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master with the most affectionate atttachment. tuted a school at Elis, after the Socratic model; which was continued by Plistanus, an Elian, and afterwards by Menedemus of Eretria."

Menedemus, though well descended, was obliged through poverty to submit to the manual employment of a house builder. He formed an early intimacy with Asclepiades, a Phliasian, who was a fellow-labourer with him in his humble occupation. Having minds more formed for study than for labour, they determined to devote themselves to the pursuit of philosophy. For this purpose, they left their native country, and went to Athens, where Plato then presided in the Academy. It was soon observed, that these strangers had no visible means of subsistence; and, according to a law of Solon, they were cited before the court of Areopagus, to give an account of the manner in which they were supported. The master of one of the public prisons was, at their request, sent for, and attested that, every night, these two youths went among the criminals, and, by grinding with them, earned two drachmas, which enabled them to spend the day in the study of philosophy. The magis trates, struck with admiration at such an extraordinary proof of an indefatigable thirst after knowledge, dismissed them with high applause, and presented them with two hundred drachmas.3* They met with several other friends who liberally supplied them with whatever was necessary to enable them to prosecute their studies.

By the advice of his friend, and probably in his society, Menedemus went from Athens to Megara, to attend upon the instructions of Stilpo. He expressed his approbation of the manner in which this philosopher taught, by giving him the appellation of The Liberal. He next visited Elis, where he became a disciple of Phædo, and afterwards his successor. Transferring the Eliac school from Elis to his native city, he gave it the name of Eretrian. In his school he neglected those forms which were commonly observed in places of this kind; his hearers were not, as usual, placed on circular benches around him; but every one at

2 Laert. 1. ii. § 125-140.

Athæn. 1. iv. p. 168.

*About six pounds.

tended him in whatever posture he pleased, standing, walking, or sitting.

At first Menedemus was received by the Eretrians with contempt; and, on account of the vehemence with which he disputed, he was often branded with the appellations of cur and madman. But afterwards he rose into high esteem, and was entrusted with a public office, to which was annexed an annual stipend of two hundred talents. He discharged the trust with fidelity, but accepted only a fourth part of the appointment. On several successive embassies to Ptolemy, Lysander, and Demetrius, he rendered his countrymen essential services, by obtaining a diminution of their tribute, and rescuing them from other burdens. Antigonus entertained a personal respect for him, and professed himself one of his disciples. His intimacy with this prince created a suspicion amongst his countrymen, that he had a secret intention to betray their city into his hands. To escape the hazards arising from their jealousy, he retired to Oropus in Boeotia, and afterwards fled to Antigonus, where mortification and disappointment soon put a period to his life. He precipitated his end, by abstaining for several days from food. He died in the eighty-fourth year of his age, and about the hundred and twenty-fourth Olympiad.

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Menedemus possessed great readiness and versatility of genius, and was able to dispute on every subject with keenness and fluency. He declared his opinions with freedom, inveighed with severity against the vices of others, and by the purity of his own manners commanded universal respect. He observed the strictest moderation in his manner of living. His entertainments, which were frequented by many philosophers and men of distinction, were simple and frugal, consisting chiefly of vegetables; and were always enlivened by liberal conversation. His friendship for Asclepiades continued after his death. A favourite servant of his, coming late to the house of Menedemus, was refused admission by the servants; but the master ordered them to let him in, adding, that Asclepiades, though dead, had still the power of opening his doors.

Nothing farther is known concerning the preceptors of

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the Eliac or Eretriac School, but that they studiously avoided, and strenuously opposed, the sophistical fooleries of the Megaric sect, and adhered closely to the simple doctrines and useful precepts which they had received from Socrates.

CHAP. VIII.

OF THE ACADEMIC SECT.

SECT. I.

Of Plato and his Philosophy.

HAVING treated of those sects of philosophers, derived from the school of Socrates, which were of inferior note and of short duration, we are now to trace the rise and progress of those which were more permanent, and of greater celebrity. These were the Academic and the Cynic sects; the former founded by Plato, the latter by Antisthenes. The Academic sect afterwards gave birth to the Peripatetic, and the Cynic to the Stoic.

