THE STUDY OF PHYSIOLOGY. 55 



such a system adds serious difficulties to those already in the way of 

 experiments. 



SujDpose, as an illustration, that certain persons opposed on various 

 groxmds to learning, and especially hostile to Greek, had attacked the 

 study of Plato. They would point out the danger of modern ladies 

 becoming as well read in his writings as was Lady Jane Grey. They 

 would show that the laxity of modern manners was coincident with 

 the popularity of the " Symposium," and that the notorious increase of 

 infanticide was the result of the teaching of the " Republic." Asso- 

 ciations for the total suppression of Plato would be formed, with hired 

 advocates, and anonymous letters, and " leaflets," spreading a knowl- 

 edge of his most objectionable passages. Scholars would be threat- 

 ened with eternal punishment, and schoolmasters with the withdrawal 

 of their puj)ils. Then a royal commission would be appointed — a great 

 Latin scholar, a Whig, and a Tory statesman (who, having taken a 

 B. Sc. degi'ee at Oxford would be impartially ignorant of Greek), the 

 most intelligent despiser of Plato who could be found, the master of a 

 grammar-school on the modern side, and (perhaps the most efficient of 

 all) a lawyer, who knew nothing about Greek, but hated cant. This 

 commission would take evidence that the Platonic writings were not 

 all immoral, that they had been quoted with approval by Fathers of 

 the Church, that they were of great importance to literature and phi- 

 losophy, and even to the elucidation of the Sacred Writings. It would 

 also be proved that the Platonic dialogues were far less immoral than 

 multitudes of other widely circulated books, or than a French novel 

 which one of the royal commissioners happened to be reading ; and, 

 lastly, that the morals of Greek scholars, and of clergymen who had 

 read Plato at college, were not obviously degraded below those of 

 other people. On the other hand, witnesses would depose that a 

 knowledge of Plato was of no consequence to a student of philosophy ; 

 that, if it were, the text was in so corrupt a condition that no two 

 scholars agreed as to a single chapter, and that, after all, philosophy 

 was of no practical use, least of all to clergymen. Others would affirm 

 that, though they had never read a line of him, they knew that his 

 style was as vicious as his sentiments ; and perhaps some cross-grained 

 scholar might be found who, having once edited a play of Euripides, 

 would declare that all studies in Greek literature ought to be restricted 

 to the tragedians, and that for his part he had never opened any other 

 authors and had never felt the want of them. 



At last the commission would report that there was no question of 

 the value of the works of Plato, that it would be mischievous and im- 

 practicable to prohibit their study, and that there was no evidence 

 that schoolmasters habitually chose the least edifying passages as les- 

 sons for boys. Then what is called a compromise would be made. It 

 would be enacted that Plato might be read, but only in colleges annu- 

 ally licensed for that purpose ; that every one wishing to read must 



