THE subject of the Epinomis is Wisdom. Formally
the dialogue is an appendix to the Laws, of which it
was occasionally called the thirteenth book, because it
answers the question how to attain that highest state
of virtue and bliss demanded of members of the Nocturnal
Council in Laws, Book XII. But it is also one of the
earliest examples of 'protreptic' literature, which is
the ancestor of 'Princes' like that of Machiavelli and
of 'Consolations' and 'Exhortations' like those of
Boethius and the Christian Fathers. Had A. E. Taylor
lived to see his translation through the press he would
probably have wanted to discuss the close connection
of the Epinomis with Aristotle own Protrepticus. (The
latter deeply influenced Cicero Hortensius, which
'turned the affections', it may be recalled, of St.
Augustine.)

Its theoretical interest lies in this--it develops Plato's
well-known view that man's goal is to understand and
contemplate the unity and goodness of the world of
Ideas. At first sight there are three stages of this view
in the Platonic writings (if we include the Epinomis).
These do not necessarily imply theoretical changes, but
represent at least changes in emphasis or in the direction
of the writer's interest. There is first the theory, familiar
from the Symposium and the Republic, that by Dialectic,
that is by successively discovering 'the Many' in 'the
One', the mind will attain that apex of a pyramid
which is absolute Beauty or Goodness. ¹ But after the

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