PLATO. 69 



questioning their authenticity. * The lo ' is undoubtedly genuine. 

 But the banter is so admirably disguised, and so well kept up under 

 an appearance of gravity and even solemnity, that critics and com- 

 mentators have been as much imposed upon, as ' lo ' was intended to 

 be in the dialogue by that eipwv Socrates. It is indeed a style of 

 irony the most covert and insidious ; and Socrates practises that very 

 method which is said occasionally to have been adopted by a moralist 1 

 in more recent times, of the most virtuous character and amiable dis- 

 position, " when he found any man invincibly wrong, to flatter his 

 opinions by acquiescence, and sink him yet deeper in absurdity." The 

 resolution of all poetry into a divine inspiration actuating a being 

 otherwise in no respect superior to his fellow-creatures, and in a 

 manner unconscious of the fine phrensy which he is in, and the mag- 

 netic process by which the contagion of enthusiasm is communicated, 

 are conceived in the happiest style of humour and ridicule. The in- 

 terpreter of the poets is played upon throughout the dialogue so skil- 

 fully and with such fine effect, that he seems to be flattered by com- 

 pliments, which reduce not only his art, but that of the objects of 

 his idolatry to phantasy and illusion ; and he departs with a conviction, 

 readily adopted, of the peculiar favour of heaven, and with every feel- 

 ing of self-importance mightily increased and confirmed. ' The Laches ' 

 is probably spurious. * The Euthyphro ' is very questionable, but may 

 have been written by Plato at an early period of his life, and before 

 he had become master of the address which he afterwards attained in 

 his mode of attacking vulgar superstitions. * The Crito ' and * The 

 Defence of Socrates,' approve themselves genuine by the interesting 

 manner in which they are written, and by the simplicity and elegance 

 of the style. On the same ground we should admit the ' First Alcibi- 

 ades,' the * Charmides,' and ' Lysis.' The ' Alcibiades ' is full of good 

 sense. The ' Charmides ' and * Lysis ' though less weighty in argu- 

 ment, abound with delicate raillery, and with exquisite touches of 

 manners. They have not, indeed, the same body with the * Alcibiades,' 

 but they bear with them the same genuine smack and raciness. * The 

 Menexenus ' is, we think, a satire on the Rhetoricians, and a parody on 

 Lysias. All the topics, the connective particles, the modes of transi- 

 tion from one topic to another, the antithesis, the measured clauses, 

 have something technical and puerile about them, and are completely 

 alien from the manner and arrangement and general style of Plato. If 

 * The Menexenus ' is to be looked upon as a serious performance, we 

 admit at once that it is no production of Plato ; but we are inclined 

 to believe that it is genuine, and intended for a parody. With regard 

 to the ' Books of Laws,' it is well established that they were not pub- Books of 

 lished in the lifetime of Plato, but were given to the world after his death 

 by Philip the Opuntian ; and this circumstance is a sufficient reason with 

 us for the difference which appears between them and the generality of 

 the finished productions of Plato. The dramatic parts are very slightly 

 1 Addison. See his life by Johnson. 



