Reason and Redemption [pp. 409-437]

1875.] REASON AND REDEMPTION. 417
never perish. "God is the eternal prius of all development.'
Memory belongs to and does not survive the sensitive soul,
and individual thought perishes with the passive nous, consequently, all human self-consciousness ceases at death.f So
that the so-called dualism of Aristotle ends, logically, like that
of the Stoics, in the all-absorbing vortex of pantheistic
Monism.
The same is probably true of that obscure, if not restlessly
Protean, system that goes under the name of Platonism. It
is difficult to say what Plato himself believed, and his true
beliefs, doubtless, underwent important changes.~ He asserts
the existence of the principles, matter and God, which gave
the world a beginning and an organization, having previously
to that event generated its soul.~ It is, perhaps, still undecided,
whether Plato ever conceived of any of his archetypal "ideas"
as personal existences.~{ The most interesting inquiry, however, is, did he ever go so far in this personification as to identify
the highest of these "ideas" with the most high God? Some
affirm, others deny. If lie did, it was nearly always, or absolutely, in a pantheistic sense.! Says Cousin (and apparently
with justice), of the Platonic "ideas " and their relation
to the Platonic deity: " En derniere analyse il les place
dans la raison divine c'est la' qu'elles existent substantiallement."** The dualism of Plato, like that of his great
pupil, disappears on a closer examination; for matter (though
*Jbid, p. 163. See, too, on this and other points, Aristotle, Meta~hysics, lib. xi
(xii), cap. vii, p. 250; Tauchnitz, 1832.
t Dollinger, The Gentile and ~ew.
~Grote's Flab, London, Murray, 1867; vol. i, p. 218.
~See Ueberweg, V ol. i, p. 123, and for Cicero's testimony, Tusc. Di~put. i,
xxviii, vol. 8, p. 215; Tauchnitz.
`\ According to Plotinus, the "ideas" of Tim~us are strictly personal; Ueberweg,
however, takes the language figuratively.
If Plato ever had a glimpse of the one personal God, it must have been a very
transient one. Even at that, this were the highest (though but momentary) attainment of antiquity. Grote's opinion is, that Plato's mental attitude was, at times at
least, that of the Nihilists. See, however, the words he puts into the mouth of
Tim~us. Plato, Timaus, V. i, pp. 332 and 334; Tru'bner, 1856.
** Dollinger denies that Plato was a pantheist, inasmuch as he distinguishes be
tween matter and God; but admits that he had a pantheistic leaning or "bias."
The quotation from Cousin is from Histoire Generate. See Dr. Hodge, p. 324.