Plato — his Timaus. 55 



mals ; and, according to their degre of culpability, become birds 

 or quadrupeds ; the most depraved, those which are no longer 

 worthy of respiring pure air, are transformed into fishes. By 

 means of successive transformations, Timasus explains the re- 

 semblance which is observed between animals of different classes. 

 This resemblance does not come solely from the circumstance 

 that all have a similar soul, but from the circumstance that each 

 of them retains in its present state something of the former state. 



The soul of plants (and it must be remembered that, in its 

 general acceptation, this word signifies nothing more than an in- 

 ternal principle of motion) superintends their preservation, their 

 growth, and their reproduction. Besides this vegetative soul, 

 animals have the sensitive or passionate soul ; man alone has a 

 reasonable soul. 



We thus find very clearly expressed in the Timseus these 

 three principles of motion, which correspond to what have since 

 been named organic life, animal life, and intellectual life. This, 

 however, is not, properly speaking, science, or at least it is a 

 science a priori, and such as might have been expected from a 

 system of metaphysics like that of Plato. If, in fact, human 

 knowledge be nothing but reminiscences, it is by retiring from 

 the external world that there would be the best chance of ob- 

 taining them ; and, in the search of truth, it is to meditation, 

 and not to observation, that we ought to give ourselves up. It 

 will be imagined, that, with such a mode of procedure, the Pla- 

 tonic School could not have greatly benefited the natural scien- 

 ces. It may even be said that it injured them, by opposing to 

 a certain degree the propagation of the doctrines of Aristotle. 



In the Timaeus, Plato explains his own doctrine, which is 

 easily gathered from the Dialogue. Thus, the words which he 

 puts in the mouth of various interlocutors, arq to be considered 

 as the true expression of his sentiments, excepting in some evi- 

 dently allegorical parts. 



The fictions which are met with in various treatises of this 

 philosopher, are owing partly to the poetical turn of his mind, 

 and partly to the necessity of veiling certain doctrines, which it 

 would have been dangerous to divulge more clearly. Notwith- 

 standing this precaution, Plato was accused of impiety, as An- 

 axagoras and Socrates had been before him ; but he was treated 

 more favourably, and continued to teach at Athens to an ad- 



