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Leader (1850-1860), 15th September 1860, Edition 2 of 2, Page 8, 00 The Saturday Analyst and Leader. (_ S...

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      The High Price Of Bread And Meat. Last W...

      influences . And it is precisely because the ventilation of this question by the press affords the most efficient means of causing this law to have fair play that -we allude to the subject . Let every consumer institute a strict inquiry into his butcher ' s and bis baker ' s price current , and insist upon knowing " the reason why" the prices in the shop do not come down with the prices in the market . " We should very much , like to know , for one thing , " the reason why" joints of mutton and beef are from lOd . to ll : ] d ., while in the Western districts , as Somersetshire for example , the price is only 7 £ d . for prime ribs and surloins . Surely the charge of conveyance by rail is not so great as to make a difference of about 50 per cent . Of course if the consumer does not keep a sharp look out on these matters , the retailer will be in no hurry to contract his prices . We advise " Paterfamilias , " therefore , to look after his larder and his bread-basket .

      00 The Saturday Analyst And Leader. (_ S...

      00 The Saturday Analyst and Leader . (_ Sept . 15 , I 860

      Db. Whewell's Plato.* Rf^He Popularity W...

      DB . WHEWELL'S PLATO . * rf ^ HE popularity which appears likely to attend the reproduction I of Plato ' s works is significant of much in the extraordinary times in which we live . There was a period when what was mistaken for Baconian Induction reigned with undisputed sway in the scientific world . Coleridge then indulged in the study of apriori philosophy at the peril of his literary reputation ; and the various essays of * Mr . De Quincy and Mr : Heraud in " Blackwood " and " Fraser , " and other periodicals , advocating the cult ivation of the mind in that direction , were regarded as acts of literary daring which prudent critics would have avoided . The seed , however , was therebv scattered abroad ; and not all of it fell on stony ground . At that time , to name Kant or Fichte was almost iinpardonable audacity—but now their authority is quoted in all high-class

      reviews , and savant and sophist alike familiarly appeal to it , whether in brief tractate or elaborate treatise ; . Orthodox writers now mention Hegel and Oken without a shudder , and their systems are invoked in support of newer theories , or developed into more : satisfactory and further advanced conclusions . Nay , the embodiment of all these in formal logic is sanctioned by the universities ; + and Dr . Thomson ' s " Outlines of Thought " is now- appointed a text-book to be used in the examination of students so that college-youths areno , longer permitted to be ignorant of that Which only so lately itwas thought dangerous to know . Rapid indeed have been these advances , and highly creditable to the progressive aptitude of the English intellect to seize on the niore subtle foronulse of metaphysical truth . ¦ _• ¦ ' ¦ ¦ .

      The path was thus prepared for Dr . WhewelTs expenmens on . the dialogues of Plato , the first volume of which was published a ; few months ago , when a notice appeared in our columns expressive of the welcome universally accorded to it by the scholarly mind . Thatvolume treated of Socrates , his life and death , and grouped the interesting . dialogues connected with his accusation and execution in a . manner calculated to interest every true thinker and lover of true thought . Soerates was , perhaps , the first who distinctly taught his . fellow-men that they had souls ; and that each soul was an inward and invisible ko ' smos , quite as real as the outward and material . , world;—nay , if the full truth might be spoken , more real , Socratesseems early to have broken through the tyranny of custom , and , moralities i

      seen the untenableness of the social and conventional o : his time , its belief and expectations . Refusing to be bound by these , he constantly lived among those primary intuitions which ., familiar in youth , usually vanish as manhood and age advance ; and , perhaps , as a natural consequence , maintained a juvenile cheerful ness of disposition and gaiety of heart to the last . As a greaib writer says , speaking on this point , Soerates " had descended to tin j roots' of that rich nature of which our actual men are but stunted and fractional developments ; and thus ' were his sympathies so full and sincere . Hence , too , that unaffected solemnity which often i mingled very touchingly with his most humorous moments . Ho could not conceal from his own Soul that ho had gone deeper tham Sense , and that the Voices to which he listened came from beyond , the World . It was not for an . Intellect so masculine to get

      entangled with unmanageable theories concerning the nature of thei Intuitions ; he simply felt their presence , and reverently bowed , himself down ; like Pythagoras , ho said ho had a heavenly Guide , and owed his safety to ' his Doemon . " _ Such being the case , it is not extraordinary that Socrates should have insisted so much on the importance of self-knowledge . That is the meaning ? of the term wisdom . Ho not only insisted on this land of knowledge as paramount , but as the root of all other knowledge . And , as to that other knowledge , ho equally insisted on its being what it protpnded . Particularly , he would have words rightly and conscientiously used . People , in general , are not curcful to know wha , t they mean , when they use a certain word . They take it up , and pass it from hand to hand with a loose dubious sense , until at lust it coinos to moan nothing , or is miatalcen both in rogavd to its value and its meaning . Tho writer , whom wo have already quoted , is onergotio on this point ,

      " A Woiti ) : observe wlmt it is , what realities it ought to represent ! First , it stands for a certain definite thing—a met or form in nature about which there can be no dispute ; and , secondly , by every one of its derivative meanings it represents some actual imnlogy among things , and certain equally definitive laws of the mind . To understand a word , then , implies no slight knowledge ; and tho use of it requires proportional care . Do men really thus comprehend tho words they employ P Take up any common or

      received proposition , and question a man who says he stands by it ; ask if he comprehends its terms P . We fear it is as certain now , as Socrates demonstrated it to be in Athens , that , no matter how momentous the ' proposition ; no-matter though some . entire system of morals , politics , or theology , may hang on it ^ aye , that , ninetynine in a hundred , even of so-called intelligent persons , would riot come clean through the scrutiny ! The power to construct language is an especial distinction of humanity ; and the right and conscientious use of it is the means by which alone we connect the past with the present , and discern through nature and history , those grand and serene principles of order which reveal a Supreme government ; employ it otherwise , and it veils reality ; it is an excuse for not looking at things , the mind becomes its instrument ; truth gives way to dogma , and we are false without a blush . "

