judgment of the many,
it would have been necessary to apologize for its literal exactness.
Had I been anxious to gratify false taste with respect to composition, I
should doubtless have attended less to the precise meaning of the original,
have omitted almost all connective Particles, have divided long periods
into a number of short ones, and branched out the strong and deep river of
Plato's language into smooth-gliding, shallow, and feeble streams; but as
the present work was composed with the hope indeed of benefitting all, but
with an eye to the criticism solely of men of elevated souls, I have
endeavored not to lose a word of the original; and yet at the same time
have attempted to give the translation as much elegance as such verbal
accuracy can be supposed capable of admitting. I have also endeavored to
preserve the manner as well as the matter of my author, being fully
persuaded that no translation deserves applause, in which both these are
not as much as possible preserved.

My principal object in this arduous undertaking has been to unfold all
the abstruse and sublime dogmas of Plato, as they are found dispersed in
his works. Minutely to unravel the art which he employs in the
composition of all his dialogues, and to do full justice to his meaning
in every particular, must be the task of some one who has more leisure,
and who is able to give the works of Plato to the public on a more
extensive plan. In accomplishing this great object, I have presented the
reader in my notes with nearly the substance in English of all the
following manuscript Greek Commentaries and Scholia on Plato; viz. of the
Commentaries of Proclus on the Parmenides and First Alcibiades; and of
his Scholia on the Cratylus; of the Scholia of Olympiodorus on the
Phaedo, Gorgias, and Philebus; and of Hermeas on the Phoedrus. To these
are added very copious extracts from the manuscript of Damascius,[30]
Peri Archon, and from the published works of Proclus on the Timeus,
Republic, and Theology of Plato. Of the four first of these manuscripts,
three of which are folio volumes, I have complete copies taken with my
own hand; and of the copious extracts from the others, those from
Olympiodorus on the Gorgias were taken by me from the copy preserved in
the British Museum; those from the same philosopher on the Philebus, and
those from Hermeas on the Phaedrus, and Damascius Peri Archon, from the
copies in the Bodleian library.

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