prudent; if the spirited element does its part, he will not only be courageous but will exhibit in all his actions a 'proud submission' to the voice of reason; if the appetites work rightly, they will supply all natural wants without overstepping the line of honour and of right. Proceeding to the consideration of the State itself, the idea of a community which is to realize before the eyes of men the pattern of heavenly perfection, to develop and strengthen all virtue in its citizens, and to guard them from the pernicious influences to which man's ordinary life is exposed'—such a conception has naturally been looked upon as an anticipation of the Church: and the principle so often insisted on, that the Guardians are not to think of their own happiness but to sacrifice themselves for their subjects, as the good shepherd sacrifices himself for his sheep'-this naturally recalls the words of the Gospel, contrasting the duties of the Christian governor with the claims made by those who exercise lordship among the Gentiles. Even the strange aberrations of the fifth book, describing the communism of the Guardians, might seem like broken visions of the future, when we think of the first disciples who had all things in common, and, in later days, of the celibate clergy, and the cloisteral life of the religious orders. Of social and political principles or institutions first enunciated or advocated by Plato, though in part suggested by the practice of Sparta, we may notice the division of labour, and, as a consequence of this, the establishment of a standing army, the recognition of the equality of the sexes, the duty of national education for the young, and of self-education 1 Rep. VI. 491. continued through life for the philosopher, the limitation of wealth and of population, the abolition of an idle class. In the rules laid down for education the most noticeable points are the importance attached to the early training of the feelings and the imagination by means of fictitious narratives, and the strict censorship over religious and moral instruction. The great principle is laid down that, God being perfectly good, all teaching which represents him as doing wrong, or as the cause of evil, or as capable of change, must be forbidden as false and injurious. Similarly with regard to the use of Art: it is only admissible where it tends to produce a high and noble temper in the citizens: immoral or enfeebling art, like immoral or enfeebling religion, is to be expelled from the state. There is much that is interesting in the details of the Platonic education, in regard to which I would refer the reader to Mr Nettleship's excellent paper contained in the volume entitled 'Hellenica.' But beyond all special details, the great, the surpassing merit of the Republic lies in its power to kindle a love of the ideal, to make a man ashamed of preferring lower pleasures to higher, or of living only for himself or for his own pleasure, instead of living and working for the general good. Plato gives him the spirit to strive after this, because he encourages him to believe in the existence of an unseen world of beauty and of goodness, to which he of right belongs, however much he may have fallen from it; he tells him that he may be converted from low and earthly thoughts and aims, and be enabled to hold communion with the Divine essence even here by the help of philosophy; that life should be a commentatio mortis, and that he who perseveres in the practice of justice and the pursuit of wisdom will hereafter be readmitted to that august assembly, and dwell in heaven with the Gods and with the wise and just of all ages. It is not to be wondered at that, when they met with teaching like this, some of the Christian Fathers should have thought that Plato must have learnt his wisdom from the Bible, or on the other hand that Celsus should have charged the Evangelists with borrowing from Plato'. (4) Our last point is what may be called the eccentricity of Plato. Many of his doctrines were regarded as paradoxes in his own day and have now become commonplaces, such as, that it is better to suffer than to do wrong, better for the wrong-doer to be detected and suffer punishment than to escape. Other paradoxes we But there are some are perhaps on the way to accept. which are more shocking to the improved feeling of the present day than they were when first uttered. A flagrant example is the communism of the Guardians, of which Mr Jowett writes 'the most important transaction of social life, he who is the idealist philosopher converts into the most brutal. The married pair are to have no relation to each other except at the hymneneal festival: their children are not theirs but the State's, nor is any tie of affection to unite them. Yet here his own illustration from the animal kingdom might have saved Plato from a gigantic error. For the nobler sort of birds and beasts nourish and protect their offspring and are faithful to one another.' The explanation is that women in Athens 1 See Ackermann, Das Christliche im Plato, p. 3 foll., and Havet Le Christianisme et Les Origines, I. 203 foll. The view taken by the latter is that of a modern Celsus. M. P. 5 at that time were much in the position of Turkish women at the present day. Rome had still to teach the world that the true nursery of patriotism is the Family; and neither Plato nor any other Greek, unless perchance Euripides, could form any conception of what marriage was destined to become when the proud patriotism of the Roman matron was softened and idealized under the combined influence of Christianity and Teutonism. The romance of affection, so far as it existed, was perverted into an unnatural channel by that evil custom which had run through Greek society like a plague; and the glamour of this romance was powerful enough to blind even a Plato in some degree to the foulness which it covered. It is only in his last dialogue, the Laws, that he seems to have discovered its true character and speaks with just severity of its enormity'. Marriage in Athens was commonly arranged as a mere matter of business with a view to private aggrandisement; Plato made it still more a matter of business, but with him the gain sought was a public one, the improvement of the breed of citizens. The chief motive, however, which led him to abolish family life was his fear of the unity of the State being dissolved by separate interests; he thought that these interests would disappear if none could speak of wife or child or property as his own. Aristotle in his criticism has shown how little such mechanical rules would answer the purpose intended. 1 Compare the difference of tone in Rep. v. 468 and Laws VIII. 836-840. 2 There can be no doubt that Plato's regulations in regard to marriage, like those in regard to the bodily training of women, were in part suggested by the customs of Sparta; where, as Grote says, 'the two sexes were perpetually intermingled in public, in a way foreign to the habits, as well as repugnant to the feelings, of other My space does not allow me to treat of the other stumbling-blocks of the Republic, the expulsion of poets, the principle that philosophers must reign: for all such I must refer the reader to the excellent discussion prefixed to Mr Jowett's translation. I proceed now to give examples of Plato's different styles. An analysis of the argument of the first book of the Republic may suffice for his Dialectic. This book serves as an introduction to the rest by raising the various difficulties which are to be solved afterwards, or by distinguishing various moral standpoints existing in Athens at the time. Thus the aged Cephalus represents the simple pre-scientific morality of old times; he has a sure instinct of what is right and wrong in action but has never attempted to theorize about them. His son Polemarchus has advanced a step further, he is ready with a definition of justice taken from Simonides, and is glad to discuss it with Socrates. Thrasymachus is the representative of the new lights. to whom the old-fashioned morality and old-fashioned Grecian states.' 'The age of marriage was deferred by law until the period supposed to be most consistent with the perfection of the offspring.' 'The bride seems to have continued to reside with her family, visiting her husband in his barrack in the disguise of male attire and on short and stolen occasions.' To bring together the finest couples was regarded by the citizens as desirable, and by the lawgiver as a duty: no personal feeling or jealousy on the part of the husband found sympathy from any one, and he permitted without difficulty, sometimes actively encouraged, compliances on the part of his wife consistent with this generally acknowledged object. So far was such toleration carried that there were some married women who were recognized mistresses of two houses and mothers of two distinct families.' Hist. of Greece II., p. 509 foll. |