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


with that keen, penetrating eve of his,
he had beheld the intellect Of man weak
and undeveloped, his passions riding
rampant over his nature, and debasing
him to the level of the brute and his
social condition consequently vicious
and vile and wretehed. What wonder
that the eye that was ever straining for
ward in search Of the beautiful, the i'm
mortal and the true, became overcast
with the shadows Of doubt2 He felt,
what Christ's religion teaches Us. that
the seeds Of truth are In vain sown
broadcast upon a bleak and barren land (;
there must be depth and richness Of
soil, with air and light and refreshing
rain, to mature the plant and make it
blossom and bear the holy fruit of holi-
ness and truth To quote one Of his
own beautiful and striking expressions,
The weak eyeballs Of men, even when
they behold truth, cannot look upon it
f1cdly."
Plato was in every sense a strong man,
strong in body, strong in intellect, above
all, strong in iojU, and with all this
power of combined strength he devoted
himself to the contemplation of truth.
Below him, says Bayne, "rolled the
turbid streams of mundane passion and
endeavor. As he dwelt alone in
that lofty and silent dwelling of thought,
Far OF he seemed to hear the dull sound
or human footsteps fall"
Our limits will not permit us to ex-
anime at any length the philosophy of
Plato, of which an able analysis may be
found in Schleiermacher, in Lewes, and,
in a more concise form, in Smiths Bio
graphical Dictionary; but we must
glance briefly at his theory of ideas,
which was with him another word for
" absolute truths According to his
views, these ideas are pure forms, or
arehetypes, Of all existing things, i'm
perfectly discerned by our senses and
sensual understanding but, in eogni-
ton Of which, kR00ledge, as distin-
guished from opinion, consists. The
archetype or idea of a things very es-
senee-the only reality belonging to it.
Far from being a notion or conclusion
framed by the mind, it is wholly inde-
pendent of the pereeptive understand
ing, and is felt to be so, wherever true
knowledge is attained Man therefore,
with him, is not a system builder; his
loftiest attainment reaches no higher
than this-through labor, through study,
through discipline and virtue, to be able
to see what is. Neither, however, are
these substantial, archetyPhal ideas in
themselves Independent. Every idea
depends on some other idea superior TO
it, and the root, consummation and beau
tiful harmony of all, is in the idea of
that Supreme and Perfect Being, THE
GREAT ARCHITECT Of the whole uni
verse of mind and matter, to whom, as
thoughts, they belong, and Ia ocaose
proper Eternity alone they can Be thought
Of as eternal Might not the Christian (?)
eoncOcters of many a scheme of faneiful
philosophy-the tenor of which is ut
teriy incompatible with the simple but
divine truths Of Christianity, well learn
lesson of modesty from this Pagan
philosopher of Ancient Greece ? Teour
mind, due regard being had to the differ
enee in time and circumstance, Kant and
COmte and Hegel cum plRltis abs stand
convicted and rebuked before the shade
and memory Of Plato g Plato" says
a distinguished scholar, - regarded ply
lOsophy as an undressing Of the world,
as the means Of discovering the certainty
and eternity, which are in this world
hidden and wrapped up in the garb of
the mutable and temporal )" and another
writer, from whom we have quoted once
before, in reference to this characteristic,
very aptly quotes the beautiful passage
of Wordsworth
"Our birth is but sleep or a forgetting:
The Soul, that rises with US, our LIES star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
4 nd eometh from afar;
Not in entire fJrgetfulness,
And not in utter nskedne 3,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is oar home.
We must content ourselves, in conclu-
sion, with reminding our readers that
this great master mind of Antiquity, 50
pure, SO wise, SO earnest and 50 truthful,
" i0as deeply Uersed iH the MYSTERIES,
and believed their careful and caHscieH-
tious study, combined with practical ODE
djeace to their teaehings, to be one of the
most effectual means of restoring the
reason of man to that purity, by which |
alone it could become capable Of discern
ing truth, and the spirit of man to that
holiness, without which it could never
attain to happiness.