is nearly as much to be said on the one side of the question as on the
other, and that we are not perfectly certain, whether, as Bockh and the
majority of commentators, ancient as well as modern, are inclined to
believe, Plato thought that the earth was at rest in the centre of the
universe, or, as Aristotle and Mr. Grote suppose, that it revolved on
its axis. Whether we assume the earth to be stationary in the centre of
the universe, or to revolve with the heavens, no explanation is given of
the variation in the length of days and nights at different times of the
year. The relations of the earth and heavens are so indistinct in the
Timaeus and so figurative in the Phaedo, Phaedrus and Republic, that we
must give up the hope of ascertaining how they were imagined by Plato,
if he had any fixed or scientific conception of them at all.

Section 5.

The soul of the world is framed on the analogy of the soul of man, and
many traces of anthropomorphism blend with Plato's highest flights of
idealism. The heavenly bodies are endowed with thought; the principles
of the same and other exist in the universe as well as in the human
mind. The soul of man is made out of the remains of the elements which
had been used in creating the soul of the world; these remains, however,
are diluted to the third degree; by this Plato expresses the measure of
the difference between the soul human and divine. The human soul, like
the cosmical, is framed before the body, as the mind is before the soul
of either--this is the order of the divine work--and the finer parts of
the body, which are more akin to the soul, such as the spinal marrow,
are prior to the bones and flesh. The brain, the containing vessel of
the divine part of the soul, is (nearly) in the form of a globe, which
is the image of the gods, who are the stars, and of the universe.

There is, however, an inconsistency in Plato's manner of conceiving
the soul of man; he cannot get rid of the element of necessity which is
allowed to enter. He does not, like Kant, attempt to vindicate for men a
freedom out of space and time; but he acknowledges him to be subject
to the influence of external causes, and leaves hardly any place
for freedom of the will. The lusts of men are caused by their bodily
constitution, though they may be increased by bad education and bad
laws, which implies that they may be decreased by good education and
good laws. He appears to have an inkling of the truth that to