PREFACE.

this would have been swelled to an unwieldy bulk. I have hoped by means of the translation to show in many cases how I thought the Greek should be taken, without writing a grammatical note; though of course it has been impossible to banish such subjects entirely.

My obligation to Dr. Jackson’s essays on the ideal theory The "Theory of Forms," Plato's central philosophical concept suggesting that abstract ideas are more real than the physical world. will be manifest to any one who reads both those essays and my commentary. I am as fully as ever convinced of the high importance of his contribution to the interpretation of Plato. In his essay on the Timaeus One of Plato's dialogues, primarily concerned with the nature of the physical world and cosmology. indeed there are some statements to which I can by no means assent; but as that paper in its present form does not contain Dr. Jackson’s final expression of opinion, I have not thought it necessary to discuss divergencies of view, which may prove to be very slight, and which do not affect the main thesis for which he is contending.

Lastly I must thank my friend Dr. J. W. L. Glaisher for his kindness in examining my notes on the arithmetical passage at the beginning of chapter VII, and for mathematical information in other respects.