New-York tribune., 1901-01-10
PLATO'S VIEWS ON EDUCATION.
HE WOULD GUARD HIS IDEAL REPUBLIC
BY TEACHING DIsDAIN FOR LIFE.

He WOULD GUARD HIS IDEAL REPUBLIC
BY TEACHING DIsDAIN FOR LIFE.
Plato's views the education needed to protect
his ideal Republic was the tonic Of Edward How
ard Griggss lecture yesterday at IL o'clock before
the Ethical Culture Society, at the Tuxedo Maji-
son-ave. and Fifty-ninth-st
I'm order to provide fearless quardians for ~.
State, let us teach pupils that the unknown
life beyond is not to be dreaded but rather desired
was Plato's reasoning" said the lecturer 'It is
true that such teaching might train them to a
certain heroic carelessness but there is fallacy
here. The fact is that life is made dignifed only
by truth A beautiful illusion may do something
to ennoble 1T, but the honest manhood is the high
est There is always the danger that the pupil
may discover the fallaces in Plato's teaching and
therefore reject all of it, If you teach child GER
tain religious dogmas, because you think such in
struction may be good for him. and he grows away
from them with progressing years. he loses faith in
you, the teacher. and that a serious misfortune
for you represent humanity him. You can dare
to teach him anything that you truly, deeply be-
lleve' although that may not be expedient always
put you must not dare to teach him what you have
ceased to believe absolutely and wholly"
The lecturer said that there no necessity to in
struct men, in order to make them good soldiers
tiia' 'lls hle Is undesirable. Men courageous
In war; he said. because somewhere in them
theFe exists an ideal that is them than
mere physical existence and for that they will
Tight without vauing life the less. In this point
we hnd Platos teaching inadequate"
vi flatos attitude toward art urging the sup
preston OF all that gave or form to grief as
tending to make men weak by the contemplation
of weakness, Professor Crggs said: The phiIoso-
phy that attalns serene calm by eradicating ca
paclty Tor 1eennS Is not philosophy be desired.
That is the fatal limitation stoicism 1t fails to
see that there ought to be a point of DEVELOPMENT
where does not feel less but more Yet has
strength TO rise above pain or pleasure, and ac-
| cepts his experience because superior to it.
The higher the development the more keenly
Physical as OF the spiritual The researches of
Lombroso and others have demonstrated that in
| tiveness. The courage that dominate pain is
far higher than that resulting from brute insensi-
State In such manner that he is insensibe to
Plato would Danish poets. singers. musicians
In sense he is right We may cultivate art in
one way that Is weakening If, when stimulated
| by any form of art you fail to express II In ac-
| tion. you weakened. IT, when deeply stirred by
husband. YOU have lost. not gained To let feeling
play on us is to deterorate to let feeling act in us
| Is TO grow. The first is the vice of the age, and
| makes the selhshness that often is characters-
large body of the State becomes dominated by 1t
civilization goes down Intellect IS sane and emo
action: .t 'Y ~ ,t '' D''s' "
was Fh e only art that t. Plato would have mi
| poSe1ul strength OF peace. That of sorrow and
| wha hae WI Wallace bIed would have found place
| but not .Ye banks and braes O. Bonnie Doom.
| excluded from his ideal Republic because such
end of life Is not he sensitive it is mistake to
| love. to greve, to form a high spiritual concept.
| ignorance is a kind of bliss. but! As we en-
| large the capacity for living become more
bitterly capable Of dying yet willing TO dare
all potential pain for the sake Of the moments OF
! high vision
| The greatness and the weakness OF Plato come
| out in this discussion OF education. He 20
| lose sight of the truth that the largest human
being, the one who has entered into the most com
plete relations with fe is the best guardian OF the
State. Yet he furnishes his corrective when
| he says that cultivation Of all grace and har-
mony IS essential and demands that should ex-
press only strength and beauty. not Ioathsomeness
and disease Plato IS like life itself in his mex
haustible variety. in the deep beyond deep that he
| constantly reveals. He gave of his soul few
| have dared 10 give and II his thought could he
carried out the problem Of free government would
| be several centuries nearer solution