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ON THE SYMPOSIUM,
OR PREFACE TO THE BANQUET OF PLATO.
A Fragment.
The dialogue entitled "The Banquet," was selected
by the translator as the most beautiful and
perfect among all the works of Plato.[1] He
despairs of having communicated to the English language
any portion of the surpassing graces of the
composition, or having done more than present an
imperfect shadow of the language and the sentiment
of this astonishing production.
Plato is eminently the greatest among the Greek philosophers, and from, or, rather, perhaps through him, from his master Socrates, have proceeded those emanations of moral and metaphysical knowledge, on which a long series and an incalculable variety of popular superstitions have sheltered their absurdities
- ↑ The Republic, though replete with considerable errors of speculation, is, indeed, the greatest repository of important truths of all the works of Plato. This, perhaps, is because it is the longest. He first, and perhaps last, maintained that a state ought to be governed, not by the wealthiest, or the most ambitious, or the most cunning, but by the wisest; the method of selecting such rulers, and the laws by which such a selection is made, must correspond with and arise out of the moral freedom and refinement of the people.
