Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

THE GREEK PHILOSOPHY.425of teaching in impressing upon his school so stronga character that it is recognised without essential84change during hundreds of years.We should do injustice to the character anthe work of Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, and Epicurus,the founders of the four great schools of Greekphilosophy, if we did not take into account whatwas in their day no doubt of greater influencethan their writings, that is, their function asteachers, their oral teaching itself, and thosefundamental principles of philosophic educationwhich lay at the bottom of it. Plato has left usvery little of doctrine put out in his own name.He is not a speaker in his dialogues. He putswhat he would say in the mouth of others, especiallyof Socrates. He tells us that he has purposelydone this in order that men F might not say, here isPlato's philosophy:85 and the reason of this wasthat he utterly distrusted his own or any man'spower to disclose to others such a system in a setform of words. It is, then, the more remarkable84 Zeller, vol. iii. part 1, p. 343.85 Ep. vii. p. 841. ovfcow ejiioi/ 76 Trepl avrwv ecm avyypaufta, oi>8e /x?j Trorey^rjrar farov yap ov8a/j.w$ effrly d>s ^AAa ^a^TjjUara, aAA' e/c TroAA?}^ vvvovcriasyiyvonevrjs""ncpl"rbj_irpay/jLavrb_Kal^rov av^rjv e|ai^^y, olov airb irvpbs TTTjS?]-ffawros e|a^>0ev ^>a»s, ev TT? ^/yxj? 'ytvoptvov avrb tavrbmm e to the same effect ; after which he says, $>v «/¬Ka vo\>v ex&>*> outt TTorels avro r*0&ai TCC vevoTjftfra, Kal TaGra els a/ier Q.K[VT\TQV, &ei ra yeypofj^^ya TVTTOIS. So again in his second letter, p. 314. ?roA-\aKis 5e \¬y6fj.eva Kal ael aKov6/j.¬i/a /cat TroAAairpay par etas. . . . /x¬t(TT7] Se