[370] Plato, Legg. x. p. 898 D.
[371] Plato, Legg. x. p. 899 B. εἴθ’ ὅστις ὁμολογεῖ ταῦτα, ὑπομένει μὴ θεῶν εἶναι πλήρη πάντα;
Plato’s argument is unsatisfactory and inconsistent.
In this argument — which Plato tells us that no man will be insane enough to dispute,[372] and which he proclaims to be a triumphant refutation of the unbelievers — we find, instead of the extra-kosmical Demiurgus and pre-kosmical Chaos or necessity (the doctrine of the Platonic Timæus[373]), two opposing primordial forces both intra-kosmical: the good soul and the bad soul, there being a multiplicity of each. Though Plato here proclaims his conclusion with an unqualified confidence which contrasts greatly with the modest reserve often expressed in his Timæus — yet the conclusion is rather disproved than proved by his own premisses. It cannot be true that all things are full of Gods, since there are two varieties of soul existing and acting, the bad as well as the good: and Plato calls the celestial bodies Gods, as endowed with and moved by good and rational souls. Aristotle in his theory draws a marked distinction between the regularity and perfection of the celestial region, and the irregularity and imperfection of the terrestrial and sublunary: Plato’s premisses as here laid out would have called upon him to do the same, and to designate the Kosmos as the theatre of counteracting agencies, partly divine, partly not divine. So he terms it indeed in the Timæus.[374]
[372] Plato, Legg. x. p. 899 C. οὐκ ἔστιν οὕτως παραφρονῶν οὐδείς.
[373] Plato, Timæus, pp. 48 A, 69 A-B.
[374] Plato, Timæus, p. 48 A.
The remarks of Zeller, in the second edition of his work, Die Philosophie der Griechen (vol. ii. p. 634 seq.), upon this portion of the Treatise De Legibus, are very acute and instructive. He exposes the fallacy of the attempt made by various critics to explain away the Manichæan doctrine declared in this treatise, and to reconcile the Leges with the Timæus. The subject is handled in a manner superior to the Platonische Studien of the same author (wherein the Leges are pronounced to be spurious, while in the History of Philosophy Zeller retracts this opinion), though in that work also there is much instruction. — Stallbaum’s copious notes on these passages (pp. 188-189-195-207-213 of his edition of Leges), while admitting the discrepancy between Leges and Timæus, furnish what he thinks a satisfactory explanation. One portion of his explanation is, that Plato here accommodates himself “ad captum hominum vulgarem (p. 189) … ad captum civium communem accommodaté et populari ratione explicari” (p. 207). I dissent from this as a matter of fact. I think that the heretics of the second and third class coincide rather with the “captus vulgaris”. So Plato himself intimates.
Reverence of Plato for uniform circular rotation.
There is another feature, common both to the Timæus and the Leges, which deserves attention as illustrating Plato’s point of view. It is the reverential sentiment with which he regards uniform rotatory movement in the same place. This he pronounces to be the perfect, regular, movement appertaining and congenial to Reason and the good variety of soul. Because the celestial bodies move thus and only thus, he declares them to be Gods. It is this circular rotation which continues with perfect and unchangeable regularity in the celestial sphere of the Kosmos, and also, though imperfect and perturbed, in the spherical cranium of man.[375] Aristotle in his theory maintains unabated the reverence for this mode of motion, as the perfection of reason and regularity. The feeling here noted exercised a powerful and long-continued influence over the course of astronomical speculations.