Plating

is the art of covering baser metals with a thin plate of silver either for use or for ornament. - It is said to have been in-. vented by a spur-maker, not for show but for real utility. Till then the more elegant spurs in common use were made of solid silver; and. from tbe flexibility of that metal, they were liable to be bent into inconvenient forms by the slightest accident. To remedy this defect, a workman at Birmingham contrived to make the branches of a pair of spurs hollow, and to fill that hollow with a slender rod of steel or iron. Finding this a great improvement, and being desirous of adding cheapne to utility, he continued to make the hollow larger, and of course the iron thicker and thicker, till at last he discovered the means of coating an iron spur with silver in such a manner as to make it equally elegant with those which were made wholly of that metal, The invention was quickly applied to other purposes: and to numberle utensils which were formerly made of bra or iron are now given the strength of these metals, and the elegance of silver, for a small additional expense. The silver plate was formerly made to adhere to the baser metal by means of soider; which is of two kinds, the soft and the hard, or the tin and silver solders. The former of these cousists of tin alone, the Jatter generally of three parts of silver and one of bra . When a buckle, for instance, is to be plated by means of the soft solder, the ring, before it is bent, is first tinned, and then the silver plate ‘is gently hammered upon it, the hammer employed being always covered with a piece of cloth. The silver now forms, as it were, a mould to the ring, and whatever of it is not intended to be used is cut off. This mould is fastened to the ring of the buckle by two or three cramps of iron-wire; after which the buckle, with the plated side undermost, is laid upon.a plate of iron sufficiently hot to melt the tin, but not the silver. The buckle is then covered with powdered resin, or anointed with turpentine; and Jest there should be a deficiency of tin, a small portion of rolled tin is likewise melted on it. The buckle is now taken off with tongs, and commonly laid on a bed of sand; where the plate and the ring, while the solder is yet in a state of fusion, are more closely compre ed by a smart stroke with a block of wood, The buckle is afterwards bent and finished. The mode of plating at present is, to fasten plates of silver upon thicker plates of copper, and then rolling them together into thin plates. The copper is twelve times thicker than the silver, and one ounce of silver is rolled toa surface of three feet or more. The plates being thus made, they are then stamped by a single stroke into the size and form of buckles, buttons, spoons, , ~ PLATO, an illustrious philosopher of antiquity, was born at Athens about 129 years B.C. His father was Aristo, the son of Aristocles, from whom he refers his origin to Solon the legislator;, but his mother was Per ict i one, who descended from Neleus, the son of Codrus. While he was an infant, his parents are said to have placed him in Hymettus, being desirous on his account to sacrifice to the gods of that mountain, viz, Pan, and the nymphs, and the pastoral Apollo. In the mean time the bees approaching as he lay, filled his mouth with honey-combs, as an omen that in future jt imight be truly said of him, a nee his tongue than honey sweeter oW Gs When he was a young man, he first betook. himself to Dionysius the grammarian, for the pee of acquiring common literature. After in, he employed the Argive Aristo as his ins struct or in Gymnastic, from whom he is said. to have derived the name of Plato; for prior to this he was called Aristocles, from his grand« father, But he was so called from having those. two parts of the body, the breast and forehead,’ broad in the extreme, For his preceptor in music, Plato had Draco, the son of Damon, and of this master he makes mention in his Republic. After this he was instructed by the tragedians, who ai that time were celebrated as the preceptors of Greece. He was likewise conversant with | dithyrambic writers, as is evident from his Phzedrus, which plainly breathes the dithyram. bic character, and is said to have been the first dialogue which Plato composed. He was much delighted too with the comic Aris toph anes and Sophron, from whom he learned the imitation of persons in dialogues. Plato also composed the following epigram on Aris toph anes: The graces emulous a grove to find Which time might ne’er impair, Met with the soul of Aris toph anes, And found a temple there. He is likewise said to have written tragic and \dithyrambic poems, and some other poe« tical pieces, all which he burned as soon as he began to a ociate with So crates; at the same time repeating this verse, Vulcan draw near, ’tis Plato asks your aid. After the death of So crates, he had another preceptor, the Her a clit ean Cratylus, upon whom he also composed a dialogue, which is inscribed Cratylus, or concerning the rectitude of names. After he had been sufficiently ine structed by this master, he went into Italy, where finding Archytus restoring a Pythagorie school, he became his disciple. When he was in Syracuse with Dionysius the tyrant, he endeavoured to change the tyranny into an aristocracy, and it was for this purpose that he visited the tyrant. His efforts, however, were unsucce ful; for Dionysius was so indignant at the freedom of his discourse, and the dignity of his manners, that he ordered him, soon after his arrival at court, to depart at sun-rise; and when he again sailed to Sicily, at the solicitations of Dion, the tyrant delivered him to a Sicilian merchant to be sold as a slave. Plato likewise went into Egypt for the purpose of conversing with the priests of that country, and