or two Negatives. There remain then for each form ten combinations. Moreover out of these, as well in the first as second form, two possess no power, when an Universal Affirmative is placed before a Particular one. Similarly in both the first and second form two may be cut out, in which a Particular Negative precedes either of the Universals. From whence it arises that there remain of the first form six combinations, in nine modes; (and) still eight for the two remaining forms; of which there is one, that is proved in neither of them, when an Universal Negative precedes a Particular Affirmative. Of those seven, which remain, there are four in the second form peculiar (and) false, when an Universal Affirmative is united either to itself or to its Particular in any place, or when the other precedes. In like manner two in the third form are peculiar (and) possess no power, when either of the Negatives precedes an Universal Affirmative; but the remaining three in the second form, and five in the third, we have shown to be determinate, when we reduced them to six combinations of the first form. Hence out of forty-eight combinations fourteen alone are proved. The remaining thirty-four, which I have reckoned up, are rejected, because they are able to exhibit false conclusions from true premises; of which it is easy for any one to make a trial by means of the five significations mentioned above, of kind, peculiarity, &c. But of those fourteen, which we have proved, the inferences themselves show that there are not more modes than have been stated above, so that they may be received as well directly as inversely, as far as the very truth permits; and on that account their number cannot be increased. SOME ACCOUNT OF THE DIALOGUES AND OF THE EPISTLES OF PLATO. BY THOMAS GRAY. ADVERTISEMENT. THE edition of Plato to which the following remarks are constantly referred, is that printed by Henry Stephens in 1578, in three volumes folio. But almost every other edition may be used with equal convenience, as the pagination of Stephens is given in the margin. PREFACE BY MATTHIAS. BEFORE the reader enters on the perusal of this section, it is proper that he should be informed of what he is to expect. When the editor first heard that the works of Plato had been the subject of Mr. Gray's serious and critical attention, and that he had illustrated them by an analysis and by ample annotations, his curiosity was raised to no ordinary height. When the names of Plato and of Gray, of the philosopher and of the poet, were thus united, it was difficult to set bounds to his, or indeed to any, expectation. But when the volume, containing these important remarks, was first delivered into his hands, his sensation at the time reminded him of that which was experienced by an eminent scholar, at his discovery of the darker and more sublime hymns which antiquity has ascribed to Orpheus. His words on that occasion are as pleasing and as interesting as the enthusiasm was noble which inspired them: In abyssum quendam mysteriorum descendere videbar, quum silente mundo, solis vigilantibus astris et lunâ, ueλavýparove istos hymnos in manus sumpsi." Many a learned man will acknowledge, as his own, the feelings of this animated scholar. It might, indeed, be conceived that, from the intense contemplation on the subjects offered to him by Plato, so full of dignity and so pregnant with the materials of thought, Mr. Gray might have indulged himself in a continuation of the discussions, by expanding still wider the exalted and diversified ideas of his sublime original. He had a spirit equal and adapted to such an exertion, and congenial with that of the philosopher; but it seems as if he had, on purpose, restrained his own powers and tempered their ardour. What he chiefly sought and aimed at, and what he indeed effected, was to exhibit the sobriety of truth, the importance of the doctrines, and the great practical effects of true philosophy on life, on manners, and on policy; Ψυχῆς ὄμμα φαεινόν ὑπέρ βιότοιο τιταίνων. He never for a moment deviated from his original; as he was desirous only to lay before himself and his reader the sum and substance of the 1 See the Preface of Eschenbach to the Argonautics, the Hymns, &c. of Orpheus, edit. 1689. dialogues as they are, when divested of the peculiar attractions which so powerfully recommend these conversations on the banks of the Ilyssus. As a scholar, and as a reflecting man, he sat down to give an account to himself of what he had read and studied; and he gave it in words of his own, without addition, without amplification, and without the admixture of any ideas with those of Plato. He made large and valuable remarks and annotations, drawn from the stores of his own unbounded erudition, with a felicity and an elegance which never lost sight of utility and of solid information, without the display of reading, or the encumbrance of pedantic research. He never pretended to have consulted manuscripts, but, whenever he thought that an alteration of the text was necessary, or when a passage appeared to him to be obscure or corrupted, he proposed his own conjectural emendation. Yet it is pleasing to know, that Mr. Gray neither despised nor depreciated the advantages which may be derived from minuter and more subtle verbal criticism, and from the rectifying, or from the restoration, of the text of any author by that steady light which shone full on Bentley, and which, in after times, descended upon Porson. What he proposed to himself, that he effected; and through the whole of these writings there is such a perspicuity of expression, an eloquence so temperate, a philosophic energy so calm and unaffected, and the train of the specific arguments in each composition is presented so entire and unbroken, that his spirit may be said to shine through them; and, in this point of view, the words of Alcinous to Ulysses have a peculiar force, when applied to Mr. Gray; Σοὶ ἔνι μὲν μορφὴ ἐπέων, ἔνι δὲ φρένες ἐσθλαί, His illustrations from antiquity, and from history, are as accurate as they are various and extensive. When, for instance, we peruse many of his notes drawn from those sources, we have often, as it were, the memoirs of the time and the politics of Syracuse; and scarcely could a modern writer feel himself more at home in the reign of Charles the Second, than Mr. Gray in the court of Dionysius. Or, if we turn to subjects of a different nature, where shall we find a nobler specimen of judicious analysis, and of manly, eloquent, interesting, and animated composition, than in his account of the Protagoras? But it would be useless, or invidious, to specify particulars where all is excellent. It is a proud consideration for Englishmen, that Mr. Gray composed all his remarks in his own native tongue, and with words of power unsphered the spirit of Plato. In an age like this, it would be superfluous to speak of the merits and the character of the great philosopher, who has found such a commentator. We all know, that when Cicero looked for the master and for the example of eloquence and of finished composition, he found that master and that example in Plato; and all succeeding times have confirmed his judg ment. Plato has certainly ever been, and ever will be, the favourite philosopher of great orators and of great poets. He was himself familiar with the father of all poetry. The language of Plato, his spirit, his animated 1 Odyss. xi. 366. |