h the spirit and the method of his master. He had the same deep
seriousness of spirit, that same earnestness of purpose, that same
inward reverence for justice, and purity, and goodness, which dwelt in
the heart of Socrates. A naturally noble nature, he loved truth with all
the glow and fervor of his young heart. He felt that if any thing gave
meaning and value to life, it must be the contemplation of absolute
truth, absolute beauty, and absolute Good. This absolute Good is God,
who is the first principle of all ideas, the fountain of all the order
and proportion and beauty of the universe, the source of all the good
which exists in nature and in man. To practise goodness--to conform the
character to the eternal models of order, proportion, and excellence, is
to resemble God. To aspire after perfection of moral being, to secure
assimilation to God ([Greek: omoiosis Theo]) is the noble aspiration of
Plato's soul.

When we read the "Gorgias," the "Philebus," and especially the
"Republic," with what noble joy are we filled on hearing the voice of
conscience, like a harp swept by a seraph's hand, uttering such
deep-toned melodies! How does he drown the clamors of passion, the
calculations of mere expediency, the sophism of mere personal interest
and utility. If he calls us to witness the triumph of the wicked in the
first part of the "Republic," it is in order that we may at the end of
the book see the deceitfulness of their triumph. "As to the wicked," he
says, "I maintain that even if they succeed at first in concealing what
they are, most of them betray themselves at the end of their career.
They are covered with opprobrium, and present evils are nothing compared
with those that _await them in the other life_. As to the just man,
whether in sickness or in poverty, these imaginary evils will turn to
his advantage in this life, _and after his death_; because the
providence of the gods is necessarily attentive to the interests of him
who labors to become just, and to attain, by the practice of virtue, to
the most perfect resemblance to God which is possible to man."[916] He
rises above all "greatest happiness principles," and asserts distinctly
in the "Gorgias" that it is better to suffer wrong than to do
wrong.[917] "I maintain," says he, "that what is most shameful is not to
be struck unjustly on the cheek, or to be wounded in the body; but that
to strike and wound me unjustly, to rob me, or reduce me to slavery--to
commi