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: "Phaedo," Secs. 105-107.]

[Footnote 620: Diogenes Laertius, "Lives," bk. iii. ch. 77.]

[Footnote 621: "Republic," bk. ii. ch. xix.; "Timaeus," ch. ix.]

[Footnote 622: "Apeleius," bk. i. ch. v.]

[Footnote 623: "Republic," bk. ii. ch. xx.]

[Footnote 624: "Timaeus," ch. x.; "Republic," bk. ii. ch. xviii.]

[Footnote 625: "Timaeus," ch. ix.-x.]

[Footnote 626: Ibid., ch. xii.]

[Footnote 627: Ibid., ch. ix.]

[Footnote 628: "Phaedo," Sec. 105.]

[Footnote 629: "Laws," bk. x. ch. xii.; "Republic," bk. vii. ch. iii.;
"Philebus," Sec. 50.]

[Footnote 630: "Philebus," Sec.51.]

[Footnote 631: "Republic," bk. vi. ch. xix.]

[Footnote 632: "Laws," bk. iv. ch. viii.]

[Footnote 633: "Republic," bk. ii. ch. xxi.]

[Footnote 634: "Laws," bk. iv. ch. vii.]

[Footnote 635: "Philebus," Sec. 51; "Timaeus," ch. x.]

[Footnote 636: "Republic," bk. ii. ch. xviii.; "Timaeus," ch. x.]

[Footnote 637: "Laws," bk. iv, ch. vii.]

Beyond the sensible world, Plato conceived another world of
intelligibles or _ideas_. These ideas are not, however, distinct and
independent existences. "What general notions are to our own minds,
ideas are to the Supreme Reason (nous basileus); they are the _eternal
thoughts_ of the Divine Intellect."[638] Ideas are not substances, they
are qualities, and there must, therefore, be some ultimate substance or
being to whom, as attributes, they belong. "It must not be believed, as
has been taught, that Plato gave to ideas a substantial existence. When
they are not objects of pure conception for human reason, they are
attributes of the Divine Reason. It is there they substantially
exist."[639] These eternal laws and reasons of things indicate to us the
character of that Supreme Essence of essences, the Being of beings. He
is not the simple aggregate of all laws, but he is the Author, and
Sustainer, and Substance of all laws. At the utmost summit of the
intellectual world of Ideas blazes, with an eternal splendor, the idea
of the _Supreme Good_ from which all others emanate.[640] This Supreme
Good is "far beyond all existence in dignity and power, and it is that
from which all things else derive their being and essence."[641] The
Supreme Good is not the truth, nor the intelligence; "it is the Father
of it.