from them learned whatever pertains to sacred rites. As he also wished to converse with the magi, but was prevented by the war which at that time broke out in Persia, he went-to Phoenicia, and meeting with the magi of that country, was instructed by them in Magic. On his return to Athens, he established a school in the academy, separating a part ef this Gymnasium into a temple to the muses. Here Timon the misanthrope a ociated with Plato alone. Plato allured very many to philosophical discipline; for he avoided the Socra- -tic irony, and did not adopt the venerable oath of the Pythagoreans, their custom of keeping their gates shut, and their zpse diwit, as he wished to conduct himself in a more politic manner towards all men. His fame drew disciples from all parts, when he would admit them, as well as invitations to come to reside in many of the other Grecian states; but the three that most distinguished themselves were Spasippus his nephew, who continued the academy after him, Xenocrates the Caledonian, ‘and the celebrated -Aristotle. It ig said also that Theophrastus and Demosthenes were two of his disciples. He had, it seems, so great a respect for the science of geometry and the mathematics, that he had the following inscription painted in large letters over the door of his academy: LET NO ONE ENTER HERE, UNLESS HE HAS A TASTE FOR GEOME- TRY AND THE MaTHeEMarics! Plato lived 81 years, and died on his birthday. He was sumptuously buried by the A then i ans; and on his tomb they inscribed the following epitaph: Pzon and Plato from Apollo sprung, The body’s saviour this, and that the soul’s. The character of this philosopher has always been high. Besides the advantages of a noble birth, he had a large and comprehensive under- standing, a vast fund of witand good taste, great evenne and sweetne of temper, all cultivated -and refined by education and travel; so that it is no wonder if he was honoured by his country- men, esteemed by strangers, and adored by his - scholars. The ancients thought more highly of Plato than of all their philosophers; they al- ways calied him the divine Plato; and they seem resolved that his descent should be more than human. «There are (says Apuleius) who a ert Plato to have sprung from a more sublime conception; and that his mother _ Per ict i one, who was a very beautiful woman, was impregnated by Apollo in the shape of a spectre.” Plutarch, Suidas, and others, affirm this to have been the common report at Athens: and it affords some probability that his parents themselves had some faith in the story, that they took him while an infant, as we have d already related, to Hymettus, to make a sacri- fice to the muses. Apuleius relates, that So crates, the night before Plato was recommended to him, dreamed that a young swan fled from Cupid’s altar in the academy, and settled in his lap; thence soared to heaven, and delighted the gods with its music: and when Aristo the next day presented Plato to him, ‘¢ Friend (says So crates), this is the swan of Cupid’s academy.” The Greeks loved fables: they show, however, in the present case, what exceeding respect was paid to the memory of Plato.’ Tully perfectly adored him; tells us, that he was justly called by Panetius, the di T Q. vine, the most wise, the most sacred, the Homer of philosophers; entitled him to Atticus, Deus ille nosier; thinks, that if Jupiter had spoken Greek, he would have spoken in Plato’s language; and made him so implicitly his guide in wisdom and philosophy, as to declare, that he had rather err with Plato than be right with any one else. But, panegyric aside, Plato was certainly a very wonderful man, of a large and comprehensive mind, an imagination infinitely fertile, and of a most flowing and’ copious eloquence. Neverthele , the strength and heat of fancy prevailing in his composition over judgment, he was too apt to soar beyond the limits of earthly things, to range in the imaginary regions of general and abstracted ideas; and on which account, though there is always a greatne and sublimity in his manner, ‘he did not philosophize so much according to truth and nature as Aristotle, though Cicero did not scruple to give him the preference. The writings of Plato are all in the way of dialogue, where he seems to deliver nothing from himself, but every thing as the sentiments and opinions of others, of So crates chiefly, of Time us, . He does not mention himself anywhere, except once in his Pizedo; and another time in his Apology for So crates. His style, as Aristotle observed, is betwixt prose and verse: on which account, some have not scrupled to rank him with the poets. There is a better reason for so doing than the elevation and grandeur of his style: his matter is oftentimes the offspring of imagination, instead of doctrines or truths deduced from nature. The first edition of Plato’s works in Greek was put out by Aldus at Venice, in 1513; but a Latin version of him by Marsilius Ficinus had been printed therein 1491. ‘They were reprinted together at Lyons in 1588, and at Franc fort in 1602. The famous printer, Henry Stephers, in 1578, gave a most beautiful and correct edition of Plato’s works at Paris, with a new Latin version by Serran us, in three volumes folio. The latest edition with which we are acquainted is the Bipont edition of 1781, in 12 vols. octavo: it is the only edition of the entire works of Plato that has been published in an octavo form: the Greek text is taken from Serran us, and the Latin version Ficinus’s. Of the Dialogues of Plato an edition was published by Foster, Oxon, 8vo. 1745-52-65: the first of these is the most valuable and rare, Beister published the Meno, Crito, and both the Alcibiades of Plato, with some notes of- Gedike, Gottleber, and Scheneider, Berol. 8vo. 1780, and again more completely in 1790. 494 495