the maintenance of local religions1 the development of the individual in that which is most peculiar and individual in him4 ,shut off land-wards from the primitive sources of those many elements it was to compose anew1 shut off from all the rest of the world1 to #ajd which it presented but one narrow entrance pierced through that rock of ,tempe1 so narrow that in the opinion of the ancients it might be defended by a dozen men against all comers1 it did recompose or fuse those many diverse elements into one absolutely original type4 ,but what variety within6 ,its very claim was in its grace of movement1 its freedom and easy happiness1 its lively interests1 the variety of its gifts to civilisation2 but its weakness is self-evident1 and was what had made the political unity of ,greece impossible4 ,the ,greek spirit6--it might have become a hydra1 to use ,plato's own figure1 a monster2 the hand developing hideously into a hundred hands1 or heads4 ,this inorganic1 this centrifugal1 tendency1 ,plato was desirous to cure by maintaining over against it the ,dorian influence of a severe simplification everywhere1 in society1 in culture1 in the very physical nature of man4 ,an enemy everywhere1 though through acquired principle indeed rather than by instinct1 to variegation1 to what is cunning1 or myriad-minded 7as we say of ,shakespeare1 as ,plato thinks of ,homer7 he sets himself in mythology1 in literature1 in every kind of art1 in the art of life1 as if with conscious metaphysical opposition to the metaphysic of ,heraclitus1 to enforce the ideal of a sort of ,parmenidean abstractness1 and monotony or calm4 ,this1 perhaps exaggerated1 ideal of ,plato is #aje however only the exaggeration of that salutary1 strictly ,european tendency1 which1 finding human mind1 the human reason cool and sane1 to be the most absolutely real and precious thing in the world1 enforces everywhere the impress of its reasonable sanity2 its candid reflexions upon things as they really are2 its sense of logical proportion4 ,it is that centripetal tendency1 again1 which links the individual units together1 states to states1 one period of organic growth to another1 under the reign of a strictly composed1 self-conscious order1 in the universal light of the understanding4 ,whether or not this temper1 so clearly traceable as a distinct rival influence in the course of ,greek development1 was indeed the peculiar gift of the ,dorian race1 certainly that race1 as made known to us especially in ,lacedaemon1 is the best illustration of it1 in its love of order1 of that severe composition everywhere1 of which the ,dorian style of architecture is as it were a material symbol1 in its constant aspiration after what is dignified and earnest1 as exemplified most evidently in the religion of its preference1 the religion of ,apollo4 ,now the key to ,plato's view of the ,sophists1 ,gorgias1 ,protagoras1 ,hippias1 ,prodicus1 with their less brilliant followers--chosen educators of the public--is that they do but fan and add fuel to the fire in which ,greece1 as they wander #ajf like ardent missionaries about it1 is flaming itself away4 ,teaching in their large1 fashionable1 expensive schools1 so triumphantly well1 the arts one needed most in so busy an age1 they were really developing further and reinforcing the ruinous fluidity of the ,greek1 and especially of the ,athenian people1 by turning it very adroitly into a conscious method1 a practical philosophy1 an art of life itself1 in which all those specific arts would be but subsidiary--an all-supplementing ars artium1 a master-art1 or1 in depreciatory ,platonic mood one might say1 an artifice1 or1 cynically1 a trick4 ,the great sophist was indeed the ,athenian public itself1 ,athens1 as the willing victim of its own gifts1 its own flamboyancy1 well-nigh worn out now by the mutual friction of its own parts1 given over completely to hazardous political experiment with the irresponsibility which is ever the great vice of democracy1 ever ready to float away anywhither1 to misunderstand1 or forget1 or discredit1 its own past4-- ,or do you too hold like the many 7asks ,socrates in the sixth book of ,the ,republic7 that a certain number are corrupted by sophists in their youth2 and that certain sophists1 irresponsible persons1 corrupt them to any extent worth noting2 and not rather that those who say these things are the greatest sophists2 that they train to perfection1 and turn out both old and young1 men and women1 just as they choose them to be8--,when1 pray8 ,he asked4--,when seated together in their thousands at the great assemblies1 or in the law-courts1 or the theatres1 or the camp1 or any other common gathering of the public1 with much noise the majority praise this and blame #ajg that in what is said and done1 both alike in excess1 shouting and clapping2 and the very rocks too and the place in which they are1 echoing around1 send back redoubled that clamour of praise and blame4 ,in such case1 what heart as they say1 what heart1 think you1 can the young man keep8 or what private education he may have had hold out for him that it be not over-flooded by praise or blame like that1 and depart away1 borne down the stream1 whithersoever that may carry it1 and that he pronounce not the same thing as they fair or foul2 and follow the same ways as they2 and become like them8 ,republic1 #dib4 ,the veritable sophist then1 the dynamic sophist1 was the ,athenian public of the day2 those ostensible or professional ,sophists being not so much its intellectual directors as the pupils or followers of it4 ,they did but make it1 as the ,french say1 abound the more in its own sense1 like the keeper 7it is ,plato's own image7 of some wild beast1 which he knows how to command by a well-considered obedience to all its varying humours4 ,if the ,sophists are partly the cause they are still more the effect of the social environment4 ,they had discovered1 had ascertained with much acuteness1 the actual momentum of the society which maintained them1 and they meant only1 by regulating1 to maintain it4 ,protagoras1 the chief of ,sophists1 had avowedly applied to ethics the physics or metaphysics of ,heraclitus4 ,and now it was as if the disintegrating ,heraclitean fire had taken hold on actual life1 on men's very thoughts1 on the emotions and the will4 ,that so faulty natural tendency1 as ,plato holds #ajh it to be1 in the world around them1 they formulate carefully as its proper conscious theory3 a theory how things must1 nay1 ought1 to be4 ,just that1 they seem to say--,just that versatility1 that mutable spirit1 shall become by adoption the child of knowledge1 shall be carefully nurtured1 brought to great fortune4 ,we'll make you1 and your thoughts1 as fluid1 as shifty1 as things themselves3 will bring you1 like some perfectly accomplished implement1 to this carrire ouverte1 this open quarry1 for the furtherance of your personal interests in the world4 ,and if old- fashioned principle or prejudice be found in the way1 who better than they could instruct one1 not how to minimise1 or violate it--that was not needed1 nor perhaps desirable1 regarding what was so useful for the control of others--not that2 but1 to apply the intellectual solvent to it1 in regard to one's self8 ,it will break up1--this or that ethical deposit in your mind1 ,ah6 very neatly1 very prettily1 and disappear1 when exposed to the action of our perfected method4 ,of credit with the vulgar as such1 in the solitary chamber of the aristocratic mind such presuppositions1 prejudices or principles1 may be made very soon to know their place4 ,yes6 says ,plato 7for a moment we may anticipate what is at least the spirit of his answer7 but there are some presuppositions after all1 which it will make us very vulgar to have dismissed from us4 ,there are moreover1 #aji those others proceed to say1 teachers of persuasion 7peithous didaskaloi7 who impart skill in popular and forensic oratory2 and so by fair means or by unfair we shall gain our ends4 ,it is with the dmos1 with the vulgar1 insubordinate1 tag-rag of one's own nature--how to rule that1 by obeying it--that these professors of rhetoric begin4 ,they are still notwithstanding the only teachers of morals ingenuous ,greece is aware of2 and wisdom1 as seems likely1 must die with them6-- ,some very small number then 7says the ,platonic ,socrates7 is left1 of those who in worthy fashion hold converse with philosophy3 either1 it may be1 some soul of in-born worth and well brought up1 to which it has happened to be exiled in a foreign land1 holding to philosophy by a tie of nature1 and through lack of those who will corrupt it2 or when it may chance that a great soul comes to birth in an insignificant state1 to the politics of which it gives no heed1 because it thinks them despicable3 perhaps a certain fraction also1 of good parts1 may come to philosophy from some other craft1 through a just contempt of that4 ,the bridle too of our companion ,theages has a restraining power4 ,for in the case of ,theages also1 all the other conditions were in readiness to his falling away from philosophy2 but the nursing of his sickly body1 excluding him from politics1 keeps him back4 ,our own peculiarity is not worth speaking of--the sign from heaven6 for ,i suppose it has occurred to scarce anyone before4 ,and so1 those who have been of this number1 and have tasted how sweet and blessed the possession is2 and again1 having a full view of the folly of the many1 and that no one1 ,i might say1 effects any sound result in what concerns the state1 or is an ally in whose company one might proceed safe and sound to the help of the just1 but that1 like a man falling among wild beasts1 neither willing to share their evil deeds1 nor sufficient by himself to resist the whole fierce band1 flung away before he shall have done any service #aaj to the city or to his own friends1 he would become useless both to himself and to others3 taking all this into consideration1 keeping silence and doing his own business1 as one standing aside under a hedge in some storm of dust and spray beneath a driven wind1 seeing those about him replete with lawlessness1 he is content if by any means1 pure from injustice and unholy deeds1 himself shall live through his life here1 and in turn make his escape with good hope1 in cheerful and kindly mood4 7,what long sentences ,plato writes67 ,yet in truth1 he said1 he would make his escape after not the least of achievements4--,nor yet the greatest1 ,i observed1 because he did not light upon the polity fitted for him3 for1 in that fitting polity1 himself will grow to completer stature1 and1 together with what belongs to him1 he will be the saviour also of the commonwealth4 ,republic1 #dif4 ,over against the ,sophists1 and the age which has sophisticated them1 of which they are the natural product1 ,plato1 being himself of a genius naturally rich1 florid1 complex1 excitable1 but adding to the utmost degree of ,ionian sensibility an effectual desire towards the ,dorian order and asksis1 asserts everywhere the principle of outline1 in political and moral life2 in the education which is to fit men for it2 in the music which is one half of that education1 in the philosophy which is its other half--the philosophy of the ideas1 of those eternally fixed outlines of our thought1 which correspond to1 nay1 are actually identical with1 the eternally fixed outlines of things themselves4 ,what the difference 7difference in regard to continuity and clearness7 really is between the conditions of mind1 in which respectively the sophistic process1 and the genuinely philosophical or dialectic process1 as #aaa conceived by ,plato1 leave us1 is well illustrated by the peculiar treatment of ,justice1 its proper definition or idea1 in ,the ,republic4 ,justice 7or ,righteousness1 as we say1 more largely7 under the light of a comprehensive experience of it1 carefully1 diligently1 adjusted to the nature of man on the one hand1 of society on the other1 becomes in the fourth book of ,the ,republic1 to ta hautou prattein--to ta hautou prattein4 ,there1 then1 is the eternal outline of ,righteousness or ,justice as it really is1 equally clear and indefectible at every point2 a definition of it which can by no supposition become a definition of anything else2 impenetrable1 not to be traversed1 by any possible definition of ,injustice2 securing an essential value to its possessor1 independently of all falsities of appearance2 and leaving justice1 as it really is in itself1 unaffected even by phenomena so misrepresentative of it as to deceive the very gods1 or many good men1 as happened pre-eminently in the case of ,socrates4 #aab ,here then is the reply of the ,platonic ,socrates to the challenge that he should prove himself master of a more certain philosophy than that of the people1 as represented by the old gnomic poet ,simonides1 whom it is hard to disbelieve1 7sophos gar kai theios anr7 on the one hand2 than that of the ,sophists on the other1 as represented by ,thrasymachus4 ,show us not only that justice is a better thing than ,injustice2 but1 by doing what 7alla ti poiousa7 to the soul of its possessor1 each of them respectively1 in and by itself 7haut di' hautn7 even if men and gods alike mistake it for its contrary1 is still the one a good thing1 the other a bad one4 ,but note for a few moments the precise treatment of the idea of ,justice in the first book of ,the ,republic4 ,sophistry and common sense are trying their best to apprehend1 to cover or occupy1 a certain space1 as the exact area of ,justice4 ,and what happens with each proposed definition in turn is1 that it becomes1 under conceivable circumstances1 a definition of ,injustice3 not that1 in practice1 a confusion between the two is therefore likely2 but that the intellect remains unsatisfied of the theoretic validity of the distinction4 ,now that intellectual situation illustrates the sense in which sophistry is a reproduction of the ,heraclitean flux4 ,the old ,heraclitean physical theory presents itself as a natural basis for the moral1 the social1 dissolution1 which the sophistical #aac movement promotes4 ,but what a contrast to it1 in the treatment of ,justice1 of the question1 ,what ,justice is8 in that introductory book of ,the ,republic4 ,the first book forms in truth an eristic1 a destructive or negative1 ,dialogue 7such as we have other examples of7 in which the whole business might have concluded1 prematurely1 with an exposure of the inadequacy1 alike of common-sense as represented by ,simonides1 and of a sophisticated philosophy as represented by ,thrasymachus1 to define ,justice4 ,note1 however1 in what way1 precisely4 ,that it is ,just1 for instance1 to restore what one owes 7to ta opheilomena apodidonai7 might pass well enough for a general guide to right conduct2 and the sophistical judgment that ,justice is ,the interest of the stronger is not more untrue than the contrary paradox that ,justice is a plot of the weak against the strong4 ,it is1 then1 in regard to the claims of ,justice1 not so much on practice1 as on the intellect1 in its demand for a clear theory of practice1 that those definitions fail4 ,they are failures because they fail to distinguish absolutely1 ideally1 as towards the intellect1 what is1 from what is not4 ,to ,plato1 for whom1 constitutionally1 and ex hypothesi1 what can be clearly thought is the precise measure of what really is1 if such a thought about ,justice--absolutely inclusive and exclusive--is1 after all our efforts1 not to be ascertained1 this can only be1 because ,justice is not #aad a real thing1 but only an empty or confused name4 ,now the ,sophist and the popular moralist1 in that preliminary attempt to define the nature of ,justice--what is right1 are both alike trying1 first in this formula1 then in that1 to occupy1 by a thought1 and by a definition which may convey that thought into the mind of another--to occupy1 or cover1 a certain area of the phenomena of experience1 as the ,just4 ,and what happens thereupon is this1 that by means of a certain kind of casuistry1 by the allegation of certain possible cases of conduct1 the whole of that supposed area of the ,just is occupied by definitions of ,injustice1 from this centre or that4 ,justice therefore- -its area1 the space of experience which it covers1 dissolves away1 literally1 as the eye is fixed upon it1 like ,heraclitean water3 it is and is not4 ,and if this1 and the like of this1 is to the last all that can be known or said of it1 ,justice will be no current coin1 at least to the acute philosophic mind4 ,but has some larger philosophy perhaps something more to say of it8 and the power of defining an area1 upon which no definition of ,injustice1 in any conceivable case of act or feeling1 can infringe8 ,that is the question upon which the essential argument of ,the ,republic starts--upon a voyage of discovery4 ,it is ,plato's own figure4 ,there1 clearly enough1 may be seen what the difference1 the difference of aim1 between ,socrates #aae and the ,sophists really was1 amid much that they had in common1 as being both alike distinguished from that older world of opinion of which ,simonides is the mouthpiece4 ,the quarrel of ,socrates with the ,sophists was in part one of those antagonisms which are involved necessarily in the very conditions of an age that has not yet made up its mind2 was in part also a mere rivalry of individuals2 and it might have remained in memory only as a matter of historical interest4 ,it has been otherwise4 ,that innocent word ,sophist has survived in common language1 to indicate some constantly recurring viciousness1 in the treatment of one's own and of other minds1 which is always at variance with such habits of thought as are really worth while4 ,there is an every-day sophistry1 of course1 against which we have all of us to be on our guard--that insincerity of reasoning on behalf of sincere convictions1 true or false in themselves as the case may be1 to which1 if we are unwise enough to argue at all with each other1 we must all be tempted at times4 ,such insincerity however is for the most part apt to expose itself4 ,but there is a more insidious sophistry of which ,plato is aware2 and against which he contends in the ,protagoras1 and again still more effectively in the ,phaedrus2 the closing pages of which discover the essential point of that famous quarrel between the ,sophists and ,socrates or ,plato1 in regard to a matter which is #aaf of permanent interest in itself1 and as being not directly connected with practical morals is unaffected by the peculiar prejudices of that age4 ,art1 the art of oratory1 in particular1 and of literary composition1--in this case1 how one should write or speak really inflammatory discourses about love1 write love- letters1 so to speak1 that shall really get at the heart they're meant for--that was a matter on which the ,sophists had thought much professionally4 ,and the debate introduced in the ,phaedrus regarding the secret of success in proposals of love or friendship turns properly on this3 whether it is necessary1 or even advantageous1 for one who would be a good orator1 or writer1 a poet1 a good artist generally1 to know1 and consciously to keep himself in contact with1 the truth of his subject as he knows or feels it2 or only with what other people1 perhaps quite indolently1 think1 or suppose others to think1 about it4 ,and here the charge of ,socrates against those professional teachers of the art of rhetoric comes to be1 that1 with much superficial aptitude in the conduct of the matter1 they neither reach1 nor put others in the way of reaching1 that intellectual ground of things 7of the consciousness of love for instance1 when they are to open their lips1 and presumably their souls1 about that7 in true contact with which alone can there be a real mastery in dealing with them4 ,that you yourself must have an inward1 carefully ascertained1 measured1 instituted hold #aag over anything you are to convey with any real power to others1 is the truth which the ,platonic ,socrates1 in strongly convinced words1 always reasonable about it1 formulates1 in opposition to the ,sophists' impudently avowed theory and practice of the superficial1 as such4 ,well6 we all always need to be set on our guard against theories which flatter the natural indolence of our minds4 ,we proposed then just now1 says ,socrates in the ,phaedrus1 to consider the theory of the way in which one would or would not write or speak well4--,certainly6--,well then1 must there not be in those who are to speak meritoriously1 an understanding well acquainted with the truth of the things they are to speak about8--,nay6 answers ,phaedrus1 in that age of sophistry1 ,it is in this way ,i have heard about it3-- that it is not necessary for one who would be a master of rhetoric to learn what really is just1 for instance2 but rather what seems just to the multitude who are to give judgment3 nor again what is good or beautiful2 but only what seems so to them4 ,for persuasion comes of the latter2 by no means of a hold upon the truth of things4 ,whether or not the ,sophists were quite fairly chargeable with that sort of inward lie1 just this1 at all events1 was in the judgment of ,plato the essence of sophistic vice4 ,with them #aah art began too precipitately1 as mere form without matter2 a thing of disconnected empiric rules1 caught from the mere surface of other people's productions1 in congruity with a general method which everywhere ruthlessly severed branch and flower from its natural root--art from one's own vivid sensation or belief4 ,the ,lacedaemonian 7ho ,lakn7 ,plato's favourite scholar always1 as having that infinite patience which is the note of a sincere1 a really impassioned lover of anything1 says1 in his convinced ,lacedaemonian way1 that a genuine art of speech 7tou legein etumos techn7 unless one be in contact with truth1 there neither is nor can be4 ,we are reminded of that difference between genuine memory1 and mere haphazard recollection1 noted by ,plato in the story he tells so well of the invention of writing in ancient ,egypt4-- ,it might be doubted1 he thinks1 whether genuine memory was encouraged by that invention4 ,the note on the margin by the inattentive reader to remind himself1 is1 as we know1 often his final good-bye to what it should remind him of4 ,now this is true of all art3 ,logn ara technn1 ho tn altheian m eids1 doxas te tethreuks1 geloion tina kai atexnon parexetai4 --,it is but a kind of bastard art of mere words 7texn atexnos7 that he will have who does not know the truth of things1 but has tried to hunt out what other people think about it4 ,conception1 observed an intensely personal1 deeply stirred1 poet and artist of our own generation3 #aai ,conception1 fundamental brainwork1- -that is what makes the difference1 in all art4 ,against all pretended1 mechanically communicable rules of art then1 against any rule of literary composition1 for instance1 unsanctioned by the facts1 by a clear apprehension of the facts1 of that experience1 which to each one of us severally is the beginning1 if it be not also the end1 of all knowledge1 against every merely formal dictate 7their name is legion with practising ,sophists of all ages7 ,peri brachylogias1 kai eleeinologias1 kai deinses1 concerning freedom or precision1 figure1 emphasis1 proportion of parts and the like1 exordium and conclusion3--against all such the ,platonic ,socrates still protests1 ,you know what must be known before harmony can be attained1 but not yet the laws of harmony itself1--ta pro tragdias1 ,sophocles would object in like case1 ta pro tragdias1 all' ou tragika4 ,given the dynamic ,sophoclean intention or conviction1 and the irresistible law of right utterance1 7anank logographik7 how one must write or speak1 will make itself felt2 will assuredly also renew many an old precept1 as to how one shall write or speak1 learned at school4 ,to speak pros doxan only1 as towards mere unreasoned opinion1 might do well enough in the law-courts with people1 who 7as is understood in that case7 do not really care very much about justice itself1 desire only that a friend should be acquitted1 or an enemy convicted1 irrespectively of it2 but #abj ,for the essence of all artistic beauty is expression1 which cannot be where there's really nothing to be expressed2 the line1 the colour1 the word1 following obediently1 and with minute scruple1 the conscious motions of a convinced intelligible soul4 ,to make men interested in themselves1 as being the very ground of all reality for them1 la vraie vrit1 as the ,french say3--that was the essential function of the ,socratic method3 to flash light into the house within1 its many chambers1 its memories and associations1 upon its inscribed and pictured walls4 ,fully occupied there1 as with his own essential business in his own home1 the young man would become1 of course1 proportionately less interested1 less meanly interested1 in what was superficial1 in the mere outsides1 of other people and their occupations4 ,with the true artist indeed1 with almost every expert1 all knowledge1 of almost every kind1 tells1 is attracted into1 and duly charged with1 the force of what #aba may be his leading apprehension4 ,and as the special function of all speech as a fine art is the control of minds 7psychaggia7 it is in general with knowledge of the soul of man--with a veritable psychology1 with as much as possible as we can get of that--that the writer1 the speaker1 must be chiefly concerned1 if he is to handle minds not by mere empiric routine1 trib monon1 kai empeiria alla techn1 but by the power of veritable fine art4 ,now such art1 such theory1 is not to be caught with the left hand1 as the ,greek phrase went2 and again1 chalepa ta kala4 ,we have no time to hear in ,english ,plato's clever specimens of the way in which people would write about love without success4 ,let us rather hear himself on that subject1 in his own characteristic mood of conviction4-- ,try6 she said 7a certain ,sibylline woman namely1 from whose lips ,socrates in the ,symposium is supposed to quote what follows7 ,try to apply your mind as closely as possible to what ,i am going to say4 ,for he who has been led thus far in the discipline of love1 beholding beautiful objects in the right order1 coming now towards the end of the doctrine of love1 will on a sudden behold a beauty wonderful in its nature3--that1 ,socrates6 towards which indeed the former exercises were all designed2 being first of all ever existent2 having neither beginning nor end2 neither growing or fading away2 and then1 not beautiful in one way1 unbeautiful in another2 beautiful now1 but not then2 beautiful in this relation1 unlovely in that2 to some1 but not to others4 ,nor again will that beauty appear to him to be beautiful as a face or hands or anything else that belongs to the body2 nor as any kind of reasoning or science2 nor as being resident in anything else1 as in a living creature or the earth or the sky or any other #abb thing2 but as being itself by itself1 ever in a single form with itself2 all other beautiful things so participating in it1 that while they begin and cease to be1 that neither becomes more nor less nor suffers any other change4 ,whenever1 then1 anyone1 beginning from things here below1 through a right practice of love1 ascending1 begins to discern that other beauty1 he will almost have reached the end4 ,for this in truth is the right method of proceeding towards the doctrine of love1 or of being conducted therein by another1--beginning from these beautiful objects here below ever to be going up higher1 with that other beauty in view2 using them as steps of a ladder2 mounting from the love of one fair person to the love of two2 and from the love of two to the love of all2 and from the love of beautiful persons to the love of beautiful employments--kala epitdeumata 7that means being a soldier1 or a priest1 or a scholar7 and from the love of beautiful employments to the love of beautiful kinds of knowledge2 till he passes from degrees of knowledge to that knowledge which is the knowledge of nothing else save the absolute ,beauty itself1 and knows it at length as in itself it really is4 ,at this moment of life1 dear ,socrates6 said the ,mantinean ,sibyl1 if at any moment1 man truly lives1 beholding the absolute beauty--the which1 so you have once seen it1 will appear beyond the comparison of gold1 or raiment1 or those beautiful young persons1 seeing whom now1 like many another1 you are so overcome that you are ready1 beholding those beautiful persons and associating ever with them1 if it were possible1 neither to eat nor drink but only to look into their eyes and sit beside them4 ,what then1 she asked1 suppose we8 if it were given to any one to behold the absolute beauty1 in its clearness1 its pureness1 its unmixed essence2 not replete with flesh and blood and colours and other manifold vanity of this mortal life2 but if he were able to behold that divine beauty 7monoeides7 simply as it is4 ,do you think1 she said1 that life would be a poor thing to one whose eyes were fixed on that2 seeing that1 7h dei7 with the organ through which it must be seen1 and communing with that8 ,do you not think rather1 she asked1 that here alone it will be his1 seeing the beautiful with that through which it may be seen 7namely with the imaginative reason1 ho nous7 to beget no mere phantasms of virtue1 as it is no phantom he #abc apprehends1 but the true virtue1 as he embraces what is true8 ,and having begotten virtue 7virtue is the child that will be born of this mystic intellectual commerce1 or connubium1 of the imaginative reason with ideal beauty7 and reared it1 he will become dear to ,god1 and if any man may be immortal he will be4 ,symposium1 #baj4 ,the essential vice of sophistry1 as ,plato conceived it1 was that for it no real things existed4 ,real things did exist for ,plato1 things that were an end in themselves2 and the ,platonic ,socrates was right3-- ,plato has written so well there1 because he was no scholar of the ,sophists as he understood them1 but is writing of what he really knows4 ,,notes #ii4 ,transliteration3 sophistai4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 at ,athens1 one who professed to make men wise4 #ajb4 ,transliteration3 pleista eid4 ,pater's translation3 the greatest possible variety4 ,pater refers to the ,funeral ,oration given by ,pericles to commemorate the ,athenians who1 to date1 had died in the ,peloponnesian ,war4 ,thucydides1 ,the ,peloponnesian ,war #b4da4a4 #ajg4 ,plato1 ,republic #dib4 #aji4 ,transliteration3 peithous didaskaloi4 ,pater's translation3 teachers of persuasion4 ,plato1 ,republic #cfe;d4 #aji4 ,transliteration3 dmos4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 the common people4 #aaj4 ,plato1 ,republic #dif4 #aaa4 ,transliteration3 to ta hautou prattein4 ,pater's translation3 ,the doing1 by every part 4 4 4 of its own proper business therein4 ,the translation elaborates on the original1 but captures its meaning accurately4 ,plato1 ,republic #dcc;a-b4 #aaa4 ,transliteration3 to ta hautou prattein4 ,pater's translation3 ,the doing1 by every part 4 4 4 of its own proper business therein4 ,plato1 ,republic #dcc;a-b4 #aab4 ,transliteration3 sophos gar kai theios anr4 ,e-text editor's translation3 for he was a wise and excellent man4 ,plato1 ,republic #cca;e4 #aab4 ,transliteration3 alla ti poiousa4 ,pater's translation3 but1 by doing what4 4 4 ,plato1 ,republic #cfg;b4 #aab4 ,transliteration3 haut di' hautn4 ,pater's translation3 in and by itself4 ,plato1 ,republic #cfg;e4 #aac4 ,transliteration3 to ta opheilomena apodidonai4 ,pater's translation3 to restore what one owes4 ,plato1 ,republic #cca;e and #ccb;a4 #aah4 ,transliteration3 ho ,lakn4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 ,the ,lacedaemonian i4e41 ,spartan4 #aah4 ,transliteration3 tou legein etumos techn4 ,pater's translation3 a genuine art of speech4 ,plato1 ,phaedrus #bfj;e4 #aah4 ,transliteration3 ,logn ara technn1 ho tn altheian m eids1 doxas te tethreuks1 geloion tina kai atexnon parexetai4 ,e-text editor's translation3 ,in the art of speaking1 therefore1 the person who does not know the truth1 who has sought out only the opinions of others1 will come by nothing better than a kind of unskilled jesting4 ,plato1 ,phaedrus #bfb;c4 #aah4 ,transliteration3 texn atexnos4 ,pater's translation3 a bastard art of mere words4 ,plato1 ,phaedrus #bfj;e4 #aai4 ,transliteration3 ,peri brachylogias1 kai eleeinologias1 kai deinses4 ,e-text editor's translation3 ,concerning brevity1 and speech that moves to pity1 and exaggeration4 4 4 ,plato1 ,phaedrus #bgb;a4 #aai4 ,transliteration3 ta pro tragdias4 ,e-text editor's translation3 the things before tragedy4 ,plato1 ,phaedrus #bfi;a4 #aai4 ,transliteration3 ta pro tragdias1 all' ou tragika4 ,e-text editor's translation3 the things before tragedy1 but not tragedy itself4 ,plato1 ,phaedrus #bfi;a4 #aai4 ,transliteration3 anank logographik4 ,e-text editor's translation3 the manner required in prose-writing or speech- making4 ,plato1 ,phaedrus #bfd;b contains similar language4 #aai4 ,transliteration3 pros doxan4 ,e-text editor's translation3 in accordance with received opinion4 ,plato1 ,republic #cfb;a1 among other passages4 #aba4 ,transliteration3 psychaggia4 ,pater's translation3 the control of minds4 ,the verb ag means lead or drive4 ,plato1 ,phaedrus #bfa;a and #bga;c4 #aba4 ,transliteration3 trib monon1 kai empeiria alla techn4 ,pater's translation3 not by mere empiric routine1 but by the power of veritable fine art4 ,plato1 ,phaedrus #bgj;b4 #aba4 ,transliteration3 chalepa ta kala4 ,e-text editor's translation3 fine things are hard to obtain4 ,plato1 ,republic #dce;c4 #abb4 ,transliteration3 kala epitdeumata4 ,pater's translation3 beautiful employments4 ,plato1 ,symposium #baa;c4 #abb4 ,transliteration3 monoeides4 ,e-text editor's translation3 of one kind1 simple4 ,plato1 ,symposium #baa;a and #baa;e4 #abb4 ,transliteration3 h dei4 ,e-text editor's translation3 with what is necessary4 ,plato1 ,symposium #bab;a4 #abb4 ,transliteration3 ho nous4 ,pater's translation3 imaginative reason4 ,the word nous or noos generally means mind4 ,plato1 ,symposium #baj-bab4 #abc4 ,the passage ,pater cites--,diotima's speech about love--runs from #baj-bab;a of the ,symposium4 ,,chapter #f3 ,,the ,,genius ,,of ,,plato #abd ,,all true criticism of philosophic doctrine1 as of every other product of human mind1 must begin with an historic estimate of the conditions1 antecedent and contemporary1 which helped to make it precisely what it was4 ,but a complete criticism does not end there4 ,in the evolution of abstract doctrine as we find it written in the history of philosophy1 if there is always1 on one side1 the fatal1 irresistible1 mechanic play of circumstance--the circumstances of a particular age1 which may be analysed and explained2 there is always also1 as if acting from the opposite side1 the comparatively inexplicable force of a personality1 resistant to1 while it is moulded by1 them4 ,it might even be said that the trial-task of criticism1 in regard to literature and art no less than to philosophy1 begins exactly where the estimate of general conditions1 of the conditions common to all the products of this or that particular age--of the environment-- leaves off1 and we touch what is unique in the individual genius #abe which contrived after all1 by force of will1 to have its own masterful way with that environment4 ,if in reading ,plato1 for instance1 the philosophic student has to re-construct for himself1 as far as possible1 the general character of an age1 he must also1 so far as he may1 reproduce the portrait of a person4 ,the ,sophists1 the ,sophistical world1 around him2 his master1 ,socrates2 the ,pre-,socratic philosophies2 the mechanic influence1 that is to say1 of past and present3--of course we can know nothing at all of the ,platonic doctrine except so far as we see