s no
indication that the author intended the two passages to be so combined,
or that when he appears to be experimenting on the different points of
view from which a subject of philosophy may be regarded, he is secretly
elaborating a system. By such a use of language any premises may be made
to lead to any conclusion. I am not one of those who believe Plato to
have been a mystic or to have had hidden meanings; nor do I agree
with Dr. Jackson in thinking that 'when he is precise and dogmatic,
he generally contrives to introduce an element of obscurity into the
expostion' (J. of Philol.). The great master of language wrote as
clearly as he could in an age when the minds of men were clouded by
controversy, and philosophical terms had not yet acquired a fixed
meaning. I have just said that Plato is to be interpreted by his
context; and I do not deny that in some passages, especially in the
Republic and Laws, the context is at a greater distance than would be
allowable in a modern writer. But we are not therefore justified in
connecting passages from different parts of his writings, or even from
the same work, which he has not himself joined. We cannot argue from
the Parmenides to the Philebus, or from either to the Sophist, or
assume that the Parmenides, the Philebus, and the Timaeus were 'written
simultaneously,' or 'were intended to be studied in the order in
which they are here named (J. of Philol.) We have no right to connect
statements which are only accidentally similar. Nor is it safe for the
author of a theory about ancient philosophy to argue from what will
happen if his statements are rejected. For those consequences may never
have entered into the mind of the ancient writer himself; and they
are very likely to be modern consequences which would not have been
understood by him. 'I cannot think,' says Dr. Jackson, 'that Plato would
have changed his opinions, but have nowhere explained the nature of the
change.' But is it not much more improbable that he should have changed
his opinions, and not stated in an unmistakable manner that the most
essential principle of his philosophy had been reversed? It is true that
a few of the dialogues, such as the Republic and the Timaeus, or
the Theaetetus and the Sophist, or the Meno and the Apology, contain
allusions to one another. But these allusions are superficial and,
except in the case of the Republic and the Laws, have no philosophical
importance. They do not affect the su