Christianity and Greek Philosophy Part 35

2d. _Beneath all mental phenomena there is a permanent subject or substratum which he designates_ THE IDENTICAL (t? a?t?)--_the rational element of the soul--"the principle of self-activity" or self-determination_.[605]

There are three principles into which Plato a.n.a.lyzes the soul--the principle of the _Identical_, the _Diverse_, and the _Intermediate Essence_.[606] The first is indivisible and eternal, always existing in _sameness_, the very substance of _Intelligence_ itself, and of the same nature with the Divine.[607] The second is divisible and corporeal, answering to our notion of the pa.s.sive _sensibilities_, and placing the soul in relation with the visible world. The third is an intermediate essence, partaking of the natures of both, and const.i.tuting a medium between the eternal and the mutable--the conscious _energy_ of the soul developed in the contingent world of time. Thus the soul is, on one side, linked to the unchangeable and the eternal, being formed of that ineffable element which const.i.tutes the _real_ or _immutable Being_, and on the other side, linked to the sensible and the contingent, being formed of that element which is purely _relative_ and _contingent_. This last element of the soul is regarded by Plato as "mortal" and "corruptible," the former element as "immortal" and "indestructible,"

having its foundations laid in eternity.

[Footnote 605: "Laws," bk. x. ch. vi. and vii.; "Phaedrus," -- 51; "????

????se??."]

[Footnote 606: "Timaeus," ch. xii.; ta?t??, ??te???, and ??s?a or t?

s??s??e???.]

[Footnote 607: "Laws," bk. v. ch. i.]

This doctrine of the eternity of the free and rational element of the soul must, of course, appear strange and even repulsive to those who are unacquainted with the Platonic notion of eternity as a fixed state out of time, which has no past, present, or future, and is simply that which "always _is_"--an everlasting _now_. The soul, in its elements of rationality and freedom, has existed anterior to time, because it now exists in eternity.[608] In its actual manifestations and personal history it is to be contemplated as a "generated being," having a commencement in time.

Now, that the human soul, like the uncreated Deity, has always had a distinct, conscious, personal, independent being, does not appear to be the doctrine of Plato. He teaches, most distinctly, that the "divine,"

the immortal part, was created, or rather "generated," in eternity. "The Deity himself _formed the divine_, and he delivered over to his celestial offspring [the subordinate and generated G.o.ds] the task of _forming the mortal_. These subordinate deities, copying the example of their parent, and receiving from his hands the _immortal principle_ of the human soul, fashioned subsequently to this the mortal body, which they consigned to the soul as a vehicle, and in which they placed another kind of soul, mortal, the seat of violent and fatal affections."[609] He also regarded the soul as having a derived and dependent existence. He draws a marked distinction between the divine and human forms of the "self-moving principle," and makes its continuance dependent upon the will and wisdom of the Almighty Disposer and Parent, of whom it is "the first-born offspring."[610]

[Footnote 608: See _ante_, note 4, p. 349, as to the Platonic notions of "Time" and "Eternity."]

[Footnote 609: "Timaeus," ch. xliv.]

[Footnote 610: See the elaborate exposition in "Laws," bk. x. ch. xii.

and xiii.]

That portion of the soul which Plato regarded as "immortal" and "to be ent.i.tled divine," is thus the "_offspring of G.o.d_"--a ray of the Divinity "generated" by, or emanating from, the Deity. He seems to have conceived it as co-eternal with its ideal objects, in some mysterious ultimate _unity_. "The true foundation of the Platonic theory of the const.i.tution of the soul is this fundamental principle of his philosophy--the _oneness of truth and knowledge_.[611] This led him naturally to derive the _rational_ element of the soul (that element that _knows_), that possesses the power of ???s?? from the _real_ element in things (the element that _is_)--the ????e???; and in the original, the final, and, though imperfectly, the present state of that rational element, he, doubtless, conceived it united with its object in an eternal conjunction, or even ident.i.ty. But though intelligence and its correlative intelligibles were and are thus combined, the soul is _more_ than pure intelligence; it possesses an element of personality and consciousness distinct to each individual, of which we have no reason to suppose, from any thing his writings contain, Plato ever meant to deprive it."[612] On the contrary, he not only regarded it as having now, under temporal conditions, a distinct personal existence, but he also claimed for it a conscious, personal existence after death. He is most earnest, and unequivocal, and consistent in his a.s.sertion of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. The arguments which human reason can supply are exhibited with peculiar force and beauty in the "Phaedo," the "Phaedrus," and the tenth book of the "Republic." The most important of these arguments may be presented in a few words.

[Footnote 611: See Grant's "Aristotle," vol. i. pp. 150, 151.]

[Footnote 612: Butler's "Lectures on Ancient Philosophy," vol. ii. p.

209, note.]

1. _The soul is immortal, because it is incorporeal_. There are two kinds of existences, one compounded, the other simple; the former subject to change, the latter unchangeable; one perceptible to sense, the other comprehended by mind alone. The one is visible, the other is invisible. When the soul employs the bodily senses, it wanders and is confused; but when it abstracts itself from the body, it attains to knowledge which is stable, unchangeable, and immortal. The soul, therefore, being uncompounded, incorporeal, invisible, must be indissoluble--that is to say, immortal.[613]

[Footnote 613: "Phaedo," ---- 61-75.]

2. _The soul is immortal, because it has an independent power of self-motion_--that is, it has self-activity and self-determination. No arrangement of matter, no configuration of body, can be conceived as the originator of free and voluntary movement.

