116 PROFESSOR H. LANGHORNE ORCHARD, M.A., B.SC, ON 



group them together, we obtain a class — the many being in this 



one class, included in its membership. 

 ^ Although men's thoughts have from their beginning been 

 ^ conversant with Number, few subjects have at once so attracted 

 5^ and baffled inquiry as the relation between Unity and Plurality — 

 3^ how The One is in The Many, and The Many are in The One. 

 c For the acutest and profoundest ancient philosophers, and 

 t;^ some of the most gifted minds in our own time, the problem 



1 has proved exceedingly perplexing, yet of fascinating interest, 



2 leading tireless investigation up a mountain path, steep indeed, 

 but which rewards the chmber with a purer, more bracing air, 

 and a wider, clearer view. The far-famed Samian sage held 

 that the ultimate principle of all Being was to be found in 



^ Number. Plato, greatest of non-Christian philosophers, agreed 

 g; to a large extent with Pythagoras and, in conjunction with his 

 great master, Socrates, brought forward his famous theory of 

 ^ the " Ideas," with that of " The One m The Many, and The 

 I Many in The One." This theory, justly regarded as one of the 

 ^ supreme achievements of human intellect, may be collected 

 from his Dialogues — " Theaetetus," Parmenides," " Phaedo," 

 " Timaeus," " Republic," and others. 



Taking survey of the imiverse, Plato recognised its divisibihty 

 into two worlds or spheres, — the visible, consisting of our bodies 

 and other objects perceived by our senses, the invisible, con- 

 taining our souls and thoughts and moral and other quahties 

 of a general kind. He saw that sense objects are transitory, 

 in a state of flux and change, passing away, to be succeeded by 

 others passing away in their turn ; whilst general (or common) 

 qualities, such as justice, courage, beauty, have permanence, 

 remaining unchangeable through successive generations. Drawing 

 therefrom the conclusion that the invisible sj^here is higher and 

 more important than the visible, he urged that we should 

 especially consider and attend to it, — not to " the things which 

 ^ are seen " and " temporal." This led him to construct his 

 theory : The " Ideas " are ideas of general qualities arrived at 

 p by generalization and abstraction from sense objects which 

 P suggest them through Reminiscence of a knowledge of them 

 divinely given to the soul when it was in a pre-natal state of 

 * existence. Sense objects remind us of certain ideal archetypes 

 ^ according to which they were formed by the Divine-and-Human 

 Architect of the universe ; these archetypes, having been 

 % present as thoughts and purposes (poij/xara) in the mind of the 



