The Republic
by Plato
Guest Review by Thomas Jefferson
In 1814 Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to his friend John Adams, in which there is mention of The Republic by Plato that serves almost as a book review from one great thinker on another-
“I amused myself with reading seriously Plato’s Republic. I am wrong however in calling it amusement, for it was the heaviest task-work I ever went through…. While wading thro’ the whimsies, the puerilities, and unintelligible jargon of this work, I laid it down often to ask myself how it could have been that the world should have so long consented to give reputation to such nonsense as this?…. His foggy mind, is forever presenting the semblances of objects which, half seen thro’ a mist, can be defined neither in form or dimension. Yet this which should have consigned him to early oblivion really procured him immortality of fame and reverence…. Thousands of volumes have not yet explained the Platonisms engrafted on them: and for this obvious reason that nonsense can never be explained.”
Whoa, “nonsense” was used twice.
That’s a harsh review from Mr. Jefferson. Sounds like he is passing on The Republic by Plato.