The Dialogues of Plato, Translated Into English With Analyses and Introductions #250772

Plato seems now to have made his first formal appearance as a teacher. Following the example of Socrates, who had sought out intelligent youths in the Gymnasia and other public places, he, too, first chose as the scene of his labours a gymnasium, the Academy, whence, however, he subsequently withdrew into his own garden, which was adjacent. Concerning his manner of instruction tradition tells us nothing; but if we consider how decidedly he expresses himself against the rhetoricians who made long speeches, but knew neither how to ask questions nor how to answer them; and how low, on the same ground, was his estimation of written exposition, Open to every misunderstanding and abuse, in comparison with the living personal agency of conversation, if we mark the fact, that in his own works, the development of thought by dialogue is a law, from which in his long literary career he allowed himself not a single noteworthy departure, we can scarcely doubt that in his oral teaching he remained true to these main principles.