with wisdom."[666] "This assimilation to God is the enfranchisement of
the divine element of the soul. To approach to God as the substance of
truth is _Science_; as the substance of goodness in truth is _Wisdom_,
and as the substance of Beauty in goodness and truth is _Love_."[667]

The two great principles which can be clearly traced as pervading the
ethical system of Plato are--

1. _That no man is willingly evil_.[668]

2. _That every man is endued with the power of producing changes in his
moral character_[669]

[Footnote 664: "Phaedrus," Sec. 145.]

[Footnote 665: Butler's "Lectures on Ancient Philosophy," vol. ii. p.
61.]

[Footnote 666: "Theaetetus," Sec. 84.]

[Footnote 667: Butler's "Lectures on Ancient Philosophy," vol. ii. p.
277.]

[Footnote 668: "Timaesus," ch. xlviii.]

[Footnote 669: "Laws," bk. v. ch. i., bk. ix. ch. vi., bk. x. ch. xii.]

The first of these principles is the counterpart ethical expression of
his theory of _immutable Being_. The second is the counterpart of his
theory of phenomenal change, or _mere Becoming_.

The soul of man is framed after the pattern of the immutable ideas of
the _just_, and the _true_, and the _good_, which dwell in the Eternal
Mind--that is, it is made in the image of God. The soul in its ultimate
essence is formed of "the immutable" and "the permanent." The presence
of the ideas of the just, and the true, and the good in the reason of
man, constitute him a moral nature; and it is impossible that he can
cease to be a moral being, for these ideas, having a permanent and
immutable being, can not be changed. All the passions and affections of
the soul are merely phenomenal. They belong to the mortal, the
transitory life of man; they are in endless flow and change, and they
have no permanent reality. As phenomena, they must, however, have some
ground; and Plato found that ground in the mysterious, instinctive
longing for the _good_ and the _true_ which dwells in the very essence
of the soul. These are the realities after which it strives, even when
pursuing pleasure, and honor, and wealth, and fame. All the restlessness
of human life is prompted by a longing for the _good_. But man does not
clearly perceive what the _good_ really is. The rational element of the
soul has become clouded by passion and ignorance, and suffered an
eclipse of its powers. Still, man longs for the good, and bears witness,
by his restlessness and disquietude, that he instinctively d