170 



REVIEWS OF FOREIGN WORKS LATELY 

 PUBLISHED ON THE CONTINENT. 



Geschichte und System der Platonische Philosophie (History and 

 System of the Platonic Philosophy ) y by Dr. K. Fr. Hermann. 

 1st Part. Heidelberg, 1838. 



Some years ago, Mr. Hermann, one of the most distinguished 

 scholars, philosophers, and antiquarians of the day, intimated his 

 intention of publishing a complete system of the Platonic Philosophy. 

 That promise, which had excited in no small degree the curiosity of 

 the literary world on the continent, is in part fulfilled by the appear- 

 ance of the first volume, divided into three books. Though we must 

 confess that the volume before us, so far from completing the system, 

 on the contrary, suggests new points for inquiry, the novel and ori- 

 ginal point of view, however, which the author has taken to develops 

 the system, will undoubtedly form a new era in the Platonic literature. 



The author's plan is, to connect as close as possible the develop- 

 ment of Plato's philosophical views with that of his moral and civil 

 life. He is, therefore, not satisfied with the exhibition of a few de- 

 tached periods in the life of Plato, but follows him through all the 

 stages of his life, as bearing immediately upon his political and phi- 

 losophical views. The period in which Plato was born leads to the 

 investigation of the administration of Pericles and its consequences, 

 on which Plato animadverted in unsparing terms. Plato's exclusive 

 intercourse with Socrates, which prevented his becoming acquainted 

 with the other philosophical systems of the day, and the subsequent 

 death of the latter, which opened to his view the fallacious systems of 

 his contemporaries, form a peculiar epoch in his life, not only for his 

 philosophical opinions, but also with regard to his political views, 

 having formed but a poor opinion of the principles of justice as preva- 

 lent in his native place, which condemned his righteous teacher to a 

 villainous death. This his indignation induced him to decline serv- 

 ing his country practically, by fulfilling some public office^ to which 

 he was entitled by birth and station in social life. The author, on 

 the other hand, points skilfully out all the advantages Plato had de- 

 rived from his travels in Major Greece, and the reconciliation with his 

 countrymen, the result of his intercourse with Dionysius and other 

 influential characters, which also roused in him the confidence of re- 

 alising his moral notions. 



These are the outlines of the first book, in which an historical de- 

 velopment of the life of Plato is most elaborately sketched. There 



