The Republic — Plato

Plis citizens would not have acquired that knowledge which in the vision of Er is supposed to be gained by the pilgrims from their experience of evil. '.he head of all their commentators; but these were so numerous that some hiin''reds were forced to attend in the court and outward rooms of the palace. I knew, and >;nuld distinguish these two heroes, at first sight, not only from the crowd, but from each other. Homer was the taller and comelier person of the two, walked very erect for one of his age, and his eyes were the most quick and piercing I ever beheld. Aristotle stooped much, and made use of a staff. His visage was meagre, his hair lank and thin, and his voice hollow. I soon discovered that both of them were perfect strangers to the rest of the company, and had never seen or heard of them before. And I had a whisper from a ghost, who shall be nameless, 'That these commentators always kept in the most distant quarters from their principals, in the lower world, through a consciousness of shame and guilt, because they had so horribly misrepresented the meaning of these authors to posterity.' I introduced Didymus and Eustathius to Homer, and prevailed on him to treat theiri better than perhaps they deserved, for he soon found they wanted a genius to enter into the spirit of a poet. But Aristotle was out of all patience with the account I gave him of Scotus and Ramus, as I presented them to him ; and he asked them ' whether the rest of the tribe were as great dunces as themselves.' " TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION

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On the other hand, Plato is far in advance of modern philosophers and theologians when he teaches that education is to be continued through life and will begin again in another. He would never allow education of some kind to cease ; although he was aware that the proverbial saying of Solon, " I grow old learning many things," cannot be applied literally.

Himself ravished with the contemplation of the idea of good, and delighting in solid geometry ("Rep." vii. 528), he has no difficulty in imagining that a lifetime might be passed happily in such pursuits. We who know how many more men of business there are in the world than real students or thinkers, are not equally sanguine.

The education which he proposes for his citizens is really the ideal life of the philosopher or man of genius, interrupted, but only for a time, by practical duties — a life not for the many, but for the few. Yet the thought of Plato may not be wholly incapable of application to our own times.

Even if regarded as an ideal which can never be realized, it may have a great effect in elevating the characters of mankind, and raising them above the routine of their ordinary occupation or profession. It is the best form under which we can conceive the whole of life. Nevertheless the idea of Plato is not easily put into practice. For the education of after-life is necessarily the education which each one gives himself.

Men and women cannot be brought together in schools or colleges at forty or fifty years of age ; and if they could the result would be disappointing. The destination of most men is what Plato would call " the Den " for the whole of life, and with that they are content. Neither have they teachers or advisers with whom they can take counsel in riper years.

There is no " schoolmaster abroad " who will tell them of their faults, or inspire them with the higher sense of duty, or with the ambition of a true success in life ; no Socrates who will convict them of ignorance ; no Christ, or follower of Christ, who will reprove them of sin. Hence they have a difficulty in receiving the first element of improvement, which is self-knowledge.

The hopes of youth no longer stir them ; they rather wish to rest than to pursue high objects. A few only who have come across great men and women, or eminent teachers of religion and morality, have received a second life from them, and have lighted a candle from the fire of their genius.

The want of energy Is one of the main reasons why so few persons continue to improve in later years. They have not the will, and do not know the way. They " never try an experiment," or look up a point of interest for themselves ; they make no sacrifices for the sake of knowledge ; their minds, like their bodies, at a certain age become fixed.

Genius has been defined as " the power of taking pains " ; but hardly anyone keeps up his interest in knowledge throughout a whole life. The troubles of a family, the business of making money, the demands of a profession, destroy the elasticity of the mind.

The waxen tablet of the memory which was once capable of receiving " true thoughts and clear impressions " becomes hard and crowded ; there is not room for the accumulations of a long life (" Theaet. 194 fif.). The student, as years advance, rather makes an exchange of knowledge than adds to his stores.

There is no pressing necessity to learn ; the stock of classics or history or natural science which was enough for a man at twenty-five is enough for him at fifty. Neither is it easy to give a definite answer to anyone who asks how he is to improve.

For selfeducation consists in a thousand things, commonplace in themselves— in adding to what we are by nature something of what we are not ; in learning to see ourselves as others see us ; in judging, not by opinion, but by the evidence of facts ; in seeking out the society of superior minds ; in a study of the lives and writings of great men ; in observation of the world and character ; in receiving kindly the natural influence of dif¥erent times of life; in any act or thought which is raised above the practice or opinions of mankind ; in the pursuit of some new or original inquiry ; in any effort of mind which calls forth some latent power.

If anyone is desirous of carrying out in detail the Platonic education of after-life, some such counsels as the following may be offered to him : That he shall choose the branch of knowledge to which his own mind most distinctly inclines, and in which he takes the greatest delight, either one which seems to connect with his own daily employment, or, perhaps, furnishes the greatest contrast to it.

He may study from the speculative side the profession or business in which he is practically engaged. He may make Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Plato, Bacon the friends and companions of his life. He may find op-