If any one is desirous of carrying out in detail the Platonic education of
after-life, some such counsels as the following may be offered to
him:--That he shall choose the branch of knowledge to which his own mind
most distinctly inclines, and in which he takes the greatest delight,
either one which seems to connect with his own daily employment, or,
perhaps, furnishes the greatest contrast to it. He may study from the
speculative side the profession or business in which he is practically
engaged. He may make Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Plato, Bacon the friends
and companions of his life. He may find opportunities of hearing the
living voice of a great teacher. He may select for enquiry some point of
history or some unexplained phenomenon of nature. An hour a day passed in
such scientific or literary pursuits will furnish as many facts as the
memory can retain, and will give him 'a pleasure not to be repented of'
(Timaeus, 59 D). Only let him beware of being the slave of crotchets, or
of running after a Will o' the Wisp in his ignorance, or in his vanity of
attributing to himself the gifts of a poet or assuming the air of a
philosopher. He should know the limits of his own powers. Better to build
up the mind by slow additions, to creep on quietly from one thing to
another, to gain insensibly new powers and new interests in knowledge,
than to form vast schemes which are never destined to be realized. But
perhaps, as Plato would say, 'This is part of another subject' (Tim. 87
B); though we may also defend our digression by his example (Theaet. 72,
77).
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