96 ESSAYS SCIENTIFIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL. 



rather oddly after the statement that Plato and 

 Aristotle were " both realists and both pantheists." 

 One has heard a good deal before now about " the 

 Platonical Trinity," and we incline to think there 

 is at least as much to be said for this interpre- 

 tation as for the theistic one. At any rate, if Plato 

 is a theist, he is fully aware of the inherent difficul- 

 ties of theism. It was not without reason that, 

 some hundred years ago, a Bishop of the English 

 Church, arguing with the Unitarians of his day, 

 gave the advice, " If any one thinks that Uni- 

 tarianism is simpler than Christianity, let him 

 read Parmenides." Dr. Martineau is, however, far 

 too honest to ignore passages which conflict with 

 his theory, and his final conclusion comes to this. 

 If we apply the test of self -consciousness, we may 

 no doubt call Plato a theist ; if we apply the test 

 of will y " we might be obliged to confess that the 

 God of Plato is impersonal" Comparing his theo- 

 logy with his ethics, we seem to get an ethics of 

 responsibility resting on a metaphysic of necessity. 

 And Dr. Martineau would like to square the meta- 

 physic with the ethics rather than the ethics with 

 the metaphysic. But neither is possible without 

 explaining away Plato's utterances. And even 

 the mythical passages, as Dr. Martineau truly says, 

 "often express the doctrines most sacred to his 

 faith, though least effectually grounded in his 

 philosophy." It is not the only instance in which 



