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rental relations. For the strongest proof of this, we might refer, among many other passages, to what is said in the ninth book, 881, A., and especially to that most striking and beautiful passage, lib. xi., 931, A., in which he speaks of the veneration of children towards their parents as a religious, rather than a merely moral or political duty, and not only this, but also as involving acts partaking of the nature of religious worship. We would recommend to the student the close study of the whole argument, not only for its exceeding moral beauty, but also as a most triumphant refutation of the charge that Plato, like some modern reformers, would have destroyed the family state. Tovéwv δὲ ἀμελεῖν, οὔτε θεὸς οὔτε ἄνθρωπος νοῦν ἔχων ξύμβουλός ποτε γένοιτ' ἂν οὐδεὶς οὐδενί. φρονῆσαι δὲ χρὴ περὶ θεῶν, K. T. λ. In this passage he not only sets in the highest light the sanctity of the relation, and of the duties resulting, but would deduce from it a method of indirectly reforming the grossness of some parts of religious worship, by substituting the holy feeling of filial veneration for the idolatrous adoration of household images of the Gods. He would have their place occupied by the venerable living form of the aged sire or grandsire, as the household ayaλpa, or image of the Eternal Father. IIarnp ovv öTw kaì μήτηρ ἢ τούτων πατέρες ἢ μητέρες ἐν οἰκίᾳ κεῖνται κειμή λιοι ἀπειρηκότες γήρᾳ, μηδεὶς διανοηθήτω ποτὲ ἄγαλμα αὐτῷ, τοιοῦτον ἐφέστιον ἵδρυμα ἐν οἰκίᾳ ἔχων, μᾶλλον κύριον ἔσεσθαι, ἐὰν δὴ κατὰ τρόπον γε ὀρθῶς αὐτὸ θεραπεύῃ κεκτημένος. TTεÚN Ó KEKTNμÉVoç. "If any one hath a father, or mother, or grandparents worn out with age, and laid up as sacred relics in his house, let him never suppose, as long as he possesses this altar of the domestic hearth, that any other ayaλua or sacred image is more worthy of his adoration, provided he knows how to worship it aright." And again, 931, D., Οὐκοῦν διανοηθῶμεν ὡς οὐδὲν πρὸς θεῶν τιμιώ τερον ἄγαλμα ἂν κτησαίμεθα πατρὸς καὶ προπάτορος παρ

ρειμένων γήρᾳ καὶ μητέρων τὴν αὐτὴν δύναμιν ἐχουσῶν οὺς ὅσον ἀγάλλη τις τιμαῖς γέγηθεν ὁ θεός. “Let us, then, believe that we can have no religious image more precious in the sight of Heaven than a father, or grandfather, or mother worn out with age, and that in proportion as we honour or delight in them with a religious joy (so ȧyáλλn, whence ayaλμa, may be rendered here, as in Pindar, Olymp., i., 139), in the same proportion does God himself rejoice." If this is idolatry, it is certainly far more innocent than that which is practised by the professedly Christian Church of Rome. What a beautiful and affect.

ing picture is here presented! The aged and infirm parent not only revered in the secret sanctuary of the heart, but actually regarded, if not as the very household deity of the secluded domestic temple, yet, in truth, as the best visible representation or ɛikov, through whom homage was to be rendered to the Invisible God. Sophocles seems to have had in mind something of this same beautiful conception in the Antigone, 703:

Τί γὰρ πατρὸς θάλλοντος, εὐκλείας τέκνοις
*ΑΓΑΛΜΑ μεῖζον ;

There is not the same high meaning to ayaλua here as in Plato, although in other respects the language is strikingly similar. It more strongly resembles Proverbs, xvii., 6:

has תִּפְאָרָה where the Hebrew word תִפְאֶרֶת בָּנִים אֲבוֹתָם

a striking affinity to the Greek ǎyaλμa, being like it, too, used in a religious sense, as in Psalm lxxviii., 61, where it is applied to the ark of the covenant.

As a consequence of this religious relation, Plato attaches great importance to the blessing and curse of a parent, and in this he is in accordance with one of the most ancient and universal doctrines that have ever prevailed among mankind. After reciting the examples of Theseus, Edipus, and Amyntor, he thus proceeds : ἀραῖος γὰρ γονεὺς ἐκγόνοις

ὡς οὐδεὶς ἕτερος ἄλλοις δικαιότατα, 931, C. "For the curse of a parent (to give a free rendering) comes loaded with calamity to children in a way that is true of no other relations." Wherefore, as he says in another passage, πᾶς δὴ νοῦν ἔχων φοβεῖται καὶ τιμᾷ γονέων εὐχάς, εἰδὼς πολλοῖς καὶ πολλάκις ἐπιτελεῖς γενομένας, 931, Α. “Every one that hath reason both fears and honours the prayers of parents, knowing well that often, and to many, have they been fulfilled." How deeply this sentiment was impressed upon the minds of the Grecian poets, and how important an element it forms of their most tragic representations, we may learn from the dismal effects and long train of calamitous consequences which they set forth as following the imprecations of Edipus upon his unnatural sons. The sad story of Hippolytus, who, although innocent, is represented by Euripides as perishing under a father's imprecation, exhibits the same doctrine, although in a most perverted and distorted form. The dying cry which the poet puts into the mouth of the wretched young man,

