The opening of XXXV. PLATONIC REPUBLIC--ABSTRACT
The Republic is the longest of all the Platonic dialogues, except the dialogue De Legibus. It consists of ten books, each of them as long as any one of the dialogues which we have passed in review. Partly from its length--partly from its lofty pretensions as the great constructive work of Plato--I shall give little more than an abstract of it in the present chapter, and shall reserve remark and comment for the succeeding.
[Side-note: Declared theme of the Republic--Expansion and multiplication of the topics connected with it.]
The professed subject is--What is Justice? Is the just man happy in or by reason of his justice? whatever consequences may befall him? Is the unjust man unhappy by reason of his injustice? But the ground actually travelled over by Sokrates, from whose mouth the exposition proceeds, is far more extensive than could have been anticipated from this announced problem. An immense variety of topics, belonging to man and society, is adverted to more or less fully. A theory of psychology or phrenology generally, is laid down and advocated: likewise a theory of the Intellect, distributed into its two branches: 1.