Note 65 — Chapter VIII · PLATONIC COMPOSITIONS GENERALLY.

Xenoph. Memor. iv. 2. A passage from Paley’s preface to his “Principles of Moral Philosophy,” illustrates well this Sokratic process: “Concerning the principle of morals, it would be premature to speak: but concerning the manner of unfolding and explaining that principle, I have somewhat which I wish to be remarked. An experience of nine years in the office of a public tutor in one of the Universities, and in that department of education to which these sections relate, afforded me frequent opportunity to observe, that in discoursing to young minds upon topics of morality, it required much more pains to make them perceive the difficulty than to understand the solution: that unless the subject was so drawn up to a point as to exhibit the full force of an objection, or the exact place of a doubt, before any explanation was entered upon — in other words, unless some curiosity was excited, before it was attempted to be satisfied — the teacher’s labour was lost. When information was not desired, it was seldom, I found, retained. I have made this observation my guide in the following work: that is, I have endeavoured, before I suffered myself to proceed in the disquisition, to put the reader in complete possession of the question: and to do it in a way that I thought most likely to stir up his own doubts and solicitude about it.”