The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-01-03

is, for what we see are not sheer illu-
sionS; they are true, though imperfect
shadows OF the time. For every shadow
or object of sense there is somewhere
reality corresponding. For every type
there is an antitype. God made what
we see in the world after certain pat
terms or ideas; the things fashioned after
them are images only.
Plato does not mean that the apparent
world is unreal, but that the unappar-
ent is real. He does not mean that the
mountains piled in awful grandeur and
the streamlets bathing their feet are I'M
real. but that they are types of the real.
His thought is the same as the poets
who exclaimed, 20 God, l think Thy
thoughts after Thee"
The object of Plato was to trace all
that is offered by the senses throughout
in a deeper and invisible world. He re-
CARDS any notion of a perfect science
as a delusion that does not penetrate
to this profound reality.
Critics give much attention to Plato's
views concerning the soul. The soul is inn
mortal and by virtue of it's nationality
is of divine origin. 1t was formed for
knowledge of the divine and for the pure
contemplation of the eternal world.
Connection with a material perishable
body is essential to its mission. While
in its tenement Of clay it participates in
movements anu tndnStS anu 10 SubJEOb
to sensuous influences. Hence 1t sinks
from the Godlike to the perishable, from
the divine to the earthly.
Further the soul is the ground of per-
petual conflict between the higher. no
bier principles and the lower perishable
ones. On the one hand the soul rules
and restraints the body; while on the
other hand it is svayed by the body and
bound down to it by a lower life and
to forgetfulness of it's loftier origin.
A dim consciousness of its nobler ORR
gin, a longing for it's home, does indeed
remain within it and manifests itself
in love of knowledge. enthusiasm for
the beautiful, and the desire of the spirit
to dominate the body.
The soul that has abandoned itself to
sensualities is condemned to enter other
bodies and even lower forms of exist
ence. from which it is set free only when
1t has returned to its original state Of
purity.
The pure soul that has endured unsul-
lied the test Of association with the cor
poreal world at death Immediately re-
turns to it's state of enjoyment and
after a brief period of rest resumes it's
life in the body. Plato believed in a
previous existence as we'll as a future
one and that all earthly knowledge is
but the recollection Of ideas gained in its
former disembodied state.
In the Republic is set forth the ideal
state, then unrealized and probably for
ever to remain so. With him the state
is all in all, to whose absolute authority
every individual interest must be sacri-
feed Education is the main political
engine. Social ethics must become uni
versal, sense be restrained and subOrdi-
mated to intelligence. To accomplish
this political authority must undertake
the instruction of all in virtue and pres
ervatiOn of good morals. All self-will
and selishness must be subordinated to
the common will and common good. The
sensuOus element in man is so mighty
that it can be rendered powerless only
by the superior strength of social insti-
tutiOns.
Virtue must be realized in the state,
then in the individual. The individual
may lay claim only to that happiness
which belongs to him as a constituent
element of the state. After these gen.
eral views are discussed, division of Ia
Dor, the universal reign of law, the one
ness of all knowledge, and the equality
of woman with man.
Whatever the merits and defects of
Plato's philosophy. all must acknowledge
that he, indeed, climbed a noble hight
and saw afar down the vista of time.
A STUDENT.