ose hold of solid principle (Greek). They are
like trees which have been frequently transplanted. The earth about them
is loose, and they have no roots reaching far into the soil. They 'light
upon every flower,' following their own wayward wills, or because the
wind blows them. They catch opinions, as diseases are caught--when
they are in the air. Borne hither and thither, 'they speedily fall
into beliefs' the opposite of those in which they were brought up. They
hardly retain the distinction of right and wrong; they seem to think one
thing as good as another. They suppose themselves to be searching after
truth when they are playing the game of 'follow my leader.' They fall
in love 'at first sight' with paradoxes respecting morality, some fancy
about art, some novelty or eccentricity in religion, and like lovers
they are so absorbed for a time in their new notion that they can think
of nothing else. The resolution of some philosophical or theological
question seems to them more interesting and important than any
substantial knowledge of literature or science or even than a good life.
Like the youth in the Philebus, they are ready to discourse to any one
about a new philosophy. They are generally the disciples of some eminent
professor or sophist, whom they rather imitate than understand. They may
be counted happy if in later years they retain some of the simple truths
which they acquired in early education, and which they may, perhaps,
find to be worth all the rest. Such is the picture which Plato draws and
which we only reproduce, partly in his own words, of the dangers which
beset youth in times of transition, when old opinions are fading
away and the new are not yet firmly established. Their condition is
ingeniously compared by him to that of a supposititious son, who has
made the discovery that his reputed parents are not his real ones, and,
in consequence, they have lost their authority over him.

The distinction between the mathematician and the dialectician is
also noticeable. Plato is very well aware that the faculty of the
mathematician is quite distinct from the higher philosophical sense
which recognizes and combines first principles. The contempt which
he expresses for distinctions of words, the danger of involuntary
falsehood, the apology which Socrates makes for his earnestness of
speech, are highly characteristic of the Platonic style and mode of
thought. The quaint notion that if Palamedes was the invento