--------------
The only version of the entire works of Plato, which has appeared in the
English language, is that published by Taylor; in which nine of the
Dialogues previously translated by Floyer Sydenham are introduced.
Taylor’s portion of the work is far from correct, and betrays an
imperfect knowledge of Greek: that by Sydenham is much better, and
evidently the work of a scholar, but in many instances, and those
chiefly where difficulties present themselves, he obscures his author’s
meaning by too great amplification. Translations of several detached
Dialogues have appeared at various times, but of those which have fallen
into my hands none appear to me deserving of notice, with the exception
of a little volume containing the Phædrus, Lysis, and Protagoras, by Mr.
J. Wright, of Trinity College, Cambridge, the production of a promising
scholar.
In the volume now offered to the public, I have endeavoured to keep as
closely to the original as the idioms of the two languages would allow.
In the introduction to each Dialogue I have contented myself with giving
a brief outline of the arguments; sufficient, I trust, to enable a
reader not familiar with the rigid dialectics of Plato to follow the
chain of his reasoning, and catch the points at which he so frequently
diverges from, and again returns to, the main subject of each Dialogue.
The editions which have been made use of are those of Bekker, Ast, and
Stallbaum, though with very few exceptions the readings of the latter
have been adopted. The division into sections, according to the London
edition of Bekker, has been retained, because the arrangement is
convenient, and it is believed that that edition is more generally to be
met with in this country than any other.