2

stancy (avopeia); Temperance (owppoovvn); and Justice (dikaιoovvy) which are otherwise termed the four cardinal virtues. Such virtues he describes as arising out of an independence of, and superiority to, the influence of the senses. In his practical philosophy Plato blended a rigid principle of moral obligation with a spirit of gentleness and humanity; and education he described as a liberal cultivation and moral discipline of the mind. Politics he defined to be the application, on a great scale, of the laws of morality (a society being composed of individuals, and therefore under similar obligations): and its end to be liberty and concord. In giving a sketch of his Republic, as governed according to reason, (an Ideal state), Plato had particularly an eye to the character and the political difficulties of the Greeks; and the elements of this organism, in his view, answer to the component parts of the soul. Plato's Republic is the earliest systematic treatise on Socialism, and the philosopher himself the earliest scientific Socialist. Beauty he considered to be the sensible repregentation of moral and physical perfection: consequently it

1 De Rep. IV, 443, sqq.

2 Ibid. III, p. 310; De Leg. I, p. 46, sqq., II, 59.

3 Ibid.

4 Consult the following works on the philosophy of Plato, as bearing upon practical principles:

CHRYS. JAVELLI Dispositio Moralis Philosophiæ Platonicæ, Ven. 1536, 4to. Et, Dispositio Philosophiæ Civilis ad Mentem Platonis Venet. 1536, 4to.

MAGN. DAN. OMEISII Ethica Platonica, Altdorf. 1696, 8vo.

FR. AUG. LUD. ADOLPH. GROTEFEND, Commentatio in quâ Doctrina Platonis Ethica cum Christiana comparatur, etc., Götting. 1720, 4to. JOH. SLEIDANI Summa Doctrinæ Platonis de Republicâ et de Legibus, Argentor. 1548, 8vo.

J. J. LEIBNITII Respublica Platonis, Leips. 1776, 4to.

J. ZENTGRAVII Specimen Doctrinæ Juris Naturæ secundum Disciplinam Platonicam, Argentor. 1679, 4to.

CAR. MORGENSTERN, De Platonis Republ. Commentt. III., Halæ, 1794, 8vo.

J. LUD. GUIL. DE GEER, Diatribe in Politices Platonicæ Principia, Ultraj. 1810, 8vo.

FR. KOPPEN, Polity, according to the Principles of Plato, Leips. 1818, 8vo.

G. PINZGER De iis quæ Aristoteles in Platonis Politiâ reprehendit, Leips. 1822, 8vo.

5 De Leg. II, p. 62, sqq., p. 89, sqq.; Sympos. Phædr. Hippias. Maj.

is one with Truth and Goodness, and inspires love (epws), which leads to virtue. (Platonic Love.)

137. Plato borrowed considerably from other philosophers, particularly the Pythagoreans, who suggested to him the leading idea that all the variety of existing objects consist of one changeable substratum and form. but what he borrowed his own genius stamped with a character of origi nality, and blended the discordant systems of older philosophy in an harmonious whole; the striking advantages of which are the unity it presents in its system of Ideas; the combinaticn in one and the same interest of our reason, both speculative and practical; the strictness of the union. which he maintains between Virtue, Truth, and Beauty the multitude of new ideas of which the germs are to be found in his system; and, finally, for the love of science which his meditations inspire." On the other hand his system is not without its weak side; he did not sufficiently distinguish between conceptions originating in the mind itself and those which are acquired by experience; and his origin of the deat is mystical; besides which he confounds thought with cognition. There are faults also in his manner : the union of much imagination with reasoning, of a poetic with a philosophic spirit, and the total absence of any systematic form, have rendered his doctrine difficult to be apprehended; gave occasion for abundance of misinterpretations; and ultimately had great influence over the fortunes of Platonism.

138. Plato drew around him a crowd of disciples and admirers; many of them celebrated statesmen, and even several females: among others Axiothea of Phlius, and Lasthenia of Mantinea. As the doctrines he had blended came subsequently to be redivided, and as succeeding ages produced a succession of different prevailing spirits of philosophy, his school was subdivided into several sects, and thus gave birth to various Academies. To the first of these belonged Speusippus of Athens (died 339 B.Č.), the Sympos. Phædr., p. 301; Euthyphr. p. 20.

