LECT. The philosophical doctrines of the eternal existence of the free and rational elements of the soul, of the possibility and propriety of the conjunction of the soul with a variety of successive bodily organizations, and of the object of the whole arrangement, the manifestation of the final triumph of the good over the evil principle; these doctrines rest on their own evidence, whatever that may be, and should be carefully separated from all that mass of imaginative representation and ornament with which in the Platonic dialogues they are combined. Nothing can be more unjust, or indeed more wearisome, than the clumsy criticisms of those unsympathizing judges of Plato, who, unable to rise to the habitual elevation of his thoughts, or unable to breathe in an atmosphere so rare when they have attained it, content themselves with watching his flight through their critical telescopes from below, and registering with painful minuteness every golden cloud he pours around his path, as a solid body which he is establishing in his system. The "Homerus philosophorum," as Cicero 17 calls him, loves to see everything flush with the colours of a pure and solemn poetry; standing for ever in front of the changeless and eternal, his spirit is filled with the exceeding awfulness of the presence; and when he would speak, his thoughts swell into the strong rapture of a hymn. And why, upon yet profounder motives, he purposely sought thus to engage the Imagination as well as the Reason, and deemed both efforts equally his duty, we may, perhaps, hereafter inquire, when in 17 [Rather Panctius, whom Cicero quotes. Tusc. Qu. 1. c. 32. ED.] III. the last section of the subject we examine the LECT. single grand object of his entire labours. It is enough here to remind you that it will be necessary to interpret constantly for yourselves the profuse language of mythological representation into the simpler dialect of scientific truth. rior state and its fall, to Plato in drus. To this class of imaginative shadowings of The antemoral truth belong nearly all the descriptions of the soul, which Plato has given us of the actual occupations according of the soul of man prior to its present earthly the Phaexistence; descriptions which are all meant for those who can penetrate beyond the veil of imagery, and which are intentionally thrown into a form as remote as possible from scientific exposition. He constantly warns us of this. "To explain," he declares, "what the soul is in itself would require a science divine, and prolonged disquisitions; but to give an idea by the way of comparison, human science is enough, and there is no need of many words." It is after making this admonition, that he proceeds to present one of the most elaborate of all these allegories. It is that in the Phædrus in The allegory of the which he has described under the most brilliant chariot and and varied colourings the prior state, and the fall, of the spirit of man; a passage curious and important on many accounts, and not least on this,that it evinces how early 18 in the annals of Plato's 18 [I have already intimated my dissent from the popular tradition which represents the Phaedrus as the first-born of Plato's genius. Cicero's authority may fairly be held as of equal weight with that of the Peripatetics, with whom the report seems to have originated. For those who know Cicero will not easily believe that he wrote without book, when, in reference to the notice of Isocrates, "on the last page of the Phædrus," he observed, "Hæc de adolescente Socrates auguratur. At ea de seniore scribit Plato, et scribit æqualis, et quidem, exagitator omnium rhetorum, hunc horses. III. LECT. philosophical life the main features of his system were fixed, and thus seems to indicate that these outlines must have been, however rudely, sketched in some of the philosophies (especially, doubtless, the Pythagorean) with which he was at that time conversant. As to the doctrines of pre-existence and transmigration, these we know were Egyptian and Pythagorean; the chief question of interest regards the connexion of the Ideal Theory with these antique traditions, which in themselves, and probably in the old Egyptian conception of them, wore rather a physiological than metaphysical aspect. And unfortunately Plato's own singular modesty (which, in spite of ancient scandal, strongly marks his writings) puts it still more out of our power to determine the exact amount of his contributions of doctrine absolutely novel to the general fund of thought; his usual practice being to assign his sentiments to others,-to Socrates, to Parmenides, to even the Sophists. All this dramatic personation was of course well understood in his own age among the literary circles of Athens; and his contemporaries and successors seem, assuredly, to have agreed, that wherever he touched he superseded all who had gone before him in the same walk; but whether the miracle was achieved by absolute creation or by new and felicitous combination of previous materials,-by bestowing what men never possessed, or by teaching them the unsuspected value of what they had,-this it remains in many respects difficult to decide. miratur unum."-Orator. c. 13, § 41. The vulgar tradition cannot have been unknown to the learned Academician, nor would he have contradicted it without some reason. ED.] III. I shall give you the passage to which I have LECT. alluded. You may find some interest in comparing its picturesque and symbolical imagery with the grave account which Bishop Butler in the fifth chapter of his "Analogy" gives, of the course of temptation by which persons "made upright may fall." The substance of these very different forms of deduction is not itself very different; for the "particular propensions" hostile to conscience in the Bishop's argument are personified in the unmanageable courser of the allegory I proceed to translate. "Let us compare," he says, "the soul (in its original state) to the combined energies of a winged equipage and a charioteer. The coursers and the charioteers of the gods are all noble and nobly sprung; but those of other natures are very various. With us men, for example, the charioteer does indeed direct the equipage; but of the coursers one is well proportioned and well bred, the other quite the opposite; from whence it results that the work of guiding the chariot is exceedingly difficult. And here we may explain the difference between the mortal and immortal species. Soul in general presides over lifeless nature and makes the voyage of the universe under many forms. As long as it is in perfection, and preserves its wings in all their vigour, it traverses the ethereal regions and governs the whole world; but when its wings fail, it is carried at random until at length it falls upon and attaches itself to something solid, and thenceforward remains there. It is thus that we call the union of soul and body a living being, this body 16 [Phædr. p. 246 fol. ED.] III. LECT. appearing to move itself, by reason of the power derived from the soul. As to the immortal nature, we have no certainty upon the subject, we can only offer conjecture; and without having even seen Deity or sufficiently understanding its being, we imagine a living immortal essence whose soul and body are everlastingly united. But however that be, it is for us to consider and recount the causes why souls first lose those wings of which we have spoken. "The power of the wings is to elevate that which is heavy to those higher regions of the gods ; and they share, more than anything else which is corporeal, in that which is divine. Now that which is divine is the Beautiful, the True, the Good, and everything that resembles them. This then is what feeds and nerves the wings of the soul; while, on the other hand, all that is evil and deformed injures and destroys them. Well then, the sovereign ruler, Jove, advances in the van, guiding his winged chariot, disposing and controlling all. After him comes the host of gods and powers in eleven divisions, for Vesta remains alone in the palace of the immortals; but the eleven other 'dii majores' advance, each at the head of a detachment, in their appointed rank. And then what captivating sights, what grand opening vistas, enliven the inner depths of the heavens while the blessed discharge their divine offices accompanied by all who will or can follow them; for far is envy from the celestial choir. When they return to the splendid banquet provided for them, and ascend to the crown of the vault of heaven, the chariots of the immortals, always in perfect balance, advance with lightness |