[Footnote 614: ][ (return) ] "Phædrus," §§ 51-53.
[Footnote 615: ][ (return) ] "Phædo," §§ 112-128.
[Footnote 616: ][ (return) ] Ibid., §§ 48-57, 110-115.
[Footnote 617: ][ (return) ] Ibid., §§ 129-145.
[Footnote 618: ][ (return) ] The doctrine of Metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls, can scarcely be regarded as part of the philosophic system of Plato. He seems to have accepted it as a venerable tradition, coming within the range of probability, rather than as a philosophic truth, and it is always presented by him in a highly mythical dress. Now of these mythical representations he remarks in the "Phædo" (§ 145) that "no man in his senses would dream of insisting that they correspond to the reality, but that, the soul having been shown to be immortal, this, or something like this, is true of individual souls or their habitations." If, as in the opinions of the ablest critics, "the Laws" is to be placed amongst the last and maturest of Plato's writings, the evidence is conclusive that whatever may have been his earlier opinions, he did not entertain the doctrine of "Metempsychosis" in his riper years. But when, on the one hand, the soul shall remain having an intercourse with divine virtue, it becomes divine pre-eminently; and pre-eminently, after having been conveyed to a place entirely holy, it is changed for the better; but when it acts in a contrary manner, it has, under contrary circumstances, placed its existence in some unholy spot.
This is the judgment of the gods, who hold Olympus.
"O thou young man," [know] "that the person who has become more wicked, departs to the more wicked souls; but he who has become better, to the better both in life and in all deaths, to do and suffer what is fitting for the like."--"Laws," bk. x. ch. xii. and xiii.
4. Beyond all finite existences and secondary causes, all laws, ideas, and principles, there is an INTELLIGENCE or MIND, the First Principle of all Principles, the Supreme Idea on which all other ideas are grounded; the Monarch and Lawgiver of the universe, the ultimate Substance from which all other things derive their being and essence, the First and efficient Cause of all the order, and harmony, and beauty, and excellency, and goodness, which pervades the universe, who is called by way of pre-eminence and excellence the Supreme Good, THE GOD (ὁ θεός), "the God over all," (ὁ ἐπὶ πᾶσι θεός).
This SUPREME MIND, [619] Plato taught, is incorporeal, [620] unchangeable, [621] infinite, [622] absolutely perfect, [623] essentially good, [624] unoriginated, [625] and eternal. [626] He is "the Father, and Architect, and Maker of the Universe," [627] "the efficient Cause of all things." [628] "the Monarch and Ruler of the world," [629] "the sovereign Mind that orders all things, and pervades all things," [630] "the sole Principle of all things," [631] and "the Measure of all things," [632] He is "the Beginning of all truth," [633] "the Fountain of all law and justice," [634] "the Source of all order and beauty," [635] "the Cause of all good;" [636] in short, "he is the Beginning, the Middle, and End of all things." [637]
[Footnote 619: ][ (return) ] "Phædo," §§ 105-107.
[Footnote 620: ][ (return) ] Diogenes Laertius, "Lives," bk. iii. ch. 77.