it in well-ascertained contact with all that2 but there is also ,plato himself in it4 --,a personality1 we may notice at the outset1 of a certain complication4 ,the great masters of philosophy have been for the most part its noticeably single-minded servants4 ,as if in emulation of ,aristotle's simplicity of character1 his absorbing intellectualism-- impressive certainly1 heroic enough1 in its way--they have served science1 science in vacuo1 as if nothing beside1 faith1 imagination1 love1 the bodily sense1 could detach them from it for an hour4 ,it is not merely that we know little of their lives 7there was so little to tell67 but that we know nothing at all of their temperaments2 of which1 that one leading abstract or scientific force in them was in fact strictly exclusive4 ,little more than intellectual abstractions themselves1 in them #abf philosophy was wholly faithful to its colours1 or its colourlessness2 rendering not grey only1 as ,hegel said of it1 but all colours alike1 in grey4 ,with ,plato it was otherwise4 ,in him1 the passion for truth did but bend1 or take the bent of1 certain ineradicable predispositions of his nature1 in themselves perhaps somewhat opposed to that4 ,it is however in the blending of diverse elements in the mental constitution of ,plato that the peculiar ,platonic quality resides4 ,platonism is in one sense an emphatic witness to the unseen1 the transcendental1 the non- experienced1 the beauty1 for instance1 which is not for the bodily eye4 ,yet the author of this philosophy of the unseen was1--,who can doubt it who has read but a page of him8 this1 in fact1 is what has led and kept to his pages many who have little or no turn for the sort of questions ,plato actually discusses3--,the author of this philosophy of the unseen was one1 for whom1 as was said of a very different ,french writer1 the visible world really existed4 ,austere as he seems1 and on well- considered principle really is1 his temperance or austerity1 aesthetically so winning1 is attained only by the chastisement1 the control1 of a variously interested1 a richly sensuous nature4 ,yes1 the visible world1 so pre-eminently worth eye-sight at ,athens just then1 really existed for him3 exists still--there's the point6--is active still everywhere1 when he seems to have turned away from it to invisible things4 #abg ,to the somewhat sad-coloured school of ,socrates1 and its discipline towards apathy or contempt in such matters1 he had brought capacities of bodily sense with the making in them of an ,odyssey2 or 7shall we say87 of a poet after the order of ,sappho or ,catullus2 as indeed also a practical intelligence1 a popular management of his own powers1 a skill in philosophic yet mundane ,greek prose1 which might have constituted him the most successful of ,sophists4 ,you cannot help seeing that his mind is a storehouse of all the liveliest imageries of men and things4 ,nothing1 if it really arrests eye or ear at all1 is too trivial to note4 ,passing through the crowd of human beings1 he notes the sounds alike of their solemn hymns and of their pettiest handicraft4 ,a conventional philosopher might speak of dumb matter1 for instance2 but ,plato has lingered too long in braziers' workshops to lapse into so stupid an epithet4 ,and if the persistent hold of sensible things upon him thus reveals itself in trifles1 it is manifest no less in the way in which he can tell a long story1--no one more effectively6 and again1 in his graphic presentment of whole scenes from actual life1 like that with which ,the ,republic opens4 ,his ,socrates1 like other people1 is curious to witness a new religious function3 how they will do it4 ,as in modern times1 it would be a pleasant occasion also for meeting the acquaintance one likes best-- ,synesometha pollois #abh tn nen autothi4 ,we shall meet a number of our youth there3 we shall have a dialogue3 there will be a torchlight procession in honour of the goddess1 an equestrian procession3 a novel feature6--,what8 ,torches in their hands1 passed on as they race8 ,aye1 and an illumination1 through the entire night4 ,it will be worth seeing6-- that old midnight hour1 as ,carlyle says of another vivid scene1 shining yet on us1 ruddy-bright through the centuries4 ,put alongside of that1 and1 for life-like charm1 side by side with ,murillo's ,beggar- boys 7you catch them1 if you look at his canvas on the sudden1 actually moving their mouths1 to laugh and speak and munch their crusts1 all at once7 the scene in the ,lysis of the dice-players4 ,there the boys are6 in full dress1 to take part in a religious ceremony4 ,it is scarcely over2 but they are already busy with the knuckle-bones1 some just outside the door1 others in a corner4 ,though ,plato never tells one without due motive1 yet he loves a story for its own sake1 can make one of fact or fancy at a moment's notice1 or re-tell other people's better3 how those dear skinny grasshoppers of ,attica1 for instance1 had once been human creatures1 who1 when the ,muses first came on earth1 were so absorbed by their music that they forgot even to eat and drink1 till they died of it4 ,and then the story of ,gyges in ,the ,republic1 and the ring that can make its wearer invisible3 #abi --it goes as easily1 as the ring itself round the finger4 ,like all masters of literature1 ,plato has of course varied excellences2 but perhaps none of them has won for him a larger number of friendly readers than this impress of visible reality4 ,for him1 truly 7as he supposed the highest sort of knowledge must of necessity be7 all knowledge was like knowing a person4 ,the ,dialogue itself1 being1 as it is1 the special creation of his literary art1 becomes in his hands1 and by his masterly conduct of it1 like a single living person2 so comprehensive a sense does he bring to bear upon it of the slowly- developing physiognomy of the thing--its organic structure1 its symmetry and expression--combining all the various1 disparate subjects of ,the ,republic1 for example1 into a manageable whole1 so entirely that1 looking back1 one fancies this long dialogue of at least three hundred pages might have occupied1 perhaps an afternoon4 ,and those who take part in it6 ,if ,plato did not create the ,socrates of his ,dialogues1 he has created other characters hardly less life- like4 ,the young ,charmides1 the incarnation of natural1 as the aged ,cephalus of acquired1 temperance2 his ,sophoclean amenity as he sits there pontifically at the altar1 in the court of his peaceful house2 the large company1 of varied character and of every age1 which moves in those ,dialogues1 though still oftenest the young #acj in all their youthful liveliness3--who that knows them at all can doubt ,plato's hold on persons1 that of persons on him8 ,sometimes1 even when they are not formally introduced into his work1 characters that had interested1 impressed1 or touched him1 inform and colour it1 as if with their personal influence1 showing through what purports to be the wholly abstract analysis of some wholly abstract moral situation4 ,thus1 the form of the dying ,socrates himself is visible pathetically in the description of the suffering righteous man1 actually put into his own mouth in the second book of ,the ,republic2 as the winning brilliancy of the lost spirit of ,alcibiades infuses those pages of the sixth1 which discuss the nature of one by birth and endowments an aristocrat1 amid the dangers to which it is exposed in the ,athens of that day--the qualities which must make him1 if not the saviour1 the destroyer1 of a society which cannot remain unaffected by his showy presence4 ,corruptio optimi pessima6 ,yet even here1 when ,plato is dealing with the inmost elements of personality1 his eye is still on its object1 on character as seen in characteristics1 through those details1 which make character a sensible fact1 the changes of colour in the face as of tone in the voice1 the gestures1 the really physiognomic value1 or the mere tricks1 of gesture and glance and speech4 ,what is visibly expressive in1 or upon1 persons2 those flashes of temper which check yet give #aca renewed interest to the course of a conversation2 the delicate touches of intercourse1 which convey to the very senses all the subtleties of the heart or of the intelligence3--it is always more than worth his while to make note of these4 ,we see1 for instance1 the sharp little pygmy bit of a soul that catches sight of any little thing so keenly1 and makes a very proper lawyer4 ,we see1 as well as hear1 the rhapsodist1 whose sensitive performance of his part is nothing less than an interpretation of it1 artist and critic at once3 the personal vanities of the various speakers in his ,dialogues1 as though ,plato had observed1 or overheard them1 alone2 and the inevitable prominence of youth wherever it is present at all1 notwithstanding the real sweetness of manner and modesty of soul he records of it so affectionately4 ,it is this he loves best to linger by2 to feel himself in contact with a condition of life1 which translates all it is1 so immediately1 into delightful colour1 and movement1 and sound4 ,the eighth and ninth books of ,the ,republic are a grave contribution1 as you know1 to abstract moral and political theory1 a generalisation of weighty changes of character in men and states4 ,but his observations on the concrete traits of individuals1 young or old1 which enliven us on the way2 the difference in sameness of sons and fathers1 for instance2 the influence of servants on their masters2 how the minute ambiguities of rank1 as a family becomes #acb impoverished1 tell on manners1 on temper2 all the play of moral colour in the reflex of mere circumstance on what men really are3--the characterisation of all this has with ,plato a touch of the peculiar fineness of ,thackeray1 one might say4 ,plato enjoys it for its own sake1 and would have been an excellent writer of fiction4 ,there is plenty of humour in him also of course1 and something of irony--salt1 to keep the exceeding richness and sweetness of his discourse from cloying the palate4 ,the affectations of sophists1 or professors1 their staginess or their inelegance1 the harsh laugh1 the swaggering ways1 of ,thrasymachus1 whose determination to make the general company share in a private conversation1 is significant of his whole character1 he notes with a finely-pointed pencil1 with something of the fineness of malice1--malin1 as the ,french say4 ,once ,thrasymachus had been actually seen to blush4 ,it is with a very different sort of fineness ,plato notes the blushes of the young2 of ,hippocrates1 for instance1 in the ,protagoras4 ,the great ,sophist was said to be in ,athens1 at the house of ,callicles1 and the diligent young scholar is up betimes1 eager to hear him4 ,he rouses ,socrates before daylight4 ,as they linger in the court1 the lad speaks of his own intellectual aspirations2 blushes at his confidence4 ,it was just then that the morning sun blushed with his first beam1 as if to reveal the lad's #acc blushing face4--,kai hos eipen erythriasas1 d gar hypephaine ti meras ste kataphan auton genesthai4 ,he who noted that so precisely had1 surely1 the delicacy of the artist1 a fastidious eye for the subtleties of colour as soul made visibly expressive4 ,poor creature as ,i am1 says the ,platonic ,socrates1 in the ,lysis1 concerning another youthful blush1 ,poor creature as ,i am1 ,i have one talent3 ,i can recognise1 at first sight1 the lover and the beloved4 ,so it is with the audible world also4 ,the exquisite monotony of the voice of the great sophist1 for example1 once set in motion1 goes ringing on like a brazen pot1 which if you strike it continues to sound till some one lays his hand upon it4 ,and if the delicacy of eye and ear1 so also the keenness and constancy of his observation1 are manifest in those elaborately wrought images for which the careful reader lies in wait3 the mutiny of the sailors in the ship--ship of the state1 or of one's own soul3 the echoes and beams and shadows of that half-illuminated cavern1 the human mind3 the caged birds in the ,theatetus1 which are like the flighty1 half-contained notions of an imperfectly educated understanding4 ,real notions are to be ingrained by persistent thoroughness of the dialectic method1 as if by conscientious dyers4 ,he makes us stay to watch such dyers busy with their purple stuff1 as he had done2 adding as it were ethic colour to what he sees with the eye1 and #acd painting while he goes1 as if on the margin of his high philosophical discourse1 himself scarcely aware2 as the monkish scribe set bird or flower1 with so much truth of earth1 in the blank spaces of his heavenly meditation4 ,now ,plato is one for whom the visible world thus really exists because he is by nature and before all things1 from first to last1 unalterably a lover4 ,in that1 precisely1 lies the secret of the susceptible and diligent eye1 the so sensitive ear4 ,the central interest of his own youth--of his profoundly impressible youth--as happens always with natures of real capacity1 gives law and pattern to all that succeeds it4 ,ta ertika1 as he says1 the experience1 the discipline1 of love1 had been that for ,plato2 and1 as love must of necessity deal above all with visible persons1 this discipline involved an exquisite culture of the senses4 ,it is as lovers use1 that he is ever on the watch for those dainty messages1 those finer intimations1 to eye and ear4 ,if in the later development of his philosophy the highest sort of knowledge comes to seem like the knowledge of a person1 the relation of the reason to truth like the commerce of one person with another1 the peculiarities of personal relationship thus moulding his conception of the properly invisible world of ideas1 this is partly because1 for a lover1 the entire visible world1 its hues and outline1 its attractiveness1 its power and bloom1 must have associated themselves pre-eminently #ace with the power and bloom of visible living persons4 ,with these1 as they made themselves known by word and glance and touch1 through the medium of the senses1 lay the forces1 which1 in that inexplicable tyranny of one person over another1 shaped the soul4 ,just there1 then1 is the secret of ,plato's intimate concern with1 his power over1 the sensible world1 the apprehensions of the sensuous faculty3 he is a lover1 a great lover1 somewhat after the manner of ,dante4 ,for him1 as for ,dante1 in the impassioned glow of his conceptions1 the material and the spiritual are blent and fused together4 ,while1 in that fire and heat1 what is spiritual attains the definite visibility of a crystal1 what is material1 on the other hand1 will lose its earthiness and impurity4 ,it is of the amorous temper1 therefore1 you must think in connexion with ,plato's youth--of this1 amid all the strength of the genius in which it is so large a constituent1--indulging1 developing1 refining1 the sensuous capacities1 the powers of eye and ear1 of the fancy also which can re-fashion1 of the speech which can best respond to and reproduce1 their liveliest presentments4 ,that is why when ,plato speaks of visible things it is as if you saw them4 ,he who in the ,symposium describes so vividly the pathway1 the ladder1 of love1 its joyful ascent towards a more perfect beauty than we have ever yet actually seen1 by way of a parallel to the gradual elevation of mind towards perfect #acf knowledge1 knew all that1 we may be sure--ta ertika --httn tn kaln --subject to the influence of fair persons4 ,a certain penitential colour amid that glow of fancy and expression1 hints that the final harmony of his nature had been but gradually beaten out1 and invests the temperance1 actually so conspicuous in his own nature1 with the charms of a patiently elaborated effect of art4 ,for we must remind ourselves just here1 that1 quite naturally also1 instinctively1 and apart from the austere influences which claimed and kept his allegiance later1 ,plato1 with a kind of unimpassioned passion1 was a lover in particular of temperance2 of temperance too1 as it may be seen1 as a visible thing--seen in ,charmides1 say6 in that subdued and grey-eyed loveliness1 clad in sober grey2 or in those youthful athletes which1 in ancient marble1 reproduce him and the like of him with sound1 firm outlines1 such as temperance secures4 ,still1 that some more luxurious sense of physical beauty had at one time greatly disturbed him1 divided him against himself1 we may judge from his own words in a famous passage of the ,phaedrus concerning the management1 the so difficult management1 of #acg those winged steeds of the body1 which is the chariot of the soul4 ,puzzled1 in some degree1 ,plato seems to remain1 not merely in regard to the higher love and the lower1 ,aphrodite ,urania and ,aphrodite ,pandemus1 as he distinguishes them in the ,symposium2 nor merely with the difficulty of arbitrating between some inward beauty1 and that which is outward2 with the odd mixture everywhere1 save in its still unapprehended but eternal essence1 of the beautiful with what is otherwise2 but he is yet more harassed by the experience 7it is in this shape that the world-old puzzle of the existence of evil comes to him7 that even to the truest eyesight1 to the best trained faculty of soul1 the beautiful would never come to seem strictly concentric with the good4 ,that seems to have taxed his understanding as gravely as it had tried his will1--and he was glad when in the mere natural course of years he was become at all events less ardent a lover4 ',tis he is the authority for what ,sophocles had said on the happy decay of the passions as age advanced3 it was like being set free from service to a band of madmen4 ,his own distinguishing note is tranquil afterthought upon this conflict1 with a kind of envy of the almost disembodied old age of ,cephalus1 who quotes that saying of ,sophocles amid his placid sacrificial doings4 ,connect with this quiet scene1 and contrast with the luxuriant power of the ,phaedrus and the ,symposium1 what1 #ach for a certain touch of later mysticism in it1 we might call ,plato's evening prayer1 in the ninth book of ,the ,republic4-- ,when any one1 being healthfully and temperately disposed towards himself1 turns to sleep1 having stirred the reasonable part of him with a feast of fair thoughts and high problems1 being come to full consciousness1 himself with himself2 and has1 on the other hand1 committed the element of desire neither to appetite1 nor to surfeiting1 to the end that this may slumber well1 and1 by its pain or pleasure1 cause no trouble to that part which is best in him1 but may suffer it1 alone by itself1 in its pure essence1 to behold and aspire towards some object1 and apprehend what it knows not--some event1 of the past1 it may be1 or something that now is1 or will be hereafter2 and in like manner has soothed hostile impulse1 so that1 falling to no angry thoughts against any1 he goes not to rest with a troubled spirit1 but with those two parts at peace within1 and with that third part1 wherein reason is engendered1 on the move3--you know1 ,i think1 that in sleep of this sort he lays special hold on truth1 and then least of all is there lawlessness in the visions of his dreams4 ,republic1 #ega4 ,for ,plato1 being then about twenty-eight years old1 had listened to the ,apology of ,socrates2 had heard from them all that others had heard or seen of his last hours2 himself perhaps actually witnessed those last hours4 ,justice itself --the absolute ,justice--had then become almost a visible object1 and had greatly solemnised him4 ,the rich young man1 rich also in intellectual gifts1 who might have become 7we see this in the adroit management of his written work7 the most brilliant and effective of ,sophists2 who might have developed dialogues into plays1 tragedy1 perhaps comedy1 as he cared2 #aci whose sensuous or graphic capacity might have made him the poet of an ,odyssey1 a ,sappho1 or a ,catullus1 or1 say6 just such a poet as1 just because he was so attractive1 would have been disfranchised in the ,perfect ,city2 was become the creature of an immense seriousness1 of a fully adult sense1 unusual in ,greek perhaps even more than in ,roman writers1 of the weightiness of the matters concerning which he has to discourse1 and of the frailty of man4 ,he inherits1 alien as they might be to certain powerful influences in his own temper1 alike the sympathies and the antipathies of that strange1 delightful teacher1 who had given him 7most precious of gifts67 an inexhaustible interest in himself4 ,it is in this way he inherits a preference for those trying severities of thought which are characteristic of the ,eleatic school2 an antagonism to the successful ,sophists of the day1 in whom the old sceptical philosophy of motion seemed to be renewed as a theory of morals2 and henceforth1 in short1 this master of visible things1 this so ardent lover1 will be a lover of the invisible1 with--,yes6 there it is constantly1 in the ,platonic dialogues1 not to be explained away--with a certain asceticism1 amid all the varied opulence1 of sense1 of speech and fancy1 natural to ,plato's genius4 ,the lover1 who is become a lover of the invisible1 but still a lover1 and therefore1 literally1 a seer1 of it1 carrying an elaborate cultivation of the bodily senses1 of eye and ear1 their natural #adj force and acquired fineness--gifts akin properly to ta ertika1 as he says1 to the discipline of sensuous love--into the world of intellectual abstractions2 seeing and hearing there too1 associating for ever all the imagery of things seen with the conditions of what primarily exists only for the mind1 filling that hollow land with delightful colour and form1 as if now at last the mind were veritably dealing with living people there1 living people who play upon us through the affinities1 the repulsion and attraction1 of persons towards one another1 all the magnetism1 as we call it1 of actual human friendship or love3--,there1 is the formula of ,plato's genius1 the essential condition of the specially ,platonic temper1 of ,platonism4 ,and his style1 because it really is ,plato's style1 conforms to1 and in its turn promotes in others1 that mental situation4 ,he breaks as it were visible colour into the very texture of his work3 his vocabulary1 the very stuff he manipulates1 has its delightful aesthetic qualities2 almost every word1 one might say1 its figurative value4 ,and yet no one perhaps has with equal power literally sounded the unseen depths of thought1 and1 with what may be truly called substantial word and phrase1 given locality there to the mere adumbrations1 the dim hints and surmise1 of the speculative mind4 ,for him1 all gifts of sense and intelligence converge in one supreme faculty of theoretic vision1 theria1 the imaginative reason4 #ada ,to trace that thread of physical colour1 entwined throughout1 and multiplied sometimes into large tapestried figures1 is the business1 the enjoyment1 of the student of the ,dialogues1 as he reads them4 ,for this or that special literary quality indeed we may go safely by preference to this or that particular ,dialogue2 to the ,gorgias1 for instance1 for the readiest ,attic wit1 and a manly practical sense in the handling of philosophy2 to the ,charmides1 for something like the effect of sculpture in modelling a person2 to the ,timaeus1 for certain brilliant chromatic effects4 ,yet who that reads the ,theaetetus1 or the ,phaedrus1 or the seventh book of ,the ,republic1 can doubt ,plato's gift in precisely the opposite direction2 that gift of sounding by words the depths of thought1 a plastic power literally1 moulding to term and phrase what might have seemed in its very nature too impalpable and abstruse to lend itself1 in any case1 to language8 ,he gives names to the invisible acts1 processes1 creations1 of abstract mind1 as masterly1 as efficiently1 as ,adam himself to the visible living creations of old4 ,as ,plato speaks of them1 we might say1 those abstractions too become visible living creatures4 ,we read the speculative poetry of ,wordsworth1 or ,tennyson2 and we may observe that a great metaphysical force has come into language which is by no means purely technical or scholastic2 what a help such language is to the understanding1 to a real hold over the things1 the thoughts1 the #adb mental processes1 those words denote2 a vocabulary to which thought freely commits itself1 trained1 stimulated1 raised1 thereby1 towards a high level of abstract conception1 surely to the increase of our general intellectual powers4 ,that1 of course1 is largely due to ,plato's successor1 to ,aristotle's life-long labour of analysis and definition1 and to his successors the ,schoolmen1 with their systematic culture of a precise instrument for the registration1 by the analytic intellect1 of its own subtlest movements4 ,but then1 ,aristotle1 himself the first of the ,schoolmen1 had succeeded ,plato1 and did but formulate1 as a terminology of art1 as technical language1 what for ,plato is still vernacular1 original1 personal1 the product in him of an instinctive imaginative power--a sort of visual power1 but causing others also to see what is matter of original intuition for him4 ,from first to last our faculty of thinking is limited by our command of speech4 ,now it is straight from ,plato's lips1 as if in natural conversation1 that the language came1 in which the mind has ever since been discoursing with itself concerning itself1 in that inward dialogue1 which is the active principle of the dialectic method as an instrument for the attainment of truth4 ,for1 the essential1 or dynamic1 dialogue1 is ever that dialogue of the mind with itself1 which any converse with ,socrates or ,plato does but promote4 ,the very words of ,plato1 then1 #adc challenge us straightway to larger and finer apprehension of the processes of our own minds2 are themselves a discovery in the sphere of mind4 ,it was he made us freemen of those solitary places1 so trying yet so attractive3 so remote and high1 they seem1 yet are naturally so close to us3 he peopled them with intelligible forms4 ,nay more6 ,by his peculiar gift of verbal articulation he divined the mere hollow spaces which a knowledge1 then merely potential1 and an experience still to come1 would one day occupy4 ,and so1 those who cannot admit his actual speculative results1 precisely his report on the invisible theoretic world1 have been to the point sometimes1 in their objection1 that by sheer effectiveness of abstract language1 he gave an illusive air of reality or substance to the mere nonentities of metaphysic hypothesis--of a mind trying to feed itself on its own emptiness4 ,just there--in the situation of one1 shaped1 by combining nature and circumstance1 into a seer who has a sort of sensuous love of the unseen--is the paradox of ,plato's genius1 and therefore1 always1 of ,platonism1 of the ,platonic temper4 ,his aptitude for things visible1 with the gift of words1 empowers him to express1 as if for the eyes1 what except to the eye of the mind is strictly invisible1 what an acquired asceticism induces him to rank above1 and sometimes1 in terms of harshest dualism1 oppose to1 the sensible world4 ,plato is to be interpreted #add not merely by his antecedents1 by the influence upon him of those who preceded him1 but by his successors1 by the temper1 the intellectual alliances1 of those who directly or indirectly have been sympathetic with him4 ,now it is noticeable that1 at first sight somewhat incongruously1 a certain number of ,manicheans have always been of his company2 people who held that matter was evil4 ,pointing significantly to an unmistakable vein of ,manichean1 or ,puritan sentiment actually there in the ,platonic ,dialogues1 these rude companions or successors of his1 carry us back to his great predecessor1 to ,socrates1 whose personal influence had so strongly enforced on ,plato the severities1 moral and intellectual1 alike of ,parmenides and of the ,pythagoreans4 ,the cold breath of a harshly abstract1 a too incorporeal philosophy1 had blown1 like an east wind1 on that last depressing day in the prison-cell of ,socrates2 and the venerable commonplaces then put forth1 in which an overstrained pagan sensuality seems to be reacting1 to be taking vengeance1 on itself1 turned now sick and suicidal1 will lose none of their weight with ,plato3--,that all who rightly touch philosophy1 study nothing else than to die1 and to be dead1--that the soul reasons best1 when1 as much as possible1 it comes to be alone with itself1 bidding good-bye to the body1 and1 to the utmost of its power1 rejecting communion with it1 with the very touch of it1 aiming at what is4 #ade ,it was1 in short1 as if for the soul to have come into a human body at all1 had been the seed of disease in it1 the beginning of its own proper death4 ,as for any adornments or provision for this body1 the master had declared that a true philosopher as such would make as little of them as possible4 ,to those young hearers1 the words of ,socrates may well have seemed to anticipate1 not the visible world he had then delineated in glowing colour as if for the bodily eye1 but only the chilling influence of the hemlock2 and it was because ,plato was only half convinced of the ,manichean or ,puritan element in his master's doctrine1 or rather was in contact with it on one side only of his complex and genial nature1 that ,platonism became possible1 as a temper for which1 in strictness1 the opposition of matter to spirit has no ultimate or real existence4 ,not to be pure from the body1 but to identify it1 in its utmost fairness1 with the fair soul1 by a gymnastic fused in music1 became1 from first to last1 the aim of education as he conceived it4 ,that the body is but a hindrance to the attainment of philosophy1 if one takes it along with one as a companion in one's search 7a notion which ,christianity1 at least in its later though wholly legitimate developments1 will correct7 can hardly have been the last thought of ,plato himself on quitting it4 ,he opens his door indeed to those austere monitors4 ,they correct the sensuous richness of his genius1 but could #adf not suppress it4 ,the sensuous lover becomes a lover of the invisible1 but still a lover1 after his earlier pattern1 carrying into the world of intellectual vision1 of theria1 all the associations of the actual world of sight4 ,some of its invisible realities he can all but see with the bodily eye3 the absolute ,temperance1 in the person of the youthful ,charmides2 the absolute ,righteousness1 in the person of the dying ,socrates4 ,yes1 truly6 all true knowledge will be like the knowledge of a person1 of living persons1 and truth1 for ,plato1 in spite of his ,socratic asceticism1 to the last1 something to look at4 ,the eyes which had noted physical things1 so finely1 vividly1 continuously1 would be still at work2 and1 ,plato thus qualifying the ,manichean or ,puritan element in ,socrates by his own capacity for the world of sense1 ,platonism has contributed largely1 has been an immense encouragement towards1 the redemption of matter1 of the world of sense1 by art1 by all right education1 by the creeds and worship of the ,christian ,church--towards the vindication of the dignity of the body4 ,it was doubtless because ,plato was an excellent scholar that he did not begin to teach others till he was more than forty years old--one of the great scholars of the world1 with ,virgil and ,milton3 by which is implied that1 possessed of the inborn genius1 of those natural powers1 #adg which sometimes bring with them a certain defiance of rule1 of the intellectual habits of others1 he acquires1 by way of habit and rule1 all that can be taught and learned2 and what is thus derived from others by docility and discipline1 what is rang1 comes to have in him1 and in his work1 an equivalent weight with what is unique1 impulsive1 underivable4 ,raphael--,raphael1 as you see him in the ,blenheim ,madonna1 is a supreme example of such scholarship in the sphere of art4 ,born of a romantically ancient family1 understood to be the descendant of ,solon himself1 ,plato had been in early youth a writer of verse4 ,that he turned to a more vigorous1 though pedestrian mode of writing1 was perhaps an effect of his corrective intercourse with ,socrates1 through some of the most important years of his life1--from twenty to twenty- eight4 ,he belonged to what was just then the discontented class1 and might well have taken refuge from active political life in political ideals1 or in a kind of self-imposed exile4 ,a traveller1 adventurous for that age1 he certainly became4 ,after the ,lehr-jahre1 the ,wander-jahre6--all round the ,mediterranean coasts as far west as ,sicily4 ,think of what all that must have meant just then1 for eyes which could see4 ,if those journeys had begun in angry flight from home1 it was for purposes of self-improvement they were continued3 the delightful fruit of them is evident in what he writes2 and finding him #adh in friendly intercourse with ,dionysius the elder1 with ,dio1 and ,dionysius the younger1 at the polished court of ,syracuse1 we may understand that they were a search also for the philosophic king1 perhaps for the opportune moment of realising the ideal state4 ,in that case1 his quarrels with those capricious tyrants show that he was disappointed4 ,for the future he sought no more to pass beyond the charmed theoretic circle1 speaking wisdom1 as was said of ,pythagoras1 only among the perfect4 ,he returns finally to ,athens2 and there1 in the quiet precincts of the ,acadmus1 which has left a somewhat dubious name to places where people come to be taught or to teach1 founds1 not a state1 nor even a brotherhood1 but only the first college1 with something of a common life1 of communism on that small scale1 with ,aristotle for one of its scholars1 with its chapel1 its gardens1 its library with the authentic text of his ,dialogues upon the shelves3 we may just discern the sort of place through the scantiest notices4 ,his reign was after all to be in his writings4 ,plato himself does nothing in them to retard the effacement which mere time brings to persons and their abodes2 and there had been that1 moreover1 in his own temper1 which promotes self-effacement4 ,yet as he left it1 the place remained for centuries1 according to his will1 to its original use4 ,what he taught through the remaining forty years of his life1 the method of that teaching1 whether it #adi was less or more esoteric than the teaching of the extant ,dialogues1 is but matter of surmise4 ,writers1 who in their day might still have said much we should have liked to hear1 give us little but old1 quasi-supernatural stories1 told as if they had been new ones1 about him4 ,the year of his birth fell1 according to some1 in the very year of the death of ,pericles 7a significant date67 but is not precisely ascertainable3 nor is the year of his death1 nor its manner4 ,scribens est mortuus1 says ,cicero3--after the manner of a true scholar1 he died pen in hand4 ,,notes #abg-bh4 ,transliteration3 ,synesometha pollois tn nen autothi4 ,pater's translation3 ,we shall meet a number of our youth there4 ,plato1 ,republic #cbh;a4 #acc4 ,transliteration3 ,kai hos eipen erythriasas1 d gar hypephaine ti meras ste kataphan auton genesthai4 ,e-text editor's translation3 ,and he blushed as he spoke1 for presently the day began to break1 so as to make him visible4 ,plato1 ,protagoras #cab;a4 #acd4 ,transliteration3 ,ta ertika4 ,pater's translation3 the discipline of sensuous love2 more literally1 the phrase means things pertaining to love4 ,plato1 ,symposium #agg;d4 #acf4 ,transliteration3 ta ertika4 ,pater's translation3 the discipline of sensuous love2 more literally1 the phrase means things pertaining to love4 ,plato1 ,symposium #agg;d4 #acf4 ,transliteration3 httn tn kaln4 ,pater's translation3 subject to the influence of fair persons2 more literally1 yielding to beauty4 ,plato1 ,meno #gf;c4 #adj4 ,transliteration3 ta ertika4 ,pater's translation3 the discipline of sensuous love2 more literally1 the phrase means things pertaining to love4 ,plato1 ,symposium #agg;d4 #adj4 ,transliteration3 theria4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 a looking at1 viewing1 beholding 4 4 4 contemplation1 reflection4 ,plato1 ,republic #dhf;a4 #adf4 ,transliteration3 theria4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 a looking at1 viewing1 beholding 4 4 4 contemplation1 reflection4 ,plato1 ,republic #dhf;a4 ,,chapter #g3 ,,the ,,doctrine ,,of ,,plato ,i4 ,,the ,,theory ,,of ,,ideas #aej ,,platonism is not a formal theory or body of theories1 but a tendency1 a group of tendencies--a tendency to think or feel1 and to speak1 about certain things in a particular way1 discernible in ,plato's dialogues as reflecting the peculiarities1 the marked peculiarities1 of himself and his own mental complexion4 ,those tendencies combine and find their complete expression in what ,plato's commentators1 rather than ,plato1 have called the theory of ideas1 itself indeed not so much a doctrine or theory1 as a way of regarding and speaking of general terms1 such as ,useful or ,just2 of abstract notions1 like ,equality2 of ideals1 such as ,beauty1 or ,the ,perfect ,city2 of all those terms or notions1 in short1 which represent under general forms the particular presentations of our individual experience2 or1 to use ,plato's own frequent expression1 borrowed #aea from his old ,eleatic teachers1 which reduce the ,many to the ,one4 ,what the nature of such representative terms and notions1 genus and species1 class-word1 and abstract idea or ideal1 may be2 what their relationship to the individual1 the unit1 the particulars which they include2 is1 as we know1 one of the constant problems of logic4 ,realism1 which supposes the abstraction1 ,animal for instance1 or ,the ,just1 to be not a mere name1 nomen1 as with the nominalists1 nor a mere subjective thought as with the conceptualists1 but to be res1 a thing in itself1 independent of the particular instances which come into and pass out of it1 as also of the particular mind which entertains it3-- that is one of the fixed and formal answers to this question2 and ,plato is the father of all realists4 ,realism1 as such1 in the sense just indicated1 is not in itself a very difficult or transcendental theory2 but rises1 again and again1 at least in a particular class of minds1 quite naturally1 as the answer to a natural question4 ,taking our own stand as to this matter somewhere between the realist and the conceptualist3--,see6 we might say1 there is a general consciousness1 a permanent common sense1 independent indeed of each one of us1 but with which we are1 each one of us1 in communication4 ,it is in that1 those common or general ideas really reside4 ,and we might add just here 7giving his due to the nominalist also7 that those abstract or common #aeb notions come to the individual mind through language1 through common or general names1 ,animal1 ,justice1 ,equality1 into which one's individual experience1 little by little1 drop by drop1 conveys their full meaning or content2 and1 by the instrumentality of such terms and notions1 thus locating the particular in the general1 mediating between general and particular1 between our individual experience and the common experience of our kind1 we come to understand each other1 and to assist each other's thoughts1 as in a common mental atmosphere1 an intellectual world1 as ,plato calls it1 a true notos topos 4 ,so much for the modern view2 for what common sense might now suggest as to the nature of logical universals4 ,plato's realism however--what is called ,the ,theory of ,ideas--his way of regarding abstract term and general notion1 what ,plato has to say about the ,many and the ,one1 is often very difficult2 though of various degrees of difficulty1 it must be observed1 to various minds4 ,from the simple and easily intelligible sort of realism attributed by ,aristotle to ,socrates1 seeking in universal definitions1 or ideas1 only a serviceable instrument for the distinguishing of what is essential from what is unessential in the actual things about him1 ,plato passes by successive stages1 which we should try to keep distinct as we read him1 to what may be rightly called a transcendental1 what to many minds has #aec seemed a fantastic and unintelligible habit of thought1 regarding those abstractions1 which indeed seem to become for him not merely substantial things-in-themselves1 but little short of living persons1 to be known as persons are made known to each other1 by a system of affinities1 on the old ,eleatic rule1 homoion homoi 1 like to like--these persons constituting together that common1 eternal1 intellectual world1 a sort of divine family or hierarchy1 with which the mind of the individual1 so far as it is reasonable1 or really knows1 is in communion or correspondence4 ,and here certainly is a theory1 a tendency to think or feel1 and to speak1 about which the difficulties are many4 ,yet as happens always with the metaphysical questions1 or answers1 which from age to age preoccupy acuter minds1 those difficulties about the ,many and the ,one actually had their attractiveness for some in the days of ,plato4-- ,our doctrine 7says the ,platonic ,socrates in the ,philebus7 is1 that one and the same thing 7the one common notion1 namely1 embodied in one general term7 which--hypo logn --under the influence of our thoughts and words1 of thought and language1 become one and many1 circulates everywhere1 in regard to everything of which existence is asserted from time to time4 ,this law neither will cease to be1 nor has it just now begun2 but something of the kind is1 ,i think1 an eternal and ineradicable affection of our reason itself in us4 ,and whenever a young man gets his first taste of this he is delighted as having found the priceless pearl of philosophy2 he becomes an enthusiast in his delight2 and eagerly sets in motion-- kinei --every definition #aed --logos--every conception or mental definition 7it looked so fixed and firm till then67 at one time winding things round each other and welding them into one 7that is1 he drops all particulari- ties out of view1 and thinks only of the one common form7 and then again unwinding them1 and dividing them into parts 7he becomes intent now upon the particularities of the particular1 till the one common term seems inapplicable7 puzzling first1 and most of all1 himself2 and then any one who comes nigh him1 older or younger1 or of whatever age he may be2 sparing neither father nor mother1 nor any one else who will listen2 scarcely even the dumb creatures1 to say nothing of men2 for he would hardly spare a barbarian1 could he but find an interpreter4 ,philebus1 #ae4 ,the ,platonic doctrine of the ,many and the ,one--the problem with which we are brought face to face in this choice specimen of the humour as well as of the metaphysical power of ,plato--is not precisely the question with which the speculative young man of our own day is likely to puzzle himself1 or exercise the patience of his neighbour in a railway carriage1 of his dog1 or even of a ,chinese2 though the questions we are apt to tear to pieces1 organism and environment1 or protoplasm perhaps1 or evolution1 or the ,zeit-geist and its doings1 may1 in their turn1 come to seem quite as lifeless and unendurable4 ,as the theological heresy of one age sometimes becomes the mere commonplace of the next1 so1 in matters of philosophic enquiry1 it might appear that the all-absorbing novelty of one generation becomes nothing less than the standard of what is uninteresting1 as such1 to its successor4 ,still in the discussion even of abstract truths it is not so much #aee what he thinks as the person who is thinking1 that after all really tells4 ,plato and ,platonism we shall never understand unless we are patient with him in what he has to tell us about the ,many and the ,one4 ,plato's peculiar view of the matter1 then1 passes with him into a phase of poetic thought2 as indeed all that ,plato's genius touched came in contact with poetry4 ,of course we are not naturally formed to love1 or be interested in1 or attracted towards1 the abstract as such2 to notions1 we might think1 carefully deprived of all the incident1 the colour and variety1 which fits things--this or that--to the constitution and natural habit of our minds1 fits them for attachment to what we really are4 ,we cannot love or live upon genus and species1 accident or substance1 but for our minds1 as for our bodies1 need an orchard or a garden1 with fruit and roses4 ,take a seed from the garden4 ,what interest it has for us all lies in our sense of potential differentiation to come3 the leaves1 leaf upon leaf1 the flowers1 a thousand new seeds in turn4 ,it is so with animal seed2 and with humanity1 individually1 or as a whole1 its expansion into a detailed1 ever-changing1 parti-coloured history of particular facts and persons4 ,abstraction1 the introduction of general ideas1 seems to close it up again2 to reduce flower and fruit1 odour and savour1 back again into the dry and worthless seed4 ,we might as well be colour-blind at once1 and there #aef is not a proper name left6 ,we may contrast generally the mental world we actually live in1 where classification1 the reduction of all things to common types1 has come so far1 and where the particular1 to a great extent1 is known only as the member of a class1 with that other world1 on the other side of the generalising movement to which ,plato and his master so largely contributed--a world we might describe as being under ,homeric conditions1 such as we picture to ourselves with regret1 for which experience was intuition1 and life a continuous surprise1 and every object unique1 where all knowledge was still of the concrete and the particular1 face to face delightfully4 ,to that gaudy tangle of what gardens1 after all1 are meant to produce1 in the decay of time1 as we may think at first sight1 the systematic1 logical gardener put his meddlesome hand1 and straightway all ran to seed2 to genus and species and differentia1 into formal classes1 under general notions1 and with--yes6 with written labels fluttering on the stalks1 instead of blossoms--a botanic or physic garden1 as they used to say1 instead of our flower-garden and orchard4 ,and yet 7it must be confessed on the other hand7 what we actually see1 see and hear1 is more interesting than ever2 the nineteenth century as compared with the first1 with ,plato's days or ,homer's2 the faces1 the persons behind those masks which yet express so much1 the flowers1 or whatever it may happen to be they carry or #aeg touch4 ,the concrete1 and that even as a visible thing1 has gained immeasurably in richness and compass1 in fineness1 and interest towards us1 by the process1 of which those acts of generalisation1 of reduction to class and generic type1 have certainly been a part4 ,and holding still to the concrete1 the particular1 to the visible or sensuous1 if you will1 last as first1 thinking of that as essentially the one vital and lively thing1 really worth our while in a short life1 we may recognise sincerely what generalisation and abstraction have done or may do1 are defensible as doing1 just for that--for the particular gem or flower--what its proper service is to a mind in search1 precisely1 of a concrete and intuitive knowledge such as that4 ,think1 for a moment1 of the difference1 as regards mental attitude1 between the naturalist who deals with things through ideas1 and the layman 7so to call him7 in picking up a shell on the sea-shore2 what it is that the subsumption of the individual into the species1 its subsequent alliance to and co-ordination with other species1 really does for the furnishing of the mind of the former4 ,the layman1 though we need not suppose him inattentive1 or unapt to retain impressions1 is in fact still but a child2 and the shell1 its colours and convolution1 no more than a dainty1 very easily destructible toy to him4 ,let him become a schoolboy about it1 so to speak4 ,the toy he puts aside2 his mind is #aeh drilled perforce1 to learn about it2 and thereby is exercised1 he may think1 with everything except just the thing itself1 as he cares for it2 with other shells1 with some general laws of life1 and for a while it might seem that1 turning away his eyes from the vanity of the particular1 he has been made to sacrifice the concrete1 the real and living product of nature1 to a mere dry and abstract product of the mind4 ,but when he comes out of school1 and on the sea- shore again finds a fellow to his toy1 perhaps a finer specimen of it1 he may see what the service of that converse with the general has really been towards the concrete1 towards what he sees--in regard to the particular thing he actually sees4 ,by its juxtaposition and co- ordination with what is ever more and more not it1 by the contrast of its very imperfection1 at this point or that1 with its own proper and perfect type1 this concrete and particular thing has1 in fact1 been enriched by the whole colour and expression of the whole circumjacent world1 concentrated upon1 or as it were at focus in1 it4 ,by a kind of short-hand now1 and as if in a single moment of vision1 all that1 which only a long experience1 moving patiently from part to part1 could exhaust1 its manifold alliance with the entire world of nature1 is legible upon it1 as it lies there in one's hand4 ,so it is with the shell1 the gem1 with a glance of the eye2 so it may be with the moral act1 #aei with a condition of the mind1 or a feeling4 ,you may draw1 by use of this coinage 7it is ,hobbes's figure7 this coinage of representative words and thoughts1 at your pleasure1 upon the accumulative capital of the whole experience of humanity4 ,generalisation1 whatever ,platonists1 or ,plato himself at mistaken moments1 may have to say about it1 is a method1 not of obliterating the concrete phenomenon1 but of enriching it1 with the joint perspective1 the significance1 the expressiveness1 of all other things beside4 ,what broad-cast light he enjoys6--that scholar1 confronted with the sea- shell1 for instance1 or with some enigma of heredity in himself or another1 with some condition of a particular soul1 in circumstances which may never precisely so occur again2 in the contemplation of that single phenomenon1 or object1 or situation4 ,he not only sees1 but understands 7thereby only seeing the more7 and will1 therefore1 also remember4 ,the significance of the particular object he will retain1 by use of his intellectual apparatus of notion and general law1 as1 to use ,plato's own figure1 fluid matter may be retained in vessels1 not indeed of unbaked clay1 but of alabaster or bronze4 ,so much by way of apology for general ideas--abstruse1 or intangible1 or dry and seedy and wooden1 as we may sometimes think them4 ,two things1 says ,aristotle1 might rightly be attributed to ,socrates3 inductive reasoning1 #afj and universal definitions4 ,now when ,aristotle says this of ,socrates1 he is recording the institution of a method1 which might be applied in the way just indicated1 to natural objects1 to such a substance as carbon1 or to such natural processes as heat or motion2 but which1 by ,socrates himself1 as by ,plato after him1 was applied almost exclusively to moral phenomena1 to the generalisation of aesthetic1 political1 ethical ideas1 of the laws of operation 7for the essence of every true conception1 or definition1 or idea1 is a law of operation7 of the feelings and the will4 ,to get a notion1 a definition1 or idea1 of motion1 for example1 which shall not exclude the subtler forms of it1 heat for instance--to get a notion of carbon1 which shall include not common charcoal only1 but the diamond1 a thing superficially so unlike it1 and which shall also exclude1 perhaps1 some other substance1 superficially almost indistinguishable from it3 such is the business of physical science1 in obedience to rules1 outlined by ,bacon in the first book of the ,novum ,organum1 for securing those acts of inclusion and exclusion1 inclusiones1 exclusiones1 naturae1 debitae1 as he says1 which the nature of things requires1 if our thoughts are not to misrepresent them4 ,it was a parallel process1 a process of inclusion1 that one's resultant idea should be adequate1 of rejection or exclusion1 that this idea should be not redundant1 which ,socrates applied #afa to practice2 exercising1 as we see in the ,platonic ,dialogues1 the two opposed functions of synagg and diairesis1 for the formation of just ideas of ,temperance1 ,wisdom1 ,bravery1 ,justice itself--a classification of the phenomena of the entire world of feeling and action4 ,ideas1 if they fulfil their proper purpose1 represent to the mind such phenomena1 for its convenience1 but may easily also misrepresent them4 ,in the transition from the particulars to the general1 and again in the transition from the general idea1 the mental word1 to the spoken or written word1 to what we call the definition1 a door lies open1 both for the adulteration and the diminution of the proper content1 of our conception1 our definition4 ,the first growth of the ,platonic ideas1 as we see it in ,socrates1 according to the report of ,aristotle1 provided against this twofold misrepresentation4 ,its aim is to secure1 in the terms of our discourse with others and with ourselves1 precise equivalence to what they denote4 ,it was a mission to go about ,athens and challenge people to guard the inlets of error1 in the passage from facts to their thoughts about them1 in the passage from thoughts to words4 ,it was an intellectual gymnastic1 to test1 more exactly than they were in the habit of doing1 the equivalence of words they used so constantly as ,just1 ,brave1 ,beautiful1 to the thoughts they had2 of those thoughts to the facts of experience1 which it was the business of those #afb thoughts precisely to represent2 to clear the mental air2 to arrange the littered work-chamber of the mind4 ,in many of ,plato's ,dialogues we see no more than the ordered reflex of this process1 informal as it was in the actual practice of ,socrates4 ,out of the accidents of a conversation1 as from the confused currents of life and action1 the typical forms of the vices and virtues emerge in definite outline4 ,the first contention of ,the ,republic1 for instance1 is to establish in regard to the nature of ,justice1 terms as exactly conterminous with thoughts1 thoughts as exactly conterminous with moral facts1 as the notion of carbon is for the naturalist1 when it has come to include both charcoal and the diamond1 on the basis of the essential law of their operation as experience reveals it4 ,show us1 not merely accidental truths about it2 but1 by the doing of what 7,ti poiousa7 in the very soul of its possessor1 itself by itself1 ,justice is a good1 and ,injustice a bad thing4 ,that illustrates exactly what is meant by an idea1 the force of knowledge through ideas1 in the particular instance of ,justice4 ,it will include perhaps1 on the one hand1 forms of ,justice so remote from the ,justice of our everyday experience as to seem inversions of it2 it will clearly exclude1 on the other hand1 acts and thoughts1 not it1 yet1 phenomenally1 so like it1 as to deceive the very gods2 and its area will be expanded sufficiently to include1 not the individual #afc only1 but the state4 ,and you1 the philosophic student1 were to do that1 not for one virtue only1 but for ,piety1 and ,beauty1 and the ,state itself1 and ,knowledge1 and ,opinion1 and the ,good4 ,nay1 you might go on and do the same thing for the physical1 when you came to the end of the moral1 world1 were life long enough1 and if you had the humour for it3--for ,motion1 ,number1 ,colour1 ,sound4 ,that1 then1 was the first growth of the ,platonic ideas1 as derived immediately from ,socrates1 whose formal contribution to philosophy had been universal definitions1 developed inductively1 by the twofold method of inclusion and exclusion4 ,aristotle adds1 however1 that ,socrates had stopped at the point here indicated3 he had not gone on1 like some others1 to make those universal notions or definitions separable--separable1 that is to say1 from the particular and concrete instances1 from which he had gathered them4 ,separable3 christos 7famous word67 that is precisely what general notions become in what is specially called the ,platonic ,theory of ,ideas4 ,the ,ideas of ,plato are1 in truth1 neither more nor less than those universal definitions1 those universal conceptions1 as they look1 as they could not but look1 amid the peculiar lights and shadows1 in the singularly constituted atmosphere1 under the strange laws of refraction1 and in the proper perspective1 of ,plato's house of thought4 ,by its peculiarities1 subsequent thought--philosophic1 #afd poetic1 theological--has been greatly influenced2 by the intense subjectivities1 the accidents1 so to speak1 of ,plato's genius1 of ,plato himself2 the ways constitutional with him1 the magic or trick of his personality1 in regarding the intellectual material he was occupied with--by ,plato's psychology4 ,and it is characteristic of him1 again1 that those peculiarities of his mental attitude are evidenced informally2 by a tendency1 as we said1 by the mere general tone in which he speaks of ,beauty1 for instance1 as it really is1 of all that really is1 under its various forms2 a manner of speaking1 not explicit1 but veiled1 in various degrees1 under figures1 as at the end of the sixth book of ,the ,republic1 or under mythological fantasies1 like those of the ,phaedrus4 ,he seems to have no inclination for the responsibilities of definite theory2 for a system such as that of the ,neo-,platonists for instance1 his own later followers1 who1 in a kind of prosaic and cold-blooded transcendentalism1 developed as definite philosophic dogma1 hard enough in more senses than one1 what in ,plato is to the last rather poetry than metaphysical reasoning--the irrepressible because almost unconscious poetry1 which never deserts him1 even when treating of what is neither more nor less than a chapter in the rudiments of logic4 ,the peculiar development of the ,socratic realism by ,plato can then only be understood #afe by a consideration of the peculiarities of ,plato's genius2 how it reacted upon those abstractions2 what they came to seem in its peculiar atmosphere4 ,the ,platonic doctrine of ,ideas1 as was said1 is not so much a doctrine1 as a way of speaking or feeling about certain elements of the mind2 and this temper1 this peculiar way of feeling1 of speaking1 which for most of us will have many difficulties1 is not uniformly noticeable in ,plato's ,dialogues1 but is to be found more especially in the ,phaedo1 the ,symposium1 and in certain books of ,the ,republic1 above all in the ,phaedrus4 ,here is a famous passage from it3-- ,there 7that is to say1 at a particular point in a sort of ,pythagorean mental pilgrimage through time and space7 there1 at last1 its utmost travail and contest awaits the soul4 ,for the immortal souls1 so-called1 when they were upon the highest point1 passed out and stood 7as you might stand upon the outside of a great hollow sphere7 upon the back of the sky4 ,and as they stand there1 the revolution of the spheres carries them round2 and they behold the things that are beyond the sky4 ,that supercelestial place none of our poets on earth has ever yet sung of1 nor will ever sing1 worthily4 ,and thus it is3 for ,i must make bold to state the truth1 at any rate1 especially as it is about truth1 that ,i am speaking4 ,for the colourless1 and formless1 and impalpable ,being1 being in very truth of 7that is1 relative to7 the soul1 is visible by reason alone as one's guide4 ,centered about that1 the generation1 or seed1 genos1--the people1 of true knowledge inhabits this place4 ,as1 then1 the intelligence of ,god1 which is nourished by pure or unmixed reason and knowledge 7akrat1 unmixed with sense7 so1 the intelligence of every other soul also1 which is about to receive that which properly belongs to it1 beholding1 after long interval1 that which is1 loves #aff it 7that's the point67 and by the vision of truth is fed2 and fares well2 until1 in cycle1 the revolving movement brings it round again to the same place4 ,and in that journey round it looks upon justice itself2 it looks upon ,temperance1 upon ,knowledge2 not that knowledge to which the process of becoming 7the law of change1 namely1 of birth and death and decay7 attaches2 nor that which is1 as it were1 one in one thing1 another in another1 of those things which now we speak of as being2 but the knowledge which is in that which in very deed is 7tn en t ho estin on ontos epistmn ousan7 and having beheld1 after the same manner1 all other things that really are1 and feasted upon them1 being passed back again to the interior of the sky1 the soul returned home4 ,phaedrus1 #bdg4 ,only1 as ,plato thinks1 that return was1 in fact1 an exile4 ,there1 in that attractive1 but perhaps not wholly acceptable1 sort of discourse1 in some other passages like it1 ,plato has gone beyond his master ,socrates1 on two planes or levels1 so to speak1 of speculative ascent1 which we may distinguish from each other1 by way of making a little clearer what is in itself certainly so difficult4 ,for ,plato1 then1 not by way of formal theory1 we must remember1 but by a turn of thought and speech 7while he speaks of them1 in fact7 the ,socratic universals1 the notions of ,justice and the like1 are become1 first1 things in themselves--the real things2 and secondly1 persons1 to be known as persons must be2 and to be loved1 for the perfections1 the visible perfections1 we might say--intellectually visible--of #afg their being4 ,it looks upon ,justice itself2 it looks upon ,temperance2 upon ,knowledge4 ,hitherto1 in the ,socratic disputations1 the ideas had been creations1 serviceable creations1 of men's thought1 of our reason4 ,with ,plato1 they are the creators of our reason--those treasures of experience1 stacked and stored1 which1 to each one of us1 come as by inheritance1 or with no proportionate effort on our part1 to direct1 to enlarge and rationalise1 from the first use of language by us1 our manner of taking things4 ,for ,plato1 they are no longer1 as with ,socrates1 the instruments by which we tabulate and classify and record our experience--mere marks of the real things of experience1 of what is essential in this or that1 and common to every particular that goes by a certain common name2 but are themselves rather the proper objects of all true knowledge1 and a passage from all merely relative experience to the absolute4 ,in proportion as they lend themselves to the individual1 in his effort to think1 they create reason in him2 they reproduce the eternal reason for him4 ,for ,socrates1 as ,aristotle understands him1 they were still in service to1 and valid only in and by1 the experience they recorded1 with no locus standi beyond4 ,for ,plato1 for ,platonists1 they are become--,justice and ,beauty1 and the perfect ,state1 or again ,equality 7that which we must bring with us1 if we are to apprehend sensible #afh instances thereof1 but which no two equal things here1 two coins1 ever really attain7 nay1 ,couch1 or ,tree1 every general thought1 or name of a thing1 whatever--separate 7christos7 separable from1 as being essentially independent of1 the individual mind which conceives them2 as also of the particular temporary instances which come under them1 come and go1 while they remain for ever--those eternal forms1 of ,tree1 ,equality1 ,justice1 and so forth4 ,that1 then1 is the first stage1 or plane1 of ,platonic transcendentalism4 ,our common ideas1 without which1 in fact1 we none of us could think at all1 are not the consequence1 not the products1 but the cause of our reason in us3 we did not make them2 but they make us what we are1 as reasonable beings4 ,the eternal ,being1 of ,parmenides1 one and indivisible1 has been diffused1 divided1 resolved1 refracted1 differentiated1 into the eternal ,ideas1 a multiple1 numerous1 stellar world1 so to call it--abstract light into stars3 ,justice1 ,temperance as it is1 ,bravery as it is4 ,permanence1 independency1 indefectible identity with itself--all those qualities which ,parmenides supposed in the one and indivisible reality--belong to every one of those ideas severally4 ,it was like a recrudescence of polytheism in that abstract world2 a return of the many gods of ,homer1 veiled now as abstract notions1 ,love1 #afi ,fear1 ,confidence1 and the like2 and as such1 the modern anthropologist1 our student of the natural history of man1 would rank the ,platonic theory as but a form of what he calls animism4 ,animism1 that tendency to locate the movements of a soul like our own in every object1 almost in every circumstance1 which impresses one with a sense of power1 is a condition of mind1 of which the simplest illustration is primitive man adoring1 as a divine being endowed with will1 the meteoric stone that came rushing from the sky4 ,that condition survives however1 in the negro1 who thinks the discharging gun a living creature2 as it survives also1 more subtly1 in the culture of ,wordsworth and ,shelley1 for whom clouds and peaks are kindred spirits2 in the pantheism of ,goethe2 and in ,schelling1 who formulates that pantheism as a philosophic1 a ,platonic1 theory4 ,such animistic instinct was1 certainly1 a natural element in ,plato's mental constitution1--the instinctive effort to find anima1 the conditions of personality1 in whatever pre-occupied his mind1 a mind1 be it remembered1 of which the various functions1 as we reckon them1 imagination1 reason1 intuition1 were still by no means clearly analysed and differentiated from each other1 but participated1 all alike and all together1 in every single act of mind4 ,and here is the second stage of the ,platonic idealism1 the second grade of ,plato's departure #agj from the simpler realism of his master1 as noted by ,aristotle1 towards that intelligible world1 opposed by him so constantly to the visible world1 into which many find it so hard to follow him at all1 and in which the ideas become veritable persons4 ,to speak1 to think1 to feel1 about abstract ideas as if they were living persons2 that1 is the second stage of ,plato's speculative ascent4 ,with the lover1 who had graduated1 was become a master1 in the school of love1 but had turned now to the love of intellectual and strictly invisible things1 it was as if the faculty of physical vision1 of the bodily eye1 were still at work at the very centre of intellectual abstraction4 ,abstract ideas themselves became animated1 living persons1 almost corporeal1 as if with hands and eyes4 ,and it is1 as a consequence1 but partly also as a secondary reinforcing cause1 of this mental condition1 that the idea of ,beauty becomes for ,plato the central idea2 the permanently typical instance of what an idea means2 of its relation to particular things1 and to the action of our thoughts upon them4 ,it was to the lover dealing with physical beauty1 a thing seen1 yet unseen--seen by all1 in some sense1 and yet1 truly1 by one and not by another1 as if through some capricious1 personal self- discovery1 by some law of affinity between the seer and what is seen1 the knowing and the known--that the nature and function of an idea1 as such1 would come home most clearly4 #agj ,and then1 while visible beauty is the clearest1 the most certain thing1 in the world 7lovers will always tell you so7 real with the reality of something hot or cold in one's hand1 it also comes nearest of all things1 so ,plato assures us1 to its eternal pattern or prototype4 ,for some reason1 the eternal idea of beauty had left visible copies of itself1 shadows1 antitypes1 out of all proportion1 in their truthfulness and adequacy1 to any copy1 left here with us1 of ,justice1 for instance1 or ,equality1 or the ,perfect ,state4 ,the typical instance of an abstract idea1 yet pre- occupying the mind with all the colour and circumstance of the relationship of person to person1 the idea of ,beauty1 conveyed into the entire theory of ideas1 the associations which belong properly to such relationships only4 ,a certain measure of caprice1 of capricious preference or repulsion1 would thus be naturally incidental to the commerce of men's minds with what really is1 with the world in which things really are1 only so far as they are truly known4 ,philosophers are lovers of truth and of that which is--impassioned lovers3 ,tou ontos te kai altheias erastas tous philosophous4 ,they are the cornerstone1 as readers of ,the ,republic know1 of the ideal state--those impassioned lovers1 erastas1 of that which really is1 and in comparison wherewith1 office1 wealth1 honour1 the love of which has rent ,athens1 the world1 to pieces1 will be of no more than secondary importance4 #agb ,he is in truth1 in the power1 in the hands1 of another1 of another will--this lover of the ,ideas--attracted1 corrected1 guided1 rewarded1 satiated1 in a long discipline1 that ascent of the soul into the intelligible world1 of which the ways of earthly love 7ta ertika7 are a true parallel4 ,his enthusiasm of knowledge is literally an enthusiasm3 has about it that character of possession of one person by another1 by which those animistic old ,greeks explained natural madness4 ,that philosophic enthusiasm1 that impassioned desire for true knowledge1 is a kind of madness 7mania7 the madness to which some have declared great wit1 all great gifts1 to be always allied--the fourth species of mania1 as ,plato himself explains in the ,phaedrus4 ,to natural madness1 to poetry and the other gifts allied to it1 to prophecy like that of the ,delphic pythoness1 he has to add1 fourthly1 the enthusiasm of the ideas4 ,the whole course of our theory hitherto 7he there tells us7 relates to that fourth form of madness2 wherein1 when any one1 seeing the beauty that is here below1 and having a reminiscence of the true1 feels1 or finds1 his wings 7ptertai7 fluttering upwards1 in his eagerness to soar above1 but unable1 like a bird looking towards the sky1 heedless of things below1 he is charged with unsoundness of mind4 ,i have told how this is the most excellent of all forms of enthusiasm 7or possession7 both to its possessor and to him who participates in it2 how it comes of the noblest causes2 and that the lover who has a share of this madness is called a lover of the beautiful4 ,for1 as has been said1 every soul of man1 by its very nature1 has seen the things that really are1 otherwise it would not have come into this form of life 7into a human body74 ,but to rise from things here to the recollection of those1 is not an easy matter #agc for every soul2 neither for those which then had but a brief view of things there2 nor for such as were unlucky in their descent hither1 so that1 through the influence of certain associations1 turning themselves to what is not right1 they have forgotten the sacred forms which then they saw4 ,few souls1 in truth1 remain1 to which the gift of reminiscence adequately pertains4 ,these1 when they see some likeness of things there1 are lost in amazement1 and belong no longer to themselves2 only1 they understand not the true nature of their affection1 because they lack discernment4 ,now1 of ,justice1 and of ,temperance1 and of all those other qualities which are precious to souls1 there is no clear light in their semblances here below2 but1 through obscure organs1 with difficulty1 very few1 coming to their figures1 behold the generation 7genos1 the people7 of that which is figured4 ,at that moment it was possible to behold ,beauty in its clearness1 when1 with the choir of the blessed following on1 ourselves with ,zeus1 some with one1 some with another1 of the gods1 they looked upon a blissful vision and view1 and were made partakers in what it is meet and right to call the most blessed of all mysteries2 