method' of proceeding by regular divisions, which is described in the
Phaedrus and Philebus, and of which examples are given in the Politicus and
in the Sophist. It is expressly spoken of as the method which Socrates had
heard Zeno practise in the days of his youth (compare Soph.).

The discussion of Socrates with Parmenides is one of the most remarkable
passages in Plato. Few writers have ever been able to anticipate 'the
criticism of the morrow' on their favourite notions. But Plato may here be
said to anticipate the judgment not only of the morrow, but of all after-
ages on the Platonic Ideas. For in some points he touches questions which
have not yet received their solution in modern philosophy.

The first difficulty which Parmenides raises respecting the Platonic ideas
relates to the manner in which individuals are connected with them. Do
they participate in the ideas, or do they merely resemble them? Parmenides
shows that objections may be urged against either of these modes of
conceiving the connection. Things are little by partaking of littleness,
great by partaking of greatness, and the like. But they cannot partake of
a part of greatness, for that will not make them great, etc.; nor can each
object monopolise the whole. The only answer to this is, that 'partaking'
is a figure of speech, really corresponding to the processes which a later
logic designates by the terms 'abstraction' and 'generalization.' When we
have described accurately the methods or forms which the mind employs, we
cannot further criticize them; at least we can only criticize them with
reference to their fitness as instruments of thought to express facts.

Socrates attempts to support his view of the ideas by the parallel of the
day, which is one and in many places; but he is easily driven from his
position by a counter illustration of Parmenides, who compares the idea of
greatness to a sail. He truly explains to Socrates that he has attained