INTRODUCTIONS, &c. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. THE Greek Editions of the works of Plato generally prefix to them the biography of the Author from the well-known collection of Diogenes. But only the most indiscriminating attachment to an old custom could honour so crude a compilation, put together as it is without any judgment, with a translation. And Tennemann, in the life of Plato prefixed to his system of the Platonic philosophy, has already subjected to a sifting process this and the other old biographies of Plato, compared with what is found scantily dispersed in other sources. As, then, since that time neither materially deeper investigations have been published, nor new facts discovered, affording any well-grounded hope of leaving far behind them, in their application, the labour already bestowed upon this subject, it is best to refer such readers as wish to be instructed upon that point, to what they will there find. And there is the less need for anything further, as no one who would be a worthy reader of Plato can entertain the notion of wishing to strike out a light upon the sentiments of the philosopher, which might illuminate his works, from multifariously A told and deformed trifles, or epigrammatic answers, even were they of undoubted authenticity—especially as, in the case of such an Author, the intelligent reader undertakes to learn the sentiments from the works themselves. And as regards the more important circumstances of his life, those more accurate relations, from a knowledge of which, probably, a more thorough understanding of many details in his writings might be developed, seem to be for ever so far withdrawn without the range of modern investigation, that any supposition which one might feel inclined to contribute upon these subjects, would be made at a venture; and very often in his writings we can point out, in the most decisive manner, where an allusion exists to some personal relation, without however being able to guess what it is. Nay, even with regard to the more well-known circumstances of his life, his remarkable travels for instance, so little that is definite can be with certainty made out, that no particular use can be made of them for the chronology and arrangement of his writings, and the most we can do is, here and there to guess, with a degree of probability, at the place where the former interrupt the series of the latter. Such par ticular conjectures, therefore, will be brought forward to more advantage in those places immediately in which they may perhaps spread some light around them. It would certainly be more to the purpose, provided it were possible within the prescribed limits, to adduce something relative to the scientific condition of the Hellenes at the time when Plato entered upon his career, to the advances of language in reference to the expression of philosophical thoughts, to the works of this class at that time in existence, and the probable extent of their circulation. For upon these points there is not only |