Platonist, The.
A Monthly Periodical, Devoted Chiefly to the Dissemination of the Platonic Philosophy / An Exponent of the Philosophic Truth.
Platonism is Immortal because its Principles are Immortal in the Human Intellect and Heart / The Esoteric doctrine of all religions and philosophies is identical 1881-1888 Monthly (irregular)
St. Louis, MO (through January 1882); then Orange, NJ (through July 1884); then Osceola, MO. Editor: Thomas Moore Johnson; Alexander Wilder. Succeeded by: Bibliotheca Platonica (July 1889-December 1890)
1/1, February 1881-1/12, January 1882, St. Louis, MO; 2/1-7, January-July 1884, Orange, NJ (where Alexander Wilder probably assisted in editing the journal); 2/8-12, August-December 1885, Osceola, MO; 3/1-4/6, January 1887-June 1888, Osceola. $2.00-$5.00 a year. 16-54 pp., 11 x 14 1/2 (varies).

Johnson (1851-1919) was an eminent attorney whose grand house still stands on the shores of the Lake of the Ozarks in Osceola, Missouri, and whose collection of early printed editions of classical and Neoplatonic works has been given to the University of Missouri. He was for a time the president of the American Central Council of the H.B. of L., and figures prominently in Paul Russell Anderson's Platonism in the Midwest (Philadelphia: Temple University Publications, 1963). The journal included translations of Plato and his Neoplatonic commentators, Greek, Persian and Arabic, and studies of Thomas Taylor, the Alexandrian School, and the like. "In this degenerated age, when the senses are apotheosized, materialism absurdly considered philosophy, folly and ignorance popularized, and the dictum, 'Get money, eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die,' exemplifies the actions of millions of mankind, there certainly is a necessity for a journal which shall be a candid, bold, and fearless exponent of the Platonic Philosophy — a philosophy totally subversive of sensualism, materialism, folly, and ignorance. This philososophy recognizes the essential immortality and divinity of the human soul, and posits its highest happiness as an approximation to, and union with, the Absolute One. Its mission is to release the soul from the bonds of matter, to lead it to the vision of true being, — from images to realities, — and, in short, to elevate it from a sensible to an intellectual life.' The journal also, especially after volume 1, published articles, thought by Johnson to relate to Platonism by way of Hermeticism or to reflect the "esoteric doctrine of all religions," by W.Q. Judge of the Theosophical Society (on whose American Board of Control Johnson sat), Alexander Wilder (the perennial Platonist), and by T.H. Burgoyne, C.H.A. Bjerregaard, Henry Wagner, and other fellow members of the H.B. of L., and translations of the Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali, The Desatir, etc. One of the journal's few ads was for the Gnostic, published by Anna Kimball and George Chainey, who were also members of the H.B. of L. Although it now seems commonplace for occultism to position itself in the spectrum of ancient wisdom and the prisci theologi, the idea was a challenge to spiritualist orthodoxy at the time. The Banner of Light, March 5, 1881, in noting the new journal, wondered aloud why there was any need for "dead metaphysics" when the world had spiritualism. In May 1888 the journal announced that no. 7, which was supposed to appear in July, would appear in the fall, but no more were ever published. Instead, Bibliotheca Platonica, intended as convenient reprints of the Platonic writings, began to appear in July 1889. In 1919, K.S.L. Guthrie announced in The Romance of Two Centuries his intention to revive the Platonist in homage to Johnson, to include translations by him and articles on psychical experiences, all published with the goal of starting a Platonic Society, but nothing seems to have come of the idea. LOC.

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