sometimes we also may gain from reading the Phædo or the Phædrus, the Gorgias or the Theatætus.
One sees how Plato's ethical convictions, whether received from his master, or his very own, have root in these conceptions of the mind which are also the desires of his soul. Knowledge and Virtue are the same: How can one know these beautiful ideas and not desire them? and not realise them? Only through knowing them imperfectly can one sin or err. And again, even more obviously, justice is an excellence of the soul, of man's veritable self: it is almost a truism — if only the world would accept it — that the unjust man cannot be in a state of well-being, cannot be veritably happy. The best that can come to him is to be punished, which is to be healed. How then can one doubt that it is better to suffer, than to do, injustice? Or how can any harm whatever be his who has realised that Best within him which is the idea of the Good? Or, in common words, how can ill come to a good man? And as for truth, — is it not the verity of the good? how shall one not crave it and esteem it always?
Plato's freedom dwelt in these convictions, and in his faith in them. As he grew older, he held with increasing assurance that the world is ruled by Mind, and not left, a chance medley, to unreason (Philebus). Did not God create it, and create it because he was good, and form it somehow in the