BAUR, Das Christliche des Platonismus, 1837.
DIOG. LAERT. III, 46.

nephew and successor of Plato,' and his successor Xenocrates of Chalcedon (died 314 B.C.); who in his manner of expressing himself resembled Pythagoras: for instance, in defining the soul to be a self-moving number. After him Polemo of Athens presided at the Academy, who considered the summum bonum to consist in a life regulated according to nature; and subsequently Crates of Athens. Finally Crantor of Soli, the friend and disciple of Xenocrates and Polemo, maintained the original system of the founder of the school, with the exception of a small number of alterations, applied principally to the popular doctrines of practical morality. The new Academy (see below, § 166, sqq.) directed its speculations to prove the uncertainty of human judgment: while the Neo-Platonists founded a school of enthusiasts who laid claim to a high degree of internal illumination.*

II. Aristotle.

Authorities: The works of Aristotle, and his numerous commentators, whose observations must be admitted with caution; (among others, Ammonius, Alexander Aphrodisiensis, Simplicius, and Themistius); Cicero, Plutarch, Sext. Empir., Diog. Laert. lib. V., Suidas.

Modern Works on the Life and Philosophy of Aristotle
in general.

FRANC. PATRICII Discussionum Peripateticarum, tom. IV, quibus Aristotelicæ Philosophiæ Universæ Historia atque Dogmata cum veterum placitis collata eleganter et eruditè declarantur, Basil. 1581, fol. MELCH. WEINRICHII Oratio Apologetica pro Aristotelis Personâ, adversus Criminationes Patricii, Lips. 1644, 4to.

1DIOG. LAERT. IV, 2, sqq. For some of his opinions, see Arist. Met. VII, 2; XII, 7; Eth. Nic. 1, 4. SEXT. Adv. Math. VII, 145. 2 Ibid. IV, 6, sqq. SEXT. Adv. Math. VII, 16, etc. 3 In 314 B.C. 4 DIOG. LAERT. IV, 16, sqq. Cic. De Fin. IV, 6. 5 About 313 B.C.

Heraclides of Pontus, the author of some treatises of which we possess certain fragments (ed. GEO. D. KOELER, Hal. 1804, 8vo. Cf. DIOG. LAERT. V, 86, sqq. Cic. Tusc. V, 3; De Div. I, 23, and SUIDAS, 8. h.v.), was the hearer both of Plato and Aristotle; on which account he has by some been called a Peripatetic.

*This internal illumination has been identified, by many modern writers, with the clairvoyance of natural somnambulism and Animal Magnetism. (See Colquhoun's Hist. of Magic, Witchcraft, and Animal Magnetism, vol. I.)-ED.

HERM. CONRINGII Aristotelis Laudatio: Orationes duæ, Helmst. 1633, 4to.

E. V. L. PLESSING, On Aristotle, in Cæsar's Denkwürdigkeiten, aus der Philos. Welt. tom. III.

J. GOTTL. BUHLE, Vita Aristotelis per Annos digesta: in the first vol. of his edition of the Works of Aristotle.

MICH. PICCARTI Isagoge in Lectionem Aristotelis cum Epistola Conringianâ et præmissâ Dissertatione de Naturâ, Origine et Progressu Philos. Aristotelicæ; ed. J. CONR. DURRIUS, Altd. 1667, 8vo.

PETR. JOH. NUNNESII, BARTH. Jos. PASCHASII, et Jo. BAPT. MONTORII Oratt. tres de Aristotelis Doctrinâ, Francof. 1591, 8vo.

MICH. PICCARTI Hypotyposis Philos. Aristotelicæ, Norimb. 1504, 8vo. J. CRASSOTII Institutiones in Universam Arist. Philosophiam, Par. 1619, 4to.

J. CONR. DURRII Hypotyposis totius Philos. Aristotelicæ, Altd. 1660, 4to.

*

PETRI RAMI Animadversiones Aristotelica XX libris comprehensæ, Par. 1558, 8vo.; and his other works quoted farther on.

PETRI GASSENDI Exercitationes Paradoxicæ adversus Aristotel., etc. Gratianop. 1624, 8vo.; and in his Works, Lugd.

