nly to require a Deity as first mover of the
universe, but also to conceive the propriety of separate and subordinate
agents attached to each of its parts, as principles of motion, no less
than intelligent directors. These agents were entitled '_gods_' by an
easy figure, discernible even in the sacred language,[657] and which
served, besides, to accommodate philosophical hypotheses to the popular
religion. Plato, however, carefully distinguished between the sole,
Eternal Author of the Universe, on the one hand, and that 'soul,' vital
and intelligent, which he attaches to the world, as well as the spheral
intelligences, on the other. These 'subordinate deities,' though
intrusted with a sort of deputed creation, were still only the deputies
of the Supreme Framer and Director of all."[658] The "gods" of the
Platonic system are "subordinate divinities," "generated gods," brought
into existence by the will and wisdom of the Eternal Father and Maker of
the universe.[659] Even Jupiter, the governing divinity of the popular
mythology, is a descendant from powers which are included in the
creation.[660] The offices they fulfill, and the relations they sustain
to the Supreme Being, correspond to those of the "angels" of Christian
theology. They are the ministers of his providential government of the
world.[661]

[Footnote 657: Psalm lxxxii. I; John x. 34.]

[Footnote 658: Butler's "Lectures on Ancient Philosophy," vol. ii. p.
164.]

[Footnote 659: "Timaeus," ch. xv.]

[Footnote 660: Ibid.]

[Footnote 661: "Laws," bk. x.]

The application of this fundamental conception of the Platonic
system--_the eternal unity of the principles of Order, Goodness, and
Truth in an ultimate reality, the Eternal Mind_--to the elucidation of
the _temporal life_ of man, yields, as a result--

II. THE PLATONIC ETHICS.

Believing firmly that there are unchangeable, necessary, and absolute
principles, which are the perfections of the Eternal Mind, Plato must,
of course, have been a believer in an _immutable morality_. He held that
there is a rightness, a justice, an equity, not arbitrarily constituted
by the Divine will or legislation, but founded in the nature of God, and
therefore eternal. The independence of the principles of morality upon
the mere will of the Supreme Governor is proclaimed in all his
writings.[662] The Divine will is the fountain of efficiency, the Divine
reason, the fountain of law. God is no more the creator of _virtue_ t