AS EXHIBITED IN THE TENTH BOOK OF "THE REPUBLIC." 313 



octachord, which, according to the Pythagoreans, represented the eight spheres of heaven, 

 and, according to Heracleitus, exhibited the harmony of perpetual motion, on which the world's 

 existence depends, it is most reasonable to conclude that in this, as in so many other instances, 

 Plato had recourse to etymology; and certainly his derivation of aetpiju from aetpd is not 

 one of his least successful efforts. 



It is not part of my plan on the present occasion to enter into any discussion respecting 

 the doctrine of Metempsychosis as indicated in this passage, or the choice of life which is 

 given to the soul on the commencement of a new period of existence. It is to be remarked, 

 however, that while Clotho, the destiny of the present, turns the orbit of the fixed stars, 

 Atropos, the destiny of the future, turns the planetary orbits; but Lachesis, the destiny of 

 the past, sometimes contributes to the one motion, and sometimes to the other. This seems to 

 me to indicate much the same doctrine as that which is implied in the statement that the lots 

 and patterns of lives lie in the lap of Lachesis only — namely, that the present and the future 

 are but repetitions of the past — a doctrine of which Giambattista Vico has made such an 

 elaborate development in his Sciemsa Nuova. " Every living creature," says Schleiermacher 

 {Uebersetzung, p. 624), "obtains its lot originally from the lap of the past. Every soul, 

 which is born, must have lived already, not only because the number of souls is not 

 augmented, but also because the difFerent forms of human life must remain essentially the 

 same on account of that harmony of history with the regular and periodic return of the 

 heavenly motions ; only each soul is at liberty to choose its next career from a number, now 

 greater, now less, of lives offered to its choice." 



(4) I now pass on to the last, and not least interesting, of the questions, which I have 

 proposed to investigate — where did Plato find the materials for this cosmical romance ? He 

 tells us himself that it is not a long tale, like that which Ulysses narrated to Alcinous, but 

 that it is really due to a brave man, Er the son of Armenius, a Pamphylian (p. 6l4 b). He 

 might, of course, have invented these names. But this is not his practice. And I believe I 

 shall be able to show that, besides the Pythagorean elements in this cosmical description, it is 

 professedly borrowed from the speculations of Zoroaster, as they were adopted and set forth 

 by Heracleitus of Ephesus. 



In the first place, there is a distinct tradition to this effect. Clement of Alexandria says 

 (Strom, v. pp. 710, 711 Potter): " Plato has mentioned, in the 10th book of his Republic, a certain 

 Er the son of Armenius, by race a Pamphylian, who is Zoroaster. At all events Zoroaster 

 himself says: 'Thus wrote Zoroaster the son of Armenius, by race a Pamphylian: having 

 fallen in battle and gone to Hades, I learned these things from the gods.' " And this passage is 

 repeated by Eusebius {Prceparatio Evangelica, xiii. 13, p. 266, Heinichen). Taken by itself 

 this tradition is of little value, for it was the well-known practice of these later writers to refer 

 the philosophy of the Greeks in general and of Plato in particular to an Oriental source, and 

 the passage quoted from Zoroaster might be from some forgery, of which Plato's apologue was 

 the basis. If, however, we go more deeply into the subject, if, on the one hand, we examine 

 the doctrines attributed to Heracleitus and their connexion with the religious system of the 

 ancient Persians, of which Zoroaster was the remodeller, and if, on the other hand, we consider 



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