ll probably remark that I have endeavoured to approach Plato from a
point of view which is opposed to his own. The aim of the Introductions
in these volumes has been to represent Plato as the father of Idealism,
who is not to be measured by the standard of utilitarianism or any
other modern philosophical system. He is the poet or maker of ideas,
satisfying the wants of his own age, providing the instruments
of thought for future generations. He is no dreamer, but a great
philosophical genius struggling with the unequal conditions of light
and knowledge under which he is living. He may be illustrated by the
writings of moderns, but he must be interpreted by his own, and by his
place in the history of philosophy. We are not concerned to determine
what is the residuum of truth which remains for ourselves. His truth may
not be our truth, and nevertheless may have an extraordinary value and
interest for us.

I cannot agree with Mr. Grote in admitting as genuine all the
writings commonly attributed to Plato in antiquity, any more than with
Schaarschmidt and some other German critics who reject nearly half of
them. The German critics, to whom I refer, proceed chiefly on grounds
of internal evidence; they appear to me to lay too much stress on the
variety of doctrine and style, which must be equally acknowledged as a
fact, even in the Dialogues regarded by Schaarschmidt as genuine, e.g.
in the Phaedrus, or Symposium, when compared with the Laws. He
who admits works so different in style and matter to have been the
composition of the same author, need have no difficulty in admitting
the Sophist or the Politicus. (The negative argument adduced by the same
school of critics, which is based on the silence of Aristotle, is not
worthy of much consideration. For why should Aristotle, because he has
quoted several Dialogues of Plato, have quoted them all? Something must
be allowed to chance, and to the nature of the subjects treated of in
them.) On the other hand, Mr. Grote trusts mainly to the Alexandrian
Canon. But I hardly think that we are justified in attributing much
weight to the authority of the Alexandrian librarians in an age when
there was no regular publication of books, and every temptation to forge
them; and in which the writings of a school were naturally attributed to
the founder of the school. And even without intentional fraud, there was
an inclination to believe rather than to enquire. Would Mr. Grote accept
as genui