period of his life, when deeply plunged in the study of Eleatic philosophy, he saw that his own doctrine of Ideas required revision, and in the dialogue of Parmenides' he at once put out what he had arrived at. To the tenets of a general Idealism, expressed under different forms, Plato seems always to have remained faithful. At one time the Idea of Beauty, at another time the Idea of Good, is held up as the cause of the existence of the world; the universal is described as the real, and the particular as the half-real; mind and intelligence are represented as the pre-existent cause, and not as the effect of the material creation; and in his latest work, Laws,' Plato strenuously inculcates the priority of the soul to the body. All this is in a different direction from much of the philosophy of the present day, and Plato's arguments require serious refutation before that philosophy can be safely accepted.

On

The Politics of Plato are full of the deepest interest. no subject was he more in earnest than this, and his three treatises upon it, Republic,' Politicus,' and 'Laws,' are nearly equal in bulk to all his other works put together. Keenly alive to the evils in human society, he proclaimed that 'cities will never cease from ill until they are better governed.' His own lifetime having fallen on the period of the decline of Athenian politics, he was inspired with a sort of Apocalyptic zeal to conceive a perfect State, and to prescribe how, out of the elements of human nature, such a State might be created. But, while with imaginative fervour he dwelt on this ideal, he surrounded the unfolding of it with all his accustomed accessories of humour, irony, and the dramatic play of character. Hence his Republic' stands forth characterised not so much by a fanatical enthusiasm, as by the calmness of a perfect work of art. It has exercised, and may even yet exercise, a great influence on the world. In these days, when so many social questions which had long been considered closed are opened afresh, and when men in so many parts of the world are going back to first principles, there may be still an advantage in reading, not to accept immediately, or to refute, but to 'weigh and consider,' the thoughts of a man like Plato on such matters. Some of the paradoxes of Republic' are akin to some of the ultra views of the present day, such as the paradox of communism and the paradox of the relation of the In the Ideal State no man was to call anything his own,' there was to be 'neither marriage nor giving in marriage,' and women were to have an education identical with men, and to share with them the labours of war and politics.

sexes.

But those who would seek in Plato a confirmation of their extreme views, may be disappointed to find that he afterwards himself retracted those parts of his proposals which are most shocking to ordinary minds. He, however, points out that much of the existing feeling with reference to the relation of the sexes is a matter of habit. And Professor Jowett gives high praise to his views on the position of women. • In no former age of the world would Plato's ideas on this subject have received so much assent as in our own. That he should have emancipated himself from the customs of his own 'country, and from the example of the East, is a wonderful proof of philosophical insight. He is as much in advance of 'modern nations as they are in advance of the customs of "Greek society.'

Nothing could show more clearly Plato's earnest feeling with regard to politics, than the fact, that after having in mature life produced so great and brilliant a work as Republic,' he should in old age, when he was at least seventy-four years old, have undertaken to rewrite it all, and bring down his ideal proposals to the level of what he considered the possible. And, perhaps, no greater service has been rendered to the Platonic writings by Professor Jowett, than his vindication of Laws' as beyond all question a genuine work of Plato, and his lucid exposition of the character of this last fruit of Plato's genius. 'Laws' of course is far from having the charm of Republic;' the wings of Plato's imagination had now begun to droop, he had lost the spring of his fancy and dramatic humour; a somewhat sombre colouring pervades the whole; and yet there are several noble passages in this dialogue, especially those which exhort to a grave piety and belief in God. The institutions of marriage and of private property are now replaced by Plato, though the latter is somewhat restricted by the provision that no man in the State is to be very rich. The points which separate Plato's second-best,' or practical, polity from the possibility of imitation in modern times, are, 1st, that it is based on slavery; 2nd, that the number of the free citizens is supposed to be absolutely restricted to 5,040; and 3rd, that all the institutions in it are characterised by overgovernment; no free career is left to individual ability, all is pervaded by a spirit of jealous inquisition, and in the true spirit of the Jesuit order it is laid down that no man is to be without a commander.' On the other hand, in the direction which State institutions have taken in Prussia since the days of the battle of Jena; in the tendencies inaugurated "by Stein, Fichte, and Arndt; in the compulsory education

and compulsory military service; in the complete superintendence taken by the State of education, and especially of the higher education of the people; and in the idea, so industriously propagated and so really influential in Prussia, that every man is a member of the State and a part of a great living organism;-in ali these things there is much to remind of Plato's Laws.'

