high intellectual, and consequently, by implication, a high moral
standard as the end and object of his aspirations; to encourage his
efforts after the true, the pure, the beautiful, and the virtuous,
knowing that the character would be purified in the endeavor, and that
the consciousness of the progress made, step by step, would be of
itself a reward. The object of science was, as he taught, the true,
the eternal, the immutable, that which is; in one alone could these
attributes be found united--that is God. Man's duty, then, according
to the Platonic system is to know God and His attributes, and to aim
at being under the practical influence of this knowledge. This the
Christian is taught, but much more simply and plainly, to know God,
and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent, and to propose to himself a
perfect standard, to be perfect even as his Father in heaven is
perfect, and to look forward, by that help which Plato had no warrant
to look for, to attain the perfect measure of the fulness of Christ.
Although Plato believed and taught that man ought to strive after and
devote himself to the contemplation of the One, the Eternal, the
Infinite, he was humbly conscious that no one could attain to the
perfection of such knowledge; that it is too wonderful and excellent
for human powers. Man's incapacity for apprehending this knowledge he
attributed to the soul, during his present state of existence, being
cramped and confined by its earthly tabernacle.

Plato defined virtue to be the imitation of God, or the free effort of
man to attain to a resemblance to his original, or, in other terms, a
unison and harmony of all our principles and actions according to
reason, whence results the highest degree of happiness. Evil is
opposed to this harmony as a disease of the soul. Virtue is _one_,
indeed, but compounded of four elements--_wisdom_, _courage_,
_temperance_, and _justice_. In his practical philosophy he blended a
rigid principle of moral obligation with a spirit of gentleness and
humanity; and education he described as a liberal cultivation and
moral discipline of the mind. Politics he defined to be the
application, on a great scale, of the laws of morality; for a society,
being composed of individuals, is under similar moral obligations, and
the end of politics to be liberty and concord. Beauty he considered to
be the sensible representation of moral and physical perfection;
consequently it is one with truth and goodness, a