University of Virginia Library

8016. SOCRATES, Plato and.—

The superlative
wisdom of Socrates is testified by all
antiquity, and placed on ground not to be
questioned. When, therefore, Plato puts into his
mouth such paralogisms, such quibbles on
words, and sophisms as a schoolboy would be
ashamed of, we conclude they were the whimsies
of Plato's own foggy brain, and acquit Socrates
of puerilities so unlike his character.—
To William Short. Washington ed. vii, 165.
(M. 1820)
See Philosophy.