speaks of what
in modern language might be termed 'impossibilities in the nature of
things,' hindering God from continuing immanent in the world. But there
is some inconsistency; for the 'letting go' is spoken of as a divine
act, and is at the same time attributed to the necessary imperfection of
matter; there is also a numerical necessity for the successive births
of souls. At first, man and the world retain their divine instincts, but
gradually degenerate. As in the Book of Genesis, the first fall of
man is succeeded by a second; the misery and wickedness of the world
increase continually. The reason of this further decline is supposed to
be the disorganisation of matter: the latent seeds of a former chaos are
disengaged, and envelope all things. The condition of man becomes more
and more miserable; he is perpetually waging an unequal warfare with the
beasts. At length he obtains such a measure of education and help as is
necessary for his existence. Though deprived of God's help, he is not
left wholly destitute; he has received from Athene and Hephaestus a
knowledge of the arts; other gods give him seeds and plants; and out of
these human life is reconstructed. He now eats bread in the sweat of his
brow, and has dominion over the animals, subjected to the conditions of
his nature, and yet able to cope with them by divine help. Thus Plato
may be said to represent in a figure--(1) the state of innocence; (2)
the fall of man; (3) the still deeper decline into barbarism; (4) the
restoration of man by the partial interference of God, and the natural
growth of the arts and of civilised society. Two lesser features of
this description should not pass unnoticed:--(1) the primitive men are
supposed to be created out of the earth, and not after the ordinary
manner of human generation--half the causes of moral evil are in this
way removed; (2) the arts are attributed to a divine revelation: and so
the greatest difficulty in the history of pre-historic man is solved.
Though no one knew better than Plato that the introduction of the gods
is not a reason, but an excuse for not giving a reason (Cratylus), yet,
considering that more than two thousand years later mankind are still
discussing these problems, we may be satisfied to find in Plato a
statement of the difficulties which arise in conceiving the relation of
man to God and nature, without expecting to obtain from him a solution
of them. In such a tale, as in the Phaedrus, vari