PLATO. 91 



guage which can give to a mere English reader a sense of the art, the 

 dignity, and the gracefulness of his Athenian model. Lord Shaftes- 

 bury's essays on the contrary, though written more with the air of a 

 professed imitation, have about them an inflation and a stilted grandeur, 

 which never deforms the serious works of Plato. The minds, both of 

 Milton and Gray, were thoroughly imbued with the spirit of Plato's 

 writings. The whole of the * Comus,' and particularly the beautiful 

 eulogy upon Philosophy, the solemn introduction of the unsphering 

 Plato's spirit in the * Penseroso,' and the express praise of the remnants 

 of the Socratic school in the ' Tractate on Education,' and ' The Answer 

 to Smectymnus,' show at once how fully Milton's mind had been stored 

 with the sublimer parts of Plato's philosophy, and how great his ad- 

 miration was of the plainer and more practical parts. His larger poems 

 breathe everywhere, as it were, inadvertently, intimations of the deep 

 fountains of ancient wisdom, in which his genius had delighted to re- 

 fresh and invigorate itself; and every casual turn displays glances of 

 the sky robes of the Athenian sage, and drops rich distillations of the 

 choicest dew from Hymettus. The poems of Gray, in like manner, 

 bear a strong tincture from their author's studies ; and the intelligent, 

 to whom they are addressed, 1 would need no further evidence than the 

 colour of the language, and imagery with which they abound, to satisfy 

 them that Plato was Gray's favourite author. This point, however, 

 has been put out of all question by the publication of his posthumous 

 works before referred to ; which show, not only his earnest study of 

 Plato's own writings, but his minute and laborious research into other 

 writers of antiquity, to procure illustration even of the most petty par- 

 ticulars of dates or characters anywise connected with them. 



But we perceive that we are dwelling too long upon details, which 

 at best can be considered but as an appendage to a sketch of Plato's 

 life. The neglect, however, with which Plato's writings are in the 

 present day indiscriminately treated, even among persons of general 

 learning and intelligence, must be our excuse for resting on the names 

 of any who have entertained a different opinion of his writings, although 

 they were not themselves deficient in genius, or accustomed to any 

 servile admiration of antiquity. But upon this head, of the disregard 

 shown to Plato in our public schools and universities, upon which it 

 might seem impertinent or presumptuous for us to enlarge further, we 

 willingly shelter ourselves under the authority of Berkeley, and close 

 our sketch with recommending the perusal of Plato's writings, in the 

 words of that learned and virtuous dignitary : 



" It might very well be thought serious trifling to tell my readers, 

 that the greatest men had ever an high esteem for Plato ; whose writings 

 are the touchstone of a hasty and shallow mind ; whose philosophy 

 has been the admiration of ages ; which supplied patriots, magistrates, 

 and lawgivers to the most flourishing states, as well as fathers to the 

 church, and doctors to the schools. Albeit, in these days, the depths 