ὦ πατρὸς ἐμοῦ δύστηνος ἀρά,

shows how awful was the calamity which the ancient world universally regarded as involved in a parent's curse. The converse doctrine, namely, the importance of the parental blessing, is certainly one of the most clearly taught truths of the Old Testament. How consonant it is, both with the language and spirit of Scripture, no one need be told who recollects the value attached to the blessing of the Patriach Isaac, and the declarations of the dying Jacob to the twelve heads of Israel, besides many other passages which are founded upon the same idea.

It was a prominent principle in all the ancient systems of law and religion that the relation of parent and child gave rise to religious, rather than merely civil obligations. Hence Aristotle says, ἔστι δ' ἡ μὲν πρὸς γονεῖς φιλία τέκνοις ὡς ἀνθρώποις πρὸς θεούς· τοῦ γὰρ εἶναι καὶ τραφῆναι

αἴτιοι, καὶ γενομένοις τοῦ παιδευθῆναι. Ethic. Nicomach., viii., 12, 5. They belonged to the class of duties styled bola, in distinction from those that were only díkala, and their violation was regarded among offences committed directly against Heaven. Something of this feeling has come down and affected even modern languages. Hence we speak of filial piety or impiety. On this account the Bible makes this relation the subject of the first commandment immediately following the direct duties we owe to God, and hence, too, the Jewish law punished the crime with such unrelenting severity, as though, if permitted to pass with impunity, it would be the fruitful source of every violation, both of the laws of Heaven and Earth. The filial and parental tie seems to have been regarded as a continuation of that which bound us to God, and hence, in strictest harmony with this view, Plato regards the man who had sundered the latter as having utterly annihilated the duties and obligations of the former. On this account, as we have seen in a passage on which we have already commented, page 81, the children of the Atheist were to be regarded as orphans, and placed under the care of the state.

The importance of this relation in a political point of view, may be inferred from the fifth commandment itself. The promise annexed has generally been referred to individuals. It appears to us, however, to have more of a political aspect, and to be addressed to the nation collectively. The language certainly seems to favour this idea: "that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee;" intimating that the long continuance of their national polity in the land of Canaan would depend, more than on anything else, on the preservation of this fundamental conservative article; on the reverence with which this duty should be regarded, as forming the connecting link between the civil and the more purely religious, and as being the source and guarantee of every inferior domestic

and political obligation. For undoubted examples of the same and similar language, used in the national instead of the individual sense, see Deuteronomy, iv., 26, 40; v., 30; vi., 2.

In accordance with this universal sentiment of antiquity, Plato, in the passage at the beginning of these remarks, and in other places in the Laws, enumerates duties to parents as immediately succeeding those which are owed to God, and ranks their violation as next in enormity to public and private sacrilege. Compare the fourth book of the Laws, 717, B., and especially a most remarkable passage in the ninth book, 881, Α.: Πατρὸς γὰρ ἢ μητρὸς ἢ τούτων ἔτι προγόνων ὅστις τολμήσει ἅψασθαι ποτὲ βιαζό. μενος αἰκίᾳ τινί, μήτε τῶν ἄνω δείσας θεῶν μῆνιν, μήτε τῶν ὑπὸ γῆς τιμωριῶν λεγομένων, ἀλλὰ καταφρονῶν τῶν παλαιῶν καὶ ὑπὸ πάντων εἰρημένων παρανομεῖ, τούτῳ δεῖ τινος ἀποτροπῆς ἐσχάτης. θάνατος μὲν οὖν οὐκ ἔστιν ἔσχατον, οἱ δὲ ἐν "Αιδου τούτοισι λεγόμενοι πόνοι, &c. "If any one shall dare to treat with violence father or mother, or any one of his or their progenitors, having before his eyes neither the fear of the powers above, nor of the vengeance of the world beneath, but, despising the ancient and universal traditions of mankind, shall break through all law, for such a one there is need of some most extreme remedy. Death, then, is not this greatest or most extreme remedy, but something still beyond this, even those pains of Hell which are said to await these enormous offenders.” The whole passage is full of dreadful meaning, which can with difficulty be transferred to the English. We have no word which comes up to the Greek ȧπотроný. It is applied to the most solemn religious act by which we may avert the wrath of Heaven for some enormous wickedness, and hence the terms ἀποτρόπαιος, ἀποτροπιασμός, inauspi cious, that which is to be averted by sacrifice, an expiation or turning away of the Divine wrath, and, in a secondary

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