the which we celebrated1 sound and whole then1 and untouched by the evil things that awaited us in time to come1 as being admitted to mystic sights1 whole and sound and at unity with themselves1 in pure light gazing on them1 being ourselves pure1 and unimpressed by this we carry about now and call our body1 imprisoned like a fish in its shell4 ,let memory be indulged thus far2 for whose sake1 in regret for what was then1 ,i have now spoken somewhat at length4 ,as regards ,beauty1 as ,i said1 it both shone out1 in its true being1 among those other eternal forms2 and when we came down hither we apprehended it through the clearest of all our bodily senses1 gleaming with utmost brightness4 ,for sight comes to us keenest of all our bodily senses1 though ,wisdom is not seen by it4 ,marvellous loves1 in truth1 would that 7namely1 ,wisdom7 have afforded1 had it presented any manifest image of itself1 such as that of ,beauty1 had it reached our bodily vision--that1 and all those other amiable forms4 ,but now ,beauty alone has had this fortune2 so that it is the clearest1 the most certain1 of all things2 and the most lovable4 ,phaedrus1 #bdi4 ,,notes #aeb4 ,transliteration3 notos topos4 ,pater's translation3 intellectual world4 ,plato1 ,republic #ejh;b and #eag;b4 #aec4 ,transliteration3 homoion homoi4 ,pater's translation3 like to like4 ,variants of the phrase occur in many of ,plato's dialogues2 see1 for example1 ,parmenides #acb;d4 #aec4 ,transliteration3 hypo logn4 ,pater's translation3 under the influence of 4 4 4 thought and language4 ,plato1 ,philebus #ae;d4 #aec4 ,transliteration3 kinei4 ,pater's translation3 sets in motion4 ,plato1 ,philebus #ae;e4 #aed4 ,transliteration3 logos4 ,pater's contextual translation3 definition4 ,plato1 ,philebus #ae;e4 #aed4 ,the passage begins at ,philebus #ae;d4 #afa4 ,transliteration3 synagg 4 4 4 diairesis4 ,liddell and ,scott definition _/ ,e-text editor's translation3 4 ,for example1 ,phaedrus #bff;b4 #afb4 ,transliteration3 ,ti poiousa4 ,pater's translation3 by the doing of what4 #afc4 ,transliteration3 christos4 ,pater's translation3 separable4 ,the term occurs often in ,aristotle's ,metaphysics4 ,for example1 see ,metaphysics #ajij;a4 #afe4 ,transliteration3 genos4 ,pater's translation3 seed1 generation4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 race1 descent4 ,plato1 ,phaedrus #bdg;a4 #afe4 ,transliteration3 akrat4 ,pater's translation3 unmixed with sense4 ,plato1 ,phaedrus #bdg;a4 #aff4 ,transliteration3 tn en t ho estin on ontos epistmn ousan4 ,pater's translation3 the knowledge which is in that which in very deed is4 ,plato1 ,phaedrus #bdg;e4 #aff4 ,see ,plato1 ,phaedrus #bdg;b ff4 #afh4 ,transliteration3 christos4 ,pater's translation3 separable4 ,the term occurs often in ,aristotle's ,metaphysics4 ,for example1 see ,metaphysics #ajij;a4 #aga4 ,transliteration3 ,tou ontos te kai altheias erastas tous philosophous4 ,liddell and ,scott definition _/ ,e-text editor's translation3 ,philosophers are lovers of truth and of that which is 4 4 4 ,plato1 ,republic #eja;d4 #aga4 ,transliteration3 erastas4 ,see previous note4 #agb4 ,transliteration3 ta ertika4 ,pater's translation3 the discipline of sensuous love2 more literally1 the phrase means things pertaining to love4 ,for one instance1 see ,plato1 ,symposium #agg;d4 #agb4 ,transliteration3 mania4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 madness1 frenzy4 ,see1 for example1 ,plato1 ,phaedrus #bdi;d4 #agb4 ,transliteration3 ptertai4 ,e-text editor's translation3 he is furnished with wings4 ,plato1 ,phaedrus #bdi;d4 #agc4 ,transliteration3 genos4 ,pater's translation3 seed1 generation4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 race1 descent4 ,plato1 ,phaedrus #bdg;a4 #agc4 ,this passage begins at ,phaedrus #bdi;d4 ,,chapter #g3 ,,the ,,doctrine ,,of ,,plato ,,ii4 ,,dialectic #agd ,three different forms of composition have1 under the intellectual conditions of different ages1 prevailed--three distinct literary methods1 in the presentation of philosophic thought2 the metrical form earliest1 when philosophy was still a matter of intuition1 imaginative1 sanguine1 often turbid or obscure1 and became a ,poem1 ,peri ,physes1 ,concerning ,nature2 according to the manner of ,pythagoras1 his golden verses1 of ,parmenides or ,empedokles1 after whom ,lucretius in his turn modelled the finest extant illustration of that manner of writing1 of thinking4 ,it was succeeded by precisely the opposite manner1 when native intuition had shrunk into dogmatic system1 the dry bones of which rattle in one's ears1 with ,aristotle1 or ,aquinas1 or ,spinoza1 as a formal treatise2 the perfected philosophic temper being situated midway between those opposites1 in the third essential form of the literature of philosophy1 namely the essay2 that characteristic literary type of our own time1 a time so rich and various in special apprehensions of truth1 so tentative and dubious in its sense of their ensemble1 and issues4 ,strictly appropriate form of our modern philosophic literature1 the essay came into use at what was really the invention of the relative1 #age or modern spirit1 in the ,renaissance of the sixteenth century499 ,the poem1 the treatise1 the essay3 you see already that these three methods of writing are no mere literary accidents1 dependent on the personal choice of this or that particular writer1 but necessities of literary form1 determined directly by matter1 as corresponding to three essentially different ways in which the human mind relates itself to truth4 ,if oracular verse1 stimulant but enigmatic1 is the proper vehicle of enthusiastic intuitions2 if the treatise1 with its ambitious array of premiss and conclusion1 is the natural out-put of scholastic all-sufficiency2 so1 the form of the essay1 as we have it towards the end of the sixteenth century1 most significantly in ,montaigne1 representative essayist because the representative doubter1 inventor of the name as1 in essence1 of the thing--of the essay1 in its seemingly modest aim1 its really large and adventurous possibilities--is indicative of ,montaigne's peculiar function in regard to his age1 as in truth the commencement of our own4 ,it provided him with precisely the literary form necessary to a mind for which truth itself is but a possibility1 realisable not as general conclusion1 but rather as the elusive effect of a particular personal experience2 to a mind which1 noting #agf faithfully those random lights that meet it by the way1 must needs content itself with suspension of judgment1 at the end of the intellectual journey1 to the very last asking3 ,que scais-je8 ,who knows8--in the very spirit of that old ,socratic contention1 that all true philosophy is but a refined sense of one's ignorance4 ,and as ,aristotle is the inventor of the treatise1 so the ,platonic ,dialogue1 in its conception1 its peculiar opportunities1 is essentially an essay--an essay1 now and then passing into the earlier form of philosophic poetry1 the prose-poem of ,heraclitus4 ,there have been effective writers of dialogue since1 ,bruno1 for instance1 ,berkeley1 ,landor1 with whom1 however1 that literary form has had no strictly constitutional propriety to the kind of matter it conveyed1 as lending itself 7that is to say7 structurally to a many-sided but hesitant consciousness of the truth4 ,thus1 with ,berkeley1 its purpose is but to give a popular turn to certain very dogmatic opinions1 about which there is no diffidence1 there are no half-lights1 in the writer's own mind4 ,with ,plato1 on the other hand1 with ,plato least of all is the dialogue--that peculiar modification of the essay--anything less than essential1 necessary1 organic3 the very form belongs to1 is of the organism of1 the matter which it embodies4 ,for ,plato's ,dialogues1 in fact1 reflect1 they refine #agg upon while they fulfil1 they idealise1 the actual method1 in which1 by preference to anything like formal lecturing 7the lecture being1 so to speak1 a treatise in embryo7 ,socrates conveyed his doctrine to others4 ,we see him in those ,dialogues of ,plato1 still loitering in the public places1 the open houses1 the suburban roads1 of ,athens1 as if seeking truth from others2 seeking it1 doubtless1 from himself1 but along with1 and by the help of1 his supposed scholars1 for whom1 indeed1 he can but bring their own native conceptions of truth to the birth2 but always faithfully registering just so much light as is given1 and1 so to speak1 never concluding4 ,the ,platonic ,dialogue is the literary transformation1 in a word1 of what was the intimately home-grown method of ,socrates1 not only of conveying truth to others1 but of coming by it for himself4 ,the essence of that method1 of dialectic in all its forms1 as its very name denotes1 is dialogue1 the habit of seeking truth by means of question and answer1 primarily with one's self4 ,just there1 lies the validity of the method--in a dialogue1 an endless dialogue1 with one's self2 a dialogue concerning those first principles1 or universal definitions1 or notions1 those ideas1 which1 according to ,plato1 are the proper objects of all real knowledge2 concerning the adequacy of one's hold upon them2 the relationship to them of other notions2 the plausible conjectures in our own or other minds1 #agh which come short of them2 the elimination1 by their mere presence in the mind1 of positive ignorance or error4 ,justice1 ,beauty1 ,perfect ,polity1 and the like1 in outlines of eternal and absolute certainty3--they were to be apprehended by dialectic1 literally1 by a method 7methodos7 a circuitous journey1 presented by the ,platonic dialogues in its most accomplished literary form4 ,for the certainty1 the absolute and eternal character1 of such ideas involved1 with much labour and scruple1 repeated acts of qualification and correction2 many readjustments to experience2 expansion1 by larger lights from it2 those exclusions and inclusions1 debitae naturae 7to repeat ,bacon's phrase7 demanded1 that is to say1 by the veritable nature of the facts which those ideas are designed to represent4 ,representation was1 in fact1 twofold1 and comprehended many successive steps under each of its divisions4 ,the thought was to be adjusted1 first1 to the phenomena1 to the facts1 daintily1 to the end that the said thought might just cover those facts1 and no more4 ,to the thought1 secondly1 to the conception1 thus articulated1 it was necessary to adjust the term2 the term1 or definition1 by which it might be conveyed into the mind of another4 ,the dialogue--the freedom1 the variety and elasticity1 of dialogue1 informal1 easy1 natural1 alone afforded the room necessary for that long and complex process4 ,if one1 if ,socrates1 seemed to become #agi the teacher of another1 it was but by thinking aloud for a few moments over his own lesson1 or leaning upon that other as he went along that difficult way which each one must really prosecute for himself1 however full such comradeship might be of happy occasions for the awakening of the latent knowledge1 with which mind is by nature so richly stored4 ,the ,platonic ,socrates1 in fact1 does not propose to teach anything3 is but willing1 along with you1 and if you concur1 to consider1 to seek out1 what the thing may be4 ,perchance using our eyes in common1 rubbing away1 we might cause ,justice1 for instance1 to glint forth1 as from fire-sticks499 ,and1 again1 is not the road to ,athens made for conversation8 ,yes6 ,it might seem that movement1 after all1 and any habit that promoted movement1 promoted the power1 the successes1 the fortunate parturition1 of the mind4 ,a method such as this1 a process 7processus7 a movement of thought1 which is the very converse of mathematical or demonstrative reasoning1 and incapable therefore of conventional or scholastic form1 of exactness1 in fact2 which proceeded to truth1 not by the analysis and application of an axiom1 but by a gradual suppression of error1 of error in the form of partial or exaggerated truths on the subject- matter proposed1 found its proper #ahj literary vehicle in a dialogue1 the more flexible the better4 ,it was like a journey indeed1 that essay towards ,justice1 for example1 or the true ,polity2 a journey1 not along the simple road to ,athens1 but to a mountain's top4 ,the proportions1 the outline1 the relation of the thing to its neighbours1--how do the inexperienced in such journeys mistake them1 as they climb6 ,what repeated misconceptions1 embodying1 one by one1 some mere particularity of view1 the perspective of this or that point of view1 forthwith abandoned1 some apprehension of mountain form and structure1 just a little short1 or1 it may be1 immeasurably short1 of what ,plato would call the synoptic view of the mountain as a whole4 ,from this or that point1 some insignificant peak presented itself as the mountain's veritable crest3 inexperience would have sworn to the truth of a wholly illusive perspective1 as the next turn in the journey assured one4 ,it is only upon the final step1 with free view at last on every side1 uniting together and justifying all those various1 successive1 partial apprehensions of the difficult way--only on the summit1 comes the intuitive comprehension of what the true form of the mountain really is2 with a mental1 or rather an imaginative hold upon which1 for the future1 we can find our way securely about it2 observing perhaps that1 next to that final intuition1 the first view1 the first impression1 had been truest about it4 #aha ,such1 in its full scope1 is the journey or pilgrimage1 the method 7hodos1 kinsis1 methodos7 of the ,socratic1 of the perfected ,platonic dialectic1 towards the truth1 the true knowledge1 of ,bravery or ,friendship1 for instance2 of ,space or ,motion1 again1 as suggested in the seventh book of ,the ,republic2 of the ideal ,city1 of the immaculate ,beauty4 ,you are going about ,justice1 for example--that great complex elevation on the level surface of life1 whose top1 it may be1 reaches to heaven4 ,you fancy you have grasped its outline4 ,alla metathmetha4 ,you are forced on1 perhaps by your companion1 a step further1 and the view has already changed4 ,persevere1 ,plato might say1 and a step may be made1 upon which1 again1 the whole world around may change1 the entire horizon and its relation to the point you stand on--a change from the half-light of conjecture to the full light of indefectible certitude4 ,that1 of course1 can only happen by a summary act of intuition upon the entire perspective1 wherein all those partial apprehensions1 which one by one may have seemed inconsistent with each other1 find their due place1 or 7to return to the ,platonic ,dialogue again1 to the actual process of dialectic as there exposed7 by that final impression of a subject1 a theorem1 in which the mind attains a hold1 as if by a single imaginative act1 through all the transitions of a long conversation1 upon all the seemingly opposite contentions of all the various speakers at once4 ,we see already why #ahb ,platonic dialectic--the ladder1 as ,plato thinks1 by which alone we can ascend into the entirely reasonable world 7notos topos7 beginning with the boyish difficulties and crudities of ,meno1 for instance1 is a process which may go on1 at least with those gifted by nature and opportunity1 as in the ,perfect ,city1--may go on to the close of life1 and1 as ,pythagorean theory suggests1 perhaps does not end even then4 ,the process of dialectic1 as represented in the ,platonic ,dialogues1 may seem1 therefore1 inconsistent with itself1 if you isolate this or that particular movement1 in what is a very complex process1 with many phases of development4 ,it is certainly difficult1 and that not merely on a first reading1 to grasp the unity of the various statements ,plato has made about it4 ,now it may seem to differ from ordinary reasoning by a certain plausibility only3 it is logic1 plus persuasion2 helping1 gently enticing1 a child out of his natural errors2 carefully explaining difficulties by the way1 as one can best do1 by question and answer with him2 above all1 never falling into the mistake of the obscurum per obscurius4 ,at another time it may seem to aim at plausibility of another sort2 at mutual complaisance1 as ,thrasymachus complains4 ,it would be possible1 of course1 to present an insincere dialogue1 in which certain of the disputants shall be mere men of straw4 ,in the ,philebus again1 dialectic is only the name of the process 7described there #ahc as exactly1 almost as technically1 as ,aristotle1 or some modern master of applied logic1 might describe it7 of the resolution of a genus into its species4 ,or it lapses into eristic--into an argument for its own sake2 or sinks into logomachy1 a mere dispute about words4 ,or yet again1 an immense1 a boundless promise is made for it1 as in the seventh book of ,the ,republic4 ,it is a life1 a systematised1 but comprehensive and far-reaching1 intellectual life1 in which the reason1 nay1 the whole nature of man1 realises all it was designed to be1 by the beatific vision of all time and all existence4 ,now all these varying senses of the word dialectic fall within compass1 if we remember that for ,plato1 as for every other really philosophic thinker1 method must be one2 that it must cover1 or be understood to cover1 the entire process1 all the various processes1 of the mind1 in pursuit of properly representative ideas1 of a reasoned reflex of experience2 and that for ,plato1 this process is essentially a long discourse or reasoning of the mind with itself4 ,it is that dynamic1 or essential1 dialogue of the mind with itself1 which lends1 or imputes1 its active principle to the written or spoken dialogue1 which1 in return1 lends its name to the method it figures-- dialectic4 ,well6 in that long and complex dialogue of the mind with itself1 many persons1 so to speak1 will necessarily take part2 so many persons as there are possible contrasts or shades #ahd in the apprehension of some complex subject4 ,the advocatus diaboli will be heard from time to time4 ,the dog also1 or1 as the ,greeks said1 the wolf1 will out with his story against the man2 and one of the interlocutors will always be a child1 turning round upon us innocently1 candidly1 with our own admissions1 or surprising us1 perhaps at the last moment1 by what seems his invincible ignorance1 when we thought it rooted out of him4 ,there will be a youth1 inexperienced in the capacities of language1 who will compel us to allow much time to the discussion of words and phrases1 though not always unprofitably4 ,and to the last1 let us hope1 refreshing with his enthusiasm1 the weary or disheartened enquirer 7who is always also of the company7 the rightly sanguine youth1 ingenuous and docile1 to whom1 surely1 those friendly living ideas will be willing1 longing1 to come1 after that ,platonic law of affinity1 so effectual in these matters--homoion homoi4 ,with such a nature above all1 bringing with it its felicities of temperament1 with the sort of natures 7as we may think7 which intellectually can but thrive1 a method like that1 the dialectic method1 will also have its felicities1 its singular good fortunes4 ,a voyage of discovery1 prosecuted almost as if at random1 the ,socratic or ,platonic dialogue of enquiry1 seems at times to be in charge of a kind of ,providence4 ,or again1 it will be as when hunters or bird- catchers beat #ahe the bush1 as we say3 ,plato elaborates that figure in ,the ,republic4 ,only1 if they be knowing in the process1 a fair percentage of birds will be found and taken4 ,all the chances1 or graces1 of such a method1 as actually followed in a whole life of free enquiry1 ,the ,republic1 for a watchful reader1 represents in little4 ,and when1 using still another figure1 ,socrates says3 ,i do not yet know1 myself2 but1 we must just go where the argument carries us1 as a vessel runs before the wind1 he breathes the very soul of the dialectic method3--hop an ho logos1 hsper pneuma1 pher1 taut iteon4 ,this dialectic method1 this continuous discourse with one's self1 being1 for those who prosecute it with thoroughness1 co-extensive with life itself--a part of the continuous company we keep with ourselves through life--will have its inequalities2 its infelicities2 above all1 its final insecurity4 ,we argue rashly and adventurously1 writes ,plato1 most truly1 in the ,timaeus--aye1 we1 the ,platonists1 as such1 sometimes--by reason that1 like ourselves1 our discourses 7our ,platonic discourses1 as such7 have much participation in the temerity of chance4 ,of course1 as in any other occasional conversation1 with its dependence on the hour and the scene1 the persons we are with1 the humours of the moment1 there will always be much of accident in this essentially informal1 this un-methodical1 #ahf method2 and1 therefore1 opportunities for misuse1 sometimes consciously4 ,the candid reader notes instances of such1 even in ,the ,republic1 not always on the part of ,thrasymachus3--in this new game of chess1 played1 as ,plato puts it1 not with counters1 but with words1 and not necessarily for the prize of truth1 but1 it may be1 for the mere enjoyment of move and counter-move1 of check-mating4 ,since ,zeno's paradoxes1 in fact1 the very air of ,athens was become sophisticated1 infected with questionings1 often vain enough2 and the ,platonic method had been1 in its measure1 determined by 7the unfriendly might say1 was in truth only a deposit from7 that infected air4 ,socrates1 as he admits1 is easily refuted4 ,say rather1 dear ,agathon1 that you cannot refute the truth4 ,that is reassuring1 certainly6 ,for you might think sometimes1 uneasily1 of the ,platonic ,socrates1 that1 as he says of the ,sophist1 or of himself perhaps en caricature1 in the ,euthydemus1 ,such is his skill in the war of words1 that he can refute any proposition whatever1 whether true or false2 that1 in short1 there is a dangerous facility abroad for proving all things whatever1 equally well1 of which ,socrates1 and his presumable allotment of truth1 has but the general allotment4 ,the friendly1 on the other hand1 might rejoin even then1 that1 as ,lessing suggests1 the search for truth is a better thing for us than its possession4 #ahg ,plato1 who supposes any knowledge worth the name to be absolute and eternal2 whose constant contention it is1 to separate longo intervallo1 by the longest possible interval1 science 7epistm7 as the possession of irresistible truth1 from any and every sort of knowledge which falls short of that2 would hardly have accepted the suggestion of ,lessing4 ,yet1 in spite of all that1 in spite of the demand he makes for certainty and exactness and what is absolute1 in all real knowledge1 he does think1 or inclines his reader to think1 that truth1 precisely because it resembles some high kind of relationship of persons to persons1 depends a good deal on the receiver2 and must be1 in that degree1 elusive1 provisional1 contingent1 a matter of various approximation1 and of an economy1 as is said2 that it is partly a subjective attitude of mind3--that philosophic truth consists in the philosophic temper4 ,socrates in ,plato1 remarks ,montaigne acutely1 disputes1 rather to the profit of the disputants1 than of the dispute4 ,he takes hold of the first subject1 like one who has a more profitable end in view than to explain it2 namely1 to clear the understandings that he takes upon him to instruct and exercise4 ,just there1 in fact1 is the justification of ,plato's peculiar dialectical method1 of its inexactness1 its hesitancy1 its scruples and reserve1 as if he feared to obtrude knowledge on an unworthy receiver4 ,the treatise1 as the proper instrument of dogma #ahh --the ,ethics of ,aristotle1 the ,ethics of ,spinoza--begins with a truth1 or with a clear conviction of truth1 in the axiom or definition1 which it does but propose further to explain and apply4--,the treatise1 as the instrument of a dogmatic philosophy begins with an axiom or definition3 the essay or dialogue1 on the other hand1 as the instrument of dialectic1 does not necessarily so much as conclude in one2 like that long dialogue with oneself1 that dialectic process1 which may be co-extensive with life4 ,it does in truth little more than clear the ground1 as we say1 or the atmosphere1 or the mental tablet1 that one may have a fair chance of knowing1 or seeing1 perhaps3 it does but put one into a duly receptive attitude towards such possible truth1 discovery1 or revelation1 as may one day occupy the ground1 the tablet1--shed itself on the purified air2 it does not provide a proposition1 nor a system of propositions1 but forms a temper4 ,what ,plato presents to his readers is then1 again1 a paradox1 or a reconciliation of opposed tendencies3 on one side1 the largest possible demand for infallible certainty in knowledge 7it was he fixed that ideal of absolute truth1 to which1 vainly perhaps1 the human mind1 as such1 aspires7 yet1 on the other side1 the utmost possible inexactness1 or contingency1 in the method by which actually he proposes to attain it4 ,it has been said that the humour of ,socrates1 of which the #ahi famous ,socratic irony--the pretence to have a bad memory1 to dislike or distrust long and formal discourse1 to have taught nothing1 to be but a mid-wife in relation to other people's thoughts--was an element1 is more than a mere personal trait2 that it was welcome as affording a means of escape from the full responsibilities of his teaching4 ,it belonged1 in truth1 to the tentative character of dialectic1 of question and answer as the method of discovery1 of teaching and learning1 to the position1 in a word1 of the philosophic essayist4 ,that it was thus1 might be illustrated abundantly from the ,platonic dialogues4 ,the irony1 the ,socratic humour1 so serviceable to a diffident teacher1 are1 in fact1 ,plato's own4 ,kindyneuei1 it may chance to be1 is1 we may notice1 a favourite catchword of his4 ,the philosopher of ,being1 or1 of the verb1 ,to be1 is after all afraid of saying1 ,it is4 ,for1 again1 person dealing with person--with possible caprice1 therefore1 at least on one side--or intelligence with intelligence1 is what ,plato supposes in the reception of truth3--that1 and not an exact mechanism1 a precise machine1 operating on1 or with1 an exactly ponderable matter4 ,he has fears for truth1 however carefully considered4 ,to the very last falsehood will lurk1 if not about truth itself1 about this or that assent to it4 ,the receiver may add the falsities of his own nature to the truth he receives4 ,the proposition which embodies it very #aij imperfectly1 may not look to him1 in those dark chambers of his individuality1 of himself1 into which none but he can ever get1 to test the matter1 what it looks to me1 or to you4 ,we may not even be thinking of1 not looking at1 the same thing1 when we talk of ,beauty1 and the like2 objects which1 after all1 to the ,platonist are matters of theria1 of immediate intuition1 of immediate vision1 or1 as ,plato sometimes fancied1 of an earlier personal experience2 and which1 as matter of such intuition1 are incapable of analysis1 and therefore1 properly1 incommunicable by words4 ,place1 then1 must be left to the last in any legitimate dialectic process for possible after-thoughts2 for the introduction1 so to speak1 of yet another interlocutor in the dialogue1 which has1 in fact1 no necessary conclusion1 and leaves off only because time is up1 or when1 as he says1 one leaves off seeking through weariness 7apokamnn74 ,what thought can think1 another thought can mend4 ,another turn in the endless road may change the whole character of the perspective4 ,you cannot1 as the ,sophist proposed to do 7that was part of his foolishness7 take and put truth into the soul4 ,if you could1 it might be established there1 only as an inward lie1 as a mistake4 ,must ,i take the argument1 and literally insert it into your mind8 asks ,thrasymachus4 ,heaven forbid3 answers ,socrates4 ,that is precisely what he fears most1 for himself1 and for others2 and from first to last1 demands1 as the first condition of comradeship #aia in that long journey in which he conceives teacher and learner to be but fellow- travellers1 pilgrims side by side1 sincerity1 above all sincerity with one's self--that1 and also freedom in reply4 ,answer what you think1 megalopreps --liberally4 ,for it is impossible to make way otherwise1 in a method which consists essentially in the development of knowledge by question and answer4 ,misuse1 again1 is of course possible in a method which admits of no objective sanction or standard2 the success of which depends on a loyalty to one's self1 in the prosecution of it1 of which no one else can be cognisant4 ,and if we can misuse it with ourselves1 how much more certainly can the expert abuse it with another4 ,at every turn of the conversation1 a door lies open to sophistry4 ,sophistry1 logomachy1 eristic3 we may learn what these are1 sometimes1 from ,plato's own practice4 ,that justice is only useful as applied to things useless2 that the just man is a kind of thief2 and the like2 is hardly so much as sophistry4 ,and this too was possible in a method1 which1 with all its large outlook1 has something of the irregularity1 the accident1 the heats and confusion1 of life itself--a method of reasoning which can only in a certain measure be reasoned upon4 ,how different the exactness which ,aristotle supposes1 and does his best to secure1 in scientific procedure6 ,for him1 dialectic1 ,platonic dialectic1 is1 at best1 a part of eristic #aib --of the art1 or trick1 of merely popular and approximate debate1 in matters where science is out of the question1 and rhetoric has its office1 not in providing for the intelligence1 but in moulding the sentiments and the will4 ,conversely to that absoluteness and necessity which ,plato himself supposes in all real knowledge1 as the spectacle of all time and all existence1 it might seem that the only sort of truth attainable by his actual method1 must be the truth of a particular time and place1 for one and not for another4 ,dialogos peirastikos1 a ,dialogue of search3--every one of ,plato's ,dialogues is in essence such like that whole1 life-long1 endless dialogue which dialectic1 in its largest scope1 does but formulate1 and in which truly the last1 the infallible word1 after all1 never gets spoken4 ,our pilgrimage is meant indeed to end in nothing less than the vision of what we seek4 ,but can we ever be quite sure that we are really come to that8 ,by what sign or test8 ,now oppose all this1 all these peculiarities of the ,platonic method1 as we find it1 to the exact and formal method of ,aristotle1 of ,aquinas1 of ,spinoza1 or ,hegel2 and then suppose one trained exclusively on ,plato's dialogues4 ,is it the eternal certainty1 after all1 the immutable and absolute character of truth1 as ,plato conceived it1 that he would be likely to apprehend8 ,we have here another of those contrasts of tendency1 constitutional #aic in the genius of ,plato1 and which may add to our interest in him4 ,plato is to be explained1 as we say1 or interpreted1 partly through his predecessors1 and his contemporaries2 but in part also by his followers1 by the light his later mental kinsmen throw back on the conscious or unconscious drift of his teaching4 ,now there are in the history of philosophy two opposite ,platonic traditions2 two legitimate yet divergent streams of influence from him4 ,two very different yet equally representative scholars we may see in thought emerging from his school4 ,the theory of the ,ideas1 the high ideal1 the uncompromising demand for absolute certainty1 in any truth or knowledge worthy of the name2 the immediate or intuitive character of the highest acts of knowledge2 that all true theory is indeed vision3--for the maintenance of that side of the ,platonic position we must look onward to ,aristotle1 and the ,schoolmen of all ages1 to ,spinoza1 to ,hegel2 to those mystic aspirants to vision also1 the so-called ,neo-,platonists of all ages1 from ,proclus to ,schelling4 ,from the abstract1 metaphysical systems of those1 the ecstasy and illuminism of these1 we may mount up to the actual words of ,plato in the ,symposium1 the fifth book of ,the ,republic1 the ,phaedrus4 ,but it is in quite different company we must look for the tradition1 the development1 of ,plato's actual method of learning and teaching4 ,the ,academy of ,plato1 the established seat of his #aid philosophy1 gave name to a school1 of which ,lucian1 in ,greek1 and in ,latin1 ,cicero1 are the proper representatives1--,cicero1 the perfect embodiment of what is still sometimes understood to be the academic spirit1 surveying all sides1 arraying evidence1 ascertaining1 measuring1 balancing1 tendencies1 but ending in suspension of judgment4 ,if ,platonism from age to age has meant1 for some1 ontology1 a doctrine of being1 or the nearest attainable approach to or substitution for that2 for others1 ,platonism has been in fact only another name for scepticism1 in a recognisable philosophic tradition4 ,thus1 in the ,middle ,age1 it qualifies in the ,sic et ,non the confident scholasticism of ,abelard4 ,it is like the very trick and impress of the ,platonic ,socrates himself again1 in those endless conversations of ,montaigne--that typical sceptic of the age of the ,renaissance--conversations with himself1 with the living1 with the dead through their writings1 which his ,essays do but reflect4 ,typical ,platonist or sceptic1 he is therefore also the typical essayist4 ,and the sceptical philosopher of ,bordeaux does but commence the modern world1 which1 side by side with its metaphysical reassertions1 from ,descartes to ,hegel1 side by side also with a constant accumulation of the sort of certainty which is afforded by empirical science1 has had assuredly1 to check wholesomely the pretensions of one and of the other alike1 its doubts4--,their name is legion1 says a modern writer4 ,reverent #aie and irreverent1 reasonable and unreasonable1 manly and unmanly1 morbid and healthy1 guilty and honest1 wilful1 inevitable--they have been called1 indifferently1 in an age which thirsts for intellectual security1 but cannot make up its mind4 ,q'ue scais-je8 it cries1 in the words of ,montaigne2 but in the spirit also of the ,platonic ,socrates1 with whom such dubitation had been nothing less than a religious duty or service4 ,sanguine about any form of absolute knowledge1 of eternal1 or indefectible1 or immutable truth1 with our modern temperament as it is1 we shall hardly become1 even under the direction of ,plato1 and by the reading of the ,platonic ,dialogues4 ,but if we are little likely to realise in his school1 the promise of ontological science1 of a doctrine of ,being1 or any increase in our consciousness of metaphysical security1 are likely1 rather1 to acquire there that other sort of ,platonism1 a habit1 namely1 of tentative thinking and suspended judgment1 if we are not likely to enjoy the vision of his eternal and immutable ideas1 ,plato may yet promote in us what we call ideals-- the aspiration towards a more perfect ,justice1 a more perfect ,beauty1 physical and intellectual1 a more perfect condition of human affairs1 than any one has ever yet seen2 that kosmos1 in which things are only as they are thought by a perfect mind1 to which experience is constantly approximating us1 but which it does not provide4 ,there they stand1 the two #aif great landmarks of the intellectual or spiritual life as ,plato conceived it3 the ideal1 the world of ideas1 the great perhaps1 for which it is his merit so effectively to have opened room in the mental scheme1 to be known by us1 if at all1 through our affinities of nature with it1 which1 however1 in our dealings with ourselves and others we may assume to be objective or real3--and then1 over against our imperfect realisation of that ideal1 in ourselves1 in nature and history1 amid the personal caprices 7it might almost seem7 of its discovery of itself to us1 as