CHAP. XXII.-Character of the Instruction.-Expense HORE PLATONICÆ. CHAPTER I. It has become a trite observation of thoughtful men, that in all around us in the present day there is a sound and a movement—a working in the human mind—a stirring in the waters, which betokens the approach of some great change. Not only in this country, but throughout the civilized world, there are symptoms of a crisis in opinion as well as in society. The two cannot be separated. Old forms are breaking up, and new are thickening on each other. Wider scenes of action seem opened to practical minds, and deeper mines of thought for speculation. There is in the many an eager restless craving for some vague good, which all anticipate and none define; an exultation at coming prospects; a contempt for the poverty of the past, and the imperfection of the present; a sense of newly awakened powers; a passion for new sympathies and combinations; a general baring and exposure of the human mind, as among men who have cast off restraint, and are about to enter together on some great enterprise. And where the current is not rushing forward with an accelerated movement, it is turning in an extraordinary way, and remounting back to its source. B Those who think, and those who think not, all seem impressed with something of a mysterious action. And even the few who take no part in the crowd, are sitting with anxious eye watching for the end. To a philosophical observer, the symptoms of this singular state of the human mind are full of interest; though they may appear in seemingly very insulated facts, and the connexion of them with the general principle may seem forced. One of them is a remarkable phenomenon, which cannot have escaped the observer of general literature. Within the last few years, simultaneously, and with little connection, a general tendency to revive the study of Plato has sprung up in the most intellectual parts of Europe, in Germany, France, and England. In Germany it is returning after a short suspension. In France appearing for the first time. In England recovering slowly, and perhaps never likely to assume a very prominent position, from circumstances, happy circumstances, which supersede its necessity. In Germany, one of its most eloquent advocates, Van Heusde1, has expressly stated the feelings under which he is anxious to restore it. He describes the weariness and disheartened apathy which has followed from the rapid succession of modern theories, each rising on the wreck of its predecessor, each standing firm and domineering for a time, and then sinking suddenly into ruin. He seems to feel rather than to acknowledge, that the only security against this dangerous and miserable oscillation of sects and opinions, must be found in the predominance of authority; and he proposes to revive the study of Plato as the philosopher who concentrated most perfectly in his system the excellences of the schools that preceded him, and the sanction of those that have followed. In France, 1 Init. Phil. Pl. vol. iii, ch. 1. as might naturally be expected' from the state of that unhappy country, where depth of thought has been so rare, and philosophy is just beginning to run the career which in Germany it seems to have completed, the supposed sceptical and eclectical character of Platonism appears chiefly to have excited attention. And by a most remarkable mistake, not indeed uncommon, but which proves how little men have entered into the real spirit and object of Plato's writings, the name of a philosopher, whose whole efforts were systematically and energetically addressed to the establishment of an immutable belief in immutable truths external to man, and guaranteed by the testimony of men, has been chosen as the index of a spirit which treats all former systems with contempt, and proposes to raise upon their ruins a new structure of belief based on that, which must overturn itself, the reason of an individual, or of a sect. In England the study of the Greek philosophy has been chiefly confined to the University of Oxford, which providentially has been saved from setting the seal of its sanction to either Paley or Locke; and has adhered firmly to Aristotle as the text-book in her plan of education. In addition to the soundness and depth of his views, the technical and systematic form of the Ethics of Aristotle renders it far fitter for such a purpose than any extant work of any period; and no greater mischief could be done than to abandon it for any other less formal treatise, even for the nobler and more elevating philosophy of Plato himself. Within the last few years, however, more attention has been gradually drawn to the writings of Plato. Unconsciously, and without recognizing fully the extraordinary affinity of his views to the principles which are once more forcing themselves 1 See Cousin's Lectures. |