54 



GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 



Becomes a 

 disciple of 

 Socrates . 



His early 

 writings. 



first year of the eighty-eighth Olympiad (B.C. 428). In his early life 

 he devoted himself much to poetry, and is said to have produced an 

 epic poem, which he committed to the flames, and a drama, which 

 was represented. When about the age of twenty, he became a 

 disciple of Socrates, and continued with him for eight years, till that 

 great and amiable philosopher fell a sacrifice to the rancour of party, 

 disguised under the pretext of zeal for the national religion. Plato 

 attended his master during his trial, was one of those who offered to 

 speak in his defence (though the judges would not allow him to pro- 

 ceed), and to be bound as a surety for the payment of his fine ; and 

 after the fatal sentence, waited on him in prison, and was present 

 during his last moments. 



It appears that Plato had written one or two dialogues in the life- 

 time of Socrates ; and there is much reason to believe that if those 

 dialogues exist in the present collection of his works, they are ' The 

 Lysis,' ' Phaedrus,' The Banquet,' and perhaps the ' Protagoras.' All 

 these bear strong marks of youthful fancy. In the three first the 

 dramatic character so completely predominates, that the arguments 

 seem only introduced as illustrative of the manners and temper of the 

 individuals. ' The Banquet ' is a perfect comedy. The choice phrases 

 and pretty turns of Lysias, the grandeur and affected antitheses of 

 Gorgias, covertly represented in the speeches of their respective 

 admirers, Phaadras and Pausanias, are finely contrasted with the plain 

 severity of Pericles's style, in the speech of Eryxamachus ; and the 

 broad humour and wild ribaldry of Aristophanes are but a foil to the 

 less prominent but more significant irony of Socrates. It is to be 

 lamented that the subject of the dialogue, Love, leads to illustrations 

 from the grossest sensuality and vilest depravity; but Socrates has 

 evidently aims of a high moral cast in the part which he takes in the 

 conversation. Indeed, Alcibiades, whilst he does justice to his pre- 

 ceptor's moral character, has introduced an admirable description of 

 the manner by which Socrates in general proceeded from the most 

 familiar subjects, and from trite and obvious topics to insinuate reflec- 

 tions of a graver nature, and to lead his hearer's mind into a train of 

 useful thought. 1 



The object of ' The Protagoras ' seems to be, in a great degree, to 



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 u eivfyss a iy&> Suxgarou; iffcwu. Convivium, pp. 221, 222. 



