6 MYSTICISM AND LOGIC 



contemplate the nature of the sun, not as it appears in 

 water or on alien ground, but as it is in itself in its own 

 territory. 



Of course. 



His next step will be to draw the conclusion, that the 

 sun is the author of the seasons and the years, and the 

 guardian of all things in the visible world, and in a manner 

 the cause of all those things which he and his companions 

 used to see. 



Obviously, this will be his next step. . . . 



Now this imaginary case, my dear Glancon, you must 

 apply in all its parts to our former statements, by com- 

 paring the region which the eye reveals, to the prison 

 house, and the light of the fire therein to the power of the 

 sun : and if, by the upward ascent and the contemplation 

 of the upper world, you understand the mounting of the 

 soul into the intellectual region, you will hit the tendency 

 of my own surmises, since you desire to be told what they 

 are ; though, indeed, God only knows whether they are 

 correct. But, be that as it may, the view which I take of 

 the subject is to the following effect. In the world of 

 knowledge, the essential Form of Good is the limit of our 

 enquiries, and can barely be perceived ; but, when 

 perceived, we cannot help concluding that it is in every 

 case the source of all that is bright and beautiful, in the 

 visible world giving birth to light and its master, and in 

 the intellectual world dispensing, immediately and with 

 full authority, truth and reason ; and that whosoever 

 would act wisely, either in private or in public, must set 

 this Form of Good before his eyes." 



But in this passage, as throughout most of Plato's 

 teaching, there is an identification of the good with the 

 truly real, which became embodied in the philosophical 