PETRI VALERIANI Philosophia contra Aristotelem, Dantisc. 1653, 4to.

On the other hand see the Works written in defence of Aristotle, by MART. DORPUS, P. GALLANDIUS, J. BROSCIUS, J. GUILLEMINAT, H. STABIUS, JOS. DE MUNNANA against VALLA, RAMUS, and others.

PET. VILLEMANDY, Manuductio ad Philosophiæ Aristoteleæ Epicuræ et Cartesianæ parallelismum, Amst. 1683, 8vo.

GE. PAUL. ROETENBECCII Disp. de principio Aristotelico et Cartesiano, Altd. 1685, 4to.

SAM. MASCOVII Exerc. Acad. uter in Scrutinio Veritatis rectius dubitet Aristoteles an Cartesius, Regiom. 1704, 4to.

BIESE, Die Philosophic des Aristoteles, 1 Bd. 1835.

STAHR, Aristotelia, I und II, 1830 und 1832.

MICHELET, Examen critique de l'ouvrage d'Aristote, intitulé Metaphysique, 1836.

MICHELET, Die Ethik des Aristoteles, 1827.

HARRIS (James) of Salisbury, Works (passim), published by his son (Lord Malmsbury), Lond. 1801, 2 vols. 4to. Again 1805.

Cf. besides, the articles Aristotles, Aristotelische Philosophie (by BUHLE), in the great Encyclop. published by ERSCH, etc.; part V.

139. Aristotle was born at Stagira, 384 B.C. O1. XCIX. He inherited from his father Nicomachus, who had been the physician and friend of Amyntas, king of Macedon, a predilection for natural philosophy. From 368 B.C. he continued for twenty years the disciple of Plato, improving under that great master his admirable talents for analysis;

though, subsequently, he separated from him. In 343 he became the preceptor of Alexander, who assisted his scientific pursuits by sending to him collections of objects of natural history, and furnishing him with sums of money for the purchase of books. He founded in 334 a new school in the walks of the Lyceum; whence the name of Peripatetics, and died in 322,3 at Chalcis, in Euboea; probably by poison, which he had taken on being obliged to leave Athens under the suspicion of atheism. Aristotle has bequeathed to us excellent works on all the sciences known to the Greeks, and particularly on Moral Philosophy. These treatises are to be divided into exoteric and esoteric, or acroamatic. The peculiar fortunes to which his works have been exposed, have rendered still more difficult the examination and exposition of his doctrines, already sufficiently obscure, by their brevity and the peculiarity of the language he employed."

140. Aristotle possessed in a high degree the talent of discrimination, and a great mass of knowledge derived from books and the observation of nature. He mastered the whole philosophical and historical science of his age, and started from the exploration of nature. He was consequently not satisfied with Ideas, but sought also to reconcile them with nature. He conceived them to be not

1 PLIN. Hist. Nat. VIII, 16.

2 DIOG. LAERT. V, 2. Cic. Acad. Quæst. 1, 4. A. GELL. N. A. XX, 5. 3 01. CXIV.-CXIII.

4 J. GOTTL. BUHLE, Commentatio de Librorum Aristotelis distributione in Exotericos et Acroamaticos, Gött. 1788, 8vo.; and in the first vol. of his edition of Arist.

FRANC. NIC. TITZE, de Aristotelis Operum serie et distinctione liber, Lips. 1826, 8vo.

5 See STRAB. Geo. lib. IX, et PLUT. in Vit. Syllæ, c. 26. HEYNE, Opusc. Acad., vol. I, p. 126, et SCHNEIDER, Epimetrum de Fatis Libror. Aristotelicorum, in his edition of Arist. Hist. of Anim. Lips. 1811, p. 76. See also BRANDIS, in the Rhein. Museum, I Jahr, Nos. III and IV, Lond, 1827.

6 PETR. JOH. NUNNESIUS, De Causis Obscuritatis Aristotelis earumque remediis una cum Vita Aristotelis a JOH. PHILOPONO descripta, etc. Lugd. Bat. 1621.

+ FULLEBORN (Collect. fasc. IX.), On the Manner and Philosophy of Aristotle.

7 Metaph. I, 7; XII, 9.