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This is the science which, according to the Phaedrus, is the true

basis of rhetoric, which alone is able to distinguish the natures

and classes of men and things; which divides a whole into the

natural parts, and reunites the scattered parts into a natural or

organized whole; which defines the abstract essences or universal

ideas of all things, and connects them; which pierces the veil of

hypotheses and reaches the final cause or first principle of all;

which regards the sciences in relation to the idea of good. This

ideal science is the highest process of thought, and may be

described as the soul conversing with herself or holding

communion with eternal truth and beauty, and in another form is

the everlasting question and answer-the ceaseless interrogative

of Socrates. The dialogues of Plato are themselves examples of

the nature and method of dialectic. Viewed objectively, the idea

of good is a power or cause which makes the world without us

correspond with the world within.