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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1844 Excerpt:... to circumstances which occurred fourteen years after the death of that philosopher. Probably the true state of the case was well known to Plato's contemporaries, and these anachronisms gave them no concern, because they knew that the names of the interlocutors were only used as a vehicle for conveying the philosophy of the Academy. It would not have been needful to say thus much, had not the notion been very general that we were to look for the doctrines of Socrates in the writings of Plato. A very elegant French translation, lately published by M. Cousin, places these most delightful writings within the reach even of those who cannot read the original. Prodicus is said to have been put to death in the game manner as Socrates. V. Suidas. Even the doctrines of Plato himself are not always to be found clearly set forth in his writings, for he seems to have had less of physical courage than his great master, and he has been at considerable pains in those writings which were to be made public, to veil his own opinions under the name of one or other of his interlocutors; and where he is himself the speaker, as in his " Laws," he is exceedingly cautious when he begins to speak on the matter of religion; requiring the festivals of the Gods to be duly observed, although in his " Euthyphron" under the name of Socrates, he had derided the superstitions of the age without mercy. The disguise was but a flimsy one, nevertheless, and he probably owed his safety more to the crest-fallen state of the democratic power, than to his own caution; since a public informer on one occasion is said to have hinted to him that there was still some of Socrates' hemlock left in the cup. Diog. Laert. lib. iii. § 24. The ridicule cast upon Plato by the comic poe...