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He refuses to answer, as if intending by the refusal to intimate

that the state of knowledge which then existed was not such as

would allow the philosopher to enter into his final rest. The

previous sciences must first be studied, and will, we may add,

continue to be studied till the end of time, although in a sense

different from any which Plato could have conceived. But we may

observe, that while he is aware of the vacancy of his own ideal,

he is full of enthusiasm in the contemplation of it. Looking into

the orb of light, he sees nothing, but he is warmed and elevated.

The Hebrew prophet believed that faith in God would enable him to

govern the world; the Greek philosopher imagined that

contemplation of the good would make a legislator. There is as

much to be filled up in the one case as in the other, and the one

mode of conception is to the Israelite what the other is to the

Greek.