The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-01-03
AN ESSAY.
Ten Minutes with Plato by Student
of DanviIIe College.

Zen minutes with PlatO by a Student
of DanviIIe College
The contribution of some lives to the
world of thought is such that it is scarce
" felt beyond their generation; while
on the other hand there are those whose
names have become an integral part of
certain departments of knowledge Such
is Plato TO philosophy. Take away Pla-
tonism and you shake the philosophical
world to its center; know Platonism and
you possess the rarest gems of thought
Platonism is immortal for it's principles
are immortal in the human heart and
intellect
So comprehensive were his views that
it has been said: "Out Of Plato came all
things that are still written and debated
among men of thought" AS ii were. he
climbed to such a hight that his success
sors have not yet penetrated the horizon
of his views.
Plato stands like all great souls, alone
Critics presume to compare him with
none but his master, Socrates, whose
originality and keenness he lacks, yet
far surpasses him in profoundness.
When a thinker has so impressed his
image upon the subsequent fortunes of
the human mind everyone must acknowl-
edge a natural curiosity TO know some
thing Of his personal history-to pene-
trate to the springs of the mighty river
that has spread so widely through every
region of thought.
He was born of noble parentage in the
midst Of Grecian culture and received
an education in keeping with his sur
rOundings. Growing up under such cir
cumstanceS it might seem strange that
he should choose the secluded life of a
r,hfIrscnrhaf. fhar he
reer open TO him. did we not remember
the political corruption of his time and
the condition of the Athenian state.
Since the ruin Of Athens was inevitable
he felt to being no useless offering and
neither her struggles against her fate
not sympathy with his kind could dis
turb his meditations. Not even the clash
of arms in the fierce PelopOnnesian war
could reach him in the sacred silence of
his olive groves. His early writings were
poetical and into them he wOve the wild,
imaginative legends Of his national his
tory. At the age of twenty he became
a hearer of Socrates, and charmed with
the vista which his master opened to
his ardent and far-Seeing mind, he aban-
doned the outward profession of poetry
thencefOrth to be used only as the vehi-
Gle Of philosophical doctrines Upon the
condemnation and death of Socrates he
fed for safety, and thus begun a series
of travels in various lands which have
modified his philosophy both by &C
quaintance with other systems and
more extensive experience. He visited
all the great centers of learning, bring
ing from Europe the natural sciences
and metaphysics, from Asia a religion
emanating from a single deity
and from the joint eXCellencieS of these
was born a soul perceptive of the two.
Enriched with the spOils Of all former
PHILOSOPHERS he returned at length to
fO Nc fpin Iox- IL,
the establishment of his system that was
to combine to cOnciliate and to super
sede them all.
He adopted many opinions Of his pre-
decessors, gave due consideration to the
earlier philosophers, was never disturbed
by the mass of conflicting theories, but
combined the atoms of truth in them,
all breathing into them the life-giving
blood of unity.
The character above all others that
marks Platonism is its eminently ethi-
cal quality. II is a philosophy for practi-
cal purposes only, it's ultimate object be-
ing the publication of the human soul
and science the means to attain the end.
Every special science is valuable only
so far as it enfranchises the soul for a
free flight into the infinite excellence.
The idea of the good is the object OF
the sublimest science; not knowing this
il will avail US nothing to know all the
rest. The ideas Of the Perfect Good and
God are Identical, hence to know God
is the supreme aim of life We feel
after him through the desire that like
feels for like, the divinity within feels
its affinity with the divinity without re-
vealed in beauty for which the soul
longs. This longing he calls love. the
bond between the human and the divine.
BY beauty is not meant that of the
senses, but truth. Beauty, love-these
are God, the contemplation OF whom Is
the souls supreme desire.
Since TO know the good is all OF life,
how shall IL be accomplished? Plato
answers through dialectics, by which he
means the art of evolving knowledge
conversationally. Under dialectics are
included the elementary principles of the
natural sciences and theology His con-
ceptiOn of the physical world is embod-
led in 1.-THE Doctrine Of Ideas" He re-
CARDS the visible universe as a colossal
system Of shadows. beyond which lies
the world Of eternal truth. We see moth
ing as 1t is. but everything as 1t is given
us in shadow or image of itself II is
the business Of the philosophers TO pass
from this world Of shadows to the world
Of realities. A world of realities there