صفحة 566 من 1391

He has long given up the notion that virtue cannot be taught; and

he is disposed to modify the thesis of the Protagoras, that the

virtues are one and not many. He is not unwilling to admit the

sensible world into his scheme of truth. Nor does he assert in

the Republic the involuntariness of vice, which is maintained by

him in the Timaeus, Sophist, and Laws (Protag., Apol., Gorg.).

Nor do the so-called Platonic ideas recovered from a former state

of existence affect his theory of mental improvement. Still we

observe in him the remains of the old Socratic doctrine, that

true knowledge must be elicited from within, and is to be sought

for in ideas, not in particulars of sense. Education, as he says,

will implant a principle of intelligence which is better than ten

thousand eyes.