the appropriate attitude on our part1 the dialectical spirit1 which to the last will have its diffidence and reserve1 its scruples and second thoughts4 ,such condition of suspended judgment indeed1 in its more genial development and under felicitous culture1 is but the expectation1 the receptivity1 of the faithful scholar1 determined not to foreclose what is still a question--the philosophic temper1 in short1 for which a survival of query will be still the salt of truth1 even in the most absolutely ascertained knowledge4 ,,notes #agd4 ,transliteration3 ,peri ,physes4 ,pater's translation3 ,concerning ,nature4 #agd4 ,sic4 ,this form1 situate1 may be ,pater's archaism for situated1 or it may simply be a typographic error in the original published edition4 #age4 99,essay--,a loose sally of the mind1 says ,johnson's ,dictionary4 ,bailey's earlier ,dictionary gives another suggestive use of the word among miners--,a little trench or hole1 which they dig to search for ore4 #agh4 ,transliteration3 methodos4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 method4 ,plato1 ,republic #eca;c4 #agi4 99,skepsasthai kai syztsai hoti pote estin2 kai1 tach' an1 par' allla skopountes1 kai tribontes1 hsper ek purein1 eklampsai poisaimen tn dikaiosynn4 ,pater's translation3 to consider1 to seek out1 what the thing may be4 ,perchance using our eyes in common1 rubbing away1 we might cause ,justice1 for instance1 to glint forth1 as from fire-sticks4 ,plato1 ,meno #hj;d for the first line and1 for the remainder1 ,republic #dce;a4 #aha4 ,transliteration3 hodos1 kinsis1 methodos4 ,liddell and ,scott definitions3 path1 motion1 method4 #aha4 ,transliteration3 ,alla metathmetha4 ,e-text editor's translation3 ,but let us follow out a different path of thought1 or let's examine this from a different perspective4 ,for example1 ,plato1 ,republic #ccd;e4 #ahb4 ,transliteration3 notos topos4 ,pater's translation3 reasonable world4 ,plato1 ,republic #ejh;b4 #ahd4 ,transliteration3 homoion homoi4 ,pater's translation3 like to like4 ,variants of the phrase occur in many of ,plato's dialogues2 see1 for example1 ,parmenides #acb;d4 #ahe4 ,transliteration3 hop an ho logos1 hsper pneuma1 pher1 taut iteon4 ,pater's translation3 we must just go where the argument carries us1 as a vessel runs before the wind4 ,plato1 ,republic #cid;d4 #ahg4 ,transliteration3 epistm4 ,liddell and ,scott definition #a4 knowledge1 understanding1 skill1 experience1 wisdom2 #b4 scientific knowledge4 #ahi4 ,transliteration3 ,kindyneuei4 ,pater's translation3 it may chance to be4 #aij4 ,transliteration3 theria4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 a looking at1 viewing1 beholding 4 4 4 contemplation1 reflection4 ,pater defines it in ,platonic terms as immediate intuition4 ,for example1 ,plato1 ,republic #dhf;a4 #aij4 ,transliteration3 apokamnn4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 growing quite weary4 ,see1 for example1 ,plato1 ,protagoras #ccc;b4 #aia4 ,transliteration3 megalopreps4 ,liddell and ,scott definition _/ ,e- text editor's translation3 liberally4 ,the exchange between ,thrasymachus and ,socrates to which ,pater refers begins at ,republic #cde;b4 #aib4 ,transliteration3 ,dialogos peirastikos4 ,pater's translation3 a ,dialogue of search4 #aie4 ,transliteration3 kosmos4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 ,i4 #a4 order2 #b4 good order1 good behaviour1 decency2 #c4 a set form or order3 of states1 government2 #d4 the mode or fashion of a thing2 ,,ii4 an ornament4 4 42 ,,iii4 the world or universe1 from its perfect arrangement4 ,,chapter #h3 ,,lacedaemon #aig ,,among the ,greeks1 philosophy has flourished longest1 and is still most abundant1 at ,crete and ,lacedaemon2 and there there are more teachers of philosophy than anywhere else in the world4 ,but the ,lacedaemonians deny this1 and pretend to be unlearned people1 lest it should become manifest that it is through philosophy they are supreme in ,greece2 that they may be thought to owe their supremacy to their fighting and manly spirit1 for they think that if the means of their superiority were made known all the ,greeks would practise this4 ,but now1 by keeping it a secret1 they have succeeded in misleading the ,laconisers in the various cities of ,greece2 and in imitation of them these people buffet themselves1 and practise gymnastics1 and put on boxing-gloves1 and wear short cloaks1 as if it were by such things that the ,lacedaemonians excel all other ,greeks4 ,but the ,lacedaemonians1 when they wish to have intercourse with their philosophers without reserve1 and are weary of going to them by stealth1 make legal proclamation that those ,laconisers should depart1 with any other aliens who may be sojourning among them1 and thereupon betake themselves to their sophists unobserved by strangers4 ,and you may know that what ,i say is true1 and that the ,lacedaemonians are better instructed than all other people in philosophy and the art of discussion in this way4 ,if any one will converse with even the most insignificant of the ,lacedaemonians1 he may find him indeed in the greater part of what he says seemingly but a poor creature2 but then at some chance point in the conversation he will throw in some brief compact saying1 worthy of remark1 like a clever archer1 so that his interlocutor shall seem no better than a child4 ,of #aih this fact some both of those now living and of the ancients have been aware1 and that to ,laconise consists in the study of philosophy far rather than in the pursuit of gymnastic1 for they saw that to utter such sayings as those was only possible for a perfectly educated man4 ,of these was ,thales of ,miletus1 ,pittacus of ,mytilene1 ,bias the ,prienean1 and our own ,solon1 ,cleobulus the ,lindian1 and ,myson of ,chen1 and the seventh among them was called ,chilon1 a ,lacedaemonian4 ,these were all zealous lovers and disciples of the culture of the ,lacedaemonians4 ,and any one may understand that their philosophy was something of this kind1 short rememberable sayings uttered by each of them4 ,they met together and offered these in common1 as the first fruits of philosophy1 to ,apollo in his temple at ,delphi1 and they wrote upon the walls these sayings known and read of all men3 ,gnthi sauton and ,mden agan4 ,protagoras1 #cdc4 ,of course there is something in that of the romance to which the genius of ,plato readily inclined him2 something also of the ,platonic humour or irony1 which suggests1 for example1 to ,meno1 so anxious to be instructed in the theory of virtue1 that the philosophic temper must be departed from ,attica1 its natural home1 to ,thessaly--to the rude northern capital whence that ingenuous youth was freshly arrived4 ,partly romantic1 partly humorous1 in his ,laconism1 ,plato is however quite serious in locating a certain spirit at ,lacedaemon of which his own ideal ,republic would have been the completer development2 while the picture he draws of it presents many a detail taken straight from ,lacedaemon as it really was1 as if by an admiring visitor1 who had in person paced the streets of the ,dorian metropolis it was so difficult for any #aii alien to enter4 ,what was actually known of that stern place1 of the ,lacedaemonians at home1 at school1 had charmed into fancies about it other philosophic theorists2 ,xenophon for instance1 who had little or nothing of romantic tendency about them4 ,and there was another sort of romancing also1 quite opposite to this of ,plato1 concerning the hard ways among themselves of those ,lacedaemonians who were so invincible in the field4 ,the ,lacedaemonians1 says ,pausanias1 appear to have admired least of all people poetry and the praise which it bestows4 ,at ,lacedaemon there is more philosophy than anywhere else in the world1 is what ,plato1 or the ,platonic ,socrates1 had said4 ,yet1 on the contrary1 there were some who alleged that true ,lacedaemonians--,lacedaemonian nobles--for their protection against the effeminacies of culture1 were denied all knowledge of reading and writing4 ,but then we know that written books are properly a mere assistant1 sometimes1 as ,plato himself suggests1 a treacherous assistant1 to memory2 those conservative ,lacedaemonians being1 so to speak1 the people of memory pre-eminently1 and very appropriately1 for1 whether or not they were taught to read and write1 they were acknowledged adepts in the ,pythagorean philosophy1 a philosophy which attributes to memory so preponderating a function in the mental life4 ,writing1 says ,k4 ,o4 ,mller in his laborious1 #bjj yet1 in spite of its air of coldness1 passably romantic work on ,the ,dorians--an author whose quiet enthusiasm for his subject resulted indeed in a patient scholarship which well befits it3 ,writing1 he says1 was not essential in a nation where laws1 hymns1 and the praises of illustrious men--that is1 jurisprudence and history--were taught in their schools of music4 ,music1 which is or ought to be1 as we know1 according to those ,pythagorean doctrines1 itself the essence of all things1 was everywhere in the ,perfect ,city of ,plato2 and among the ,lacedaemonians also1 who may be thought to have come within measurable distance of that ,perfect ,city1 though with no conscious theories about it1 music 7mousik7 in the larger sense of the word1 was everywhere1 not to alleviate only but actually to promote and inform1 to be the very substance of their so strenuous and taxing habit of life4 ,what was this music1 this service or culture of the ,muses1 this harmony1 partly moral1 doubtless1 but also throughout a matter of elaborate movement of the voice1 of musical instruments1 of all beside that could in any way be associated to such things--this music1 for the maintenance1 the perpetual sense of which those vigorous souls were ready to sacrifice so many opportunities1 privileges1 enjoyments of a different sort1 so much of their ease1 of themselves1 of one another8 ,platonism is a highly conscious reassertion #bja of one of the two constituent elements in the ,hellenic genius1 of the spirit of the highlands namely in which the early ,dorian forefathers of the ,lacedaemonians had secreted their peculiar disposition1 in contrast with the mobile1 the marine and fluid temper of the littoral ,ionian people4 ,the ,republic of ,plato is an embodiment of that ,platonic reassertion or preference1 of ,platonism1 as the principle of a society1 ideal enough indeed1 yet in various degrees practicable4 ,it is not understood by ,plato to be an erection de novo1 and therefore only on paper4 ,its foundations might be laid in certain practicable changes to be enforced in the old schools1 in a certain reformed music which must be taught there1 and would float thence into the existing homes of ,greece1 under the shadow of its old temples1 the sanction of its old religion1 its old memories1 the old names of things4 ,given the central idea1 with its essentially renovating power1 the well-worn elements of society as it is would rebuild themselves1 and a new colour come gradually over all things as the proper expression of a certain new mind in them4 ,and in fact such embodiments of the specially ,hellenic element in ,hellenism1 compacted in the natural course of political development1 there had been1 though in a less ideal form1 in those many ,dorian constitutions to which ,aristotle refers4 ,to ,lacedaemon1 in ,the ,republic itself1 admiring allusions abound1 covert1 yet bold #bjb enough1 if we remember the existing rivalry between ,athens and her neighbour2 and it becomes therefore a help in the study of ,plato's political ideal to approach as near as we may to that earlier actual embodiment of its principles1 which is also very interesting in itself4 ,the ,platonic ,city of the ,perfect would not have been cut clean away from the old roots of national life3 would have had many links with the beautiful and venerable ,greek cities of past and present4 ,the ideal1 poetic or romantic as it might seem1 would but have begun where they had left off1 where ,lacedaemon1 in particular1 had left off4 ,let us then1 by way of realising the better the physiognomy of ,plato's theoretic building1 suppose some contemporary student of ,the ,republic1 a pupil1 say6 in the ,athenian ,academy1 determined to gaze on the actual face of what has so strong a family likeness to it4 ,stimulated by his master's unconcealed ,laconism1 his approval of contemporary ,lacedaemon1 he is at the pains to journey thither1 and make personal inspection of a place1 in ,plato's general commendations of which he may suspect some humour or irony1 but which has unmistakably lent many a detail to his ideal ,republic1 on paper1 or in thought4 ,he would have found it1 this youthful ,anacharsis1 hard to get there1 partly through the nature of the country1 in part because the people of ,lacedaemon 7it was a point of system with them1 as we heard just now7 were suspicious of #bjc foreigners4 ,romantic dealers in political theory at ,athens were safe in saying pretty much what they pleased about its domestic doings4 ,still1 not so far away1 made1 not in idea and by the movements of an abstract argument1 the mere strokes of a philosophic pen1 but solidified by constancy of character1 fortified anew on emergency by heroic deeds1 for itself1 for the whole of ,greece1 though with such persistent hold throughout on an idea1 or system of ideas1 that it might seem actually to have come ready-made from the mind of some half-divine ,lycurgus1 or through him from ,apollo himself1 creator of that music of which it was an example3--there1 in the hidden valley of the ,eurotas1 it was to be found1 as a visible centre of actual human life1 the place which was alleged to have come1 harsh paradox as it might sound to ,athenian ears1 within measurable distance of civic perfection1 of the political and social ideal4 ,our youthful academic adventurer then1 making his way along those difficult roads1 between the ridges of the ,eastern ,acadian ,mountains1 and emerging at last into hollow ,laconia1 would have found himself in a country carefully made the most of by the labour of serfs2 a land of slavery1 far more relentlessly organised according to law than anywhere else in ,greece1 where1 in truth1 for the most part slavery was a kind of accident4 ,but whatever rigours these slaves of ,laconia were otherwise subjected to1 they #bjd enjoyed certainly that kind of well- being which does come of organisation1 from the order and regularity of system1 living under central military authority1 and bound themselves to military service2 to furnish 7as under later feudal institutions7 so many efficient men-at-arms on demand1 and maintain themselves in readiness for war as they laboured in those distantly-scattered farms1 seldom visited by their true masters from ,lacedaemon1 whither year by year they sent in kind their heavy tribute of oil1 barley and wine4 ,the very genius of conservatism here enthroned1 secured1 we may be sure1 to this old-fashioned country life something of the personal dignity1 of the enjoyments also1 natural to it2 somewhat livelier religious feasts1 for example1 than their lords allowed themselves4 ,stray echoes of their boisterous plebeian mirth on such occasions have reached us in ,greek literature4 ,but if the traveller had penetrated a little more closely he would have been told certain startling stories1 with at least a basis of truth in them1 even as regards the age of ,plato4 ,these slaves were ,greeks3 no rude ,scythians1 nor crouching1 decrepit ,asiatics1 like ordinary prisoners of war1 the sort of slaves you could buy1 but genuine ,greeks1 speaking their native tongue1 if with less of muscular tension and energy1 yet probably with pleasanter voice and accent than their essentially highland masters4 ,physically they throve1 under something of the same discipline which had made #bje those masters the masters also of all ,greece4 ,they saw them now and then--their younger lords1 brought1 under strict tutelage1 on those long hunting expeditions1 one of their so rare enjoyments1 prescribed for them1 as was believed1 by the founder of their polity4 ,but sometimes 7here was the report which made one shudder even in broad daylight1 in those seemingly reposeful places7 sometimes those young nobles of ,lacedaemon reached them on a different kind of pursuit3 came by night1 secretly1 though by no means contrarily to the laws of a state crafty as it was determined1 to murder them at home1 or a certain moiety of them2 one here or there perhaps who1 with good ,achaean blood in his veins1 and under a wholesome mode of life1 was grown too tall1 or too handsome1 or too fruitful a father1 to feel quite like a slave4 ,under a sort of slavery that makes him strong and beautiful1 where personal beauty was so greatly prized1 his masters are in fact jealous of him4 ,but masters thus hard to others1 these ,lacedaemonians1 as we know1 were the reverse of indulgent to themselves4 ,while1 as a matter of theory1 power and privilege belonged exclusively to the old1 to the seniors 7hoi gerontes1 h gerousia7 ruling by a council wherein no question might be discussed1 one might only deliver one's ,aye6 or ,no6 ,lacedaemon was in truth before all things an organised place of discipline1 an organised #bjf opportunity also1 for youth1 for the sort of youth that knew how to command by serving--a constant exhibition of youthful courage1 youthful self-respect1 yet above all of true youthful docility2 youth thus committing itself absolutely1 soul and body1 to a corporate sentiment in its very sports4 ,there was a third sort of regulation visits the lads of ,lacedaemon were driven to pay to those country places1 the vales1 the uplands1 when1 to brace youthful stomachs and develope resource1 they came at stated intervals as a kind of mendicants or thieves1 feet and head uncovered through frost and heat1 to steal their sustenance1 under penalties if detected--a survival1 as anthropologists would doubtless prove1 pointing out collateral illustrations of the same1 from a world of purely animal courage and keenness4 ,whips and rods used in a kind of monitorial system by themselves had a great part in the education of these young aristocrats1 and1 as pain surely must do1 pain not of bodily disease or wretched accidents1 but as it were by dignified rules of art1 seem to have refined them1 to have made them observant of the minutest direction in those musical exercises1 wherein eye and ear and voice and foot all alike combined4 ,there could be nothing paraleipomenon1 as ,plato says1 no oversights1 here4 ,no6 every one1 at every moment1 quite at his best2 and1 observe especially1 with no superfluities2 seeing that when we have to do with music of any kind1 with matters of art1 in stone1 in words1 #bjg in the actions of life1 all superfluities are in very truth superfluities of naughtiness1 such as annihilate music4 ,the country through which our young traveller from his laxer school of ,athens seeks his way to ,lacedaemon1 this land of a noble slavery1 so peacefully occupied but for those irregular nocturnal terrors1 was perhaps the loveliest in ,greece1 with that peculiarly blent loveliness1 in which1 as at ,florence1 the expression of a luxurious lowland is duly checked by the severity of its mountain barriers4 ,it was a type of the ,dorian purpose in life--sternness1 like sea-water infused into wine1 overtaking a matter naturally rich1 at the moment when fulness may lose its savour and expression4 ,amid the corn and oleanders--corn so tall1 close1 and luxuriant1 as the modern traveller there still finds--it was visible at last1 ,lacedaemon1 koil ,spart1 hollow ,sparta1 under the sheltering walls of ,taygetus1 the broken and rugged forms of which were attributed to earthquake1 but without proper walls of its own4 ,in that natural fastness1 or trap1 or falcon's nest1 it had no need of them1 the falcon of the land1 with the hamlets 7polichnia7 a hundred and more1 dispersed over it1 in jealously enforced seclusion from one another4 ,from the first he notes the antiquated appearance of ,lacedaemon1 by no means a growing place1 always rebuilding1 remodelling itself1 after the newest fashion1 with shapeless suburbs #bjh stretching farther and farther on every side of it1 grown too large perhaps1 as ,plato threatens1 to be a body1 a corporate unity1 at all3 not that1 but still1 and to the last1 itself only a great village1 a solemn1 ancient1 mountain village4 ,even here of course there had been movement1 some sort of progress1 if so it is to be called1 linking limb to limb2 but long ago4 ,originally a union1 after the manner of early ,rome1 of perhaps three or four neighbouring villages which had never lost their physiognomy1 like ,rome it occupied a group of irregular heights1 the outermost roots of ,taygetus1 on the bank of a river or mountain torrent1 impetuous enough in winter1 a series of wide shallows and deep pools in the blazing summer4 ,it was every day however1 all the year round1 that ,lacedaemonian youth plunged itself in the ,eurotas4 ,hence1 from this circumstance of the union there of originally disparate parts1 the picturesque and expressive irregularity1 had they had time to think it such1 of the city properly so termed1 the one open place or street1 ,high ,street1 or ,corso--,aphetais by name1 lined1 irregularly again1 with various religious and other monuments4 ,it radiated on all sides into a mazy coil1 an ambush1 of narrow crooked lanes1 up and down1 in which attack and defence would necessarily be a matter of hand-to-hand fighting4 ,in the outskirts lay the citizens' houses1 roomier far than those of ,athens1 with spacious1 walled courts1 almost in the country4 ,here1 in contrast #bji to the homes of ,athens1 the legitimate wife had a real dignity1 the unmarried woman a singular freedom4 ,there were no door-knockers3 you shouted at the outer gate to be let in4 ,between the high walls lanes passed into country roads1 sacred ways to ancient sacro-sanct localities1 ,therapnae1 ,amyclae1 on this side or that1 under the shade of mighty plane-trees4 ,plato1 as you may remember1 gives a hint that1 like all other visible things1 the very trees--how they grow--exercise an aesthetic influence on character4 ,the diligent legislator therefore would have his preferences1 even in this matter of the trees under which the citizens of the ,perfect ,city might sit down to rest4 ,what trees8 you wonder4 ,the olive8 the laurel1 as if wrought in grandiose metal8 the cypress8 that came to a wonderful height in ,dorian ,crete3 the oak8 we think it very expressive of strenuous national character4 ,well6 certainly the plane-tree for one1 characteristic tree of ,lacedaemon then and now2 a very tranquil and tranquillising object1 spreading its level or gravely curved masses on the air as regally as the tree of ,lebanon itself4 ,a vast grove of such was the distinguishing mark of ,lacedaemon in any distant view of it2 that1 and1 as at ,athens1 a colossal image1 older than the days of ,phidias--the ,demos of ,lacedaemon1 it would seem1 towering visibly above the people it protected4 ,below those mighty trees1 on an island in their national river1 #baj were the playing- fields1 where ,lacedaemonian youth after sacrifice in the ,ephebeum delighted others rather than itself 7no shirking was allowed7 with a sort of football1 under rigorous self-imposed rules--tearing1 biting--a sport1 rougher even than our own1 et mme trs dangereux1 as our ,attic neighbours1 the ,french1 say of the ,english game4 ,they were orderly enough perforce1 the boys1 the young men1 within the city--seen1 but not heard1 except under regulations1 when they made the best music in the world4 ,our visitor from ,athens when he saw those youthful soldiers1 or military students1 as ,xenophon in his pretty treatise on the polity of ,lacedaemon describes1 walking with downcast eyes1 their hands meekly hidden in their cloaks1 might have thought them young monks1 had he known of such4 ,a little mountain town1 however ambitious1 however successful in its ambition1 would hardly be expected to compete with ,athens1 or ,corinth1 itself a ,dorian state1 in art-production1 yet had not only its characteristic preferences in this matter1 in plastic and literary art1 but had also many venerable and beautiful buildings to show4 ,the ,athenian visitor1 who is standing now in the central space of ,lacedaemon1 notes here1 as being a trait also of the ,perfect ,city of academic theory1 that precisely because these people find themselves very susceptible to the #baa influences of form and colour and sound1 to external aesthetic influence1 but have withal a special purpose1 a certain strongly conceived disciplinary or ethic ideal1 that therefore a peculiar humour prevails among them1 a self-denying humour1 in regard to these things4 ,those ancient ,pelopid princes1 from whom the hereditary kings of historic ,lacedaemon1 come back from exile into their old home1 claim to be descended1 had had their palaces1 with a certain ,homeric1 ,asiatic splendour1 of wrought metal and the like2 considerable relics of which still remained1 but as public or sacred property now4 ,at the time when ,plato's scholar stands before them1 the houses of these later historic kings--two kings1 as you remember1 always reigning together1 in some not quite clearly evolved differentiation of the temporal and spiritual functions--were plain enough2 the royal doors1 when beggar or courtier approached them1 no daintier than ,lycurgus had prescribed for all true ,lacedaemonian citizens2 rude1 strange things to look at1 fashioned only1 like the ceilings within1 with axe and saw1 of old mountain oak or pine from those great ,taygetan forests1 whence came also the abundant iron1 which this stern people of iron and steel had super-induced on that earlier dreamy age of silver and gold--steel1 however1 admirably tempered and wrought in its application to military use1 and much sought after throughout ,greece4 ,layer upon layer1 the relics of those earlier #bab generations1 a whole succession of remarkable races1 lay beneath the strenuous footsteps of the present occupants1 as there was old poetic legend in the depths of their seemingly so practical or prosaic souls4 ,nor beneath their feet only3 the relics of their worship1 their sanctuaries1 their tombs1 their very houses1 were part of the scenery of actual life4 ,our young ,platonic visitor from ,athens1 climbing through those narrow winding lanes1 and standing at length on the open platform of the ,aphetais1 finds himself surrounded by treasures1 modest treasures of ancient architecture1 dotted irregularly here and there about him1 as if with conscious design upon picturesque effect1 such irregularities sometimes carrying in them the secret of expression1 an accent4 ,old ,alcman for one had been alive to the poetic opportunities of the place2 boasts that he belongs to ,lacedaemon1 abounding in sacred tripods2 that it was here the ,heliconian ,muses had revealed themselves to him4 ,if the private abodes even of royalty were rude it was only that the splendour of places dedicated to religion and the state might the more abound4 ,most splendid of them all1 the ,stoa ,poekile1 a cloister or portico with painted walls1 to which the spoils of the ,persian war had been devoted1 ranged its pillars of white marble on one side of the central space3 on the other1 connecting those high memories with the task of the living1 lay the ,choros1 where1 at the ,gymnopaedia1 the ,spartan youth danced in honour of ,apollo4 #bac ,scattered up and down among the monuments of victory in battle were the heroa1 tombs or chapels of the heroes who had purchased it with their blood--,pausanias1 ,leonidas1 brought home from ,thermopylae forty years after his death4 ,a pillar too1 says ,pausanias1 is erected here1 on which the paternal names are inscribed of those who at ,thermopylae sustained the attack of the ,medes4 ,here in truth all deities put on a martial habit--,aphrodite1 the ,muses1 ,eros himself1 ,athene ,chalcioecus1 ,athene of the ,brazen ,house1 an antique temple towering above the rest1 built from the spoils of some victory long since forgotten4 ,the name of the artist who made the image of the tutelary goddess was remembered in the annals of early ,greek art1 ,gitiades1 a native of ,lacedaemon4 ,he had composed a hymn also in her praise4 ,could we have seen the place he had restored rather than constructed1 with its covering of mythological reliefs in brass or bronze1 perhaps ,homer's descriptions of a seemingly impossible sort of metallic architecture would have been less taxing to his reader's imagination4 ,those who in other places had lost their taste amid the facile splendours of a later day1 might here go to school again4 ,throughout ,greece1 in fact1 it was the ,doric style which came to prevail as the religious or hieratic manner1 never to be surpassed for that purpose1 as the ,gothic style seems likely to do with us4 ,though it is not exclusively the invention #bad of ,dorian men1 yet1 says ,mller1 the ,dorian character created the ,doric architecture1 and he notes in it1 especially1 the severity of the perfectly straight1 smartly tapering line of its column2 the bold projection of the capital2 the alternation of long unornamented plain surfaces with narrower bands of decorated work2 the profound shadows2 the expression of security1 of harmony1 infused throughout2 the magnificent pediment crowning the whole1 like the cornice of mountain wall beyond1 around1 and above it4 ,standing there in the ,aphetais1 amid these venerable works of art1 the visitor could not forget the natural architecture about him4 ,as the ,dorian genius had differentiated itself from the common ,hellenic type in the heart of the mountains of ,epirus1 so here at last1 in its final and most characteristic home1 it was still surrounded by them3--ophrya te kai koilainetai4 ,we know1 some of us1 what such mountain neighbourhood means4 ,the wholesome vigour1 the clearness and purity they maintain in matters such as air1 light1 water2 how their presence multiplies the contrasts1 the element of light and shadow1 in things2 the untouched perfection of the minuter ornament1 flower or crystal1 they permit one sparingly2 their reproachful aloofness1 though so close to us1 keeping sensitive minds at least in a sort of moral alliance with their remoter solitudes4 ,the whole life of the ,lacedaemonian community1 says ,mller1 #bae had a secluded1 impenetrable1 and secret character4 ,you couldn't really know it unless you were of it4 ,a system which conceived the whole of life as matter of attention1 patience1 a fidelity to detail1 like that of good soldiers and musicians1 could not but tell also on the merest handicrafts1 constituting them in the fullest sense of a craft4 ,if the money of ,sparta was1 or had recently been1 of cumbrous iron1 that was because its trade had a sufficient variety of stock to be mainly by barter1 and we may suppose the market 7into which1 like our own academic youth at ,oxford1 young ,spartans were forbidden to go7 full enough of business-- many a busy workshop in those winding lanes4 ,the lower arts certainly no true ,spartan might practise2 but even ,helots1 artisan ,helots1 would have more than was usual elsewhere of that sharpened intelligence and the disciplined hand in such labour which really dignify those who follow it4 ,in ,athens itself certain ,lacedaemonian commodities were much in demand1 things of military service or for every-day use1 turned out with flawless adaptation to their purpose4 ,the ,helots1 then1 to whom this business exclusively belonged1 a race of slaves1 distinguishable however from the slaves or serfs who tilled the land1 handing on their mastery in those matters in a kind of guild1 father to son1 through old-established families of flute- #baf players1 wine-mixers1 bakers1 and the like1 thus left their hereditary lords1 ,les ,gens ,fleur-de-liss 7to borrow an expression from ,french feudalism7 in unbroken leisure1 to perfect themselves for the proper functions of gentlemen--schol1 leisure1 in the two senses of the word1 which in truth involve one another--their whole time free1 to be told out in austere schools4 ,long easeful nights1 with more than enough to eat and drink1 the illiberal pleasures of appetite1 as ,aristotle and ,plato agree in thinking them1 are of course the appropriate reward or remedy of those who work painfully with their hands1 and seem to have been freely conceded to those ,helots1 who by concession of the ,state1 from first to last their legal owner1 were in domestic service1 and sometimes much petted in the house1 though by no means freely conceded to the golden youth of ,lacedaemon--youth of gold1 or gilded steel4 ,the traditional ,helot1 drunk perforce to disgust his young master with the coarseness of vice1 is probably a fable2 and there are other stories full of a touching spirit of natural service1 of submissiveness1 of an instinctively loyal admiration for the brilliant qualities of one trained perhaps to despise him1 by which the servitor must have become1 in his measure1 actually a sharer in them4 ,just here1 for once1 we see that slavish thos1 the servile range of sentiment1 which ought to accompany the condition of slavery1 if it be indeed1 as ,aristotle supposes1 one of the #bag natural relationships between man and man1 idealised1 or aesthetically right1 pleasant and proper2 the aret1 or best possible condition1 of the young servitor as such1 including a sort of bodily worship1 and a willingness to share the keen discipline which had developed the so attractive gallantry of his youthful lords4 ,a great wave1 successive waves1 of invasion1 sufficiently remote to have lost already all historic truth of detail1 had left them--these ,helots1 and the ,perioeci1 in the country round about--thus to serve among their own kinsmen1 though so close to them in lineage1 so much on a level with their masters in essential physical qualities that to the last they could never be entirely subdued in spirit4 ,patient modern research1 following the track of a deep-rooted national tradition veiled in the mythological figments which centre in what is called ,the ,return of the ,heraclidae1 reveals those northern immigrants or invaders1 at various points on their way1 dominant all along it1 from a certain deep vale in the heart of the mountains of ,epirus southwards1 gradually through zone after zone of more temperate lowland1 to reach their perfection1 highlanders from first to last1 in this mountain hollow of ,lacedaemon4 ,they claim supremacy1 not as ,dorian invaders1 but as kinsmen of the old ,achaean princes of the land2 yet it was to the fact of conquest1 to the necessity of #bah maintaining a position so strained1 like that1 as ,aristotle expressly pointed out1 of a beleaguered encampment in an enemy's territory1 that the singular institutions of ,lacedaemon1 the half-military1 half-monastic spirit1 which prevailed in this so gravely beautiful place1 had been originally due4 ,but observe6--,its moral and political system1 in which that slavery was so significant a factor1 its discipline1 its aesthetic and other scruples1 its peculiar moral thos1 having long before our ,platonic student comes thither attained its original and proper ends1 survived1--there is the point6 survived as an end in itself1 as a matter of sentiment1 of public and perhaps still more of personal pride1 though of the finer1 the very finest sort1 in one word as an ideal4 ,pericles1 as you remember1 in his famous vindication of the ,athenian system1 makes his hearers understand that the ends of the ,lacedaemonian people might have been attained with less self-sacrifice than theirs4 ,but still1 there it remained1 h diaita ,drik--the genuine ,laconism of the ,lacedaemonians themselves1 their traditional conception of life1 with its earnestness1 its precision and strength1 its loyalty to its own type1 its