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the gods though there are no probable or necessary proofs of their assertions. Warned by the fate of Socrates, he thought it prudent to enumerate among his gods the deities of the popular mythology; but at the same time, from his mode of expressing himself, we have no difficulty in collecting his real sentiments. The author however of the short compressed treatise in the Doric dialect, of which Plato's work above cited is a kind of commentary, speaks of traditions respecting the punishments of a future life as false yet expedient. This must be considered as the sentiment of the Locrian; for it may be proved from his seventh Epistle that Plato's own opinion was very different. In the treatise Пepì κóopov, attributed to Aristotle, there is the same appeal made to the apxaños Móyos; nor is it important, in regard to the present subject, whether the work be genuine or not. If not written by the Stagyrite, it is evidently a composition of great antiquity:

b Αδύνατον οὖν θεῶν παισὶν ἀπιστεῖν καί περ ἄνευ τε εἰκότων καὶ ȧvaykaíwv åπodeížewv λéyovow. Plato, Timæus, Bekker, pars iii. vol. ii. p. 42.

c Bekker, pars iii. vol. iii. p. 391.

ὁ ̓Αρχαῖος μὲν οὖν τις λόγος καὶ πάτριός ἐστι πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις ὡς ἐκ θεοῦ τὰ πάντα καὶ διὰ θεοῦ ἡμῖν συνέστηκεν. · Aristot. Περὶ κόσμου, cap. 6.

e In his Metaphysics he speaks of the importance deservedly attributed to this kind of evidence: Τιμιώτατον γὰρ τὸ πρεσβύταTOY, lib. i. cap. 3.

and we have similar testimony in works undoubtedly his own.

The early fathers of the church, in their controversies with the Greek philosophers, always accuse them of having borrowed their knowledge from foreign countries, principally from Egypt, and refer through this channel the wisdom of the ancients to divine revelation as its source f.

B.

The assertion in the text, that Plato believed the Deity to have created matter out of nothing, has appeared to me, upon further examination, more than dubious. The younger Platonists, Clemens Alexandrinus, Ficinus, and Cudworth, main

Παραδέδοται ὑπὸ τῶν ̓ΑΡΧΑΙΩΝ και ΠΑΛΑΙΩΝ ὅτι θεοί τε εἰσὶν οὗτοι καὶ περιέχει τὸ θεῖον τὴν ὅλην φύσιν. Met. lib. xiv. c. 8.

Vide also de Coelo. Διόπερ, καλῶς ἔχει συμπειθεῖν ἑαυτὸν τοὺς ̓ΑΡΧΑΙΟΥΣ ̓ΑΛΗΘΕΙΣ εἶναι λόγους. Lib. ii. c. 1.

Diogenes Laertius, at the commencement of his work, cites a treatise of Aristotle in which philosophy was represented to have derived its origin from the Magi of Persia, the Chaldæans of Babylon, the Gymnosophists of India, and the Druids of Gaul. Diog. Laert. prooemium, p. 1.

Cicero also speaks of the same kind of testimony. Tusc. Quæst. lib. i. cap. 12, 13. 17.

f Vide Mr. Lancaster's Supplementary Remarks, p. 422. and a learned Charge by Waterland in the 8th vol. of his Works; Van Mildert's edit. Eusebius, Præp. Evangelica, lib. x.

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tain this opinion; but their view of Plato's sentiments is disproved by the statements of 8 Cicero and Aristotle; and the Timæus alone appears sufficient to shew that he held the eternity of matter; nor has Serranus been successful in labouring to prove that his assertions are to be considered as applying only to the archetype of matter, and not to matter visible and corporeal. It is also worthy of remark, that the fathers, in their refutation of the Pagans, almost uniformly object to them their ignorance of the creation of matter. Thus Athanasiush rebukes the Platonists for representing the world to have been created out of preexisting matter. Epiphanius1, in his treatise against Hæreses, accuses Plato of holding contradictory language on the subject, sometimes speaking of matter as created, at others, as coeternal with the Deity. Eusebiusk, in his Præparatio Evangel., asserts the superiority of Hebrew theology in its declaring that God had made all things,

Cic. Academ. Quæst. lib. iv. 37. Aúo yàp àрpxás pnoi dokeï ποιεῖν ὁ Πλάτων, τὸ μὲν ὑποκείμενον καὶ ὕλην προσαγορεύων, τὸ δέ ὡς αἴτιον καὶ κινοῦν ὁ θεὸν καλεῖ καὶ νοῦν. Simplicius in Aristot. Phys. lib. i. p. 19. ed. Aldus, 1526.

