CONTENTS (For analysis of each author, see Index) 4. "Letter on His Work at Stanz, 1799," 5. "The Song of the Swan, 1826," GREAT PEDAGOGICAL ESSAYS. I. PLATO. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. Plato is the earliest of the Greek philosophers whose writings have been transmitted to us. Unlike his great pupil Aristotle, he was a speculative philosopher who sought behind the changing phenomena of nature the absolute and eternal. His thoughts are often astonishingly profound, and he has exerted a far-reaching influence upon the Fathers of the Church and upon the mystics of medieval and modern times. "Out of Plato," says Emerson in his "Representative Men," come all things that are still written and debated among men of thought. Great havoc makes he with our originalities." 66 Unlike his distinguished teacher Socrates, who sprang from the artisan class, Plato descended from a noble family; on his mother's side he was related to Solon, and on his father's side to Codrus, one of the ancient kings of Athens. Perhaps it was the influence of his descent and early training that made him aristocratic in his sympathies. When he came to theorize about an ideal "Republic," he placed the government in the hands of an aristocratic class. Plato was born in Athens about 427 B. C., and no doubt received the best education in gymnastics and music that his native city afforded. His imaginative intellect first turned |