Note 24 — Chapter VIII · PLATONIC COMPOSITIONS GENERALLY.

Plato, Epist. vii. 341 C. οὔκουν ἐμόν γε περὶ αὐτῶν ἔστι σύγγραμμα οὐδε μή ποτε γένηται· ῥητὸν γὰρ οὐδαμῶς ἐστιν ὡς ἄλλα μαθήματα, ἀλλ’ ἐκ πολλῆς συνουσίας γιγνομένης περὶ τὸ πρᾶγμα αὐτὸ καὶ τοῦ συζῇν, ἐξαίφνης, οἷον ἀπὸ πυρὸς πηδήσαντος ἐξαφθὲν φῶς, ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ γενόμενον αὐτὸ ἑαυτὸ ἤδη τρέφει.

This sentence, as a remarkable one, I have translated literally in the text: that which precedes is given only in substance.

We see in the Republic that Sokrates, when questioned by Glaukon, and urged emphatically to give some solution respecting ἡ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ἰδέα and ἡ τοῦ διαλέγεσθαι δύναμις, answers only by an evasion or a metaphor (Republic, vi. 506 E, vii. 533 A). Now these are much the same points as what are signified in the letter to Dionysius, under the terms τὰ πρῶτα καὶ ἄκρα τῆς φύσεως — ἡ τοῦ πρώτου φύσις (312 E): as to which Plato, when questioned, replies in a mystic and unintelligible way.