Excerpt from Plato Against the Atheists, or the Tenth Book of the Dialogue on Laws: Accompanied With Critical Notes, and Followed by Extended Dissertations on Some of the Main Points of the Platonic Philosophy and Theology, Especially as Compared With the Holy Scriptures It is on the subject of the domestic relations, which are supposed to be assailed in this fifth book, that there exists the greatest contrariety between the Republic and The Laws. Plato seems, even in his own day, to have been so reproached with this apparent blot in his philosophy, that he was led to take special pains to do it away in this work of his old age; and hence the great desire he shows in The Laws to set in their high est light the sanctity of the family, or parental and fil ial relations. We have adverted to this at some length in the first of the dissertations appended to the text. In other respects, the discrepancies between the Republic and The Laws have been greatly exaggera ted. Difl'ering, however, as they may in some of their minor details, no one can attentively study both with out discovering evidences that they are productions of the same mind, and that, in the main elements of that higher philosophy on which all legislation and morals depend, they are substantially the same. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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