impassioned completeness2 a spectacle1 aesthetically1 at least1 very interesting1 like some perfect instrument shaping to what they visibly were1 the most beautiful of all people1 in ,greece1 in the world4 ,gymnastic1 bodily exercise1 of course1 does #bai not always and necessarily effect the like of that4 ,a certain perfectly preserved old ,roman mosaic pavement in the ,lateran ,museum1 presents a terribly fresh picture of the results of another sort of training1 the monstrous development by a cruel art1 by exercise1 of this or that muscle1 changing boy or man into a merely mechanic instrument with which his breeders might make money by amusing the ,roman people4 ,victor ,hugo's odious dream of ,l'homme qui rit1 must have had something of a prototype among those old ,roman gladiators4 ,the ,lacedaemonians1 says ,xenophon on the other hand1 homois apo te tn skeln kai apo cheirn kai apo trachlou gymnazontai4 ,here too1 that is to say1 they aimed at1 they found1 proportion1 ,pythagorean symmetry or music1 and bold as they could be in their exercises 7it was a ,lacedaemonian who1 at ,olympia1 for the first time threw aside the heavy girdle and ran naked to the goal7 forbade all that was likely to disfigure the body4 ,though we must not suppose all ties of nature rent asunder1 nor all connexion between parents and children in those genial1 retired houses at an end in very early life1 it was yet a strictly public education which began with them betimes1 and with a very clearly defined programme1 conservative of ancient traditional and unwritten rules1 an aristocratic education for the few1 the liberales--liberals1 as we may say1 in that the proper sense of the word4 ,it made them1 in #bbj very deed1 the lords1 the masters1 of those they were meant by-and-by to rule2 masters1 of their very souls1 of their imagination1 enforcing on them an ideal1 by a sort of spiritual authority1 thus backing1 or backed by1 a very effective organisation of the power of the sword4 ,in speaking of ,lacedaemon1 you see1 it comes naturally to speak out of proportion1 it might seem1 of its youth1 and of the education of its youth4 ,but in fact if you enter into the spirit of ,lacedaemonian youth1 you may conceive ,lacedaemonian manhood for yourselves4 ,you divine already what the boy1 the youth1 so late in obtaining his majority1 in becoming a man1 came to be in the action of life1 and on the battle-field4 ,in a ,doric state1 says ,mller1 education was1 on the whole1 a matter of more importance than government4 ,a young ,lacedaemonian1 then1 of the privileged class left his home1 his tender nurses in those large1 quiet old suburban houses early1 for a public school1 a schooling all the stricter as years went on1 to be followed1 even so1 by a peculiar kind of barrack-life1 the temper of which1 a sort of military monasticism 7it must be repeated7 would beset him to the end4 ,though in the gymnasia of ,lacedaemon no idle by- standers1 no--well6 ,platonic loungers after truth or what not--were permitted1 yet we are told1 neither there nor in ,sparta generally1 neither there nor anywhere else1 were the boys permitted #bba to be alone4 ,if a certain love of reserve1 of seclusion1 characterised the ,spartan citizen as such1 it was perhaps the cicatrice of that wrench from a soft home into the imperative1 inevitable gaze of his fellows1 broad1 searching1 minute1 his regret for1 his desire to regain1 moral and mental even more than physical ease4 ,and his education continued late2 he could seldom think of marriage till the age of thirty4 ,ethically it aimed at the reality1 aesthetically at the expression1 of reserved power1 and from the first set its subject on the thought of his personal dignity1 of self-command1 in the artistic way of a good musician1 a good soldier4 ,it is noted that the general accent of the ,doric dialect has itself the character not of question or entreaty1 but of command or dictation4 ,the place of deference1 of obedience1 was large in the education of ,lacedaemonian youth2 and they never complained4 ,it involved however for the most part1 as with ourselves1 the government of youth by itself2 an implicit subordination of the younger to the older1 in many degrees4 ,quite early in life1 at school1 they found that superiors and inferiors1 homoioi and hypomeiones1 there really were2 and their education proceeded with systematic boldness on that fact4 ,eirn1 melleirn1 sideuns1 and the like--words1 titles1 which indicate an unflinching elaboration of the attitudes of youthful subordination and command with responsibility--remain as a part of what we might #bbb call their public-school slang4 ,they ate together in their divisions 7agelai7 on much the same fare every day at a sort of messes2 not reclined1 like ,ionians or ,asiatics1 but like heroes1 the princely males1 in ,homer1 sitting upright on their wooden benches2 were inspected frequently1 and by free use of viv voce examination became adepts in presence of mind1 in mental readiness and vigour1 in the brief mode of speech ,plato commends1 which took and has kept its name from them2 with no warm baths allowed2 a daily plunge in their river required4 ,yes6 ,the beauty of these most beautiful of all people was a male beauty1 far remote from feminine tenderness2 had the expression of a certain ascsis in it2 was like un-sweetened wine4 ,in comparison with it1 beauty of another type might seem to be wanting in edge or accent4 ,and they could be silent4 ,of the positive uses of the negation of speech1 like genuine scholars of ,pythagoras1 the ,lacedaemonians were well aware1 gaining strength and intensity by repression4 ,long spaces of enforced silence had doubtless something to do with that expressive brevity of utterance1 which could be also1 when they cared1 so inexpressive of what their intentions really were--something to do with the habit of mind to which such speaking would come naturally4 ,in contrast with the ceaseless prattle of ,athens1 ,lacedaemonian assemblies lasted as short a time as possible1 all standing4 ,a #bbc ,lacedaemonian ambassador being asked in whose name he was come1 replies3 ,in the name of the ,state1 if ,i succeed2 if ,i fail1 in my own4 ,what they lost in extension they gained in depth4 ,had our traveller been tempted to ask a young ,lacedaemonian to return his visit at ,athens1 permission would have been refused him4 ,he belonged to a community bent above all things on keeping indelibly its own proper colour4 ,its more strictly mental education centered1 in fact1 upon a faithful training of the memory1 again in the spirit of ,pythagoras1 in regard to what seemed best worth remembering4 ,hard and practical as ,lacedaemonians might seem1 they lived nevertheless very much by imagination2 and to train the memory1 to preoccupy their minds with the past1 as in our own classic or historic culture of youth1 was in reality to develope a vigorous imagination4 ,in music 7mousik7 as they conceived it1 there would be no strictly selfish reading1 writing or listening2 and if there was little a ,lacedaemonian lad had to read or write at all1 he had much to learn1 like a true conservative1 by heart3 those unwritten laws of which the ,council of ,elders was the authorised depositary1 and on which the whole public procedure of the state depended2 the archaic forms of religious worship2 the names of their kings1 of victors in their games or in battle2 the brief record of great events2 the oracles they had received2 the rhetrai1 from #bbd ,lycurgus downwards1 composed in metrical ,lacedaemonian ,greek2 their history and law1 in short1 actually set to music1 by ,terpander and others1 as was said4 ,what the ,lacedaemonian learned by heart he was for the most part to sing1 and we catch a glimpse1 an echo1 of their boys in school chanting2 one of the things in old ,greece one would have liked best to see and hear--youthful beauty and strength in perfect service--a manifestation of the true and genuine ,hellenism1 though it may make one think of the novices at school in some ,gothic cloister1 of our own old ,english schools1 nay1 of the young ,lacedaemonian's cousins at ,sion1 singing there the law and its praises4 ,the ,platonic student of the ways of the ,lacedaemonians observes then1 is interested in observing1 that their education1 which indeed makes no sharp distinction between mental and bodily exercise1 results as it had begun in music--ends with body1 mind1 memory above all1 at their finest1 on great show-days1 in the dance4 ,austere1 self-denying ,lacedaemon had in fact one of the largest theatres in ,greece1 in part scooped out boldly on the hill-side1 built partly of enormous blocks of stone1 the foundations of which may still be seen4 ,we read what ,plato says in ,the ,republic of imitations1 of the imitative arts1 imitation reaching of course its largest development on the stage1 and are perhaps surprised at the importance he assigns1 in every department of #bbe human culture1 to a matter of that kind4 ,but here as elsewhere to see was to understand4 ,we should have understood ,plato's drift in his long criticism and defence of imitative art1 his careful system of rules concerning it1 could we have seen the famous dramatic ,lacedaemonian dancing4 ,they danced a theme1 a subject4 ,a complex and elaborate art this must necessarily have been1 but1 as we may gather1 as concise1 direct1 economically expressive1 in all its varied sound and motion1 as those swift1 lightly girt1 impromptu ,lacedaemonian sayings4 ,with no movement of voice or hand or foot1 paraleipomenon1 unconsidered1 as ,plato forbids1 it was the perfect flower of their correction1 of that minute patience and care which ends in a perfect expressiveness2 not a note1 a glance1 a touch1 but told obediently in the promotion of a firmly grasped mental conception1 as in that perfect poetry or sculpture or painting1 in which the finger of the master is on every part of his work4 ,we have nothing really like it1 and to comprehend it must remember that1 though it took place in part at least on the stage of a theatre--was in fact a ballet-dance1 it had also the character both of a liturgical service and of a military inspection2 and yet1 in spite of its severity of rule1 was a natural expression of the delight of all who took part in it4 ,so perfect a spectacle the gods themselves might be thought pleased to witness2 were in #bbf consequence presented with it as an important element in the religious worship of the ,lacedaemonians1 in whose life religion had even a larger part than with the other ,greeks1 conspicuously religious1 deisidaimones1 involved in religion or superstition1 as the ,greeks generally were4 ,more closely even than their so scrupulous neighbours they associated the state1 its acts and officers1 with a religious sanction1 religious usages1 theories1 traditions4 ,while the responsibilities of secular government lay upon the ,ephors1 those mysteriously dual1 at first sight useless1 and yet so sanctimoniously observed kings1 of the house of ,heracles1 with something of the splendour of the old ,achaean or ,homeric kings1 in life as also in death1 the splendid funerals1 the passionate archaic laments which then followed them1 were in fact of spiritual or priestly rank1 the living and active centre of a poetic religious system1 binding them in a beneficent connexion to the past1 and in the present with special closeness to the oracle of ,delphi4 ,of that catholic or general centre of ,greek religion the ,lacedaemonians were the hereditary and privileged guardians1 as also the peculiar people of ,apollo1 the god of ,delphi2 but1 observe6 of ,apollo in a peculiar development of his deity4 ,in the dramatic business of ,lacedaemon1 centering in these almost liturgical dances1 there was little comic acting4 ,the fondness of the slaves for buffoonery and loud #bbg laughter1 was to their master1 who had no taste for the like1 a reassuring note of his superiority4 ,he therefore indulged them in it on occasion1 and you might fancy that the religion of a people so strenuous1 ever so full of their dignity1 must have been a religion of gloom4 ,it was otherwise4 ,the ,lacedaemonians1 like those monastic persons of whom they so often remind one1 as a matter of fact however surprising1 were a very cheerful people2 and the religion of which they had so much1 deeply imbued everywhere with an optimism as of hopeful youth1 encouraged that disposition1 was above all a religion of sanity4 ,the observant ,platonic visitor might have taken note that something of that purgation of religious thought and sentiment1 of its expression in literature1 recommended in ,plato's ,republic1 had been already quietly effected here1 towards the establishment of a kind of cheerful daylight in men's tempers4 ,in furtherance then of such a religion of sanity1 of that harmony of functions1 which is the ,aristotelian definition of health1 ,apollo1 sanest of the national gods1 became also the tribal or home god of ,lacedaemon4 ,that common ,greek worship of ,apollo they made especially their own1 but 7just here is the noticeable point7 with a marked preference for the human element in him1 for the mental powers of his being over those elemental or physical forces of production1 which he also mystically represents1 and which resulted #bbh sometimes in an orgiastic1 an unintellectual1 or even an immoral service4 ,he remains youthful and unmarried4 ,in congruity with this1 it is observed that1 in a quasi-,roman worship1 abstract qualities and relationships1 ideals1 become subsidiary objects of religious consideration around him1 such as sleep1 death1 fear1 fortune1 laughter even4 ,nay1 other gods also are1 so to speak1 ,apollinised1 adapted to the ,apolline presence2 ,aphrodite armed1 ,enyalius in fetters1 perhaps that he may never depart thence4 ,amateurs everywhere of the virile element in life1 the ,lacedaemonians1 in truth1 impart to all things an intellectual character4 ,adding a vigorous logic to seemingly animal instincts1 for them courage itself becomes1 as for the strictly philosophic mind at ,athens1 with ,plato and ,aristotle1 an intellectual condition1 a form of right knowledge4 ,such assertion of the consciously human interest in a religion based originally on a preoccupation with the unconscious forces of nature1 was exemplified in the great religious festival of ,lacedaemon4 ,as a spectator of the ,hyacinthia1 our ,platonic student would have found himself one of a large body of strangers1 gathered together from ,lacedaemon and its dependent towns and villages1 within the ancient precincts of ,amyclae1 at the season between spring and summer when under the first fierce heat of the year the abundant hyacinths fade from the fields4 ,blue flowers1 #bbi you remember1 are the rarest1 to many eyes the loveliest2 and the ,lacedaemonians with their guests were met together to celebrate the death of the hapless lad who had lent his name to them1 ,hyacinthus1 son of ,apollo1 or son of an ancient mortal king who had reigned in this very place2 in either case1 greatly beloved of the god1 who had slain him by sad accident as they played at quoits together delightfully1 to his immense sorrow4 ,that ,boreas 7the north-wind7 had maliciously miscarried the discus1 is a circumstance we hardly need to remind us that we have here1 of course1 only one of many transparent1 unmistakable1 parables or symbols of the great solar change1 so sudden in the south1 like the story of ,proserpine1 ,adonis1 and the like4 ,but here1 more completely perhaps than in any other of those stories1 the primary elemental sense had obscured itself behind its really tragic analogue in human life1 behind the figure of the dying youth4 ,we know little of the details of the feast2 incidentally1 that ,apollo was vested on the occasion in a purple robe1 brought in ceremony from ,lacedaemon1 woven there1 ,pausanias tells us1 in a certain house called from that circumstance ,chiton4 ,you may remember how sparing these ,lacedaemonians were of such dyed raiment1 of any but the natural and virgin colouring of the fleece2 that purple or red1 however1 was the colour of their royal funerals1 as indeed ,amyclae itself was famous for purple stuffs--,amyclaeae vestes4 ,as #bcj the general order of the feast1 we discern clearly a single day of somewhat shrill gaiety1 between two days of significant mourning after the manner of ,all ,souls' ,day1 directed from mimic grief for a mythic object1 to a really sorrowful commemoration by the whole ,lacedaemonian people--each separate family for its own deceased members4 ,it was so again with those other youthful demi-gods1 the ,dioscuri1 themselves also1 in old heroic time1 resident in this venerable place3 ,amyclaei fratres1 fraternal leaders of the ,lacedaemonian people4 ,their statues at this date were numerous in ,laconia1 or the docana1 primitive symbols of them1 those two upright beams of wood1 carried to battle before the two kings1 until it happened that through their secret enmity a certain battle was lost1 after which one king only proceeded to the field1 and one part only of that token of fraternity1 the other remaining at ,sparta4 ,well6 they were two stars1 you know1 at their original birth in men's minds1 ,gemini1 virginal fresh stars of dawn1 rising and setting alternately--those two half-earthly1 half-celestial brothers1 one of whom1 ,polydeuces1 was immortal4 ,the other1 ,castor1 the younger1 subject to old age and death1 had fallen in battle1 was found breathing his last4 ,polydeuces thereupon1 at his own prayer1 was permitted to die3 with undying fraternal affection1 had forgone one moiety of his privilege1 and lay in the grave for a day in his #bca brother's stead1 but shone out again on the morrow2 the brothers thus ever coming and going1 interchangeably1 but both alike gifted now with immortal youth4 ,in their origin1 then1 very obviously elemental deities1 they were thus become almost wholly humanised1 fraternised with the ,lacedaemonian people1 their closest friends of the whole celestial company1 visitors1 as fond legend told1 at their very hearths1 found warming themselves in the half-light at their rude fire-sides4 ,themselves thus visible on occasion1 at all times in devout art1 they were the starry patrons of all that youth was proud of1 delighted in1 horsemanship1 games1 battle2 and always with that profound fraternal sentiment4 ,brothers1 comrades1 who could not live without each other1 they were the most fitting patrons of a place in which friendship1 comradeship1 like theirs1 came to so much4 ,lovers of youth they remained1 those enstarred types of it1 arrested thus at that moment of miraculous good fortune as a consecration of the clean1 youthful friendship1 passing even the love of woman1 which1 by system1 and under the sanction of their founder's name1 elaborated into a kind of art1 became an elementary part of education4 ,a part of their duty and discipline1 it was also their great solace and encouragement4 ,the beloved and the lover1 side by side through their long days of eager labour1 and above all on the battlefield1 became respectively1 aits1 the #bcb hearer1 and eispnlas1 the inspirer2 the elder inspiring the younger with his own strength and noble taste in things4 ,what1 it has been asked1 what was there to occupy persons of the privileged class in ,lacedaemon from morning to night1 thus cut off as they were from politics and business1 and many of the common interests of men's lives8 ,our ,platonic visitor would have asked rather1 ,why this strenuous task-work1 day after day2 why this loyalty to a system1 so costly to you individually1 though it may be thought to have survived its original purpose2 this laborious1 endless1 education1 which does not propose to give you anything very useful or enjoyable in itself8 ,an intelligent young ,spartan might have replied3 ,to the end that ,i myself may be a perfect work of art1 issuing thus into the eyes of all ,greece4 ,he might have observed--we may safely observe for him--that the institutions of his country1 whose he was1 had a beauty in themselves1 as we may observe also of some at least of our own institutions1 educational or religious3 that they bring out1 for instance1 the lights and shadows of human character1 and relieve the present by maintaining in it an ideal sense of the past4 ,he might have added that he had his friendships to solace him2 and to encourage him1 the sense of honour4 ,honour1 friendship1 loyalty to the ideal of the #bcc past1 himself as a work of art6 ,there was much of course in his answer4 ,yet still1 after all1 to understand1 to be capable of1 such motives1 was itself but a result of that exacting discipline of character we are trying to account for2 and the question still recurs1 ,to what purpose8 ,why1 with no prospect of ,israel's reward1 are you as scrupulous1 minute1 self- taxing1 as he8 ,a tincture of asceticism in the ,lacedaemonian rule may remind us again of the monasticism of the ,middle ,ages4 ,but then1 monastic severity was for the purging of a troubled conscience1 or for the hope of an immense prize1 neither of which conditions is to be supposed here4 ,in fact the surprise of ,saint ,paul1 as a practical man1 at the slightness of the reward for which a ,greek spent himself1 natural as it is about all pagan perfection1 is especially applicable about these ,lacedaemonians1 who indeed had actually invented that so corruptible and essentially worthless parsley crown in place of the more tangible prizes of an earlier age4 ,strange people6 ,where1 precisely1 may be the spring of action in you1 who are so severe to yourselves2 you who1 in the words of ,plato's supposed objector that the rulers of the ideal state are not to be envied1 have nothing you can really call your own1 but are like hired servants in your own houses1-- qui manducatis panem doloris8 ,another day-dream1 you may say1 about those #bcd obscure ancient people1 it was ever so difficult really to know1 who had hidden their actual life with so much success2 but certainly a quite natural dream upon the paradoxical things we are told of them1 on good authority4 ,it is because they make us ask that question2 puzzle us by a paradoxical idealism in life2 are thus distinguished from their neighbours2 that1 like some of our old ,english places of education1 though we might not care to live always at school there1 it is good to visit them on occasion2 as some philosophic ,athenians1 as we have now seen1 loved to do1 at least in thought4 ,,notes #aih4 ,transliteration3 ,gnthi sauton 4 4 4 ,mden agan4 ,e-text editor's translation3 ,know thyself 4 4 4 nothing too much4 ,plato1 ,protagoras #cdc;b4 #bjj4 ,transliteration3 mousik4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 any art over which the ,muses presided1 esp4 music or lyric poetry set and sung to music4444 #bje4 ,transliteration3 hoi gerontes1 h gerousia4 ,liddell and ,scott definitions3 the old 4 4 4 a ,council of ,elders1 ,senate1 esp4 at ,sparta1 where it consisted of #bh4 #bjf4 ,transliteration3 paraleipomenon4 ,pater's translation3 oversights4 ,the verb paraleip means1 to leave on one side 4 4 4 leave unnoticed4 #bjg4 ,transliteration3 koil ,spart4 ,pater's translation3 hollow ,sparta4 #bjg4 ,transliteration3 polichnia4 ,pater's translation3 hamlets4 #bad4 ,transliteration3 ophrya te kai koilainetai4 ,e-text editor's translation3 craggy and hollowed out4 ,strabo cites this proverb about ,corinth4 ,strabo1 ,geography1 ,book #h1 ,chapter #f1 ,section #bc4 #baf4 ,transliteration3 schol4 ,pater's translation3 leisure4 #baf4 ,transliteration3 thos4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 an accustomed place 4 4 4 custom1 usage1 habit4 #bag4 ,transliteration3 aret4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 goodness1 excellence1 of any kind4 #bah4 ,transliteration3 thos4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 an accustomed place 4 4 4 custom1 usage1 habit4 #bah4 ,transliteration3 h diaita ,drik4 ,e-text editor's translation3 the ,dorian way of life4 #bai4 ,transliteration3 homois apo te tn skeln kai apo cheirn kai apo trachlou gymnazontai4 ,e-text editor's translation3 ,their exercises train the legs1 arms and neck with the same care4 ,xenophon1 ,minor ,works1 ,constitution of the ,lacedaemonians1 ,chapter #e1 ,section #i4 #bba4 ,transliteration3 homoioi 4 4 4 hypomeiones4 ,pater's translation3 superiors and inferiors4 #bba4 ,transliteration3 ,eirn1 melleirn1 sideuns4 ,liddell and ,scott definition of the first term3 a ,lacedaemonian youth from his #ahth4 year1 when he was entitled to speak in the assembly and to lead an army4 ,i have not come across the second or third terms1 but the root meaning of the words suggests that they would mean1 roughly1 one who is of age1 or nearly of age and a young man who is old enough to bear a sword4 #bbb4 ,transliteration3 agelai4 ,pater's translation3 in their divisions4 #bbc4 ,transliteration3 mousik4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 any art over which the ,muses presided1 esp4 music or lyric poetry set and sung to music4444 #bbe4 ,transliteration3 paraleipomenon4 ,pater's translation3 oversights4 ,the verb paraleip means1 to leave on one side 4 4 4 leave unnoticed4 #bbf4 ,transliteration3 deisidaimones4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 fearing the gods1 in both a good and bad sense--i4e4 either pious or superstitious4 #bbi4 ,a ,chitn was a woollen shirt worn next the body4 7,liddell and ,scott47 #bca4 ,transliteration3 aits4 ,pater's translation3 the hearer4 #bcb4 ,transliteration3 eispnlas4 ,pater's translation3 the hearer4 #bcc4 ,psalm #abg1 verse #b4 ,the ,king ,james ,bible translation is to eat the bread of sorrows4 ,,chapter #i3 ,,the ,,republic #bce ,,the ,republic1 as we may realise it mentally within the limited proportions of some quite imaginable ,greek city1 is the protest of ,plato1 in enduring stone1 in law and custom more imperishable still1 against the principle of flamboyancy or fluidity in things1 and in men's thoughts about them4 ,political ideals may provide not only types for new states1 but also1 in humbler function1 a due corrective of the errors1 thus renewing the life1 of old ones4 ,but like other medicines the corrective or critical ideal may come too late1 too near the natural end of things4 ,the theoretic attempt made by ,plato to arrest the process of disintegration in the life of ,athens1 of ,greece1 by forcing it back upon a simpler and more strictly ,hellenic type1 ended1 so far as they were concerned1 in theory4 ,it comes of ,plato's literary skill1 his really dramatic handling of a conversation1 that one subject rises naturally out of another in the #bcf course of it1 that in the lengthy span of ,the ,republic1 though they are linked together after all with a true logical coherency1 now justice1 now the ideal state1 now the analysis of the individual soul1 or the nature of a true philosopher1 or his right education1 or the law of political change1 may seem to emerge as the proper subject of the whole book4 ,it is thus incidentally1 and by way of setting forth the definition of ,justice or ,rightness1 as if in big letters1 that the constitution of the typically ,right ,state is introduced into what1 according to one of its traditional titles-- ,peri ,dikaiosyns --might actually have figured as a dialogue on the nature of ,justice4 ,but tod' n hs eoike prooimion--the discussion of the theory of the abstract and invisible rightness was but to introduce the practical architect1 the creator of the right state4 ,plato then assumes rather than demonstrates that so facile parallel between the individual consciousness and the social aggregate1 passes lightly backwards and forwards from the rightness or wrongness1 the normal or abnormal conditions1 of the one to those of the other1 from you and me to the colossal man1 whose good or bad qualities1 being written up there on a larger scale1 are easier to read1 and if one may say so1 once in bricks and mortar1 though but on paper1 is lavish of a world as it should be4 ,a strange world in some ways6 ,let us look from the small type of the individual to the monumental #bcg inscription on those high walls1 as he proposes2 while his fancy wandering further and further1 over tower and temple1 its streets and the people in them1 as if forgetful of his original purpose he tells us all he sees in thought of the ,city of the ,perfect4 ,to the view of ,plato1 as of all other ,greek citizens1 the state1 in its local habitation here or there1 had been in all cases the gift or ordinance of one or another real though half-divine founder1 some ,solon or ,lycurgus1 thereafter a proper object of piety1 of filial piety1 for ever1 among those to whom he had bequeathed the blessings of civilised life4 ,himself actually of ,solon's lineage1 ,plato certainly is less aware than those who study these matters in the historic spirit of the modern world that for the most part1 like other more purely physical things1 states are not made1 but grow4 ,yet his own work as a designer or architect of what shall be new is developed quite naturally out of the question how an already existing state1 such as the actual ,athens of the day1 might secure its pre-eminence1 or its very existence4 ,close always1 by the concrete turn of his genius1 to the facts of the place and the hour1 his first thought is to suggest a remedy for the peculiar evils of the ,athenians at that moment2 and in his delineation of the ideal state he does but elevate what ,athens in particular1 a ship so early going to pieces1 might well be forced to become for her salvation1 were #bch it still possible1 into the eternal type of veritable statecraft1 of a city as such1 a city at unity in itself1 defiant of time4 ,he seems to be seeking in the first instance a remedy for the sick1 a desperate political remedy2 and thereupon1 as happens with really philosophic enquirers1 the view enlarges on all sides around him4 ,those evils of ,athens then1 which were found in very deed somewhat later to be the infirmity of ,greece as a whole1 when1 though its versatile gifts of intellect might constitute it the teacher of its eventual masters1 it was found too incoherent politically to hold its own against ,rome3--those evils of ,athens1 of ,greece1 came from an exaggerated assertion of the fluxional1 flamboyant1 centrifugal ,ionian element in the ,hellenic character4 ,they could be cured only by a counter-assertion of the centripetal ,dorian ideal1 as actually seen best at ,lacedaemon2 by the way of simplification1 of a rigorous limitation of all things1 of art and life1 of the souls1 aye1 and of the very bodies of men1 as being the integral factors of all beside4 ,it is in those simpler1 corrected outlines of a reformed ,athens that ,plato finds the eternal form of the ,state1 of a city as such1 like a well-knit athlete1 or one of those perfectly disciplined ,spartan dancers4 ,his actual purpose therefore is at once reforming and conservative4 ,the drift of his charge is1 in his own words1 that no political constitution then existing is suitable to the philosophic1 that is to #bci say1 as he conceives it1 to the aristocratic or kingly nature4 ,how much that means we shall see by and bye1 when he maintains that in the ,city of the ,perfect the kings will be philosophers4 ,it means that those called1 like the gifted1 lost ,alcibiades1 to be the saviours of the state1 as a matter of fact become instead its destroyers4 ,the proper soil in which alone that precious exotic seed1 the kingly or aristocratic seed1 will attain its proper qualities1 in which alone it will not yield wine inferior to its best1 or rather1 instead of bearing any wine at all1 become a deadly poison1 is still to be laid down according to rules of art1 the ethic or political art2 but once provided must be jealously kept from innovation4 ,organic unity with one's self1 body and soul1 is the well-being1 the rightness1 or righteousness1 or justice of the individual1 of the microcosm2 but is the ideal also1 it supplies the true definition1 of the well-being of the macrocosm1 of the social organism1 the state4 ,on this ,plato has to insist1 to the disadvantage of what we actually see in ,greece1 in ,athens1 with all its intricacies of disunion1 faction against faction1 as displayed in the later books of ,thucydides4 ,remember6 the question ,plato is asking throughout ,the ,republic1 with a touch perhaps of the narrowness1 the fanaticism1 or fixed idea1 of ,machiavel himself1 is1 not how shall the state1 the place we must live in1 be gay or rich or populous1 but strong--strong enough to remain #bdj itself1 to resist solvent influences within or from without1 such as would deprive it not merely of the accidental notes of prosperity but of its own very being4 ,now what hinders this strengthening macrocosmic unity1 the oneness of the political organism with itself1 is that the unit1 the individual1 the microcosm1 fancies itself1 or would fain be1 a rival macrocosm1 independent1 many-sided1 all-sufficient4 ,to make him that1 as you know1 had been the conscious aim of the ,athenian system in the education of its youth1 as also in its later indirect education of the citizen by the way of political life4 ,it was the ideal of one side of the ,greek character in general1 of much that was brilliant in it and seductive to others4 ,in this sense1 ,pericles himself interprets the educational function of the city towards the citizen3--to take him as he is1 and develope him to the utmost on all his various sides1 with a variety in those parts however1 as ,plato thinks1 by no means likely to promote the unity of the whole1 of the state as such1 which must move all together if it is to move at all1 at least against its foes4 ,with this at first sight quite limited purpose then1 paradoxical as it might seem to those whose very ideal lay precisely in such manifold development1 to ,plato himself perhaps1 manifold as his own genius and culture conspicuously were--paradoxical #bda as it might seem1 ,plato's demand is for the limitation1 the simplifying1 of those constituent parts or units2 that the unit should be indeed no more than a part1 it might be a very small part1 in a community1 which needs1 if it is still to subsist1 the wholeness of an army in motion1 of the stars in their courses1 of well-concerted music1 if you prefer that figure1 or1 as the modern reader might perhaps object1 of a machine4 ,the design of ,plato is to bring back the ,athenian people1 the ,greeks1 to thoughts of order1 to disinterestedness in their functions1 to that self-concentration of soul on one's own part1 that loyal concession of their proper parts to others1 on which such order depends1 to a love of it1 a sense of its extreme aesthetic beauty and fitness1 according to that indefectible definition of ,justice1 of what is right1 to hen prattein1 to ta hautou prattein1 in opposition1 as he thinks1 to those so fascinating conditions of ,injustice1 poikilia1 pleonexia1 polypragmosyn1 figuring away1 as they do sometimes1 so brilliantly4 ,for ,plato would have us understand that men are in truth after all naturally much simpler1 much more limited in character and capacity1 than they seem4 ,such diversity of parts and function as is presupposed in his definition of ,justice has been fixed by nature itself on human life4 ,the individual1 as such1 humble as his proper function may be1 is unique in fitness for1 in a consequent call to1 that function4 ,we #bdb know how much has been done to educate the world1 under the supposition that man is a creature of very malleable substance1 indifferent in himself1 pretty much what influences may make of him4 ,plato1 on the other hand1 assures us that no one of us is like another all in all4--,prton men phyetai hekastos ou pany homoios hekast1 alla diaphern tn physin1 allos ep allou ergou praxin 4--,but for this1 social ,justice1 according to its eternal form or definition1 would in fact