Η Αλλοι δὲ ἐν οἷς ἐστι καὶ ὁ μέγας παρ' Ἕλλησι Πλάτων, ἐκ προϋπο κειμένης καὶ ἀγενήτου ὕλης πεποιηκέναι τὸν θεὸν τὰ ὅλα διηγοῦνται. De Incarnatione, p. 48. edit. Benedict. Paris. 1698.

i Epiphanius adversus Hæreses, lib. i. cap. 6.
* Præparatio Evangelica, lib. vii. cap. 18-22.

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and also the matter out of which they were made.

C.

Warburton boldly asserts that all the ancient philosophers embraced the principle, that it was lawful and expedient to deceive for the public good1 and Tully, on the authority of Plato, thinks it so clear, that he calls the doing otherwise nefas, "a horrid wickedness." As this statement appeared contrary to the whole tenor of Plato's writings, I was for some time at a loss to conceive what treatise of the philosopher could be alluded to. I have no doubt, however, that the assertion is grounded on a doubtful translation by Cicero of a passage in the Timæus m. Plato hav

1 Divine Legation, book iii. sect. 2. vol. ii. p. 13. Warburton gives no reference to the treatise in Tully where the sentence is to be found.

* Τὸν μὲν οὖν ποιητὴν καὶ πατέρα τοῦδε τοῦ παντὸς εὑρεῖν τε ἔργον καὶ εὑρόντα εἰς πάντας ΑΔΥΝΑΤΟΝ λέγειν. Timæus, p. 23. Bekker.

Difficile est invenire Conditorem hujus mundi et inventum evulgare nefas. Ciceronianum Lexicon Græcolatinum, ab Hen. Stephano, 1557. Platonis Loci Interp. p. 13.

Eusebius praises Plato for this reverence in speaking of the Deity, as teaching, like the Hebrew scriptures, äßpytov elvai tò betov. Præp. Evangel. lib. xi. c. 12.

In the same book, cap. 29, Eusebius cites the above passage from Plato; and in the Latin translation by Vigerus the word nefas is used. The fact is, nefas is not an improper term; but

ing declared that it is very difficult to discover the Deity, and, when we have discovered him, that it is impossible to reveal him to all men, Cicero has rendered the word, not by impossible, but nefas. Yet upon this interpretation of Cicero's, or rather misconception on the part of Warburton of the proper meaning belonging to nefas in the passage, aided by an unwarrantable extension of a sentiment limited in its application into a general principle, Warburton has attempted to establish an hypothesis which would annihilate at once all that is excellent in Plato's philosophy. There is no author, ancient or modern, who appears to devote himself with greater ardour to the pursuit of truth. It is the continual object of his aspirations. Ánd there are very few occasions in which he allows of its being sacrificed to expediency, and then only for a particular purpose. Thus, in the third book of the Republic, he proposes to banish poets from his

Warburton misunderstood its meaning. Eusebius, Vigeri edit. Paris. 1628.

n Vide the word adúvatov (Timæus, p. 42.) in the passage cited in the Appendix, note A.

• Οὐκ οἶσθα, ἦν δ ̓ ἐγώ, ὅτι τό γε ὡς ἀληθῶς ψεῦδος, εἰ οἷόν τε τοῦτο εἰπεῖν, πάντες θεοί τε καὶ ἄνθρωποι μισοῦσιν ; De Repub. Bekker, p. 103.

Ψεῦδος μηδεὶς μηδὲν μήτε λόγῳ, μήτε ἔργῳ πράξεις. Plato, quoted by Blackwall, Sacred Classics, vol. ii. p. 103. ed. 1731.

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