DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13851#0791
•
A SHORT HISTORY OF GRECIAN LITERATURE'. 55
mg counsel of the gods: so just, that he never did the smallest injury to any one, but
rendered essential services to many ; so temperate, that he never preferred pleasure
to virtue; and so wise, that he was able, even in the most difficult cases, to j udge with-
out advice of what was expedient and right.' That a faction in the state, to whom
his person, manners, and opinions were disagreeable ; that a poet, licentious often in
the extreme, whose object it was to expose, in the most ridiculous light, every charac-
ter celebrated by their virtues or vices, should have attacked Socrates, will not appear
very remarkable when we consider how easily the multitude, wnen possessed of so-
vereign power, are instigated by unprincipled demagogues to commit the most atro-
cious crimes. The wisest and best of men, have often fallen victims to their resent-
ment, as they are commonly wrought upcn by'a set of men of worthless characters
and no reputation, whose only hope, to rise to notice, is by being buoyed up by the;
convulsions and distractions which they occasion. The condemnation of Socrates by-
one of those factions, that too {tea predominated in Athens, bas alhxed a stigma upon
the character of the people, which even the repentance they afterwards showed, and
the honours they conferred upon his memory, can scarcely efface,
PLATO,
The founder of the Academic sect, and the disciple of Socrates, was born in the
four hundred and thirtieth year before Christ. His family ranked among the most il-
lustrious of the Athenians; being by the father's side descended from Codrus the
last of their kings, and by the mother's from Solon, their great legislator. In his youth
he cultivated poetry, which he relinquished upon comparing an epic poem he had com-
posed, with the Iliad. Happening to be present when Socrates was discoursing upon
some philosophical topic, he was so captivated with his eloquence and wisdom, that
he resolved to devote himseif to the study of philosophy alone. Fond of forming hy-
potheses, the peculiar vice of men of ardent imaginations, he did not like his fellow
disciple Xenophon, give a faithful account of the doctrines of his master, but inter-
mingled with them his own opinions, or some tenets he had adopted from other philo-
sophers. After the death of Socrates, thinking himself in danger at Athens upon ac-
count of his attachment to that philosopher, he visited, successively, Italy or Magna
Graicia, where a celebrated school had been established by Pythagoras, and where he
was instructed in all the mysteries of his system ; Egypt, where it is supposed he ob
tained his ideas concerning the origin of the world, and the immortality of the soul 5
and Sicily, to which he was invited by Dionysius the tyrant of Syracuse.
After travelling over so many countries for the sake of enriching his mind with
every kind of knowledge, he settled in Athens, and opened a school for the instruc-
tion of youth in the principles of philosophy. Having collected the knowledge which
he found scattered in different countries, and reduced the opinions of former philoso-
phers to his own preconceived opinions, he composed from these materials a system
which he developed in his writings and conversations. His works are in general in
the form of dialogues, which he has managed with singular felicity and art. Some of
these are distinguished by sublime and glowing conceptions, adorned by a copious and
splendid diction, and wrought up in such an easy, harmonious style, as to seem rather
allied to poetry than prose. They may be divided according the subjects of which
they treat, into Physical, Logical, Ethical and Political.
