The Formation of Christendom, Volume II

Timæus, 28.

370

Thus Grote, Plato, i. 230, speaks of “the early caution produced by the fate of Socrates,” and believes “such apprehension to have operated as one motive deterring him from publishing any philosophical exposition under his own name, any Πλάτωνος σύγγραμμα,” p. 231.

371

This has been done by Zeller, vol. ii. part 1, pp. 599-602, from whom I take it. He supports his analysis with a great number of references to various works of Plato.

372

Zeller, vol. ii. part 1, p. 487, remarks of Plato's doctrine: “So far as things are the appearance and the image of the Idea, they must be determined by the Idea; so far as they have in themselves a proper principle in matter, they must be determined likewise by necessity: since, certain as it is that the world is the work of reason, it is as little to be left out of mind that in its formation beside reason another blindly working cause was in play, and that even the Godhead could make its work not absolutely perfect, but only so good as the nature of the finite permitted;” and he refers to many passages of the Timæus, of which one will suffice, wherein at the conclusion of a review of the physical causes of things Plato says: ταῦτα δὴ πάντα τότε ταύτῃ πεφυκότα ἐξ ἀνάγκης ὁ τοῦ καλλίστου τε καὶ ἀρίστου δημιουργὸς ἐν τοῖς γιγνομένοις παρελάμβανεν ἡνίκα τὸν αὐτάρκη τε καὶ τὸν τελεώτατον Θεὸν ἐγέννα, χρώμενος μὲν ταῖς περὶ ταῦτα αἰτίαις ὑπηρετούσαις, τὸ δὲ εὖ τεκταινόμενος ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς γιγνομένοις αὐτὸς; διὸ δὴ χρὴ δὔ αἰτίας εἴδη διορίζεσθαι, τὸ μὲν ἀναγκαῖον, τὸ δὲ θεῖον, καὶ τὸ μὲν θεῖον ἐν ἅπασι ζητεῖν κτήσεως ἕνεκα εὐδαίμονος βίου, καθ᾽ ὅσον ἡμῶν ἡ φύσις ἐνδέχεται, τὸ δὲ ἀναγκαῖον ἐκείνων χάριν, λογιζομένους ὡς ἄνευ τούτων οὐ δυνατὰ αὐτὰ ἐκεῖνα, ἐφ᾽ οἷς σπουδάζομεν, μόνα κατανοεῖν, οὐδ᾽ αὖ λαβεῖν, οὐδ᾽ ἄλλως πως μετασχεῖν. p. 68. Compare p. 48. μεμιγμένη γὰρ οὖν ἡ τοῦδε τοῦ κόσμου γένεσις ἐξ ἀνάγκης τε καὶ νοῦ συστάσεως ἐγεννήθη; κ.τ.λ.

373

Döllinger, p. 297, sec. 119, quoted.

374

So likewise Zeller remarks, vol. ii. part 1, p. 604: “Die Gesetze, welchen die philosophischen Regenten fehlen, behandeln die Volks-religion durchweg als die sittliche Grundlage des Staatswesens.”

375

Ibid. p. 605.

376

Here Zeller remarks: “Diese Voraussetzung liegt der ganzen Behandlung dieser Gegenstände bei Plato zu Grunde… Dass die philosophische Erkenntniss immer auf eine kleine Minderheit beschränkt sein müsse ist Plato's entschiedene Ueberzeugung.”

377

Döllinger, p. 293.

378

See Zeller, vol. ii. part 1, pp. 448-457.

379

“Wie es sich aber in dieser Beziehung mit der Persönlichkeit verhalte, dies ist eine Frage, welche sich Plato wohl schwerlich bestimmt vorgelegt hat, wie ja dem Alterthum überhaupt der schärfere Begriff der Persönlichkeit fehlt, und die Vernunft nicht selten als allgemeine Weltvernunft in einer zwischen Persönlichem und Unpersönlichem unsicher schwankenden Weise gedacht wird.” Zeller, p. 454.

380

Döllinger, p. 286, sec. 103. Zeller, vol. ii. part 1, p. 538.

381

Theætetus, p. 176. Σωκ. Ἀλλ᾽ οὔτ᾽ ἀπόλεσθαι τὰ κυκὰ δυνατόν, ὦ Θεόδωρε; ὑπενάντιον γὰρ τι τῷ ἀγαθῷ ἀεὶ εἶναι ἀνάγκη; οὔτ᾽ ἐν θεοῖς αὐτὰ ἴδρυσθαι, τὴν δὲ θνητὴν φύσιν καὶ τόνδε τὸν τόπον περιπολεῖ ἐξ ἀνάγκης.

382

See Zeller, vol. ii. part 1, pp. 541-4, who points out a string of difficulties on the subject of personality, free-will, as maintained by Plato, and his doctrine that no one is willingly wicked.

383

See Grote's Plato, i. pp. 133, 4.

384

Ueberweg, i. p. 116.

385

So Zeller sets forth at length, i. p. 206; and Ueberweg, i. p. 47.

386

Ueberweg, i. p. 50. Plato calls it ὁδόν τινα βίου, for which Pythagoras αὐτός τε διαφερόντως ἠγαπήθη, καὶ οἱ ὕστερον ἔτι καὶ νῦν Πυθαγόρειον τρόπον ἐπονομάζοντες τοῦ βίου διαφανεῖς πη δοκοῦσιν εἶναι. Polit. x. p. 600.

387

Grote, Plato, i. p. 221.

388

Ueberweg, i. 115.

389

Phæd. sec. 135, p. 274.

390

τὸν τοῦ εἰδότος λόγον λέγεις ζῶντα καὶ ἔμψυχον, οὗ ὁ γεγραμμένος εἴδωλον ἄν τι λέγοιτο δικαίως.

391

ἔχοντες σπέρμα, ὅθεν ἄλλοι ἐν ἄλλοις ἤθεοι φυόμενοι τοῦτ᾽ ἀεὶ ἀθάνατον παρέχειν ἱκανοί.

392

See his averseness to write on such doctrines at all set forth in his 7th epistle.

393

Grote observes, Plato, i. 216: “Plato was not merely a composer of dialogues. He was lecturer and chief of a school besides. The presidency of that school, commencing about 386 b. c., and continued by him with great celebrity for the last half (nearly forty years) of his life, was his most important function. Among his contemporaries he must have exerted greater influence through his school than through his writings.”

394