the same, but akin to these, which has a
place in the home and heart of every believer in the religion of Christ,
and in which men seem to find a nearer and more familiar truth,
the Divine man, the Son of Man, the Saviour of mankind, Who is the
first-born and head of the whole family in heaven and earth, in Whom
the Divine and human, that which is without and that which is within the
range of our earthly faculties, are indissolubly united. Neither is this
divine form of goodness wholly separable from the ideal of the Christian
Church, which is said in the New Testament to be 'His body,' or at
variance with those other images of good which Plato sets before us. We
see Him in a figure only, and of figures of speech we select but a few,
and those the simplest, to be the expression of Him. We behold Him in
a picture, but He is not there. We gather up the fragments of His
discourses, but neither do they represent Him as He truly was. His
dwelling is neither in heaven nor earth, but in the heart of man.
This is that image which Plato saw dimly in the distance, which, when
existing among men, he called, in the language of Homer, 'the likeness
of God,' the likeness of a nature which in all ages men have felt to be
greater and better than themselves, and which in endless forms, whether
derived from Scripture or nature, from the witness of history or from
the human heart, regarded as a person or not as a person, with or
without parts or passions, existing in space or not in space, is and
will always continue to be to mankind the Idea of Good.

THE REPUBLIC.

PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE.

Socrates, who is the narrator.

Glaucon.

Adeimantus.

Polemarchus.

Cephalus.

Thrasymachus.

Cleitophon.

And others who are mute auditors.

The scene is laid in the house of Cephalus at the Piraeus; and the whole
dialogue is narrated by Socrates the day after it actually took place to
Timaeus, Hermocrates, Critias, and a nameless person, who are introduced
in the Timaeus.

BOOK I.

I went down yesterday to the Piraeus with Glaucon the son of Ariston,
that I might offer up my prayers to the goddess (Bendis, the Thracian
Artemis.); and also because I wanted to see in what manner they would
celebrate the festival, which was a new thing. I was delighted with the
procession of the inhabitants; but that of the Thracians was equally,
if not more, beautiful. When we had finished our prayers and viewed the
spectacle,