A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

402 PLATO. PLATO.
to thinking, but which require intuition in the case aside the doubt that arises from the existence of
of sensuous objects, from the immediate grasp by evil and suffering in the world. (Brandis, Ibid.
thought of intelligible objects or ideas themselves, p. 331, &c.)
that is, of ultimate principles, devoid of all pre- But then, how does the sensuous world, the
supposition (LdvoLa, vods). To the first gradation world of phenomena, come into existence? To
of science, that is, of the higher department of suppose that in his view it was nothing else than
thinking, belong principally, though not exclu- the mere subjective appearance which springs from
sively, mathematics; and that Plato regarded the commingling of the ideas, or the confused conthem (though he did not fully realise this notion) ception of the ideas (Ritter, G(eschichte der Phiiloas a necessary means for elevating experience into sophie, vol. ii. pp. 295, &c. 339, &c.), not only
scientific knowledge, is evident from hints that contradicts the declarations of Plato in the Philebus
occur elsewhere. (Comp. Brandis, Handbuch, &c. (p. 23, b. 54, a.), Timaeus (pp. 27, e. 48, e. 51),
vol. ii. pp. 269, &c.-274, &c.) The fourfold di- &c., but contradicts also the dualistic tendency of
vision which he brings forward, and which is dis- the whole of the ancient philosophy. He desigcussed in the De Republica (vi. p. 509, &c.) he nates as the, we may perhaps say, material ground
appears to have taken up more definitely in his of the phenomenal world, that which is in itself
oral lectures, and in the first department to have unlimited, ever in a process of becomiry, never
distinguished perception from experience (afo-OaoLs, really existing, the mass out of which every thing
from &ota), in the second to have distinguished is formed, and connects with it the idea of exmediate knowledge from the immediate thinking tension, as also of unregulated motion; attributes to
consciousness of first principles (TrLa'Trus1 from it only the joint causality of necessity, in opposition
codS; see Arist. De Animna, i. 2, with the note to the free causality of ideas, which works towards
of Trendelenburg). ends, and, by means of his mythical conception of
Although, therefore, the carrying out of Plato's the soul of the universe, seeks to fill up the chasm
dialectics may be imperfect, and by no means between these opposed primary essences. This,
proportional to this excellent foundation, yet he standing midway between the intelligible (that to
had certainly taken a steady view of their end, which the attribute of sameness belongs) and the
namely, to lay hold of ideas more and more sensible (the diverse), as the principle of order
distinctly in their organic connection at once with and motion in the world, according to him, coinone another and with the phenomenal world, prehends in itself all the relations of number and
by the discovery of their inward relations; and measure. Plato had made another attempt to fill
then having done this, to refer them to their up the gap in the development of ideas by a symultimate basis. This ought at the same time to bolical representation, in the lectures he delivered
verify itself as the unconditional ground of the upon tle Good, mentioned by Aristotle and others.
reality of objects and of the power we have to take In these he partly referred ideas to intelligible
cognisance of them, of Being and of Thought; numbers, in order, probably, that he might be able
being comparable to the intellectual sun. Now to denote more definitely their relation of dethis absolutely unconditional ground Plato de- pendence on the Godhead, as the absolute one,
scribes as the idea of the good (De Rep. vi. as also the relation of their succession and mutual
p. 505, &c.), convinced that we cannot imagine connection; and partly described the Godhead as
any higher definitude than the good; but that the ultimate ground both of ideas and also of the
we must, on the contrary, measure all other material of phenomena, inasmuch as he referred
definitudes by it, and regard it as the aim them both to the divine causality-the former
and purpose of all our endeavours, nay of all immediatelyas original numbers, the latter through
developments. Not being in a condition to grasp the medium of the activity of the ideas. But on
the idea of the good with full distinctness, we are this Pythagorean mode of exhibiting the highest
able to approximate to it only so far as we elevate principles of Plato's doctrine we have but very inmthe power of thinking to its original purity perfect information. (Brandis, Ibid. vol. ii. I, p.
(Brandis, ibid. pp. 281, &c. 324, &c.). Although 336, &c.)
the idea of the good, as the ultimate basis both Both these departments which form the conof the mind and of the realities laid hold of by it, necting link between Dialectics and Physics, and
of thought and of existence, is, according to him, the principles of Physics themselves, contain only
more elevated than that of spirit or actual exist- preliminary assumptions and hypothetical declaence itself, yet we can only imagine its activity as rations, which Plato describes as a kind of recreathe activity of the mind. Through its activity the tion from more earnest search after the really exdeterminate natures of the ideas, which in them- istent, as an innocent enjoyment, a rational sport
selves only exist, acquire their power of causation, (Tim. pp. 27, e. 29, b. 59, c.). Inasmuch as
a power which must be set down as spiritual, that physics treat only of the changeable and imitative,
is, free. Plato, therefore) describes the idea of the they must be contented with attaining probability;
good, or the Godhead, sometimes teleologically, as but they should aim, especially, at investigating
the ultimate purpose of all conditioned existence; teleologically end-causes, that is, free causality, and
sometimes cosmologically, as the ultimate operative showing how they converge in the realisation of
cause; and has begun to develope the cosmological, the idea of the good. All the determinations of
as also the physico-theological proof for the being the original undetermined matter are realised by
of God; but has referred both back to the idea of corporeal forms; in these forms Plato attempts to
the Good, as the necessary presupposition to all find the natural or necessary basis of the different
other ideas, and our cognition of them. Moreover, kinds of feeling and of sensuous perception.
we find him earnestly endeavouring to purify and Throughout the whole development, however, of
free from its restrictions the idea of the Godhead, his Physiology, as also in the outlines of his docto establish and defend the belief in a wise and trine on Health and Sickness, pregnant ideas and
divine government of the world; as also to set clear views are to be met with. (See especially