sert the notions of others without risk to
ourselves; or shall we venture also to share in the risk and bear the
reproach which will await us': i.e. if we assert mind to be the author
of nature. Let us note the remarkable words, 'That in the divine nature
of Zeus there is the soul and mind of a King, because there is in him
the power of the cause,' a saying in which theology and philosophy are
blended and reconciled; not omitting to observe the deep insight into
human nature which is shown by the repetition of the same thought 'All
philosophers are agreed that mind is the king of heaven and earth' with
the ironical addition, 'in this way truly they magnify themselves.' Nor
let us pass unheeded the indignation felt by the generous youth at the
'blasphemy' of those who say that Chaos and Chance Medley created the
world; or the significance of the words 'those who said of old time that
mind rules the universe'; or the pregnant observation that 'we are
not always conscious of what we are doing or of what happens to us,' a
chance expression to which if philosophers had attended they would have
escaped many errors in psychology. We may contrast the contempt which
is poured upon the verbal difficulty of the one and many, and the
seriousness with the unity of opposites is regarded from the higher
point of view of abstract ideas: or compare the simple manner in which
the question of cause and effect and their mutual dependence is regarded
by Plato (to which modern science has returned in Mill and Bacon), and
the cumbrous fourfold division of causes in the Physics and Metaphysics
of Aristotle, for which it has puzzled the world to find a use in so
many centuries. When we consider the backwardness of knowledge in
the age of Plato, the boldness with which he looks forward into the
distance, the many questions of modern philosophy which are anticipated
in his writings, may we not truly describe him in his own words as a
'spectator of all time and of all existence'?

PHILEBUS

PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: Socrates, Protarchus, Philebus.

SOCRATES: Observe, Protarchus, the nature of the position which you are
now going to take from Philebus, and what the other position is which I
maintain, and which, if you do not approve of it, is to be controverted
by you. Shall you and I sum up the two sides?

PROTARCHUS: By all means.

SOCRATES: Philebus was saying that enjoyment and pleasure and delight,
and the class of feelings akin