revered authors to accept the test of plain common sense. As a finished or deliberate opinion, it ought not to be read; for it was not intended as such, but as a first impression hastily sketched. But read it as a illustration of the method in which her mind worked, and you will see that she meets the great Plato modestly, but boldly, on human ground, asking him for satisfactory proof of all that he says, and treating him as a human being, speaking to human beings.
‘June 3, 1833.—I part with Plato with regret. I
could have wished to “enchant myself,” as Socrates
would say, with him some days longer. Eutyphron is
excellent. ’Tis the best specimen I have ever seen of
that mode of convincing. There is one passage in
which Socrates, as if it were aside, — since the remark
is quite away from the consciousness of Eutyphron, —
declares, “qu'il aimerait incomparablement mieux des
principes fixes et inébranlables à l'habilité de Dédale
avec les tresors de Tantale.” I delight to hear such
things from those whose lives have given the right to
say them. For ’tis not always true what Lessing says,
and I, myself, once thought, —
“F. — Von was für Tugenden spricht er denn?
Minna. — Er spricht von keiner; denn ihn fehlt keine.”
For the month sometimes talketh virtue from the overflowing of the heart, as well as love, anger, &c.
‘“Crito” I have read only once, but like it. I have
not got it in my heart though, so clearly as the others.
‘The “Apology” I deem only remarkable for the
