INTRODUCTION.

The Philebus appears to be one of Plato's later works, where the style begins to change, and the dramatic and poetic elements become subordinate to the speculative and philosophical. In the development of abstract thought, great advances have been made since the Protagoras, the Phaedrus, or even the Republic. However, there is a corresponding decrease in artistic skill, a lack of character depth in the speakers, a labored progression in the dialogue, and a degree of confusion and incompleteness in the overall design. As in the speeches of Thucydides, the multiplication of ideas seems to hinder the power of expression. Instead of the graceful, effortless flow of the earlier dialogues, there are two or three highly polished passages (pp. 15, 16, 63); instead of the ever-flowing humor—now appearing, now hidden, but always present—there are inserted many poor jests, as we might venture to call them (17 E, 23 A, 24 B, 29 B, 30 E, 34 D, 43 A, 36 C, 46 B). We may also observe an attempt at artificial ornamentation (43 E, 53 D, E), far-fetched modes of expression (48 D), and other stylistic defects that remind us of the Laws. The connections are often abrupt and disjointed (24 C, etc.), and at 42 D, E, 43 A, 48 A, B, 49, 50, they are far from clear. Many points require further explanation; for example, the reference of pleasure to the "indefinite" class (31 A), compared with the assertion that follows almost immediately, that pleasure and pain naturally reside in the "third" or "mixed" class: these two statements are not reconciled. Similarly, the table of goods does not clearly distinguish between the two categories of "measure" and "symmetry"; and although a hint is given that the divine mind holds the first place (22 C), nothing is said of this in the final summary¹. The relation of the goods to the sciences does not appear; although dialectic may be thought to correspond to the highest good, the sciences

¹ See, however, p. 11 a.