Note (return) — Chapter X

We have seen that our first conceptions (i.e., first in the order of time) are of the mingled, the concrete (τὸ συγκεχυµένον), "the multiplicity of things to which the multitude ascribe beauty, etc. 523 The mind "contemplates what is great and small, not as distinct from each other, but as confused. 524 Prior to the discipline of reflection, men are curious about mere sights and sounds, love beautiful voices, beautiful colors, beautiful forms, but their intelligence can not see, can not embrace, the essential nature of the Beautiful itself. 525 Man's condition previous to the education of philosophy is vividly presented in Plato's simile of the cave. 526 He beholds only the images and shadows of the ectypal world, which are but dim and distant adumbrations of the real and archetypal world.