Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1868-08-09
Plato. the PHILOSOPHER.


Founder of the Academic Sect, we are
! indeed almost as well acquainted as with
those of Bacon and Newton And, in
order to clear the way for a more general
, consideration Of hissycharacter and the
nature of his religious and philosophiC
views, We will commence by giving a
brief resume of his life He was born,
most probably, in the year 430, B. C., in
Egina, an island off the coast of Attica.
in what is now called the Gulf of Engia,
or, according so others, in Athens the
day of his birth-the 21st of Maybe
ing the festival Of Apollo, coincidence
on which much stress was afterwards
laid by his disciples. His father, Aris.
ton, was descended from Codrus, " the
good Athenian King and father of his
people" and his mother, Perietyone,
from Scion, the greatest of Greeian, if
not of all ancient heather lawgivers.
Originally named AristOcles, he received
that of Platon or Plato from the breadth
of his chest, or brow (from the Greek
word plQtus-broad) Relinquishing the
pursuits of poetry and painting, to which
he had originally applied himself with
much ardor, he devoted his attention to
the study of philosophy, morality and
religion, under Socrates. whose eonversa-
tions on " the Immortality of the soul, +"
as they took place shortly before the
death of that noble philosopher, by a
most unjust doom, it eventually fell to
his lot to commit to writing, and so to
transmit for the delight of after genera
tions, in that most beautiful and all but
Christian work, The Thado." After
this judicial murder of his beloved mas
ter in the year 399, B. c., he went first
to Megara and thence to Egypt and the
East. Subsequently, he visited the re-
vived Pythagorean School of Tarentum.
now laramie, in Italy, and then the
court of Dionysius of Syracuse, renowned
at that time for his encouragement of
literature and science. On his return to
his native land heOpened what was called
"a school of philosophy in the grove
called the Academy, over which he placed
the significant inscription, Let no one
ignorant of geometry enter here, and
and theneeforwBrd his life and labors
were devoted to literary composition
and lecturing, and more especially the
initiation and training of his disciples in
the mysteries of religion and ethics,
and in the practice of virtue. Among
his pupils we find such illustrious men
as Aristotle, Hyperides, Heraelides, Pom
ticus, PhOcion, and Isocrates. Kings
did not disdain to cultivate his friend
ship, and nations eagerly sought his ad-
1 vice in the forming or reforming of their
constitutions. Surely then, knowing as
we do the great value which this illus
/ trious man placed upon those "myste-
ries, whose intimate relationship to
Masonry is now proved beyond all doubt,
knowing, too, how the great and good of
his own time honored him in life, and
how now, after the lapse of twenty-four
centuries, his works are still to every
scholars heart and mind a perennial
fountain of the purest and loftiest de-
light-surely, knowing all this, zoe are
only performing duty of the simplest
gratitude in thus devoting few pages to
his memory.
To appreciate Plato We must first un-
derstand the character and influence of
his great master Socrates,-that Chris
tian, or all-but Christian, philosopher of
a Pagan age, who, in the words of an
eloquent English writer, " came forth.
amid the Athenian sophists, to voice the
holier and intrinsieally the more power
ful-althOugh, too truly, the ever OBJ
structed sympathy, which burns in the
human breast for Truth itself Truth,
pure and abstract-truth, arrayed in
the unsullied white of heaven, and allur-
ing by no spangle or gold of earth.
Truth, he proclaimed, was to be sought
for its own sake, and the method by
which it was to be sought was that, in
its widest sense, may be embraced in the
term conversation" This eonversa-
tion-dialectic-might be either audible
or inaudible it might proceed either in
the public schoolroOm or in the private
chambers of the soul but, in either case,
it proceeded by definition and division,
by searching scrutiny and dissertation
of the true from the false and jrreleraat
The great soul Of Plato was at once
charmed by the words of Socrates un-
der the rugged form of the logged, ire
sistible arguer, he discerned the halloWed
and searching fire, that is Immortality no
Bile, irresistibly attractive to the noble
as if his past life had been but dream
or a May game, he abandoned everything
for philosophy, for truth. Not that any
thing became excluded, but that every
thing attained new relation. The sun
was set in his system, a retinue of worlds
might circle round it, but every one that
could not be bound and regulated by its
influence must fly away.
Plato sat as a disciple at the feet of
Socrates, or rather walked at his side
for it was that masters habit to talk and
walk together-for ten years. Then, at
his death, as we have said, Plato started /
on his travels, and, let us add, at Megara
was the guest and pupil Of Euclid, the
famous geometrieian. These travels oc- 1
eupied another period of ten years, so
that when he opened his own school on
his return he was about forty years of ]
age. And is not this a life lesson for as, /
for all who desire to attain sound knowl- /
edge and solid reputation? Ten years
of youth and manhood given to patient
study of philosophy as a pupil, ten more
of life's vigorous maturity to the study
of men and nations as a traveler-in all |
twenty years of the best of life to pre-
paration for the august and solemn Of
flee of teaching others And then, a
thorough man in intellect and power,
he comes with a dignifed consciousness
of that power, to distribute to the youth /
Of his native land the rich stores of
learning and experience acquired by this
long and patient expenditure Of time and |
toll and study 1t is indeed a lesson I
which it would be well for every man of !
our community, every Brother of our
Order to take reverently to his heart
Plato, observes Lewes, in his his
tory of Philosophy, was intensely mel
ancholy. That great, broad brow was
wrinkled and sombre. Those brawny
shoulders were bent with thought. A
emilio yras the utmOst that over nlavad /