be nowhere applicable4 ,once for all he formulates clearly that important notion of the function1 7ergon7 of a thing1 or of a person4 ,it is that which he alone can do1 or he better than any one else4 ,that ,plato should exaggerate this definiteness in men's natural vocations1 thus to be read as it were in plain figures upon each1 is one of the necessities of his position4 ,effect of nature itself1 such inequality between men1 this differentiation of one from another1 is to be further promoted by all the cunning of the political art4 ,the counter-assertion of the natural indifference of men1 their pliability to circumstance1 while it is certainly truer to our modern experience1 is also in itself more hopeful1 more congruous with all the processes of education4 ,but for ,plato the natural inequality of men1 if it is the natural ground of that versatility1 7poikilia71 of the wrongness or ,injustice he must needs correct1 will be the natural ground of ,justice also1 as essentially a unity or harmony enforced on disparate #bdc elements1 unity as of an army1 or an order of monks1 organic1 mechanic1 liturgical1 whichever you please to call it2 but a kind of music certainly1 if the founder1 the master1 of the state1 for his proper part1 can but compose the scattered notes4 ,just here then is the original basis of society--gignetai toinyn hs egmai polis epeid tunchanei hmn hekastos ouk autarks --at first in its humblest form2 simply because one can dig and another spin2 yet already with anticipations of ,the ,republic1 of the ,city of the ,perfect1 as developed by ,plato1 as indeed also1 beyond it1 of some still more distant system of the services of angels and men in a wonderful order2 for the somewhat visionary towers of ,plato's ,republic blend of course with those of the ,civitas ,dei of ,augustine4 ,only1 though its top may one day reach unto heaven1 it by no means came down thence2 but1 as ,plato conceives1 arises out of the earth1 out of the humblest natural wants4 ,grote was right4--,there is a very shrewd matter-of-fact utilitarian among the dramatis personae which together make up the complex genius of ,plato4 ,poisei hs egmai tn polin hmetera chreia4--,society is produced by our physical necessities1 our inequality in regard to them3--an inequality in three broad divisions of unalterable1 incommunicable type1 of natural species1 among men1 with corresponding differentiation of political and social functions3 three firmly outlined orders #bdd in the state1 like three primitive castes1 propagating1 reinforcing1 their peculiarities of condition1 as ,plato will propose1 by exclusive intermarriage1 each within itself4 ,as in the class of the artisans 7hoi dmiourgoi7 some can make swords best1 others pitchers1 so1 on the larger survey1 there will be found those who can use those swords1 or1 again1 think1 teach1 pray1 or lead an army1 a whole body of swordsmen1 best1 thus defining within impassable barriers three essential species of citizenship--the productive class1 the military order1 the governing class thirdly1 or spiritual order4 ,the social system is in fact like the constitution of a human being4 ,there are those who have capacity1 a vocation1 to conceive thoughts1 and rule their brethren by intellectual power4 ,collectively of course they are the mind or brain1 the mental element1 in the social organism4 ,there are those secondly1 who have by nature executive force1 who will naturally wear arms1 the sword in the sheath perhaps1 but who will also on occasion most certainly draw it4 ,well1 these are like the active passions and the ultimately decisive will in the bosom of man1 most conspicuous as anger--anger1 it may be1 resentment1 against known wrong in another or in one's self1 the champion of conscience1 flinging away the scabbard1 setting the spear against the foe1 like a soldier of spirit4 ,they are in a word the conscience1 the armed conscience1 of the state1 #bde nobly bred1 sensitive for others and for themselves1 informed by the light of reason in their natural kings4 ,and then1 thirdly1 protected1 controlled1 by the thought1 the will1 above them1 like those appetites in you and me1 hunger1 thirst1 desire1 which have been the motive1 the actual creators1 of the material order all around us1 there will be the productive class1 labouring perfectly in the cornfields1 in the vineyards1 or on the vessels which are to contain corn and wine1 at a thousand handicrafts1 every one still exquisitely differentiated1 according to ,plato's rule of right--eis hen kata physin 2 as within the military class also there will be those who command and those who can but obey1 and within the true princely class again those who know all things and others who have still much to learn2 those also who can learn and teach one sort of knowledge better than another4 ,plato however1 in the first steps of the evolution of the ,state1 had lighted quite naturally on what turns out to be a mistaken or inadequate ideal of it1 in an idyll pretty enough1 indeed1 from ,the ,golden ,age4--,how sufficient it seems for a moment1 that innocent world6 is1 nevertheless1 actually but a false ideal of human society1 allowing in fact no place at all for ,justice2 the very terms of which1 precisely because they involve differentiation of life and its functions1 are inapplicable to a society1 if so it may be called1 still essentially inorganic4 ,in #bdf a condition1 so rudimentary as to possess no opposed parts at all1 of course there will be no place for disturbance of parts1 for proportion or disproportion of faculty and function4 ,it is1 in truth1 to a city which has lost its first innocence 7polis d tryphsa7 that we must look for the consciousness of ,justice and ,injustice2 as some theologians or philosophers have held that it was by the ,fall man first became a really moral being4 ,now in such a city1 in the polis d tryphsa1 there will be an increase of population3-- kai h chra pou h tote hikan smikra ex hikans estai4 ,and in an age which perhaps had the military spirit in excess ,plato's thoughts pass on immediately to wars of aggression3-- oukoun ts tn plsion chras hmin apotmteon8 ,we must take something1 if we can1 from ,megara or from ,sparta2 which doubtless in its turn would do the same by us4 ,as a measure of relief however that was not necessarily the next step4 ,the needs of an out-pushing population might have suggested to ,plato what is perhaps the most brilliant and animating episode in the entire history of ,greece1 its early colonisation1 with all the bright stories1 full of the piety1 the generosity of a youthful people1 that had gathered about it4 ,no1 the next step in social development was not necessarily going to war4 ,in either case however1 aggressive action against our neighbours1 or defence of our distant brethren beyond the seas #bdg at ,cyrene or ,syracuse against rival adventurers1 we shall require a new class of persons1 men of the sword1 to fight for us if need be4 ,ah6 ,you hear the notes of the trumpet1 and therewith already the stir of an enlarging human life1 its passions1 its manifold interests4 ,phylakes or epikouroi1 watchmen or auxiliaries1 our new servants comprehend at first our masters to be1 whom a further act of differentiation will distinguish as philosophers and kings from the strictly military order4 ,plato nevertheless in his search for the true idea of ,justice1 of rightness in things1 may be said now to have seen land4 ,organic relationship is come into the rude social elements and made of them a body1 a society4 ,rudimentary though it may still be1 the definition of ,justice1 as also of ,injustice1 is now applicable to its processes4 ,there is a music in the affairs of men1 in which one may take one's due part1 which one may spoil4 ,criticising mythology ,plato speaks of certain fables1 to be made by those who are apt at such things1 under proper spiritual authority1 so to term it1 hs en pharmakou eidei ta pseud ta en deonti genomena1 medicinable lies or fictions1 with a provisional or economised truth in them1 set forth under such terms as simple souls could best receive4 ,just here1 at the end of the third book of ,the ,republic he introduces such a fable3 phoinikikon pseudos1 he calls it1 a miner's story1 about copper and silver and gold1 such as may really #bdh have been current among the primitive inhabitants of the island from which metal and the art of working it had been introduced into ,greece4-- ,and ,i shall try first of all to persuade the rulers themselves and our soldiers1 and afterwards the rest of the community1 as to the matter of the rearing and the education we gave them1 that in fact it did but seem to happen with them1 they seemed to experience all that1 only as in dreams4 ,they were then in very truth nourished and fashioned beneath the earth within1 and the armour upon them and their equipment put together2 and when they were perfectly wrought out the earth even their mother put them forth4 ,now1 therefore1 it is their duty to think concerning the land in which they are as of a mother1 or foster-mother1 and to protect it if any foe come against it1 and to think of their fellow-citizens as being their brothers1 born of the earth as they4 ,all ye in the city1 therefore1 are brothers1 we shall say to them proceeding with our story2 but ,god1 when he made you1 mixed gold in the generation of those among you fit to be our kings1 for which cause they are the most precious of all2 and silver in those fit to be our guards2 and in the husbandmen and all other handicraftsmen iron and brass4 ,forasmuch then as ye are all of one kindred1 for the most part ye would beget offspring like to yourselves2 but at times a silver child will come of one golden1 and from the silver a child of gold1 and so forth1 interchangeably4 ,to those who rule1 then1 first and above all ,god enjoins that of nothing shall they be so careful guardians1 nothing shall they so earnestly regard1 as the young children--what metal has been mixed to their hands in the souls of these4 ,and if a child of their own be born with an alloy of iron or brass1 they shall by no means have pity upon it1 but1 allotting unto it the value which befits its nature1 they shall thrust it into the class of husbandmen or artisans4 ,and if1 again1 of these a child be born with gold or silver in him1 with due estimate they shall promote such to wardenship or to arms1 inasmuch as an oracular saying declares that the city is perished already when it has iron or brass to guard it4 ,can you suggest a way of getting them to believe this mythus8 ,republic1 #dad4 #bdi ,its application certainly is on the surface3 the ,lacedaemonian details also--the military turn taken1 the disinterestedness of the powerful1 their monastic renunciation of what the world prizes most1 above all the doctrine of a natural aristocracy with its privileges and also its duties4 ,men are of simpler structure and capacities than you have fancied1 ,plato would assure us1 and more decisively appointed to this rather than to that order of service4 ,nay1 with the boldness proper to an idealist1 he does not hesitate to represent them 7that is the force of the mythus7 as actually made of different stuff2 and society1 assuming a certain aristocratic humour in the nature of things1 has for its business to sanction1 safeguard1 further promote it1 by law4 ,the state therefore1 if it is to be really a living creature1 will have1 like the individual soul1 those sensuous appetites which call the productive powers into action1 and its armed conscience1 and its far- reaching intellectual light3 its industrial class1 that is to say1 its soldiers1 its kings--the last1 a kind of military monks1 as you might think1 on a distant view1 their minds full of a kind of heavenly effulgence1 yet superintending the labours of a large body of work- people in the town and the fields about it4 ,of the industrial or productive class1 the artists and artisans1 ,plato speaks only in outline1 but is significant in what he says2 and enough remains of the actual fruits #bej of ,greek industry to enable us to complete his outline for ourselves1 as we may also1 by aid of ,greek art1 together with the words of ,homer and ,pindar1 equip and realise the full character of the true ,platonic war-man or knight2 and again1 through some later approximate instances1 discern something of those extraordinary1 half-divine1 philosophic kings4 ,we must let industry then mean for ,plato all it meant1 would naturally mean1 for a ,greek1 amid the busy spectacle of ,athenian handicrafts4 ,the rule of ,plato1 its precepts of temperance1 proportion1 economy1 though designed primarily for its soldiers1 and its kings or archons1 for the military and spiritual orders1 would probably have been incumbent also in relaxed degree upon those who work with their hands2 and we have but to walk through the classical department of the ,louvre or the ,british ,museum to be reminded how those qualities of temperance and the like did but enhance1 could not chill or impoverish1 the artistic genius of ,greek workmen4 ,in proportion to what we know of the minor handicrafts of ,greece we shall find ourselves able to fill up1 as the condition of everyday life in the streets of ,plato's ,city of the ,perfect1 a picture of happy protected labour1 skilled to the utmost degree in all its applications4 ,those who prosecute it will be allowed1 as we may gather1 in larger proportion than those who watch1 in silent thought or sword in hand1 such animal #bea liberties as seem natural and right1 and are not really illiberal1 for those who labour all day with their bodies1 though they too will have on them in their service some measure of the compulsion which shapes the action of our kings and soldiers to such effective music4 ,with more or less of asceticism1 of a common life1 among themselves1 they will be the peculiar sphere of the virtue of temperance in the ,state1 as being the entirely willing subjects of wholesome rule4 ,they represent1 as we saw1 in the social organism1 the bodily appetites of the individual1 its converse with matter1 in a perfect correspondence1 if all be right there1 with the conscience and with the reasonable soul in it4 ,labouring by system at the production of perfect swords1 perfect lamps1 perfect poems too1 and a perfect coinage1 such as we know1 to enable them the more readily to exchange their produce 7nomisma ts allags heneka7 working perhaps in guilds and under rules to insure perfection in each specific craft1 refining matter to the last degree1 they would constitute the beautiful body of the ,state1 in rightful service1 like the copper and iron1 the bronze and the steel1 they manipulate so finely1 to its beautiful soul--to its natural though hereditary aristocracy1 its golden humanity1 its kings1 in whom ,wisdom1 the light1 of a comprehensive ,synopsis1 indefectibly resides1 and who1 as being not merely its discursive or practical reason1 but its faculty of contemplation likewise1 will be also its priests1 the #beb medium of its worship1 of its intercourse with the gods4 ,between them1 between that intellectual or spiritual order1 those novel philosophic kings1 and the productive class of the artists and artisans1 moves the military order1 as the sensitive armed conscience1 the armed will1 of the ,state1 its executive power in the fullest sense of that term--a standing army1 as ,plato supposes1 recruited from a great hereditary caste born and bred to such functions1 and certainly very different from the mere militia of actual ,greek states1 hastily summoned at need to military service from the fields and workshops4 ,remember that the veritable bravery also1 as the philosopher sees it1 is a form of that knowledge1 which in truth includes in itself all other virtues1 all good things whatever2 that it is a form of right opinion1 and has a kind of insight in it1 a real apprehension of the occasion and its claims on one's courage1 whether it is worth while to fight1 and to what point4 ,platonic knighthood then will have in it something of the philosophy which resides in plenitude in the class above it1 by which indeed this armed conscience of the ,state1 the military order1 is continuously enlightened1 as we know the conscience of each one of us severally needs to be4 ,and though ,plato will not expect his fighting-men1 like the ,christian knight1 like ,saint ,ranieri ,gualberto1 #bec to forgive their enemies1 yet1 moving one degree out of the narrower circle of ,greek habits1 he does require them1 in conformity with a certain ,pan-,hellenic1 a now fully realised national sense1 which fills himself1 to love the whole ,greek race1 to spare the foe1 if he be ,greek1 the last horrors of war1 to think of the soil1 of the dead1 of the arms and armour taken from them1 with certain scruples of a natural piety4 ,as the knights share the dignity of the regal order1 are in fact ultimately distinguished from it by degree rather than in kind1 so they will be sharers also in its self-denying rule4 ,in common with it1 they will observe a singular precept which forbids them so much as to come under the same roof with vessels or other objects wrought of gold or silver--they who are most worthy of it1 precisely because while many iniquities have come from the world's coinage1 they have gold in them undefiled4 ,yet again we are not to suppose in ,platonic ,greece-- how could we indeed anywhere within the range of ,greek conceptions8-- anything rude1 uncomely1 or unadorned4 ,no one who reads carefully in this very book of ,the ,republic those pages of criticism which concern art quite as much as poetry1 a criticism which drives everywhere at a conscientious nicety of workmanship1 will suppose that4 ,if kings and knights never drink from vessels of silver or gold1 their earthen cups and platters1 we may be sure1 would be what we can #bed still see2 and the iron armour on their bodies exquisitely fitted to them1 to its purpose1 with that peculiar beauty which such fitness secures4 ,see them1 then1 moving1 in perfect ,justice or ,rightness1 to their ,dorian music1 their so expressive plain-song1 under the guidance of their natural leaders1 those who can see and fore-see--of those who know4 ,that they may be one6--,if1 like an individual soul1 the state has attained its normal differentiation of parts1 as with that also its vitality and effectiveness will be proportionate to the unity of those parts in their various single operations4 ,the productive1 the executive1 the contemplative orders1 respectively1 like their psychological analogues1 the senses1 the will1 and the intelligence1 will be susceptible each of its own proper virtue or excellence1 temperance1 bravery1 spiritual illumination4 ,only1 let each work aright in its own order1 and a fourth virtue will supervene upon their united perfections1 the virtue or perfection of the organic whole as such4 ,the ,justice which ,plato has been so long in search of will be manifest at last--that perfect oikeiopragia1 which will be also perfect co-operation4 ,oneness1 unity1 community1 an absolute community of interests among fellow-citizens1 philadelphia1 over against the selfish ambition of those naturally ascendant1 like ,alcibiades or ,crito1 in that competition for office1 for wealth and honours1 which has rent ,athens into factions ever breeding #bee on themselves1 the centripetal force versus all centrifugal forces3--on this situation1 ,plato1 in the central books of ,the ,republic1 dwells untired1 in all its variety of synonym and epithet1 the conditions1 the hazard and difficulty of its realisation1 its analogies in art1 in music1 in practical life1 like three strings of a lyre1 or like one colossal person1 the painted dmos or civic genius on the walls of a ,greek town-house1 or1 again1 like the consummate athlete whose body1 with no superfluities1 is the precise1 the perfectly finished1 instrument of his will4 ,hence1 at once cause and effect of such seamless unity1 his paradoxical new law of property in the ,city of the ,perfect--mandatum novum1 a new commandment1 we might fairly call it--ta tn philn koina4 ,and no one said that aught of the things he possessed was his own but they had all things common4 ,ah1 you see6 ,put yourself in ,plato's company1 and inevitably1 from time to time1 he will seem to pass with you beyond the utmost horizon actually opened to him4 ,upon the aristocratic class therefore1 in its two divisions1 the army and the church or hierarchy1 so to speak1 the rule of ,plato--poverty1 obedience1 contemplation1 will be incumbent in its fullest rigour4 ,like hired servants in their own house1 they may not seem very enviable persons1 on first thoughts4 ,but remember again that ,plato's charge against things as they are is partly in a theoretic interest-- the philosopher1 #bef the philosophic soul1 loves unity1 but finds it nowhere1 neither in the ,state nor in its individual members3 it is partly also practical1 and of the hour4 ,divided ,athens1 divided ,greece1 like some big1 lax1 self-neglectful person would be an easy prey to any well-knit adversary really at unity in himself4 ,it is by way of introducing a constringent principal into a mass of amorphic particles1 that ,plato proclaims that these friends will have all things in common2 and1 challenged by the questions of his companions in the dialogue to say how far he will be ready to go in the application of so paradoxical a rule1 he braces himself to a surprising degree of consistency4 ,how far then will ,plato1 a somewhat ,machiavelian theorist1 as you saw1 and with something of fixed ideas about practical things1 taking desperate means towards a somewhat exclusively conceived ideal of social well-being1 be ready to go8 ,now we have seen that the genuine citizens of his ,perfect ,city will have much of monasticism1 of the character of military monks1 about them already1 with their poverty1 their obedience1 their contemplative habit4 ,and there is yet another indispensable condition of the monastic life4 ,the great ,pope ,hildebrand1 by the rule of celibacy1 by making regulars to that extent of the secular clergy1 succeeded1 as many have thought1 in his design of making them in very deed1 soul and body1 but parts of the corporate order they #beg belonged to2 and what ,plato is going to add to his rule of life1 for the archontes1 who are to be philopolides1 to love the corporate body they belong to better than themselves1 is in its actual effects something very like a law of celibacy4 ,difficult1 paradoxical1 as he admits it to be1 he is pressed on by his hearers1 and by the natural force of his argument1 reluctantly to declare that the rule of communism will apply to a man's ownership of his wife and children4 ,observe6 ,plato proposes this singular modification of married life as an elevation or expansion of the family1 but1 it may be rightly objected1 is1 in truth1 only colouring with names exclusively appropriate to the family1 arrangements which will be a suppression of all those sentiments that naturally pertain to it4 ,the wisdom of ,plato would certainly deprive mothers of that privacy of affection1 regarding which the wisdom of ,solomon beamed forth1 by sending all infants soon after birth to be reared in a common nursery1 where the facts of their actual parentage would be carefully obliterated4 ,the result1 as he supposes1 will be a common and universal parentage1 sonship1 brotherhood2 but surely with but a shadowy realisation of the affections1 the claims1 of these relationships4 ,it will involve a loss of differentiation in life1 and be1 as such1 a movement backward1 to a barbarous or merely animal grade of existence4 #beh ,ta tn philn koina4--,with this soft phrase1 then1 ,plato would take away all those precious differences that come of our having a little space in things to do what one will or can with4 ,the ,platonic state in fact1 with its extraordinary common marriages1 would be dealing precisely after the manner of those who breed birds or dogs4 ,a strange forbidding experiment1 it seems1 or should seem1 to us1 looking back on it in the light of laws now irrevocably fixed on these subjects by the judgment of the ,christian church4 ,we must remember however1 in fairness1 that ,plato in this matter of the relation of the sexes especially1 found himself in a world very different from ours1 regulated and refined1 as it already is in some degree1 by ,christian ideas about women and children4 ,a loose law of marriage1 beyond it concubinage in some degree sanctioned by religion1 beyond that again morbid vice3 such was the condition of the ,greek world4 ,what ,christian marriage1 in harmonious action with man's true nature1 has done to counteract this condition1 that ,plato tried to do by a somewhat forced legislation1 which was altogether out of harmony with the facts of man's nature4 ,neither the church nor the world has endorsed his theories about it4 ,think1 in contrast1 of the place occupied in ,christian art by the mother and her child4 ,what that represents in life ,plato wishes to take from us1 though1 as he would have us think1 in our own behalf4 #bei ,and his views of the community of male and female education1 and of the functions of men and women in the ,state1 do but come of the relief of women in large measure from home-duties4 ,such duties becoming a carefully economised department of the ,state1 the women will have leisure to share the work of men2 and will need a corresponding education4 ,the details of their common life in peace and war he certainly makes effective and bright4 ,but if we think of his proposal as a reinstatement of the ,amazon we have in effect condemned it4 ,for the ,amazon of mythology and art is but a survival from a half-animal world1 which ,theseus1 the embodiment of adult reason1 had long since overcome4 ,plato himself divides this confessedly so difficult question into two3 ,is the thing good8 and in the second place1 ,is it possible8 ,let us admit that at that particular crisis1 or even generally1 what he proposes is for the best4 ,thereupon the question which suggested itself in regard to the community of goods recurs with double force3 ,where may lie the secret of the magnanimity 7that is the term to hold by7 which will make wealth and office1 with all their opportunities for puissant wills1 no motive in life at all8 ,is it possible1 and under what conditions--this disinterestedness on the part of those who might do what they will as with their own1 this indifference1 this surrender1 not of one's goods and #bfj time only1 but of one's last resource1 one's very home1 for the greatest happiness of the greatest number4-- ,those are almost the exact words of ,plato4 ,how shall those who might be egotists on the scale of an ,alcibiades or an ,alexander be kept to this strange new mandate of altruism8 ,how shall a paradox so bold be brought within the range of possibilities8 ,well6 by the realisation of another paradox1--if we make philosophers our kings or our kings philosophers4 ,it is the last wave of paradox1 from the advancing crest of which ,plato still shrinks back1 oddly reluctant1 as we may think1 to utter his whole mind4 ,but1 concede his position1 and all beside1 in the strange1 paradoxical new world he is constructing1 its extraordinary reaches of philadelphia1 will be found practicable4 ,our kings must be philosophers4 ,but not1 we must carefully note1 because1 as people are apt to fancy1 philosophers as such necessarily despise or are unable to feel what is fascinating in the world of action1 are un-formed or withered on one side1 and1 as regards the allurements of the world of sense1 are but corpses4 ,for ,plato certainly they are no starvelings4 ,the philosophic1 or aristocratic1 or kingly1 nature1 as he conceives it1 will be the perfect flower of the whole compass of natural endowments1 promoted to the utmost by the artificial influences of society--kalokagathos --capable therefore in the extreme degree of success in a purely self-regarding policy1 of an #bfa exploitation1 in their own interests1 of all that men in general value most1 to the surfeiting1 if they cared1 of their ambition1 their vanity1 their love of liberty or license4 ,nor again must our kings be philosophers mainly because in such case the world will be very wisely1 very knowingly1 governed4 ,of course it would be well that wise men should rule4 ,even a ,greek1 still a youth in the youth of the world1 who indeed was not very far gone from an essentially youthful evaluation of things1 was still apt to think with ,croesus that the richest must of course be the happiest of men1 and to have a head-ache when compelled to think1 even he would have taken so much for granted4 ,that it would be well that wise men should govern1 wise after the ,platonic standard1 bringing1 that is to say1 particular details under coherent general rules1 able to foresee and influence the future by their knowledge of the past3--there is no paradox in that3 it belongs rather1 you might complain1 to the range of platitudes4 ,but1 remember6 the hinge of ,plato's whole political argument is1 that the ruinous divisions of ,athens1 of ,greece1 of the entire social community1 is the want of disinterestedness in its rulers2 not that they are unfit to rule2 rather1 that they have often1 it may be1 a natural call to office--those exceptional high natures--but that they abound therein exclusively in their own sense4 ,and the precise point of paradox in philosophic kingship1 #bfb as ,plato takes it1 is this1 that if we have philosophers for our kings1 our archons1 we shall be under a sort of rulers who as such have made sacrifice of themselves1 and in coming to office at all must have taken upon them the form of a servant4-- ,for thus it is4--,if you can find out a life better than being a king1 for those who shall be kings1 a well-governed city will become possible1 and not otherwise4 ,for in that city alone will those be kings who are in very deed rich4 ,but if poor men1 hungering after their private good1 proceed to public offices1 it is not possible2 for1 the kingly office becoming an object of contention1 the sort of battle which results1 being at home and internal1 destroys them1 along with the common- wealth4--,most truly1 he replied4--,have you then1 ,i asked1 any kind of life which can despise political offices1 other than the life of true philosophers8--,certainly not4--,yet still it is necessary that those who come to office should not be lovers of it2 otherwise the rival lovers will fight4--,that must be so4--,whom then will you compel to proceed to the guardianship of the city save those1 who1 being wisest of all in regard to the conditions of her highest welfare1 are themselves possessed of privileges of another order1 and a life better than the politician's8 ,republic1 #ebj4 ,more capable than others of an adroit application of all that power usually means in the way of personal advantage1 your legitimate1 and really elect royalty or aristocracy must be secured from the love of it2 you must insure their magnanimity in office by a counter-charm4 ,but where is such a charm1 or counter-charm1 to be found8 ,throughout1 as usual in so provident a writer as ,plato1 the answer to that leading #bfc question has had its prelude1 even in the first book4-- ,therefore it was1 for my part1 friend ,thrasymachus1 ,i was saying just now that no one would be willing of his own motion to rule1 and take in hand the ills of other people to set them right1 but that he would ask a reward2 because he who will do fairly by his art1 or prosper by his art1 never does what is best for himself1 nor ordains that1 in ordaining what is proper to his art1 but what is best for the subject of his rule4 ,by reason of which indeed1 as it seems1 there must needs be a reward for those who shall be willing to rule1 either money1 or honour1 or a penalty unless he will rule4--,how do you mean this ,socrates8 said ,glaucon3 for the two rewards ,i understand2 but the penalty1 of which you speak1 and have named as in the place of a reward1 ,i do not understand4--,then you do not understand1 ,i said1 the reward of the best1 for the sake of which the most virtuous rule1 when they are willing to rule4 ,or do you not know that the being fond of honours1 fond of money1 is said to be1 and is1 a disgrace8--,for my part1 ,yes6 he said4--,on this ground then1 neither for money are the good willing to rule1 nor for honour2 for they choose neither1 in openly exacting hire as a return for their rule1 to be called hirelings1 nor1 in taking secretly therefrom1 thieves4 ,nor again is it for honour they will rule2 for they are not ambitious4 ,therefore it is1 that necessity must be on them1 and a penalty1 if they are to be willing to rule3 whence perhaps it has come1 that to proceed with ready will to the office of ruler1 and not to await compulsion1 is accounted indecent4 ,as for the penalty1--the greatest penalty is to be ruled by one worse than oneself1 unless one will rule4 ,and it is through fear of that1 the good seem to me to rule1 when they rule3 and then they proceed to the office of ruler1 not as coming to some good thing1 nor as to profit therein1 but as to something unavoidable1 and as having none better than themselves to whom to entrust it1 nor even as good4 ,since it seems likely that if a city of good men came to be1 not to rule would be the matter of contention1 as nowadays to rule2 and here it would become manifest that a ruler in very deed1 in the nature of things1 considers not what is profitable for himself1 but for the subject of his rule4 ,so #bfd that every intelligent person would choose rather to be benefited by another1 than by benefiting another to have trouble himself4 ,republic1 #cdf4 ,now if philosophy really is where ,plato consistently puts it1 and is all he claims for it1 then1 for those capable of it1 who are capable also in the region of practice1 it will be precisely that better thing than being a king for those who must be our kings1 our archons4 ,you see that the various elements of ,platonism are interdependent2 that they really cohere4 ,just at this point then you must call to memory the greatness of the claim ,plato makes for philosophy--a promise1 you may perhaps think1 larger than anything he has actually presented to his readers in the way of a philosophic revelation justifies4 ,he seems1 in fact1 to promise all1 or almost all1 that in a later age natures great and high have certainly found in the ,christian religion4 ,if philosophy is only star-gazing1 or only a condition of doubt1 if what the sophist or the philistine says of it is all that can be said1 it could hardly compete with the rewards which the vulgar world holds out to its servants4 ,but for ,plato1 on the other hand1 if philosophy is anything at all1 it is nothing less than an escape from the evils of the world1 and homoisis t the1 a being made like to ,god4 ,it provides a satisfaction not for the intelligence only but for the whole nature of man1 his imagination and faith1 his affections1 his capacity #bfe for religious devotion1 and for some still unimagined development of the capacities of sense4 ,how could anything which belongs to the world of mere phenomenal change seem great to him who is the spectator of all time and all existence8 ,for the excellency of such knowledge as that1 we might say1 he must count all things but loss4 ,by fear of punishment in some roundabout way1 he might indeed be compelled to descend into the cave1 to take in hand the wrongs of other people to set them right2 but of course the part he will take in your sorry exhibition of passing shadows1 and dreamy echoes concerning them1 will not be for himself4 ,you may think him1 that philosophic archon or king1 who in consenting to be your master has really taken upon himself the form of a servant--you may think him1 in our late age of philosophic disillusion1 a wholly chimerical being4 ,yet history records one instance in