      The favourable reception of the former volume has induced Dr . Whewell to venture a second . The selection included in this he terms " the Antisophist Dialogues . " These relate to the conflicts which Socrates promoted with the professional teachers of his day , to whom the appellation of Sophists attached . Superficial readers of history have too readily taken it for granted that these Sophists were ignorant and dishonest teachers of fallacies , whom he put signally to the rout . This is a gross mistake ; they were the respectable lecturers and educators of the place and time to whom parents and guardians willingly and profitably entrusted the instruction of their children . They were not conscious of error in their -teaching , and fitted the sons of reputable citizens for the oftices of life which they were likely to fill . For rendering this necessary

      service they received fees , and earned them by the labour of mind and body which they devoted to the task . , But Socrates looked at ¦ them , not with the mere eye of a man of the world , but with that « f a philosopher , and penetrated the defects of their theory and practice . These defects are quite as prevalent now in the same class of persons as they were then . The war that Socrates maintained with them -was directed against mere respectability in morals , science , and statesmanship , in-favour of excellence and genius . He demanded from them what in no age have they been able to supply . Ordinary teachers , now as then , " undertake to expound theories they have never thoroughly investigated , and prepare the young for the daily work of public life by superficial lessons . Beyond the routine of

      such tuition they are usually as ignorant now as they ' , were , then ; and if they were" subjected to Socratic exposure , would appear quite as ridiculous as their elder representatives . Perhaps in no age more than the present was such exposure needful . Men run to and fro , that knowledg e may be increased ; and , though ; in some sort , they fulfil an important mission , yet , if they are found to stand in the way of the original thinker , arid make men contented with shallowness , and impatient of serious depth of thought;—surely it is time that their comparative insignificance should be demonstrated , and they should be compelled to take their true position in society that the more meritorious may assume the lead , and conduct Imrnanity to higher achievements ,

      The true philosopher is necessarily thus in constant ant gonism with conventional instructors and professional authorities . . These regard the immediate and specific use to which their teachings may be applied . The Socratic educator will not admit this as an element at all in education . " Knowledge , " say ' , " attained with chief view to specific uses , never forms the man , and is not true Knowledge . Truth in itsolf is not yet represented by conventional institutions and requirements ; and the mind which seeks in the first place to subserve these , must be satisfied to miss truth . " This to most , is no doubt a hard ¦ saying—^ certainly , to the more respectable man who loans on these institutions for his only support . But there are few things and few persons that are proof' against criticism ; and Soerates was a critic .

      In . these dialogues , the professional teachers and rhetoricians ^ of Athens who were called by themselves and others Sophists , or Wise Men , are occupied with Socrates in discussions , in which they are represented as refuted , perploxed , or silenced . Dr . Whewoll takes pains to correct the vulgar notion that these men formed a sect or party in the State that was ultimately put down by Plato . They were , he states , in truth , most diverse in their tenets , characters , position , mode of discussion , and objects , and wore , several of them , as strenuous incukators of virtue , and as subtle reusoncrs us Plato himself . But the difference betSveon them was this : while they sought only to commend themselves to their scholars by the loose

      and incompact phrases of a popular stylo , Plato was , " in search ol a Theory of Ethics solidly and scientifically founded upon Mean and Definitions , and was always ready to prove that" tho doctrines of his opponents were ,. worthless , because they could not hu miule . to supply such a theory . Protagoras , Prodiuus , Hippias ( Jorgius , and the rest , aro to him Sophists * m the disparaging sense , because they cannot mcetlm demands for such a system—just as Jeremy IJiMitlmni might have milled Uutlej ^ Price , and Clarke , sophists ; or a » Coleridge might have called flRke , Condillar .. and D'Alombert , sopliisls . " The last-mentioned axitlrors have , indeed , been tho greatest Hutt ' erers by tho recent dovolopemont of transcendental philosophy in thy most authoritative quarters .

      Dr . "Whowoll has , moro or loss , translated and interpreted in this volume nino of the Platonic Dialogues . Thoso aro : Protagoras , tho groater and' lessor Hippuis , Ion , ' Euthydomus , Gorgifts , Phwdrus , * ' Mouoxonxis , and Philobus , Those nro nil charmingl y oxeexitod . Thoyrond as frooly na a drama or romnuee , aad stimulate tho mind with emotions the raost exquisite , Dr . "VVhewell is of opinion that ; tLpse . Dialogues wero written after the death of Sooratos . Ho conjectures that Plato then removed himself from Athens , and retired to Mogara with tho other disciples , of Socrates , Horo , ho supposes , that Plato wroto the

      • W,O Platonic J>Ialoguo« For Bnvtufimea...

      • W , o Platonic J > ialoguo « for BnvtUfiMeaaem . My William WlwrolJ , D . V , Voia . AnUtofhist titaloffttf * .- MuomUJnw a \ id Co . \ An Outline of the necessary Laws qf Thoughti a Treatise on Pure «« rf applied lofftT ¦»/ WlllKm mlomwn , » . *> , Firth Kdltl « n . Longnwu * nnd Co .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 15, 1860, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15091860/page/8/