niverse, and will again be restored, and flourish for very extended
periods, through all the infinite revolutions of time.

In the next place, it is necessary to speak concerning the qualifications
requisite in a legitimate student of the philosophy of Plato, previous to
which I shall just notice the absurdity of supposing that a mere knowledge
of the Greek tongue, however great that knowledge may be, is alone
sufficient to the understanding the sublime doctrines of Plato; for a man
might as well think that he can understand Archimedes without a knowledge
of the elements of geometry, merely because he can read him in the
original. Those who entertain such an idle opinion, would do well to
meditate on the profound observation of Heraclitus, "that polymathy does
not teach intellect," ([Greek: Polymathic noon ou didaskei]).

By a legitimate student, then, of the Platonic philosophy, I mean one
who, both from nature and education, is properly qualified for such
an arduous undertaking; that is one who possesses a naturally good
disposition; is sagacious and acute, and is inflamed with an ardent
desire for the acquisition of wisdom and truth; who from his childhood
has been well instructed in the mathematical disciplines; who, besides
this, has spent whole days, and frequently the greater part of the night,
in profound meditation; and, like one triumphantly sailing over a raging
sea, or skillfully piercing through an army of foes, has successfully
encountered an hostile multitude of doubts;--in short, who has never
considered wisdom as a thing of trifling estimation and easy access, but
as that which cannot be obtained without the most generous and severe
endurance, and the intrinsic worth of which surpasses all corporeal good,
far more than the ocean the fleeting bubble which floats on its surface.
To such as are destitute of these requisites, who make the study of words
their sole employment, and the pursuit of wisdom but at best a secondary
thing, who expect to be wise by desultory application for an hour or two
in a day, after the fatigues of business, after mixing with the base
multitude of mankind, laughing with the gay affecting airs of gravity
with the serious, tacitly assenting to every man's opinion, however
absurd, and winking at folly however shameful and base--to such as
these--and, alas! the world is full of such--the sublimest truths must
appear to be nothing more than jargon and reverie, the dreams of a
distem