Thomas Moore Johnson, a key player in early developments of American esotericism on political quarrels, speaking the truth and the necessity for the Platonic Philosophy from introduction to The Platonist: An Exponent of the Philosophic Truth, Vol. I, No. I, St. Louis, Feb. 1881, pp 1-3:
One of the gentlemen to whom was sent a prospectus of THE PLATONIST writes: “Your prospectus reached the wrong address when directed to me. I hold with Aristoteles ‘non est in intellectu quod non fuerit in sensu,’ [The Peripatetic axiom is: “Nothing is in the intellect that was not first in the senses”] and have therefore no use for Plato.” Mr. H——— must not flatter himself that Aristoteles was of his opinion. The great Stagirite believed with his greater master in a species of knowledge that antecedes all experience.
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 (…) the Platonic Philosophy — a philosophy totally subversive of sensualism, materialism, folly, and ignorance. This philosophy 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.”
A materialist asks us: “Why resuscitate a philosophy that has done so little good?” Our friend’s materialistic notions have blinded his intellectual eye. Without death there can be no resuscitation. Ideas never die: they are eternal. They are as true to-day as they were a thousand years ago. Their nature is essentially immortal and immutable. The Platonic Philosophy has benefited the intellectual part of mankind incomparably more than any other system of thought. The reason is obvious—its basis is TRUTH.
It is generally supposed that Congressmen are persons endowed with both reason and dignity. This is a great mistake. There are probably not a dozen men in Congress whose actions are dominated by reason. If anyone doubts this, let him peruse the record of congressional proceedings. A short time ago, two honorable members (one recently a presidential candidate) engaged in a disgraceful, irrational wrangle that would have been a serious reflection on the intelligence of a couple of Hottentots. Too many of our public men exhibit the characteristics of the wolf and the monkey.
As all marble is potentially statues, so all men are potentially intellectual. It is better to define man as a being capable of reason (animal rationis capax), than as one gifted with reason (animal ratione).
If a man’s thought has any real significance for him, his life will conform to it. It is not maintained that the life of a philosopher must invariably, under all circumstances, be occupied with intellectual matters; but it is certain that, if he desires to genuinely philosophize, his general life must be regulated according to the loftiest ideas. A sensualist, for instance, cannot be a philosopher. He may use philosophical terms — he may even write, with an ostentatious display of apparent erudition, reviews of the works of philosophers, but his opinions will be of no value. They will necessarily be superficial.
The truth is always in order, and should be spoken at all times and under all circumstances. The individual that objects to the truth being told, either about himself or another, displays an amount of depravity and effrontery which, if justice was meted out to him, would entitle him to a place in the penitentiary. It is a lamentable fact that there are few men, very few indeed, who have the moral courage to enunciate their real opinions. All will readily acknowledge that hypocrisy is an abominable vice, and that it is our duty to invariably speak the truth. Yet, how many practice what they profess to believe to be right? The cause of this moral cowardice is, that the majority of mankind never advance beyond their first childhood; their notions about almost everything are necessarily puerile, and they therefore lack the stamina to exercise the liberty of thought and speech secured to them by the divine, if not the human, law.”
“. . .Materialism has made many converts in this generation, and the deniers of the very existence of such an entity as soul, in the spiritual meaning of the word, are very numerous, and, we regret to say, rapidly increasing. This is preeminently a skeptical age. Worse still, the skepticism of this century is an irrational skepticism. Honest, rational doubt is commendable; stolid, arbitrary denial, is imbecile and entitled to no consideration.
The genuine lovers of Wisdom are very few. The fact is, that about nine-tenths of human beings are adverse to the acquisition of intellectual knowledge, and delight to grovel in the mire of ignorance. They can perceive the necessity for laboring for years like slaves to accumulate money in order to gratify the desires of the senses, but they appear utterly incapable of apprehending the essential superiority of the mind to the body, the transcendent excellence of Wisdom, and the real object of this sensuous, material life, which is to purify and perfect the soul, so that it may be enabled to return to the intelligible world whence it came, or was sent. To these human earth-worms this existence is a finality — a practical finality to even many of those that profess to believe in another life.
Of the nature and destiny of the human soul, Platon and his disciples had a positive, scientific knowledge, obtained by an arduous, logical process of reasoning. They began with rational skepticism, and ended with positive knowledge. According to the Platonists, the soul is an essence without magnitude, immaterial, indestructible, with life which has living from itself, possessing being. It is, therefore, truly and essentially immortal. Its immortality does not date from its connection with the body. In other words, to use scholastic language, it is immortal both a parte ante and a parte post. We emphasize this point, as the eternal nature of the soul is one of the cardinal dogmas of the Platonic Philosophy.”
The American Minervan 
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