Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-07-05
Platoaic Filtration.
rom the Philadelphiq Times

FROM the Pnhadeinnla lines
P!ato's philosophy has gone out, and sulky
piows, seif-binders, printing presses, ballot
boxes, and Charles Darwin have come in Now
and then certain nice gentlemen. with very high
and narrow foreheads. lacking what the phre-
nolOgists call dumps of reason" the DR.. Joneses
and AicOtts. such run the Concord summer
school of the prophets, try to revive Platonc
dreaming rs: but modern brilance does not take
to 1t with any enthusiasm. 1t is different. how
ever. with matters OF the heart. Fashions do
not so readily change in that region. and quite
often modern antiquaries are found discussing
what has been called PlatOnic love called here
Irritation for yarietys sake and as, perhaps
coming nearer the real truth of the matter. Not
seldom. too. new moth of some Importance
gets IFS wings singed in fitting too near the
flame. What is ii Z! And are there women
Tree IN heart who are specially capable of Pla-
tonic attachment" All innocent or other theo-
iiZing about it is quite useless; and here as
elsewhere, an ounce of fact is worth ton of
fiction.
There is little or no telling how near Plato
himself walked to the chalk line of his fine
theories. He has come down to US rather IA a
ghost than a man. Parton or Abbott might
nave written his biography and have come as
near the truth. 1t is likely that Plato was no
better than his masters. Socrates YeXed some
what with his Nantippe. did try PlatOnic love
before his great pupil was heard Of and there is
every reason to believe that he went decidedly
farther than his heart or his head intended 1t
was easy to go barefoot and i'm rags. the climate
being mild and the nude more popular then than
now; IL was not hard to drink hemock and talk
ones self into the unknown; but to like and adj
mire and appreciate and l0ye lovely woman
who. in turn, admired him. and yet not love
her-thls was too much even for the stold old
Greek.
Some people say that Paul's thorn in the
flesh was dyspepsia. the result of bachelorhood:
others that it was his wife; others again. that it
was suppressed Platonic love: hence Calyan-
ism and countless and nameIess modern deeds
and creeds. Carlyle and his jamie tried Pla-
tonic affection for quite while. and here it
seemed safe enough. for Miss Welshes heart had
already gone to Edward Irving, and it was
siRipry impossible for Carlyle to pour all the
depths of his fathomess love at the feet of a
woman who had lost her heart before She found
him; but their friends thought it advisable for
them to marry" John Stuart Mill and his Mrs
Taylor tried it, too. and one very clear result of
the business in this instance was the wilful ac-
cidental burning of Carlyle's manuscript of the
French Revolution; for pure PiatOnic love-
not only loses its heart before it is aware. if
loses Its conscience also. George LeweS and
Miss Evans prOspccted in the same field and
found not gold. but dross. if we read rightly the
later works of both parties. 1t made Lewes
shaiioWer than he was and weakened to ex-
IRENE Guinness one OF the strongest women of
all time.
= Even Burns failed on this mountain. And
were one to speak OF certain more modern. liv-
ing and dead, professors of morality, leading
statesmen. doctors of divinity and splendid
women. calling them by name-as it We're easy
enough to do who have practiced "Platonc af-
fiction" and found their hearts and lives soured
and broken by it, alas. how many skeletons
would leave their closets and walk abroad in the
daylight with yelled faces and trembling limbs
Many Dio@enes COnkling has started brisky
out on this path. his locks carried in the sun
and his lamp burning, to find himself halted in
the prime OF life. prematurely she!ved and no
ne leaves even to cover the shame Talk of
temperance pledges and civil service reform -
the heart aye, the part aye that makes Us
riGht or NIOnr'