Now that which can not move itself, but derives its motion from something else, may cease to move, and perish. "But that which is self-moved, never ceases to be active, and is also the cause of motion to all other things that are moved." And "whatever is continually active is immortal." This "self-activity is," says Plato, "the very essence and true notion of the soul."[614] Being thus essentially _causative_, it therefore partakes of the nature of a "principle," and it is the nature of a principle to exclude its _contrary_. That which is essentially self-active can never cease to be active; that which is the cause of motion and of change, can not be extinguished by the change called death.[615]

3. _The soul is immortal, because it possesses universal, necessary, and absolute ideas_, which transcend all material conditions, and bespeak an origin immeasurably above the body. No modifications of matter, however refined, however elaborated, can give the Absolute, the Necessary, the Eternal. But the soul has the ideas of absolute beauty, goodness, perfection, ident.i.ty, and duration, and it possesses these ideas in virtue of its having a nature which is one, simple, identical, and in some sense, eternal.[616] If the soul can conceive an immortality, it can not be less than immortal. If, by its very nature, "it has hopes that will not be bounded by the grave, and desires and longings that grasp eternity," its nature and its destiny must correspond.

In the concluding sections of the "Phaedo" he urges the doctrine with earnestness and feeling as the grand motive to a virtuous life, for "the reward is n.o.ble and the hope is great."[617] And in the "Laws" he insists upon the doctrine of a future state, in which men are to be rewarded or punished as the most conclusive evidence that we are under the moral government of G.o.d.[618]

[Footnote 614: "Phaedrus," ---- 51-53.]

[Footnote 615: "Phaedo," ---- 112-128.]

[Footnote 616: Ibid., ---- 48-57, 110-115.]

[Footnote 617: Ibid., ---- 129-145.]

[Footnote 618: The doctrine of Metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls, can scarcely be regarded as part of the philosophic system of Plato. He seems to have accepted it as a venerable tradition, coming within the range of probability, rather than as a philosophic truth, and it is always presented by him in a highly mythical dress. Now of these mythical representations he remarks in the "Phaedo" (-- 145) that "no man in his senses would dream of insisting _that they correspond to the reality_, but that, the soul having been shown to be immortal, this, or something like this, is true of individual souls or their habitations."

If, as in the opinions of the ablest critics, "the Laws" is to be placed amongst the last and maturest of Plato's writings, the evidence is conclusive that whatever may have been his earlier opinions, he did not entertain the doctrine of "Metempsychosis" in his riper years. But when, on the one hand, the soul shall remain having an intercourse with divine virtue, it becomes divine pre-eminently; and pre-eminently, after having been conveyed to a _place_ entirely holy, it is changed for the better; but when it acts in a contrary manner, it has, under contrary circ.u.mstances, placed its existence in some _unholy spot_.

_This is the judgment of the G.o.ds, who hold Olympus._

"O thou young man," [know] "that the person who has become more wicked, _departs to the more wicked souls;_ but he who has become better, to the better both in life and in all deaths, to do and suffer what is fitting for the like."--"Laws," bk. x. ch. xii. and xiii.]

4. _Beyond all finite existences and secondary causes, all laws, ideas, and principles, there is an_ INTELLIGENCE _or_ MIND, _the First Principle of all Principles, the Supreme Idea on which all other ideas are grounded; the Monarch and Lawgiver of the universe, the ultimate Substance from which all other things derive their being and essence, the First and efficient Cause of all the order, and harmony, and beauty, and excellency, and goodness, which pervades the universe, who is called by way of pre-eminence and excellence the Supreme Good_, THE G.o.d (?

?e??), "_the G.o.d over all_," (? ?p? p?s? ?e??).

_This_ SUPREME MIND,[619] Plato taught, is incorporeal,[620]

unchangeable,[621] infinite,[622] absolutely perfect,[623] essentially good,[624] unoriginated,[625] and eternal.[626] He is "the Father, and Architect, and Maker of the Universe,"[627] "the efficient Cause of all things."[628] "the Monarch and Ruler of the world,"[629] "the sovereign Mind that orders all things, and pervades all things,"[630] "the sole Principle of all things,"[631] and "the Measure of all things,"[632] He is "the Beginning of all truth,"[633] "the Fountain of all law and justice,"[634] "the Source of all order and beauty,"[635] "the Cause of all good;"[636] in short, "he is the Beginning, the Middle, and End of all things."[637]

[Footnote 619: "Phaedo," ---- 105-107.]

[Footnote 620: Diogenes Laertius, "Lives," bk. iii. ch. 77.]

[Footnote 621: "Republic," bk. ii. ch. xix.; "Timaeus," ch. ix.]

[Footnote 622: "Apeleius," bk. i. ch. v.]

[Footnote 623: "Republic," bk. ii. ch. xx.]

[Footnote 624: "Timaeus," ch. x.; "Republic," bk. ii. ch. xviii.]

[Footnote 625: "Timaeus," ch. ix.-x.]

[Footnote 626: Ibid., ch. xii.]

[Footnote 627: Ibid., ch. ix.]

[Footnote 628: "Phaedo," -- 105.]

[Footnote 629: "Laws," bk. x. ch. xii.; "Republic," bk. vii. ch. iii.; "Philebus," -- 50.]

[Footnote 630: "Philebus," --51.]

[Footnote 631: "Republic," bk. vi. ch. xix.]

[Footnote 632: "Laws," bk. iv. ch. viii.]

[Footnote 633: "Republic," bk. ii. ch. xxi.]

[Footnote 634: "Laws," bk. iv. ch. vii.]

[Footnote 635: "Philebus," -- 51; "Timaeus," ch. x.]

[Footnote 636: "Republic," bk. ii. ch. xviii.; "Timaeus," ch. x.]