Criticism-10
After all, even if we have but drawn a picture, it may serve as goal and model of our movement and behavior;
when sufficient of us see the picture and follow its gleam, Utopia will find its way upon the map.
Meanwhile “in heaven there is laid up a pattern of such a city, and he who desires may behold it, and beholding, govern himself accordingly.
But whether there really is or ever will be such a city on earth, . . . he will act according to the laws of that city, and no other” (592).
The good man will apply even in the imperfect state, the perfect law.
Nevertheless, with all these concessions to doubt, the Master was bold enough to risk himself when a chance offered to realize his plan.
In the year 387 B.C. Plato received an invitation from Dionysius, ruler of the then flourishing and powerful Syracuse, capital of Sicily, to come and turn his kingdom into Utopia;
and the philosopher, thinking like Turgot that it was easier to educate one man— even though a king—than a whole people, consented.
But when Dionysius found that the plan required either that he should become a philosopher or cease to be a king, he balked;
and the upshot was a bitter quarrel.
Story has it that Plato was sold into slavery, to be rescued by his friend and pupil Anniceris;
who, when Plato's Athenian followers wished to reimburse him for the ransom he had paid, refused, saying that they should not be the only ones privileged to help philosophy.
This (and, if we may believe Diogenes Laertius, another similar) experience may account for the disillusioned conservatism of Plato's last work, the Laws.
And yet the closing years of his long life must have been fairly happy.
His pupils had gone out in every direction, and their success had made him honored everywhere.
He was at peace in his Academe, walking from group to group of his students and giving them problems and tasks on which they were to make research and, when he came to them again, give report and answer.
La Rochefoucauld said that "few know how to grow old."
Plato knew: to learn like Solon and to teach like Socrates;
to guide the eager young, and find the intellectual love of comrades.
For his students loved him as he loved them;
he was their friend as well as their philosopher and guide.
One of his pupils, facing that great abyss called marriage, invited the Master to his wedding feast.
Plato came, rich with his eighty years, and joined the merry-makers gladly.
But as the hours laughed themselves away, the old philosopher retired into a quiet corner of the house, and sat down on a chair to win a little sleep.
In the morning, when the feast was over, the tired revellers came to wake him.
They found that during the night, quietly and without ado, he had passed from a little sleep to an endless one.
All Athens followed him to the grave.
备注：音频讲解是从第一段最后一句 “The good man will apply even in the imperfect state, the perfect law.”开始的。
[ 01’53” ] Dionysius (狄俄尼索斯，是希腊叙拉古 Syracuse 的暴君。公元前387年，狄俄尼索斯向柏拉图抛出橄榄枝，要求他将自己的王国改造为理想国。)
[ 02’04” ] Syracuse (叙拉古，位于意大利西西里岛；Syracuse 也是美国纽约州的一个城市。)
[ 02’42” ] consent (同意；赞成)
[ 03’02” ] balk (犹豫)
[ 03’07” ] upshot (结局)
[ 03’14” ] story has it that (野史称)
[ 03’25” ] rumor has it that (据传言说)
[ 04’47” ] reimburse (报销)
[ 04’56” ] ransom (赎金)
[ 08’18” ] La Rochefoucauld (弗朗索瓦·德·拉罗什富科，1613 ─ 1680，法国箴言作家。)
[ 08’36” ] How to Grow Old (伯特兰·罗素的散文， Bertrand Russell，1872 - 1970。英国哲学家、数理逻辑学家、作家。其文笔风趣幽默，言简意赅。)
[ 08’45” ] Solon (梭伦，前638 — 前559。古代雅典的政治家、立法者、诗人，是古希腊七贤之一。)
[ 09’49” ] abyss (深渊)
[ 10’25” ] the hours laughed themselves away (欢乐的时光逝去)
[ 11’04” ] reveller (狂欢者)
[ 11’20” ] ado (纷扰；麻烦)
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