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There is, however, a difference between them: for whereas Hegel

is thinking of all the minds of men as one mind, which developes

the stages of the idea in different countries or at different

times in the same country, with Plato these gradations are

regarded only as an order of thought or ideas; the history of the

human mind had not yet dawned upon him.

Many criticisms may be made on Plato's theory of education. While

in some respects he unavoidably falls short of modern thinkers,

in others he is in advance of them. He is opposed to the modes of

education which prevailed in his own time; but he can hardly be

said to have discovered new ones. He does not see that education

is relative to the characters of individuals; he only desires to

impress the same form of the state on the minds of all. He has no

sufficient idea of the effect of literature on the formation of

the mind, and greatly exaggerates that of mathematics. His aim is

above all things to train the reasoning faculties; to implant in

the mind the spirit and power of abstraction; to explain and

define general notions, and, if possible, to connect them.