which such a figure actually found his way to an imperial throne1 and with a certain approach to the result ,plato promises4 ,it was precisely because his whole being was filled with philosophic vision1 that the ,emperor ,marcus ,aurelius1 that fond student of philosophy1 of this very philosophy of ,plato1 served the ,roman people so well in peace and war--with so much disinterestedness1 because1 in fact1 so reluctantly4 ,look onward1 and what is strange and inexplicable in his realisation of the ,platonic scheme--strange1 if we consider how cold and #bff feeble after all were the rays of light on which he waited so devoutly--becomes clear in the person of ,saint ,louis1 who1 again1 precisely because his whole being was full of heavenly vision1 in self-banishment from it for a while1 led and ruled the ,french people so magnanimously alike in peace and war4 ,the presence1 then1 the ascendancy amid actual things1 of the royal or philosophic nature1 as ,plato thus conceives it--that1 and nothing else1 will be the generating force1 the seed1 of the ,city of the ,perfect1 as he conceives it3 this place1 in which the great things of existence1 known or divined1 really fill the soul4 ,only1 he for one would not be surprised if no eyes actually see it4 ,like his master ,socrates1 as you know1 he is something of a humorist2 and if he sometimes surprises us with paradox or hazardous theory1 will sometimes also give us to understand that he is after all not quite serious4 ,so about this vision of the ,city of the ,perfect1 ,the ,republic1 ,kallipolis1 ,uranopolis1 ,utopia1 ,civitas ,dei1 ,the ,kingdom of ,heaven-- ,suffer me1 he says1 to entertain myself as men of listless minds are wont to do when they journey alone4 ,such persons1 ,i fancy1 before they have found out in what way ought of what they desire may come to be1 pass that question by lest they grow weary in considering whether the thing be possible or no2 and supposing what they wish already achieved1 they proceed at once to arrange all the rest1 pleasing themselves in the tracing out all they will do1 when that shall have come to pass--making a mind already idle idler still4 ,republic1 #add4 ,,notes #bcf4 ,transliteration3 ,peri ,dikaiosyns4 ,pater's translation3 on the nature of justice4 #bcf4 ,transliteration3 tod' n hs eoike prooimion4 ,e-text editor's translation3 this was only by way of introduction4 ,plato1 ,republic #ceg;a4 #bda4 ,transliteration3 to hen prattein1 to ta hautou prattein4 ,e-text editor's translation3 to do one thing only1 to do only things proper to oneself4 ,plato1 ,republic #cfi;e4 #bda4 ,transliteration3 poikilia1 pleonexia1 polypragmosyn4 ,liddell and ,scott definitions3 poikilia metaph3 cunning2 pleonexia a disposition to take more than one's share2 polupragmosun meddling4 #bdb4 ,transliteration3 ,prton men phyetai hekastos ou pany homoios hekast1 alla diaphern tn physin1 allos ep allou ergou praxin4 ,e- text editor's translation3 ,to begin with1 each person is of a nature not the same as another's2 rather1 people differ in nature1 and so one person will be best fitted for one task1 and another for a different kind of work4 ,plato1 ,republic #cgj;a-b4 #bdb4 ,transliteration3 ergon4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 work 4 4 4 employment4 #bdb4 ,transliteration3 poikilia4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 metaph3 cunning4 #bdc4 ,transliteration3 gignetai toinyn hs egmai polis epeid tunchanei hmn hekastos ouk autarks4 ,e-text editor's translation3 ,as ,i see it1 the city will come into existence because it so happens that as individuals we are not sufficient to provide for ourselves4 ,plato1 ,republic #cfi;b4 #bdc4 ,transliteration3 ,poisei hs egmai tn polin hmetera chreia4 ,e- text editor's translation3 ,as ,i see it1 it will be our needs that create the city4 ,plato1 ,republic #cfi;c4 #bdd4 ,transliteration3 hoi dmiourgoi4 ,liddell and ,scott definition of dmiourgos3 workman4 #bde4 ,transliteration3 eis hen kata physin4 ,e-text editor's translation3 to one activity in accordance with a given person's nature4 ,plato1 ,republic #cgb;e44 #bdf4 ,transliteration3 polis d tryphsa4 ,e-text editor's translation3 a city already grown luxurious4 ,the verb trypha means to live softly or delicately1 fare sumptuously1 live in luxury4 7,liddell and ,scott47 ,plato1 ,republic #cgb;e4 #bdf4 ,transliteration3 polis d tryphsa4 ,e-text editor's translation3 a city already grown luxurious4 ,the verb trypha means to live softly or delicately1 fare sumptuously1 live in luxury4 7,liddell and ,scott47 ,plato1 ,republic #cgb;e4 #bdf4 ,transliteration3 kai h chra pou h tote hikan smikra ex hikans estai4 ,e-text editor's translation3 ,and the land that used to be sufficient will be insufficient4 ,plato1 ,republic #cgc;d4 #bdf4 ,transliteration3 oukoun ts tn plsion chras hmin apotmteon4 ,e-text editor's translation3 ,and so we will appropriate for ourselves some of our neighbor's land4 ,plato1 ,republic #cgc;d4 #bdg4 ,transliteration3 ,phylakes 4 4 4 epikouroi4 ,pater's translation3 watchmen or auxiliaries4 #bdg4 ,transliteration3 hs en pharmakou eidei ta pseud ta en deonti genomena4 ,e-text editor's translation3 timely falsehoods that take the form of medicine4 ,plato1 ,republic #chi;b and #dad;b contain parts of the quotation4 #bdg4 ,transliteration3 phoinikikon pseudos4 ,e-text editor's translation3 ,phoenician story4 ,plato1 ,republic #dad;c4 #bea4 ,transliteration3 nomisma ts allags heneka4 ,e-text editor's translation3 a common currency for exchange4 ,plato1 ,republic #cga;b4 #bed4 ,transliteration3 oikeiopragia4 ,e-text editor's translation3 functioning1 from oikeios 7proper to a thing1 fitting7 and pragos or1 in everyday non-poetic speech1 pragma7deed74 ,plato1 ,republic #dcd;c4 #bee4 ,transliteration3 dmos4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 the commons1 common people1 plebeians2 in ,attica1 townships or hundreds4 #bee4 ,transliteration3 ta tn philn koina4 ,e-text editor's translation3 the possessions of friends are held in common4 ,plato1 ,phaedrus #bgi;c contains similar language4 #beg4 ,transliteration3 archontes4 ,liddell and ,scott definition of archon3 ruler4 #beg4 ,transliteration3 philopolides4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 those loving their city1 state1 or country4 #beh4 ,transliteration3 ,ta tn philn koina4 ,e-text editor's translation3 the possessions of friends are held in common4 ,plato1 ,phaedrus #bgi;c contains similar language4 #bfj4 ,transliteration3 kalokagathos4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 beautiful and good1 noble and good4 #bfd4 ,transliteration3 homoisis t the4 ,pater's translation3 a process or act of being made like to ,god4 ,plato1 ,republic #ded;c4 #bff4 ,transliteration3 ,kallipolis4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 beautiful city4 ,plato1 ,republic #ebg;c4 ,,chapter #aj3 ,,plato',s ,,aesthetics #bfg ,,when we remember ,plato as the great lover1 what the visible world was to him1 what a large place the idea of ,beauty1 with its almost adequate realisation in that visible world1 holds in his most abstract speculations as the clearest instance of the relation of the human mind to reality and truth1 we might think that art also1 the fine arts1 would have been much for him2 that the aesthetic element would be a significant one in his theory of morals and education4 ,ta terpna en ,helladi 7to use ,pindar's phrase7 all the delightful things in ,hellas3-- ,plato least of all could have been unaffected by their presence around him4 ,and so it is4 ,think what perfection of handicraft1 what a subtle enjoyment therein1 is involved in that specially ,platonic rule1 to mind one's business 7to ta hautou prattein7 that he who1 like ,fra ,damiano of ,bergamo1 has a gift for poikilia1 intarsia or marqueterie1 for example1 should confine himself exclusively to that4 ,before him1 #bfh you know1 there had been no theorising about the beautiful1 its place in life1 and the like2 and as a matter of fact he is the earliest critic of the fine arts4 ,he anticipates the modern notion that art as such has no end but its own perfection1--art for art's sake4 ,ar' oun kai hekast tn technn esti ti sympheron allo hoti malista telean einai2 ,we have seen again that not in theory only1 by the large place he assigns to our experiences regarding visible beauty in the formation of his doctrine of ideas1 but that in the practical sphere also1 this great fact of experience1 the reality of beauty1 has its importance with him4 ,the loveliness of virtue as a harmony1 the winning aspect of those images of the absolute and unseen ,temperance1 ,bravery1 ,justice1 shed around us in the visible world for eyes that can see1 the claim of the virtues as a visible representation by human persons and their acts of the eternal qualities of the eternal1 after all far out-weigh1 as he thinks1 the claim of their mere utility4 ,and accordingly1 in education1 all will begin and end in music1 in the promotion of qualities to which no truer name can be given than symmetry1 aesthetic fitness1 tone4 ,philosophy itself indeed1 as he conceives it1 is but the sympathetic appreciation of a kind of music in the very nature of things4 ,there have been ,platonists without ,plato1 and a kind of traditional ,platonism in the world1 independent of1 yet true in spirit to1 the ,platonism #bfi of the ,platonic ,dialogues4 ,now such a piece of traditional ,platonism we find in the hypothesis of some close connexion between what may be called the aesthetic qualities of the world about us and the formation of moral character1 between aesthetics and ethics4 ,wherever people have been inclined to lay stress on the colouring1 for instance1 cheerful or otherwise1 of the walls of the room where children learn to read1 as though that had something to do with the colouring of their minds2 on the possible moral effect of the beautiful ancient buildings of some of our own schools and colleges2 on the building of character1 in any way1 through the eye and ear2 there the spirit of ,plato has been understood to be1 and rightly1 even by those who have perhaps never read ,plato's ,republic1 in which however we do find the connexion between moral character and matters of poetry and art strongly asserted4 ,this is to be observed especially in the third and tenth books of ,the ,republic4 ,the main interest of those books lies in the fact1 that in them we read what ,plato actually said on a subject concerning which people have been so ready to put themselves under his authority4 ,it is said with immediate reference to metre and its various forms in verse1 as an element in the general treatment of style or manner 7lexis7 as opposed to the matter 7logoi7 in the imaginative literature1 with which as in time past the #bgj education of the citizens of the ,perfect ,city will begin4 ,it is however at his own express suggestion that we may apply what he says1 in the first instance1 about metre and verse1 to all forms of art whatever1 to music 7mousik7 generally1 to all those matters over which the ,muses of ,greek mythology preside1 to all productions in which the form counts equally with1 or for more than1 the matter4 ,assuming therefore that we have here1 in outline and tendency at least1 the mind of ,plato in regard to the ethical influence of aesthetic qualities1 let us try to distinguish clearly the central lines of that tendency1 of ,platonism in art1 as it is really to be found in ,plato4 ,you have perceived have you not1 observes the ,platonic ,socrates1 that acts of imitation1 if they begin in early life1 and continue1 establish themselves in one's nature and habits1 alike as to the body1 the tones of one's voice1 the ways of one's mind4 ,yes1 that might seem a matter of common observation2 and what is strictly ,platonic here and in what follows is but the emphasis of the statement4 ,let us set it however1 for the sake of decisive effect1 in immediate connexion with certain other points of ,plato's aesthetic doctrine4 ,imitation then1 imitation through the eye and ear1 is irresistible in its influence over human nature4 ,and secondly1 we1 the founders1 the people1 of the ,republic1 of the city that shall be #bga perfect1 have for our peculiar purpose the simplification of human nature3 a purpose somewhat costly1 for it follows1 thirdly1 that the only kind of music1 of art and poetry1 we shall permit ourselves1 our citizens1 will be of a very austere character1 under a sort of self-denying ordinance4 ,we shall be a fervently aesthetic community1 if you will2 but therewith also very fervent renunciants1 or ascetics4 ,in the first place1 men's souls are1 according to ,plato's view1 the creatures of what men see and hear4 ,what would probably be found in a limited number only of sensitive people1 a constant susceptibility to the aspects and other sensible qualities of things and persons1 to the element of expression or form in them and their movements1 to phenomena as such--this susceptibility ,plato supposes in men generally4 ,it is not so much the matter of a work of art1 what is conveyed in and by colour and form and sound1 that tells upon us educationally--the subject1 for instance1 developed by the words and scenery of a play--as the form1 and its qualities1 concision1 simplicity1 rhythm1 or1 contrariwise1 abundance1 variety1 discord4 ,such aesthetic qualities1 by what we might call in logical phrase1 metabasis eis allo genos1 a derivation into another kind of matter1 transform themselves1 in the temper of the patient the hearer or spectator1 into terms of ethics1 into the sphere of the desires and the will1 of the moral taste1 engendering1 nursing #bgb there1 strictly moral effects1 such conditions of sentiment and the will as ,plato requires in his ,city of the ,perfect1 or quite the opposite1 but hardly in any case indifferent1 conditions4 ,imitation3--it enters into the very fastnesses of character2 and we1 our souls1 ourselves1 are for ever imitating what we see and hear1 the forms1 the sounds which haunt our memories1 our imagination4 ,we imitate not only if we play a part on the stage but when we sit as spectators1 while our thoughts follow the acting of another1 when we read ,homer and put ourselves1 lightly1 fluently1 into the place of those he describes3 we imitate unconsciously the line and colour of the walls around us1 the trees by the wayside1 the animals we pet or make use of1 the very dress we wear4 ,only1 ,hina m ek ts mimses tou einai apolaussin4--,let us beware how men attain the very truth of what they imitate4 ,that then is the first principle of ,plato's aesthetics1 his first consideration regarding the art of the ,city of the ,perfect4 ,men1 children1 are susceptible beings1 in great measure conditioned by the mere look of their medium4 ,like those insects1 we might fancy1 of which naturalists tell us1 taking colour from the plants they lodge on1 they will come to match with much servility the aspects of the world about them4 ,but the people of the ,perfect ,city would not #bgc be there at all except by way of a refuge1 an experiment1 or tour de force1 in moral and social philosophy2 and this circumstance determines the second constituent principle of ,plato's aesthetic scheme4 ,we1 then1 the founders1 the citizens1 of the ,republic have a peculiar purpose4 ,we are here to escape from1 to resist1 a certain vicious centrifugal tendency in life1 in ,greek and especially in ,athenian life1 which does but propagate a like vicious tendency in ourselves4 ,we are to become-- like little pieces in a machine6 you may complain4--,no1 like performers rather1 individually1 it may be1 of more or less importance1 but each with a necessary and inalienable part1 in a perfect musical exercise which is well worth while1 or in some sacred liturgy2 or like soldiers in an invincible army1 invincible because it moves as one man4 ,we are to find1 or be put into1 and keep1 every one his natural place2 to cultivate those qualities which will secure mastery over ourselves1 the subordination of the parts to the whole1 musical proportion4 ,to this end1 as we saw1 ,plato1 a remorseless idealist1 is ready even to suppress the differences of male and female character1 to merge1 to lose the family in the social aggregate4 ,imitation then1 we may resume1 imitation through the eye and ear1 is irresistible in its influence on human nature4 ,secondly1 the founders of the ,republic are by its very purpose bound to the simplification of human nature3 #bgd and our practical conclusion follows in logical order4 ,we shall make1 and sternly keep1 a self-denying ordinance in this matter1 in the matter of art1 of poetry1 of taste in all its varieties2 a rule1 of which ,plato's own words1 applied by him in the first instance to rhythm or metre1 but like all he says on that subject fairly applicable to the whole range of musical or aesthetic effects1 will be the brief summary3 ,alternations will be few and far between3-- how differently from the methods of the poetry1 the art1 the choruses1 we most of us love so much1 not necessarily because our senses are inapt or untrained3--,smikrai hai metabolai4 ,we shall allow no musical innovations1 no ,aristophanic cries1 no imitations however clever of the sounds of the flute or the lyre1 no free imitation by the human voice of bestial or mechanical sounds1 no such artists as are like a mirror turning all about4 ,there were vulgarities of nature1 you see1 in the youth of ideal ,athens even4 ,time1 of course1 as such1 is itself a kind of artist1 trimming pleasantly for us what survives of the rude world of the past4 ,now ,plato's method would promote or anticipate the work of time in that matter of vulgarities of taste4 ,yes1 when you read his precautionary rules1 you become fully aware that even in ,athens there were young men who affected what was least fortunate in the habits1 the pleasures1 the sordid business of the class below them4 #bge ,but they would not be allowed quite their own way in the streets or elsewhere in a reformed world1 to whose chosen imperial youth 7,basilik phyl7 it would not be permitted even to think of any of those things--oudeni prosechein ton voun4 ,to them1 what was illiberal1 the illiberal crafts1 would be 7thanks to their well-trained power of intellectual abstraction67 as though it were not4 ,and if art1 like law1 be1 as ,plato thinks1 a creation of mind1 in accordance with right reason1 we shall not wish our boys to sing like mere birds4 ,yet what price would not the musical connoisseur pay to handle the instruments we may see in fancy passing out through the gates of the ,city of the ,perfect1 banished1 not because there is no one within its walls who knows the use of1 or would receive pleasure from1 them 7a delicate susceptibility in these matters ,plato1 as was said1 presupposes7 but precisely because they are so seductive1 must be conveyed therefore to some other essentially less favoured neighbourhood1 like poison1 say6 moral poison1 for one's enemies' water-springs4 ,a whole class of painters1 sculptors1 skilled workmen of various kinds go into like banishment--they and their very tools2 not1 observe again carefully1 because they are bad artists1 but very good ones4--,alla mn1 ,adeimante1 hdys ge kai ho kekramenos4 ,art1 as such1 as ,plato knows1 has no purpose but itself1 its own perfection4 ,the proper art of the #bgf ,perfect ,city is in fact the art of discipline4 ,music 7mousik7 all the various forms of fine art1 will be but the instruments of its one over-mastering social or political purpose1 irresistibly conforming its so imitative subject units to type3 they will be neither more nor less than so many variations1 so to speak1 of the trumpet-call4 ,or suppose again that a poet finds his way to us1 able by his genius1 as he chooses1 or as his audience chooses1 to become all things1 or all persons1 in turn1 and able to transform us too into all things and persons in turn1 as we listen or read1 with a fluidity1 a versatility of humour almost equal to his own1 a poet myriad-minded1 as we say1 almost in ,plato's precise words1 as our finest touch of praise1 of ,shakespeare for instance1 or of ,homer1 of whom he was thinking3--,well6 we shall have been set on our guard4 ,we have no room for him4 ,divine1 delightful1 being1 if he came to our city with his works1 his poems1 wishing to make an exhibition of them1 we should certainly do him reverence as an object1 sacred1 wonderful1 delightful1 but we should not let him stay4 ,we should tell him that there neither is1 nor may be1 any one like that among us1 and so send him on his way to some other city1 having anointed his head with myrrh and crowned him with a garland of wool1 as something in himself half-divine1 and for ourselves should make use of some more austere and less pleasing sort of poet1 for his practical #bgg uses4 ,t austroter kai adester poit1 phelias heneka4 ,not1 as ,i said1 that the ,republic any more than ,lacedaemon will be an artless place4 ,plato's aesthetic scheme is actually based on a high degree of sensibility to such influences in the people he is dealing with4-- ,right speech1 then1 and rightness of harmony and form and rhythm minister to goodness of nature2 not that good-nature which we so call with a soft name1 being really silliness1 but the frame of mind which in very truth is rightly and fairly ordered in regard to the moral habit4--,most certainly he said4--,must not these qualities1 then1 be everywhere pursued by the young men if they are to do each his own business8--,pursued1 certainly4--,now painting1 ,i suppose1 is full of them 7those qualities which are partly ethical1 partly aesthetic7 and all handicraft such as that2 the weaver's art is full of them1 and the inlayer's art and the building of houses1 and the working of all the other apparatus of life2 moreover the nature of our own bodies1 and of all other living things4 ,for in all these1 rightness or wrongness of form is inherent4 ,and wrongness of form1 and the lack of rhythm1 the lack of harmony1 are fraternal to faultiness of mind and charac- ter1 and the opposite qualities to the opposite condition--the temperate and good character3--fraternal1 aye6 and copies of them4--,yes1 entirely so3 he said4-- ,must our poets1 then1 alone be under control1 and compelled to work the image of the good into their poetic works1 or not to work among us at all2 or must the other craftsmen too be controlled1 and restrained from working this faultiness and intemperance and illiberality and formlessness of character whether into the images of living creatures1 or the houses they build1 or any other product of their craft whatever2 or must he who is unable so to do be forbidden to practise his art among us1 to the end that our guardians may not1 nurtured in images of vice as in a vicious pasture1 cropping and culling much every day little by little from many sources1 composing together some one great evil in their own souls1 go undetected8 ,must we not rather seek for those craftsmen who have the #bgh power1 by way of their own natural virtue1 to track out the nature of the beautiful and seemly1 to the end that1 living as in some wholesome place1 the young men may receive good from every side1 whencesoever1 from fair works of art1 either upon sight or upon hearing anything may strike1 as it were a breeze bearing health from kindly places1 and from childhood straightway bring them unaware to likeness and friendship and harmony with fair reason8--,yes3 he answered3 in this way they would be by far best educated4--,well then1 ,i said1 ,glaucon1 on these grounds is not education in music of the greatest importance--because1 more than anything else1 rhythm and harmony make their way down into the inmost part of the soul1 and take hold upon it with the utmost force1 bringing with them rightness of form1 and rendering its form right1 if one be correctly trained2 if not1 the opposite8 and again because he who has been trained in that department duly1 would have the sharpest sense of oversights 7tn paraleipomenn7 and of things not fairly turned out1 whether by art or nature 7m kals dmiourgthentn m kals phyntn7 and disliking them1 as he should1 would commend things beautiful1 and1 by reason of his delight in these1 receiving them into his soul1 be nurtured of them1 and become kalokagathos1 while he blamed the base1 as he should1 and hated it1 while still young1 before he was able to apprehend a reason1 and when reason comes would welcome it1 recognising it by its kinship to himself--most of all one thus taught8--,yes3 he answered3 it seems to me that for reasons such as these their education should be in music4 ,republic1 #djj4 ,understand1 then1 the poetry and music1 the arts and crafts1 of the ,city of the ,perfect--what is left of them there1 and remember how the ,greeks themselves were used to say that the half is more than the whole4 ,liken its music1 if you will1 to ,gregorian music1 and call to mind the kind of architecture1 military or monastic again1 that must be built to such music1 and then the kind of colouring that will fill its #bgi jealously allotted space upon the walls1 the sort of carving that will venture to display itself on cornice or capital4 ,the walls1 the pillars1 the streets--you see them in thought6 nay1 the very trees and animals1 the attire of those who move along the streets1 their looks and voices1 their style--the hieratic ,dorian architecture1 to speak precisely1 the ,dorian manner everywhere1 in possession of the whole of life4 ,compare it1 for further vividness of effect1 to ,gothic building1 to the ,cistercian ,gothic1 if you will1 when ,saint ,bernard had purged it of a still barbaric superfluity of ornament4 ,it seems a long way from the ,parthenon to ,saint ,ouen of the aisles and arches1 or ,notre-,dame de ,bourges2 yet they illustrate almost equally the direction of the ,platonic aesthetics4 ,those churches of the ,middle ,age have1 as we all feel1 their loveliness1 yet of a stern sort1 which fascinates while perhaps it repels us4 ,we may try hard to like as well or better architecture of a more or less different kind1 but coming back to them again find that the secret of final success is theirs4 ,the rigid logic of their charm controls our taste1 as logic proper binds the intelligence3 we would have something of that quality1 if we might1 for ourselves1 in what we do or make2 feel1 under its influence1 very diffident of our own loose1 or gaudy1 or literally insignificant1 decorations4 ,stay then1 says the ,platonist1 too sanguine perhaps1-- ,abide1 he says to youth1 in these #bhj places1 and the like of them1 and mechanically1 irresistibly1 the soul of them will impregnate yours4 ,with whatever beside is in congruity with them in the order of hearing and sight1 they will tell 7despite1 it may be1 of unkindly nature at your first making7 upon your very countenance1 your walk and gestures1 in the course and concatenation of your inmost thoughts4 ,and equation being duly made of what is merely personal and temporary in ,plato's view of the arts1 it may be salutary to return from time to time to the ,platonic aesthetics1 to find ourselves under the more exclusive influence of those qualities in the ,hellenic genius he has thus emphasised4 ,what he would promote1 then1 is the art1 the literature1 of which among other things it may be said that it solicits a certain effort from the reader or spectator1 who is promised a great expressiveness on the part of the writer1 the artist1 if he for his part will bring with him a great attentiveness4 ,and how satisfying1 how reassuring1 how flattering to himself after all1 such work really is--the work which deals with one as a scholar1 formed1 mature and manly4 ,bravery--andreia or manliness--manliness and temperance1 as we know1 were the two characteristic virtues of that old pagan world2 and in art certainly they seem to be involved in one another4 ,manliness in art1 what can it be1 as distinct from that which in opposition to it #bha must be called the feminine quality there1--what but a full consciousness of what one does1 of art itself in the work of art1 tenacity of intuition and of consequent purpose1 the spirit of construction as opposed to what is literally incoherent or ready to fall to pieces1 and1 in opposition to what is hysteric or works at random1 the maintenance of a standard4 ,of such art thos rather than pathos will be the predominant mood4 ,to use ,plato's own expression there will be here no paraleipomena1 no negligences1 no feminine forgetfulness of one's self1 nothing in the work of art unconformed to the leading intention of the artist1 who will but increase his power by reserve4 ,an artist of that kind will be apt1 of course1 to express more than he seems actually to say4 ,he economises4 ,he will not spoil good things by exaggeration4 ,the rough1 promiscuous wealth of nature he reduces to grace and order3 reduces1 it may be1 lax verse to staid and temperate prose4 ,with him1 the rhythm1 the music1 the notes1 will be felt to follow1 or rather literally accompany as ministers1 the sense1--akolouthein ton logon4 ,we may fairly prefer the broad daylight of ,veronese to the contrasted light and shade of ,rembrandt even2 and a painter will tell you that the former is actually more difficult to attain4 ,temperance1 the temperance of the youthful ,charmides1 super-induced on a nature originally rich and impassioned1--,plato's own #bhb native preference for that is only reinforced by the special needs of his time1 and the very conditions of the ideal state4 ,the diamond1 we are told1 if it be a fine one1 may gain in value by what is cut away4 ,it was after such fashion that the manly youth of ,lacedaemon had been cut and carved4 ,lenten or monastic colours1 brown and black1 white and grey1 give their utmost value for the eye 7so much is obvious7 to the scarlet flower1 the lighted candle1 the cloth of gold4 ,and ,platonic aesthetics1 remember6 as such1 are ever in close connexion with ,plato's ethics4 ,it is life itself1 action and character1 he proposes to colour2 to get something of that irrepressible conscience of art1 that spirit of control1 into the general course of life1 above all into its energetic or impassioned acts4 ,such ,platonic quality you may trace of course not only in work of ,doric1 or1 more largely1 of ,hellenic lineage1 but at all times1 as the very conscience of art1 its saving salt1 even in ages of decadence4 ,you may analyse it1 as a condition of literary style1 in historic narrative1 for instance2 and then you have the stringent1 shorthand art of ,thucydides at his best1 his masterly feeling for master-facts1 and the half as so much more than the whole4 ,pindar is in a certain sense his analogue in verse4 ,think of the amount of attention he must have looked for1 in those who were1 not to read1 but to sing him1 or to listen while he was sung1 and to understand4 #bhc ,with those fine1 sharp-cut gems or chasings of his1 so sparely set1 how much he leaves for a well-drilled intelligence to supply in the way of connecting thought4 ,and you may look for the correlative of that in ,greek clay1 in ,greek marble1 as you walk through the ,british ,museum4 ,but observe it1 above all1 at work1 checking yet reinforcing his naturally fluent and luxuriant genius1 in ,plato himself4 ,his prose is a practical illustration of the value of that capacity for correction1 of the effort1 the intellectual astringency1 which he demands of the poet also1 the musician1 of all true citizens of the ideal ,republic1 enhancing the sense of power in one's self1 and its effect upon others1 by a certain crafty reserve in its exercise1 after the manner of a true expert4 ,chalepa ta kala--he is faithful to the old ,greek saying4 ,patience1--infinite patience1 may or may not be1 as was said1 of the very essence of genius2 but is certainly1 quite as much as fire1 of the mood of all true lovers4 ,iss to legomenon althes1 hoti chalepa ta kala4 ,heraclitus had preferred the dry soul1 or the dry light in it1 as ,bacon after him the siccum lumen4 ,and the dry beauty1--let ,plato teach us1 to love that also1 duly4 #ahia-ahib4 ,,notes #bfg4 ,transliteration3 ,ta terpna en ,helladi4 ,pater's translation3 all the delightful things in ,hellas4 ,pindar1 though ,i have not located the poem to which ,pater refers4 #bfg4 ,transliteration3 to ta hautou prattein4 ,e-text editor's translation3 to do only things proper to oneself4 ,plato1 ,republic #cfi;e4 #bfg4 ,transliteration3 poikilia4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 metaph3 cunning4 #bfh4 ,transliteration3 ,ar' oun kai hekast tn technn esti ti sympheron allo hoti malista telean einai4 ,e-text editor's translation3 ,does there belong to each of the arts any advantage other than perfection8 ,plato1 ,republic #cda;d4 ,pater's reading is perhaps anachronistic in suggesting that ,plato anticipated modern thinking about the autonomy of art4 #bfi4 ,transliteration3 lexis4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 a speaking1 speech 4 4 4 a way of speaking1 diction1 style4 #bfi4 ,transliteration3 logoi4 ,pater's contextual translation3 matter4 #bgj4 ,transliteration3 mousik4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 any art over which the ,muses presided1 esp4 music or lyric poetry set and sung to music4444 #bga4 ,transliteration3 metabasis eis allo genos4 ,pater's translation3 a derivation into another kind of matter4 #bgb4 ,transliteration3 ,hina m ek ts mimses tou einai apolaussin4 ,e-text editor's translation3 lest they draw the reality only from their imitation of it4 ,plato1 ,republic #cie;c4 #bgd4 ,transliteration3 ,smikrai hai metabolai4 ,e-text editor's translation3 our senses are inapt or untrained4 ,plato1 ,republic #cig;c4 #bge4 ,transliteration3 ,basilik phyl4 ,e-text editor's translation3 royal tribe4 #bge4 ,transliteration3 oudeni prosechein ton voun4 ,pater's translation3 they would not be permitted even to think of any of those things4 ,plato1 ,republic #cif;b4 #bge4 ,transliteration3 ,alla mn1 ,adeimante1 hdys ge kai ho kekramenos4 ,e-text editor's translation3 ,but indeed1 ,adeimantus1 the mixed kind of art also is pleasant4 ,plato1 ,republic #cig;d4 #bgf4 ,transliteration3 mousik4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 any art over which the ,muses presided1 esp4 music or lyric poetry set and sung to music4444 #bgg4 ,transliteration3 ,t austroter kai adester poit1 phelias heneka4 ,pater's translation3 some more austere and less pleasing sort of poet1 for his practical uses4 ,plato1 ,republic #cih;a4 #bgh4 ,transliteration3 tn paraleipomenn4 ,pater's translation3 oversights4 ,the verb paraleip means1 to leave on one side 4 4 4 leave unnoticed4 ,plato1 ,republic #dja;e4 #bgh4 ,transliteration3 m kals dmiourgthentn m kals phyntn4 ,pater's translation3 not fairly turned out1 whether by art or nature4 ,plato1 ,republic #dja;e4 #bgh4 ,transliteration3 kalokagathos4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 beautiful and good1 noble and good4 ,plato1 ,republic #dja;e4 #bhj4 ,transliteration3 andreia4 ,pater's translation3 manliness4 #bha4 ,transliteration3 thos4 ,liddell and ,scott definition3 an accustomed place 4 4 4 custom1 usage1 habit4 #bha4 ,transliteration3 pathos4 ,liddell and ,scott definition #a4 anything that befalls one1 a suffering1 misfortune1 calamity2 #b4 a passive condition3 a passion1 affection2 #c4 an incident4 #bha4 ,transliteration3 paraleipomena4 ,pater's translation3 oversights4 #bha4 ,transliteration3 akolouthein ton logon4 ,pater's translation3 follow the sense4 ,plato1 ,republic #cih;d4 #bhc4 ,transliteration3 ,chalepa ta kala4 ,e-text editor's translation3 fine things are hard to obtain or understand4 ,plato1 ,republic #dce;c4 #bhc4 ,transliteration3 ,iss to legomenon althes1 hoti chalepa ta kala4 ,e-text editor's translation3 ,perhaps the saying is true--namely1 that fine things are hard to obtain or understand4 ,plato1 ,republic #dce;c4