Platonis discipuli theologiam tractarunt, e quibus præ cœteris Plutarchus magistri divini vestigia secutus est. This, indeed, is the orthodox tendency in the appreciation of Plutarch, and it has been carried to the extent of claiming Plutarch as the founder of that special kind of Platonism distinguished by the epithet "New." "Plutarch," says Archbishop Trench, "was a Platonist with an oriental tinge, and thus a forerunner of the New Platonists."—"He might be described with greater truth than Ammonius as the Founder of Neo-Platonism," wrote Dr. H. W. J. Thiersch, who, however, had not freed himself from the idea (the truth of which even so early a writer as Dacier had doubted, and the legendary character of which M. Gréard has proved beyond a doubt) that Plutarch received consular honours at the hands of Trajan.[1]—"In this essay" (the De Oraculorum Defectu), thinks Mr. W. J. Brodribb, "Plutarch largely uses the Neo-Platonic Philosophy."[2] Even those who do not insist that Plutarch is a Neo-Platonist, or a "forerunner" of Neo-Platonism, are so anxious to label him with some designation, that they will hardly allow him to speak for himself. It may, perhaps, argue presumption on the part of an homo incognitus nulliusque auctoritatis to suggest that Plutarch faces the teaching of his predecessors with an
- ↑ Politik und Philosophie in ihrem Verhältniss, &c., by H. W. J. Thiersch (Marburg, 1853).—Damals stand Plutarch, dem bereits Trajan consularische Ehren bewilligt hatte, auf der höchsten Stufe des Ansehens. (For M. Gréard's destruction of this Legend see his first chapter.—Légende de Plutarque.)
- ↑ The Essays of Plutarch, by W. J. Brodribb. Fortnightly Review, vol. 20, p. 629.
