GENERAL INTRODUCTION powers of ginative sympathy and eloquence are summoned to unveil the sacred vision of absolute beauty. The Phaedo turns the logical theory upon the soul, which is seen to enjoy, when freed from the body familiar cognition of the eternal types of being. Here Orphic dogma lends its aid to the Socratic search for knowledge, while we behold an inspiring picture of the philosopher in his hour of death With increasing confidence in himself as the successor of Socrates, Plato next undertook, in the Republic, to show the master meeting his own un- satisfied queries on education and politics. We read ow of a"form"of good to which all thought and action aspire, and which, contemplated in itself, will explain not merely why justice is better than injus tice,but the meaning and aim of everything. In order that man may be fully understood, we are to view him "f writ large"in the organisation of an ideal state. The scheme of description opens out into many subsidiary topics, including three great proposals already known to Greece,the abolition of private property, the community of women and hildren, and the civic equality of the sexes. But the central subject is the preparation of the philo sopher, through a series of ancillary sciences, for dia- lectic; so that, once possessed of the supreme truth, he may have light for directing his fellow-men. As in the Phaedo, the spell of mythical revelation is brought to enhance the discourse of reason. The Digitized by Microsoft⑥GENERAL INTRODUCTION powers of imaginative sympathy and eloquence are summoned to unveil the sacred vision of absolute beauty. The Phaedo turns the logical theory upon the soul, which is seen to enjoy, when freed from the body, familiar cognition of the eternal types of being. Here Orphic dogma lends its aid to the Socratic search for knowledge, while we behold an inspiring picture of the philosopher in his hour of death. With increasing confidence in himself as the successor of Socrates, Plato next undertook, in the Republic, to show the master meeting his own un￾satisfied queries on education and politics. We read now of a " form " of good to which all thought and action aspire, and which, contemplated in itself, will explain not merely why justice is better than injus￾tice, but the meaning and aim of everything. In order that man may be fully understood, we are to view him " writ large " in the organisation of an ideal state. The scheme of description opens out into many subsidiary topics, including three great proposals already known to Greece, the abolition of private property, the community of women and children, and the civic equality of the sexes. But the central subject is the preparation of the philo￾sopher, through a series of ancillary sciences, for dia￾lectic ; so that, once possessed of the supreme truth, he may have light for directing his fellow-men. As in the Phaedo, the spell of mythical revelation is brought to enhance the discourse of reason. The xv