The opinions of Plato with respect to the formation of the world, and the superin-
tending care of Providence, were of a more exalted nature than those of his prede-
cessors ; but these opinions he has veiled under such a profusion of imagery, that it
is extremely difficult to discover what his real, notions were. Perhaps, like othei
philosophers of the Pythagorean school, he wished to conceal his real sentiments from
the public eye ; or, what is more probable, he suffered his imagination to expatiate in
the boundless field of theological science. In his Phsedon and Timaeus, we find the
following sublime idea of the Deity. ' The Creator of the universe is one, immortal,
infinite : the centre of all perfection, the inexhaustible source of intelligence and be-
ing ; who was before he created the universe, and had manifested his power by any
external act, for he had no beginning; he existed independent of all other beings in
the unfathomable depths of eternity.' He imagined that matter also was eternal,
containing in itself the germ of all evil, made up of contrary principles, and so in-
tractable as to resist the power of the Deity himself. That the Deity, having resolv-
ed from all eternity to form the universe, followed a model always present to his mindj
* model immutable, uncreated and perfect, like what a skilful artist conceives befoi«
he raises from rude materials aa elegant edifice,
A SHORT HISTORY OF GRECIAN LITERATURE'. 55
mg counsel of the gods: so just, that he never did the smallest injury to any one, but
rendered essential services to many ; so temperate, that he never preferred pleasure
to virtue; and so wise, that he was able, even in the most difficult cases, to j udge with-
out advice of what was expedient and right.' That a faction in the state, to whom
his person, manners, and opinions were disagreeable ; that a poet, licentious often in
the extreme, whose object it was to expose, in the most ridiculous light, every charac-
ter celebrated by their virtues or vices, should have attacked Socrates, will not appear
very remarkable when we consider how easily the multitude, wnen possessed of so-
vereign power, are instigated by unprincipled demagogues to commit the most atro-
cious crimes. The wisest and best of men, have often fallen victims to their resent-
ment, as they are commonly wrought upcn by'a set of men of worthless characters
and no reputation, whose only hope, to rise to notice, is by being buoyed up by the;
convulsions and distractions which they occasion. The condemnation of Socrates by-
one of those factions, that too {tea predominated in Athens, bas alhxed a stigma upon
the character of the people, which even the repentance they afterwards showed, and
the honours they conferred upon his memory, can scarcely efface,
PLATO,
The founder of the Academic sect, and the disciple of Socrates, was born in the
four hundred and thirtieth year before Christ. His family ranked among the most il-
lustrious of the Athenians; being by the father's side descended from Codrus the
last of their kings, and by the mother's from Solon, their great legislator. In his youth
he cultivated poetry, which he relinquished upon comparing an epic poem he had com-
posed, with the Iliad. Happening to be present when Socrates was discoursing upon
some philosophical topic, he was so captivated with his eloquence and wisdom, that
he resolved to devote himseif to the study of philosophy alone. Fond of forming hy-
potheses, the peculiar vice of men of ardent imaginations, he did not like his fellow
disciple Xenophon, give a faithful account of the doctrines of his master, but inter-
mingled with them his own opinions, or some tenets he had adopted from other philo-
sophers. After the death of Socrates, thinking himself in danger at Athens upon ac-
count of his attachment to that philosopher, he visited, successively, Italy or Magna
Graicia, where a celebrated school had been established by Pythagoras, and where he
was instructed in all the mysteries of his system ; Egypt, where it is supposed he ob
tained his ideas concerning the origin of the world, and the immortality of the soul 5
and Sicily, to which he was invited by Dionysius the tyrant of Syracuse.
After travelling over so many countries for the sake of enriching his mind with
every kind of knowledge, he settled in Athens, and opened a school for the instruc-
tion of youth in the principles of philosophy. Having collected the knowledge which
he found scattered in different countries, and reduced the opinions of former philoso-
phers to his own preconceived opinions, he composed from these materials a system
which he developed in his writings and conversations. His works are in general in
the form of dialogues, which he has managed with singular felicity and art. Some of
these are distinguished by sublime and glowing conceptions, adorned by a copious and
splendid diction, and wrought up in such an easy, harmonious style, as to seem rather
allied to poetry than prose. They may be divided according the subjects of which
they treat, into Physical, Logical, Ethical and Political.
The opinions of Plato with respect to the formation of the world, and the superin-
tending care of Providence, were of a more exalted nature than those of his prede-
cessors ; but these opinions he has veiled under such a profusion of imagery, that it
is extremely difficult to discover what his real, notions were. Perhaps, like othei
philosophers of the Pythagorean school, he wished to conceal his real sentiments from
the public eye ; or, what is more probable, he suffered his imagination to expatiate in
the boundless field of theological science. In his Phsedon and Timaeus, we find the
following sublime idea of the Deity. ' The Creator of the universe is one, immortal,
infinite : the centre of all perfection, the inexhaustible source of intelligence and be-
ing ; who was before he created the universe, and had manifested his power by any
external act, for he had no beginning; he existed independent of all other beings in
the unfathomable depths of eternity.' He imagined that matter also was eternal,
containing in itself the germ of all evil, made up of contrary principles, and so in-
tractable as to resist the power of the Deity himself. That the Deity, having resolv-
ed from all eternity to form the universe, followed a model always present to his mindj
* model immutable, uncreated and perfect, like what a skilful artist conceives befoi«
he raises from rude materials aa elegant edifice,