ng with the
struggle for Hellenic independence (cp. Laws), singing a hymn of triumph
over Marathon and Salamis, perhaps making the reflection of Herodotus
where he contemplates the growth of the Athenian empire--'How brave a
thing is freedom of speech, which has made the Athenians so far
exceed every other state of Hellas in greatness!' or, more probably,
attributing the victory to the ancient good order of Athens and to the
favor of Apollo and Athene (cp. Introd. to Critias).

Again, Plato may be regarded as the 'captain' ('arhchegoz') or leader
of a goodly band of followers; for in the Republic is to be found the
original of Cicero's De Republica, of St. Augustine's City of God,
of the Utopia of Sir Thomas More, and of the numerous other imaginary
States which are framed upon the same model. The extent to which
Aristotle or the Aristotelian school were indebted to him in the
Politics has been little recognised, and the recognition is the
more necessary because it is not made by Aristotle himself. The two
philosophers had more in common than they were conscious of; and
probably some elements of Plato remain still undetected in Aristotle. In
English philosophy too, many affinities may be traced, not only in the
works of the Cambridge Platonists, but in great original writers like
Berkeley or Coleridge, to Plato and his ideas. That there is a truth
higher than experience, of which the mind bears witness to herself, is
a conviction which in our own generation has been enthusiastically
asserted, and is perhaps gaining ground. Of the Greek authors who at the
Renaissance brought a new life into the world Plato has had the greatest
influence. The Republic of Plato is also the first treatise upon
education, of which the writings of Milton and Locke, Rousseau, Jean
Paul, and Goethe are the legitimate descendants. Like Dante or Bunyan,
he has a revelation of another life; like Bacon, he is profoundly
impressed with the unity of knowledge; in the early Church he exercised
a real influence on theology, and at the Revival of Literature on
politics. Even the fragments of his words when 'repeated at second-hand'
(Symp.) have in all ages ravished the hearts of men, who have seen
reflected in them their own higher nature. He is the father of idealism
in philosophy, in politics, in literature. And many of the latest
conceptions of modern thinkers and statesmen, such as the unity of
knowledge, the reign of law, and the equality of the se