han
he is the creator of _truth_.

And inasmuch as man is a partaker of the Divine essence, and as the
ideas which dwell in the human reason are "copies" of those which dwell
in the Divine reason, man may rise to the apprehension and recognition
of the immutable and eternal principles of righteousness, and "by
communion with that which is Divine, and subject to the law of order,
may become himself a subject of order, and divine, so far as it is
possible for man."[663]

[Footnote 662: In "Euthyphron" especially.]

[Footnote 663: "Republic," bk. vi. ch. xiii.]

The attainment of this consummation is the grand purpose of the Platonic
philosophy. Its ultimate object is "_the purification of the soul_," and
its pervading spirit is the aspiration after perfection. The whole
system of Plato has therefore an eminently _ethical_ character. It is a
speculative philosophy directed to a practical purpose.

Philosophy is the _love of wisdom_. Now wisdom (sophia) is expressly
declared by Plato to belong alone to the Supreme Divinity,[664] who
alone can contemplate reality in a direct and immediate manner, and in
whom, as Plato seems often to intimate, knowledge and being coincide.
Philosophy is the aspiration of the soul after this wisdom, this perfect
and immutable truth, and in its realization it is a union with the
Perfect Wisdom through the medium of a divine affection, the _love_ of
which Plato so often speaks. The eternal and unchangeable Essence which
is the proper object of philosophy is also endowed with _moral_
attributes. He is not only "the Being," but "the Good" (to agathon), and
all in the system of the universe which can be the object of rational
contemplation, is an emanation from that goodness. The love of truth is
therefore the love of God, and the love of Good is the love of truth.
Philosophy and morality are thus coincident. Philosophy is the love of
Perfect Wisdom; Perfect Wisdom and Perfect Goodness are identical; the
Perfect Good is God; philosophy is the "_Love of God_."[665] Ethically
viewed, it is this one motive of _love_ for the Supreme Wisdom and
Goodness, predominating over and purifying and assimilating every desire
of the soul, and governing every movement of the man, raising man to a
participation of and communion with Divinity, and restoring him to "the
_likeness_ of God." "This flight," says Plato, "consists in resembling
God (omoiosis Theo), and this resemblance is the becoming just and holy