Of all the disciples of Socrates, Plato, though he modestly calls himself the least,1 was unquestionably the most illustrious. As long as philosophy continued to be studied among the Greeks and Romans, his doctrines were taught, and his name was held in the highest veneration. When other sects fell into oblivion, the Platonic philosophy, united with the Peripatetic, still flourished. Even to the present day, Plato has many followers; his writings still give a tincture to the speculations and language of philo-, sophy and theology. An inquiry into the particulars of his life and doctrine is therefore an interesting part of our design. And it is the more necessary, that this inquiry be made with diligence and accuracy, as his opinions have

6 Vidend. Jons. l. ii. c. 4. 6. Eschenbach. Diss. Acad. v. De Sympos Sap. Hody de Bibl. Text. Orig. 1. i. c. 7. 1 Apol. Soc.

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been frequently misrepresented, and his system, as we shall afterwards see, has undergone frequent and material alterations.

He

PLATO was by descent an Athenian; but the place of his birth was the island of Ægina, where his father Aristo resided after that island became subject to Athens. His origin is traced back, on his father's side, to Codrus, and on that of his mother Pericthione, through five generations, to Solon. The time of his birth is commonly placed in the first year of the eighty-eighth Olympiad ; but perhaps it may be more accurately fixed in the third year of the eighty-seventh Olympiad. Fable has made Apollo his father, and has said that he was born of a virgin. gave early indications of an extensive and original genius. Whilst he was young, he was instructed in the rudiments of letters by the grammarian Dionysius, and trained in athletic exercises by Aristo of Argos. He applied with great diligence to the study and practice of the arts of painting and poetry. In the latter he made such proficiency, as to produce an epic poem, which, however, upon comparing it with Homer, he committed to the flames. At the age of twenty years, he composed a dramatic piece, which he gave to the performers to be represented upon the theatre; but the day before the intended exhibition, happening to attend upon a discourse of Socrates, he was captivated by his eloquence, and from that moment determined to relinquish all pretensions to poetical distinction, and to turn his ambition into the channel of philosophy. He forsook the muses, burned his poems, and applied himself wholly to the study of wisdom."

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It is probable that Plato received the first tincture of philosophy from Cratylus and Hermogenes, who taught the systems of Heraclitus and Parmenides. When he was twenty years old, he became a stated disciple of Socrates,

Laert. 1. iii. §. 1. &c. Suidas. 3 Proclus ad Timæum. p. 25. 4 B. C. 428.

5 B. C. 430.

1

• Plut. Sympos. I. viii. c. 1. Hieronym. adv. Jov. l. i. tom. iv. p. 186.

ed Par.

7 Ælian. Hist. Var. l. x. c. 21. 27.30. Val. Max. 1 i. c. 6. Plin. Hist. Nat. 1. xi. c. 29. Cic. de Divin. I. i. Plut. Plac. Phil. 1. i. c. 7.

8

Apuleius de Dogmat. Plat. Arist. Met. l. i. c. 6.

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[BOOK II. and remained with him in that relation eight years. During this period he frequently displeased the followers of Socrates, and sometimes gave Socrates himself occasions of complaint, by mixing foreign tenets with those of his master, and grafting upon the Socratic system, opinions which were taken from some other stock. Plato, nevertheless, retained a zealous attachment to Socrates. When that great and good man was summoned before the senate, Plato, as we have seen, undertook to plead his cause, and began a speech in his defence; but the partiality, and violence of the judges would not permit him to proceed. After the condemnation, he presented his master with money sufficient to redeem his life, which, however, Socrates refused to accept. During his imprisonment, Plato attended him, Yand' was present at a conversation which he held with his friends concerning the immortality of the soul, the substance of which he afterwards committed to writing in the beautiful dialogue entitled Phædo,9 not, however, without interweaving his own opinions and language. Upon the death of his master, he withdrew, with several other friends of Socrates, to Megara, where they were hospitably entertained by Euclid, and remained till the ferment at Athens subsided. Under Euclid he studied the art of reasoning, and probably increased his fondness for disputation. **Desirous of making himself master of all the wisdom and learning which the age could furnish, Plato travelled into every country, which was so far enlightened as to promise him any recompense of his labour. He first visited that part of Italy called Magna Græcia, where a celebrated school of philosophy had been established by Pythagoras, and was instructed in all the mysteries of the Pythagorean system,10 the subtleties of which he afterwards too freely blended with the simple doctrine of Socrates. He next visited Theodorus of Cyrene, and became his pupil in mathematical science. When he found himself sufficiently instructed in the elements of this branch of learning, he determined to study astronomy, and other sciences, in Egypt. That he might travel with safety, he assumed the

• Conf. Cic. de Nat. Deor. l. iii. c. 33.

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* I10 Apul. loc. cit. Cic. Tusc. Qu. I. v. c, 29. - Quintil. I, i, c. 12, F
Codex. 259. p. 712.
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