GENERAL INTRODUCTION.

its preeminence to all other philosophies; to show that where they oppose it they are erroneous; that so far as they contain any thing scientific they are allied to it; and that at best they are but rivulets derived from this vast ocean of truth.

To evince to prove or demonstrate clearly that the philosophy of Plato possesses this preeminence; that its dignity and sublimity are unrivalled; that it is the parent of all that ennobles man; and that it is founded on principles, which neither time can obliterate, nor sophistry subvert, is the principal design of this Introduction.

To effect this design, I shall in the first place present the reader with the outlines of the principal dogmas here meaning "established doctrines" or core principles of a school of thought of Plato’s philosophy. The undertaking is indeed no less novel than arduous, since the author of it has to tread in paths which have been untrodden for upwards of a thousand years, and to bring to light truths which for that extended period have been concealed in Greek. Let not the reader, therefore, be surprised at the solitariness of the paths through which I shall attempt to conduct him, or at the novelty of the objects which will present themselves in the journey: for perhaps he may fortunately recollect that he has travelled the same road before, that the scenes were once familiar to him, and that the country through which he is passing is his native land a reference to the Platonic idea that the soul "remembers" divine truths from its original home before birth. At least, if his sight should be dim, and his memory oblivious, (for the objects which he will meet with can only be seen by the most piercing eyes,) and his absence from them has been lamentably long, let him implore the power of wisdom,

From mortal mists to purify his eyes,

That God and man he may distinctly see¹.

¹ I have taken from your eyes the mist that was upon them before, that you may clearly distinguish both God and man. original Greek: "Αχλὺν δ᾿ αυ τοι απ᾿ οφθαλμων ελον, η πρὶν επηεν, Οφρ᾿ ευ γινώσκῃς ημεν Θεον, ηδὲ καὶ ανδρα."