POLITICUS.

Η, ΠΕΡΙ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΑΣ.

THIS dialogue is a continuation of the Sophist, as the Sophist is a continuation of the Theætetus; and they are accordingly ranged together by Thrasyllus in that order (Diog. Laert. in Platon. s. 58.); though Serranus in his edition has separated them. The persons are the same, only that here the younger Socrates is introduced, instead of Theætetus, carrying on the conversation with the stranger from Elea. The principal heads of it are the following:

P. 258. The division of the sciences into speculative and practical.

P. 259. The master, the ceconomist, the politician, the king; which are taken as different names for men of the same profession.

NOTES ON THE GREEK TEXT.

Platon. Op. Serrani. Vol. 2. p. 257.

P. 257. Tov Aμuwva.] Theodorus was of Cyrene.

264. Ταις εν τω Νείλω τιθασσειαις.] Probably in or near those cities of Egypt where the Lepidotus, Oxyrinchus, and other fish of the Nile were worshipped; those fish, by being unmolested and constantly fed, might be grown tame, as in the river Chalus in Syria, mentioned by Xenophon (Cyri Anab. L. 1. p. 254. ed. Leunclav.), where all fish were held sacred.

The private man, who can give lessons of government to such as publickly exercise this art, deserves the name of royal no less than they.

No difference between a great family and a small commonwealth.

The politician must command on his own judgment, and not by the suggestion of others. (avтeπITаKTOS.) 1 P. 262. The absurdity of the Greeks, who divided all mankind into Greeks and barbarians. The folly of all distinction and division without a difference.

P. 269. The fable of the contrary revolutions in the universe at periodical times, with the alternate destruction and reproduction of all creatures.

P. 273. The disorder and the evil in the natural world, accounted for from the nature of 2 matter, while it was yet a chaos.

The former revolution, in which the Divinity himself immediately conducted every thing, is called the

1 Ρ. 261. Καν διαφυλαξης το μη σπουδαζειν επι τοις ονομασι, πλουσιώτερος εις το γηρας αναφανηση φρονησεως.

2 Plato, with the Pythagoreans, looked upon matter as coeternal with the Deity, but receiving its order and design entirely from him. (See Timæus, the Locrian, de Animâ Mundi.)

NOTES.

Р. 266. Тν πроs yeλwτa.] Anallusion perhaps to the Aves of Aristophanes, or to some other comick writer, for Plato (as well as Socrates) had often been the subject of their ridicule.

Ib. Ev Tη περɩ TO σ.] V. Sophistam, p. 227.

268. ПIEρ Tη ATрews.] See Euripid. Orest. v. 1001. and Electra v. 720.

269. Μητ' αν δυω τινε θεω. ] Alluding to the Persian doctrine of a good and of an evil principle..

Saturnian age; the present revolution, when the world goes the contrary way, being left to its own1 conduct. Mankind are now guided by their own free-will, and are preserved by their own inventions.

is no

P. 275. The nature of the monarch in this age other than that of the people which he commands. P. 276. His government must be with the consent of the people.

Clear and certain knowledge is rare and in few instances; we are forced to supply this defect by comparison and by analogy. Necessity of tracing things up to their first principles. Examples of logical division.

Greater, or less, with respect to our actions, are not to be considered as mere relations only depending on one another, but are to be referred to a certain middle term, which forms 2 the standard of morality.

P. 284. All the arts consist in measurement, and are divided into two classes: 1st. those arts which compare dimensions, numbers, or motions, each with its contrary, as greater with smaller, more with less,

1 He here too, with Timæus, considers the universe as one vast, animated, and intelligent body. Ζωον ον, και φρόνησιν ειληχος εκ του συναρμόσαντος αυτο κατ' αρχας. p. 269. Τελειον, εμψυχον τε και λογικον, και σφαιροειδες σωμα. Timæus, p. 94.

2 This is the fundamental principle of Aristotle's ethicks, L. 2. c. 7. et passim.

NOTE.

P. 272. Mu@ovs.] He seems to allude to the Esopick (See Aristot. Rhetor. L. 2. Sect. 21.) Libyan, and Sybaritick fables. See Aristophan. Aves v. 471. 652. and 808. and Vespæ v. 1418.

swifter with slower; and 2dly, those, which compare them by their distances from some middle point, seated between two extremes, in which consists what is right, fit, and becoming.

The design of these distinctions, and of the manner used before in tracing out the idea of a sophist and a politician, is to form the mind to a habit of logical division.

The necessity of illustrating our contemplations,1 on abstract and spiritual subjects, by sensible and material images is stated.

P. 286. An apology2 for his prolixity.

Principal, and concurrent,3 or instrumental causes, are named; the division of the latter, with their several productions, is into seven classes of arts which are necessary to society: viz.

1 See p. 286. Thus Mr. Locke, speaking of the institution of language, observes, that "men to give names which might make known to others any operations they felt in themselves, or any other idea which came not under their senses, were fain to borrow words from ordinary known ideas of sensation, by that means to make others the more easily to conceive those operations which they experimented in themselves, which made no outward sensible appearances."

2 Athenæus has preserved a large fragment of Epicrates, a comick poet, in which Plato's divisions are made the subject of his ridicule. L. 2. p. 59.

3 ALTIOV KAL OVVAiтiov. Terms also used by the Pythagoreans. Vid. Timæum Locrum in principio.

NOTE.

P. 283. Mакρотepа TOν deOvтos.] It is plain, that the length of Plato's digressions had been censured and ridiculed by some of his contemporaries (particularly his dialogue called "the Sophist"), and that he here makes his own apology.

1. To πρωτογενες είδος. That class which furnishes materials for all the rest; it includes the arts of mining, hewing, felling, &c.

2. Οργανον. The instruments employed in all manufactures, with the arts which make them.

3. Αγγειον. The vessels to contain and preserve our nutriment, and other moveables furnished by the patter, joiner, brazier, &c.

4. Oxnua. Carriages, seats, vehicles for the land and water, &c. by the coach-maker, ship and boat-builder, &c. 5. Пpoßλnμa. Shelter, covering, and defence, as houses, clothing, tents, arms, &c. by the architect, weaver, armourer, &c.

6. Пaуvov. Pleasure and amusement, as painting, musick, sculpture, &c.

7. Opeμμa. Nourishment, supplied by agriculture, hunting, cookery, &c. and regulated by the gymnastick and medical arts.

NOTES.

P. 284. To un ov.] V. Sophist, p. 237.

290. The Egyptian kings were all of them priests, and if any of another class usurped the throne, they too were obliged to admit themselves of that order.

291. Παμφυλον τι γενος.] Vid. mox, p. 303.

299. MеTεwρоλoyos.] Alluding to the fate of Socrates, and to the Nubes of Aristophanes, as he frequently does. This is a remarkable passage.

302. The corruption of the best form of government is the worst and the most intolerable of all.

Ib. Γην που και λιθους.] See the ancient manner of refining gold, in Diodorus L. 2. or in the Excerpta of Agatharchides de Mari Erythræo.

303. Adaμas.] Found in the gold-mines mixed with the ore.