Initiation into Philosophy | Page 6

but Xenophon only wanted to be the clerk of
Socrates; and Plato, as an enthusiastic disciple, was at the same time
very faithful and very unfaithful to Socrates. He was a faithful disciple
to Socrates in never failing to place morality in the foremost rank of all
philosophical considerations; in that he never varied. He was an
unfaithful disciple to Socrates in that, imaginative and an admirable
poet, he bore back philosophy from earth to heaven; he did not forbid
himself--quite the contrary--to pile up great systems about all things
and to envelop the universe in his vast and daring conceptions. He
invincibly established morality, the science of virtue, as the final goal
of human knowledge, in his brilliant and charming _Socratic
Dialogues_; he formed great systems in all the works in which he

introduces himself as speaking in his own name. He was very learned,
and acquainted with everything that had been written by all the
philosophers before Socrates, particularly Heraclitus, Pythagoras,
Parmenides, and Anaxagoras. He reconsidered all their teaching, and he
himself brought to consideration a force and a wealth of mind such as
appear to have had no parallel in the world.
THE "IDEAS."--Seeking, in his turn, what are the first causes of all and
what is eternally real behind the simulations of this transient world, he
believed in a single God, as had many before him; but in the bosom of
this God, so to speak, he placed, he seemed to see, _Ideas_--that is to
say, eternal types of all things which in this world are variable,
transient, and perishable. What he effected by such novel, original, and
powerful imagination is clear. He replaced the Olympus of the
populace by a spiritual Olympus; the material mythology by an
idealistic mythology; polytheism by polyideism, if it may be so
expressed--the gods by types. Behind every phenomenon, stream, forest,
mountain, the Greeks perceived a deity, a material being like
themselves, more powerful than themselves. Behind every
phenomenon, behind every thought as well, every feeling, every
institution--behind _everything, no matter what it be_, Plato perceived
an idea, immortal, eternal, indestructible, and incorruptible, which
existed in the bosom of the Eternal, and of which all that comes under
our observation is only the vacillating and troubled reflection, and
which supports, animates, and for a time preserves everything that we
can perceive. Hence, all philosophy consists in having some knowledge
of these Ideas. How is it possible to attain such knowledge? By raising
the mind from the particular to the general; by distinguishing in each
thing what is its permanent foundation, what it contains that is least
changing, least variable, least circumstantial. For example, a man is a
very complex being; he has countless feelings, countless diversified
ideas, countless methods of conduct and existence. What is his
permanent foundation? It is his conscience, which does not vary,
undergoes no transformation, always obstinately repeats the same thing;
the foundation of man, the eternal idea of which every man on earth is
here the reflection, is the consciousness of good; man is an incarnation
on earth of that part of God which is the will for good; according as he

diverges from or approaches more nearly to this will, is he less or more
man.
THE PLATONIC DIALECTIC AND MORALITY.--This method of
raising oneself to the ideas is what Plato termed dialectic--that is to say,
the art of discernment. Dialectic differentiates between the fundamental
and the superficial, the permanent and the transient, the indestructible
and the destructible. This is the supreme philosophic method which
contains all the others and to which all the others are reduced. Upon
this metaphysic and by the aid of this dialectic, Plato constructed an
extremely pure system of morality which was simply an Imitation of
God (as, later on, came the Imitation of Jesus Christ). The whole duty
of man was to be as like God as he could. In God exist the ideas of
truth, goodness, beauty, greatness, power, etc.; man ought to aim at
relatively realizing those ideas which God absolutely realizes. God is
just, or justice lies in the bosom of God, which is the same thing; man
cannot be the just one, but he can be a just man, and there is the whole
matter; for justice comprises everything, or, to express it differently, is
the characteristic common to all which is valuable. Justice is goodness,
justice is beautiful, justice is true; justice is great, because it reduces all
particular cases to one general principle; justice is powerful, being the
force which maintains, opposed to the force which destroys; justice is
eternal and invariable. To be just in all the meanings of the word is the
duty of man and his proper goal.
THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.--Plato shows marked reserve
as to the immortality of