Greece;--this learned writer is at a loss to account for a knowledge
that he thinks has something divine in it: it was a knowledge to be
found nowhere in Greece but among the _Oracles_. He would account for
this phenomenon by supposing there existed a succession of learned men
devoted to this purpose. He says, "Either we must admit the knowledge of
the priests, or turn _converts to the ancients_, and believe in the
_omniscience of Apollo, which in this age I know nobody in hazard of_."
Yet, to the astonishment of this writer, were he now living, he would
have witnessed this incredible fact! Even Erasmus himself might have
wondered.

We discover the origin of MODERN PLATONISM, as it may be distinguished,
among the Italians. About the middle of the fifteenth century, some time
before the Turks had become masters of Constantinople, a great number of
philosophers flourished. _Gemisthus Pletho_ was one distinguished by his
genius, his erudition, and his fervent passion for _platonism_. Mr.
Roscoe notices Pletho: "His discourses had so powerful an effect upon
Cosmo de' Medici, who was his constant auditor, that he established an
academy at Florence, for the sole purpose of cultivating this new and
more elevated species of philosophy." The learned Marsilio Ficino
translated Plotinus, that great archimage of _platonic mysticism_. Such
were Pletho's eminent abilities, that in his old age those whom his
novel system had greatly irritated either feared or respected him. He
had scarcely breathed his last when they began to abuse Plato and our
Pletho. The following account is written by George of Trebizond.

"Lately has risen amongst us a second Mahomet: and this second, if we do
not take care, will exceed in greatness the first, by the dreadful
consequences of his wicked doctrine, as the first has exceeded Plato. A
disciple and rival of this philosopher in philosophy, in eloquence, and
in science, he had fixed his residence in the Peloponnese. His common
name was _Gemisthus_, but he assumed that of _Pletho_. Perhaps
Gemisthus, to make us believe more easily that he was descended from
heaven, and to engage us to receive more readily his doctrine and his
new law, wished to change his name, according to the manner of the
ancient patriarchs, of whom it is said, that at the time the name was
changed they were called to the greatest things. He has written with no
vulgar art, and with no common elegance. He has given new rules for the
co