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

PLATO; PLATO. 403
Th. HIr. Martin, Etudes sur le Timee de Platon, j contradictions in which the assertions, on the one
Paris, 1841.) b hand that wrong actions are uglier than right
WTith the physiology of Plato his doctrine of the ones but more useful, on the other that the only
Soul is closely connected. Endowed with the right recognised by nature is that of the stronger,
same nature as the soul of the world, the human are involved. In this discussion the result is desoul is that which is spontaneously active and un- duced, that neither happiness nor virtue can conapproachable by death, although in its connection sist in the attempt to satisfy our unbridled and
with the body bound up with the appetitive, the ever-increasing desires (de Rep. i.). In the Menon
sensuous; and the arusio, that which is of the na- the Good is defined as that kind of utility which
ture of affection or eager impulse, the ground of can never become injurious, and whose realisation
courage and fear, love and hope, designed, while is referred to a knowledge which is absolutely
subordinating itself to the reason, to restrain sen- fixed and certain,-a knowledge, however, which
suality, must be regarded as the link between the must be viewed as something not externally comrational and the sensuous. (Timz. p. 69, d. 71, b., de municable, but only to be developed from the
Rep. iv. p. 435, &c. ix. p. 571.) Another link of con- spontaneous activity of the soul. Lastly, in the
nection between the intellectual and sensuous nature Philebus, the investigation respecting pleasure and
of the soul is referred to Love, which, separated pain, which was commenced in the Gorgias, as also
from concupiscent desire, is conceived of as an in- that on the idea of the Good, is completed; and
spiration that transcends mere mediate intellection, this twofold investigation grounded upon the prinwhose purpose is to realise a perpetual striving after ciples of dialectics, and brought into relation with
the immortal, the eternal;-to realise, in a word, physics. Pain is referred to the disturbance of
by a close connection with others, the Good in the inward harmony, pleasure to the maintenance,
the form of the Beautiful. In the Phaedrus Plato or restoration of it; and it is shown how, on the one
speaks of love under the veil of a myth; in the hand, true and false, on the other, pure and mixed
Lysis he commences the logical definition of it; pleasure, are to be distinguished, while, inasnmuch
and in the Symposium, one of the most artistic and as it (pleasure) is always dependent on the actiattractive of his dialogues, he analyses the different vity out of which it springs, it becomes so munch the
momenta which are necessary to the complete de- truer and purer in proportion as the activity itself
termination of the idea. In these and some of the becomes more elevated. In this rway the first
other dialogues, however, beauty is described as sketch of a table of Goods is attained, in which the
the image of the ideas, penetrating the veil of phe- eternal nature of Measure, that is, the sum and
nomena and apprehended by the purest and bright- substance of the ideas, as the highest canon, and
est exercise of sense, in relation to colours, forms, then the different steps of the actual realisation of
actions, and morals, as also with relation to the bar- them in life, in a regular descending scale, are
monious combination of the lManifold into perfect given, while it is acknowledged that the accomUnity, and distinctly separated from the Agreeable panying pure (unsensuous) pleasure is also to be
and the Useful. Art is celebrated as the power regarded as a good, but inferior to that on which
of producing a whole, inspired by an invisible it depends, the reason and the understanding,
arrangement; of grouping together into one form science and art. Now, if we consider that, acthe images of the ideas, which are everywhere cording to Plato, all morality must be directedscattered around. to the realisation of the ideas in the phenomenal
That the soul, when separated from the body,- world; and, moreover, that these ideas in their
or the pure spirit, —is immortal, and that a con- reality and their activity, as also the knowledge
tinuance, in which power and consciousness or respecting them, is to be referred to the Godhead,
insight are preserved, is secured to it, Socrates, we can understand how he could designate the
in the Phaedo of Plato, when approaching death, highest good as being an assimilation to God.
endeavours to convince his friends, partly by means (Tseaet. p. 176, a., de Rep. x. 613; cormp. Wytof analogies drawn from the nature of things, partly tenbach, ad Plut. de Ser. N7l1. Inibd. p. 27.)
by the refutation of the opposed hypothesis, that the Iii the Ethics of Plato the doctrine respecting
soul is as harmonious union and tuning of the virtue is attached to that of the highest good,
constituents of the body, partly by the attempt to and its development. That virtue is essentially
prove the simplicity of the essential nature of the one, and the science of the good, had been already
soul, its consequent indestructibility, and its rela- deduced in the critical and dialectical introductory
tion to the Eternal, or its pre-existence; partly dialogues; but it had been also presupposed ancd
by the argumentation that the idea of the soul even hinted that, without detriment to its unity,
is inseparable from that of life, and that it different phases of it could be distinguished, alnd
can never be destroyed by moral evil, - the only that to knowledge there must be added practice,
evil to which, properly speaking, it is subjected and an earnest combating of the sensuous functions.
(comp. de Rep. x. p. 609, b. &c., Plaedr. p. 245, c.). In order to discover these different phases, Plato
Respecting the condition of the soul after death goes back upon his triple division of the faculties
Plato expresses himself only in myths, and his of the soul. Virtue, in other words, is fitness of
utterances respecting the Transmigration of Souls the soul for the operations that are peculiar to it
also are expressed in a mythical form. (de Rep. i. p. 353, d. x. p. 601, d.), and it
As a true disciple of Socrates, Plato devoted all manifests itself by means of its (the soul's)
the energy of his soul to ethics, which again are inward harmony, beauty, and health (Goig. pp.
closely connected with politics. He paves the way 504, b. 506, b., Psaeedo, p. 93, e., de Rep. iv. pp.
for a scientific treatment of ethics by the refuta- 444, d. viii. 554, e.). Different phases of virtue
tion of the sophistical sensualistic and hedonistic are distinguishable so far as the soul is not pure
(selfish) theories, first of all in the Protagoras and spirit; but just as the spirit should rule both the
the three smaller dialogues attached to it (see other elements of the soul, so also shouid wisdom,
above), then in the Gorgias, by pointing out the as the inner development of the spirit, rule the
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