mprehension of a child; but
thousands of volumes have not yet explained the Platonisms engrafted on
them: and for this obvious reason, that nonsense can never be explained.
Their purposes, however, are answered. Plato is canonized: and it is
now deemed as impious to question his merits as those of an Apostle of
Jesus. He is peculiarly appealed to as an advocate of the immortality
of the soul; and yet I will venture to say, that were there no better
arguments than his in proof of it, not a man in the world would believe
it. It is fortunate for us, that Platonic republicanism has not obtained
the same favor as Platonic Christianity; or we should now have been all
living, men, women, and children, pell-mell together, like the beasts
of the field or forest. Yet 'Plato is a great philosopher,' said La
Fontaine. But, says Fontenelle, 'Do you find his ideas very clear.' 'Oh,
no! he is of an obscurity impenetrable.' 'Do you not find him full
of contradictions?' 'Certainly,' replied La Fontaine, 'he is but a
sophist.' Yet immediately after, he exclaims again, 'Oh, Plato was a
great philosopher.' Socrates had reason, indeed, to complain of the
misrepresentations of Plato; for, in truth, his dialogues are libels on
Socrates.

But why am I dosing you with these antediluvian topics? Because I
am glad to have some one to whom they are familiar, and who will not
receive them as if dropped from the moon. Our post-revolutionary youth
are born under happier stars than you and I were. They acquire all
learning in their mother's womb, and bring it into the world ready made.
The information of books is no longer necessary; and all knowledge which
is not innate is in contempt, or neglect at least. Every folly must
run its round; and so, I suppose, must that of self-learning and
self-sufficiency; of rejecting the knowledge acquired in past ages, and
starting on the new ground of intuition. When sobered by experience,
I hope our successors will turn their attention to the advantages of
education. I mean of education on the broad scale, and not that of the
petty academies, as they call themselves, which are starting up in every
neighborhood, and where one or two men, possessing Latin, and sometimes
Greek, a knowledge of the globes, and the first six books of Euclid,
imagine and communicate this as the sum of science. They commit their
pupils to the theatre of the world, with just taste enough of learning
to be alienated from industrious pursuit