We have been able to indicate very briefly only a few of the points which strike the mind on a survey of the collective works of Plato, now for the first time adequately presented to the English reader. What we are obliged to omit is of course far more than what we can mention. Had space permitted, we would willingly have called attention to Plato's speculations on the nature of language, half earnest and half in play, given in Cratylus'; and to his theories of the universe and of the creation of the world, which form the subject of Timæus.' These were provinces lying beyond the possibility of adequate treatment in Plato's age. And yet the justice of many of his views and his profound intuition of many truths subsequently established by science, must excite our wonder. Nothing can be more admirable than Professor Jowett's appreciation, in his introduction to Timæus,' of Plato's position as a physical philosopher, and the way in which he establishes (we should hope even to the satisfaction of the British Association) the worth and provisional validity of the ancient à priori methods of contemplating the universe, and their absolute necessity as forerunners of scientific induction. Plato's many and various conjectures on the evolution of man, and on the origin of society, have a peculiar interest at the present day. On the delicate topic of Platonic 'love'-really so different from what many people imaginewe should have been content to refer to Professor Jowett's explanations. But we should have liked to collect from these pages some of the aphorisms of wisdom which lie thickly scattered, not only in the Platonic writings themselves, but also in the commentaries of their most worthy expositor. A Golden Treasury' of aphorisms on all the great questions of human life might easily be extracted from these volumes. But we have been able to dip only a very small cup into this ocean. Professor Jowett is evidently of opinion that Plato has never been fully understood and appreciated by the world. In Aristotle, a great portion of his thoughts met with no sympathy. In the so-called Platonic school, the doctrine of ideas passed into one of numbers instead of advancing from the abstract to the concrete; the theories of Plato were

6

taken out of their context, and either asserted or refuted with a provoking literalism; the Socratic or Platonic element in his teaching was absorbed into the Megarian or Pythagorean; his poetry was converted into mysticism; his unsubstantial visions were pierced by the spear of logic. His political 'speculations no longer retained their freshness and interest when the freedom of Hellas had passed away. The best of ' him-his love of truth, and his "contemplation of all time and ""all existence," was soonest lost; and some of his greatest 'thoughts have slept in the ear of mankind almost ever since 'they were first uttered.' It may be the case that Plato will now be not only more widely studied, but also more truly understood, than at any previous period of the world's history. And that this should be so, we cannot but regard as fortunate, for these volumes clearly show that to study Plato-to learn to appreciate him aright-is of itself enough to constitute a liberal education.

ART. II. The Original Ordinances of more than one hundred Early English Gilds:* together with ye olde Usages of ye Cite of Wynchestre; the Ordinances of Worcester; the Office of the Mayor of Bristol; and the Costomary of the Manor of Tettenhall-Regis. From Original MSS. of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. Edited, with Notes, by the late TOULMIN SMITH, Esq. With an Introduction and Glossary, &c., by his daughter, LUCY TOULMIN SMITH, and a Preliminary Essay on the History and Development 'of Gilds,' by Dr. LUJO BRENTANO. London: published for the Early English Text Society. 1870.

A BOUT four years have elapsed since we first directed the attention of our readers to the publications of the Early English Text Society; but in that interval of time the Society has continued with great zeal and activity the prosecution of its useful labours. The first objects it had in view were to rescue from oblivion the philological monuments and the

Mr. Toulmin Smith spells the word gilds throughout: but we are convinced this is an error. In Danish and Low German it is spelt without the u, but Mr. Wedgwood derives it from the Welch gwyl and Breton goel, gouil; the Dutch form is gulde. All these words mean a festal holiday. Guildhall means the hall of feasts. Guild day (in Norfolk) means the festival of city. The primary meaning,' says Mr. Wedgwood, 'is a feast, afterwards extended to the persons who feasted.'

poetical traditions of our early English tongue; and accordingly the remarks we had occasion to make in our former article (Edin. Rev. vol. cxxxv. p. 220), were principally directed to these subjects. In the volume before us the editor, the late Mr. Toulmin Smith, has taken a wider range. The History of the Guilds of England is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the social and political condition of the people. It is a precious collection of interesting facts, edited with remarkable patience and ability.

We propose therefore to give some account of the contents of this very curious volume upon English Guilds, which are well worth all the labour and pains that has been taken to render them fit for presentation in the shape now before us. It is to be regretted that the learned and laborious editor of the work was not spared to witness its publication, or to complete the final editorial duties, now supplied by the pious care of his daughter. To him is due, in the first place, the recognition of the value of certain bundles of ancient documents in the Record Office: secondly, the mastering and arranging of their component parts, and the addition from other sources of similar materials of equal curiosity and value.

It can scarcely be held necessary to explain the general nature of the institutions to which the name of Guild is attached. Originating in very early times, they rudely fulfilled, like the organs of the older races of animal life, a variety of functions, for the discharge of which, in later times, a more distinct and complicated system has supervened. But for whatever purposes they were constituted, they all relied on the basis of mutual self-help and protection, and served as centres of social life, and as the precursors of the municipal corporations which, for certain objects, continued long and usefully to represent them, no less than of the modern trades' unions, and of the benefit and burial clubs, which flourish as the living equivalents of the ancient social crafts or mystery guilds. For the actual homologues of the old guilds in more special points of view, we must turn to a variety of private societies which now administer, in a more liberal and extensive manner, benevolent assistance, more or less resembling that which in the guilds was exclusively confined to their own members. As instances of this might be mentioned such bodies as the Royal Literary Fund, the Humane Society, the National Life Boat Society-all of which would, in a different phase of social life, have been religious guilds, if any schemes of similar wide and unselfish beneficence could have been entertained in the age when these arose. Everything, however, must be judged according to its