owledge, and in
this he seeks to attain only probable conclusions (Timaeus).

If we ask whether this science of dialectic which Plato only half
explains to us is more akin to logic or to metaphysics, the answer is
that in his mind the two sciences are not as yet distinguished, any more
than the subjective and objective aspects of the world and of man, which
German philosophy has revealed to us. Nor has he determined whether
his science of dialectic is at rest or in motion, concerned with the
contemplation of absolute being, or with a process of development
and evolution. Modern metaphysics may be described as the science of
abstractions, or as the science of the evolution of thought; modern
logic, when passing beyond the bounds of mere Aristotelian forms, may be
defined as the science of method. The germ of both of them is contained
in the Platonic dialectic; all metaphysicians have something in common
with the ideas of Plato; all logicians have derived something from
the method of Plato. The nearest approach in modern philosophy to the
universal science of Plato, is to be found in the Hegelian 'succession
of moments in the unity of the idea.' Plato and Hegel alike seem to
have conceived the world as the correlation of abstractions; and not
impossibly they would have understood one another better than any of
their commentators understand them (Swift's Voyage to Laputa. 'Having
a desire to see those ancients who were most renowned for wit and
learning, I set apart one day on purpose. I proposed that Homer and
Aristotle might appear at the head of all their commentators; but these
were so numerous that some hundreds were forced to attend in the court
and outward rooms of the palace. I knew, and could distinguish these two
heroes, at first sight, not only from the crowd, but from each other.
Homer was the taller and comelier person of the two, walked very erect
for one of his age, and his eyes were the most quick and piercing I ever
beheld. Aristotle stooped much, and made use of a staff. His visage was
meagre, his hair lank and thin, and his voice hollow. I soon discovered
that both of them were perfect strangers to the rest of the company,
and had never seen or heard of them before. And I had a whisper from a
ghost, who shall be nameless, "That these commentators always kept in
the most distant quarters from their principals, in the lower world,
through a consciousness of shame and guilt, because they had so horribly
mis