The Palace and Park by Phillips, Forbes, Latham, Owen, Scharf, and Shenton

[Born at Athens, B.C. 430. Died B.C. 347. Aged 83.] The most illustrious amongst the disciples of Socrates. The doctrines of the great teacher have descended to us chiefly through the writings of this eloquent hearer. Whence, a singular and inextricable conflict. The sturdy, keen, practical plain sense of the master, and the soaring, brilliant imagination, and subtly-dividing wit of the pupil, have come down to us mingled ever in the same composition. In these extraordinary dialogues, which display the spoken Greek of Athens in its utmost purity, beauty, and melody, how much is Plato’s?--how much is of Socrates? The two busts may go as far as any other authorities, in affording the almost discretionary reply. The lip on which, whilst in the cradle, tradition says that the bee settled--signifying the sweetness of the speech which should flow from it--is before us, in part of the answer. Plato was, in his earlier life, a poet, but gave his poetical compositions, amongst which are mentioned an epic poem and a tragedy, to the flames. He excelled in bodily exercises, being distinguished as a wrestler. He travelled much in the quest of knowledge. Like his illustrious preceptor, he taught that wisdom, under which we must comprise goodness, is the attribute of the Godhead,--that philosophy is an intellectual necessity, and, as the fountain of virtue, which it thus includes, the most estimable of all the goods within the reach of man. Abstruse and sublime, seeking to rest science and morals on an immutable basis, Plato trains the intellect more than he teaches. In reading his writings, we enter the Socratic school as hearers, as disputants. The Socrates, who constantly leads the discussion, is rather the presiding Spirit, than the Man. We come out, whatsoever else, worshipping students of the True, of the Fair, of the Good. [From the very beautiful little bust in the Florence Gallery. He wears the “strophium” as a mark of his great honours. This bust possesses a great claim to authenticity, on account of the name being deeply cut upon it in Greek letters of the antique form. There is a similar bust in the Naples Museum, of the same size, and inscribed with the name of Plato.]