element is to have living creatures belonging to it. Those belonging to the element of fire are the Gods, both the heavenly bodies and those of whom tradition tells us. All these were fashioned by the Demiurgus himself, but the creatures belonging to the other elements, including the mortal part of man, were the work of the created gods. The immortal part of man, the reason, is of like substance with the soul of the world, and was distributed by the Demiurgus amongst the stars till the time came for each several particle to enter the body prepared for it by the created gods, when it combined. with two other ingredients, the appetitive (тò èπɩOvμŋtikóv) and the spirited (To Oupoedés) which it had to bring into subjection. If it succeeded, it returned to its star on the death of the body; if it failed, it was destined to undergo various transmigrations until its victory was complete. In all these physical speculations Plato was much influenced by the Pythagoreans.

We have now to speak of his ethical doctrines, which were based upon the psychological views mentioned above. The soul is on a small scale what the State, or city, is on a large scale: it is a constitution which is in its right condition when its parts work harmoniously together, when the governing reason is warmly supported by its auxiliary the heart, and promptly and loyally obeyed by the appetites. Thus perfect virtue arises when wisdom, courage and temperance are bound together by justice. The highest good is the being made like to God; and this is effected by that yearning after the Ideal which we know by the name of Love.

Thirty-five Dialogues have come down to us under the name of Plato, the greater number of which are

all but universally acknowledged to be genuine. Five of these are classified as 'logical' in the catalogue of Thrasyllus; one, the Timaeus, as 'physical;' in the remainder the ostensible purpose commonly is to define the meaning of some ethical term, as the Laches turns on the definition of Courage, the Charmides on the definition of Temperance, the Republic on that of Justice. But, in a writer so discursive, and so little systematic as Plato, it is impossible to carry out any strict system of classification: all that can be done is to group different dialogues together from one or another point of view; as we may call the Apology, Crito, Euthyphro and Phaedo Socratic in a special sense, because they give the substance of discourses really held by the historic Socrates. Or again we may trace a gradual progress from the simpler and narrower doctrines of the Protagoras, the Lysis, the Charmides, the Laches, which hardly pass beyond the Socratic point of view, to the Phaedrus, the Gorgias, the Phaedo, the Symposium, in which the Ideal theory is developed along with the doctrines of pre-existence and immortality; until at length we arrive at the culminating point of the Platonic philosophy in the Republic, that unsurpassable monument of genius, which stands on the same level in the world of speculation, as the Agamemnon or the Parthenon in the world of Art. We may observe the growth of Pythagorean mysticism in the Timaeus; and finally, in the deeply-interesting dialogue of the Laws, we may listen to the sadder and sterner tones in which the aged Plato, summing up his life's experience, confesses that he had been too sanguine in his hopes as to what could be effected by philosophy, and avows his belief that the deep-rooted evil in nature and in

man must be traced back to an evil spirit counterworking the action of the divine spirit in the universe'; and that the lessons of philosophy must be supplemented and enforced by religion, if they are to have a real practical power over the mass of men. In addition to the extant Dialogues, we find references to lectures of a more esoteric character upon the Chief Good, in which the theory of Ideas seems to have been mixed up with quasi-Pythagorean speculations on the symbolism of Number.

Perhaps the best way in which I can employ the brief space at my disposal, in order to give some notion of Plato's manner of treating a subject, will be to append here an abstract of the Republic3, and then to illustrate, from that and from other dialogues, his three styles, dialectical, expository, and allegorical.

In the 1st Book of the Republic we have an excellent example of a dialectical discussion, which will be given more in detail below; upon the nature of Justice or Righteousness. The conclusion arrived at is that Justice is in all respects superior to injustice, the opposite thesis having been maintained by Thrasymachus, and that the just man is happier than the unjust, not only because he is loved by the Gods and by all good men, but because Justice is that quality of the soul by which it is enabled to perform well its proper functions. Socrates however allows that the discussion had been too rapid, and that they ought to have determined the exact nature of justice before arguing as to its effects. Accordingly in the 2nd Book two of his disciples put forward the difficulties they

1 Cf. x. 896.

2 On the Republic see the interesting paper by Mr Nettleship in 'Hellenica,' and the translation by Davies and Vaughan.

feel on the subject, and beg of Socrates to prove, if he can, that justice is not only good in its results, but good and desirable in itself. Though men agree to commend justice, yet they generally do this in such a way as to imply that, if a man could practise injustice without fear of detection and retaliation or punishment, he would be happier than a just man who suffered under a false imputation of injustice, particularly if it be true that the favour of the Gods may be won by sacrifices and offerings, irrespectively of the moral character of the worshipper.

Socrates commences the expository portion of the dialogue by proposing to examine the nature of justice and injustice on a larger scale in the State. Tracing the rise of the State we shall be able to see how justice and injustice spring up within it. Society is founded in the wants of the individual: men enter into partnership because no one is sufficient to himself. Experience soon teaches the advantages of division of labour: thus one is a husbandman, another a builder, another a clothier; and with the growth of the community a whole class of distributors are needed in addition to the producers. If the State becomes wealthy and luxurious it will speedily be involved in war, and we shall need a standing army of thoroughly trained soldiers. Like good watch-dogs, they must be brave to resist the enemy, while at the same time they are gentle towards the citizens whom they guard. They must be carefully selected and trained. up from their earliest years to be true Guardians of the State, trained in mind by music (including under this term literature), trained in body by gymnastics. The earliest training will be that by means of tales partly fictitious and partly true. Tales, such as those of Homer

and Hesiod, which attribute wicked actions to the Gods, or represent the heroes as mastered by passion or bemoaning the approach of death, must be altogether excluded, and only such admitted as inculcate truth, courage, self-control, and trust in the unchanging goodness of God. God, being perfectly good, can never deceive, never be the cause of evil: when he sends what is apparently evil, it is really good in the form of chastisement. But not only the substance of these tales, but the form also must be under strict regulation. The style, the rhythm and the music must all be simple, grave and dignified, expressive of the feelings of a noble and virtuous man, never stooping to imitate folly or vice. Similarly in every branch of art, our youthful Guardians must be familiarized with all that is beautiful, graceful and harmonious, in order that they may learn instinctively to hate what is ugly, and thus may be fitted to receive the fuller teaching of reason, as they advance in years. The use of gymnastic is not only to train the body, but to develop the spirited element in the mind, and so supplement the use of music, which develops especially the philosophic element and by itself might induce too great softness and sensitiveness. For this second branch of education we need the same rules as for the first; it must be simple, sober, moderate. When our Guards have been thus trained, we shall select the ablest, the most prudent, the most public-spirited, to be governors or chief Guardians; the rest we shall call the 'Auxiliaries.' To prevent jealousies we must instil into all the citizens the belief that the Guardians are born with a certain mixture of gold in their composition, the Auxiliaries with a like mixture of silver, and the inferior classes with

M. P.

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