P R E F A C E. 



XXXI 



From this fo great colledlon of learning, Plato compofecl a com- 

 plete body of Philofophy, comprehending Morals, Politics, Dia- 

 ledic, which was then the name for Logic, Phyfics alfo, and 

 Mataphyfics ; from whence we may fee at firft v^ew, how mucli 

 more comprehenfive his Syflem of Philofophy was,, than that of his 

 mafter Socrates ; for Socrates, as I have obferved, did not at all 

 treat of Phyfics, or Metaphyfics ; and though he reafoned m.uch, 

 and very well, yet he did not pretend to explain the art of 

 reafoning, or teach any fyftem of logic : The fubjecl of his philo- 

 fophy was intirely confined to Morals ; whereas Plato's fyftem took 

 in the whole hunran philofophy. Politics as well as Morals. Nor 

 has any thing liner come down to us from antient times, than the 

 Books of Plato upon Polity and Laws ; but the greateft part of 

 which, I am perfuaded, he has taken from that book of Philolaus 

 above-mentioned, entitled ttcXitikov. As to Metaphyfics and 

 Theology, his philofophy was mofl; fublime, and approaching near 

 to the Chriftian Theology, particularly with refped to the Dcdrine 

 of the Trinity, which he no doubt learned, either in Egypt, or, as 

 I rather believe, in the Orphic or Pythagoric writings. LI is 

 dodrine of Ideas too, I think, may be referred to his Myfi;ic 

 Philofophy, and which, I am perfuaded, he likewife learned in one 

 or other of the ways above-mentioned '*. And even as to Morals, 



to 



underftood that all the operations of nature were produced by mind, they thought that 

 the philofophy of mind was eHentially connected with Phyfics as well as Morals. 

 And as they inveftigated the firft principles of all the fubjccts of fcience which they 

 ftudied, they thought they could not e>'plain the principles of Natural Philofophy 

 without an innuiry into the nature of the Firft Mind, the author of all motion in the 



univerfe. From this account of the fubjed of thofe three book?, it is evident that 



the Pythagoreans muft have had a complete fvftcm of Philofophy j and fo Jamblichus 

 tells us in the beginning of his Twenty-ninth Chapter of the Life of Pythagoras. 



* Porphyry, in the beginning of his Ei<Tuyccy^, fpeaks of this dodrine of Ideas as a 



thing of very abftrufe philofophy, and therefore improper for a work that he intended 



t as 



