( 471 ) 



A HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY.* No. 2. 



( Continued from page 354 J 



IT is a question of much importance, why the human understanding- 

 after making- so rapid an advance in Asia, should have suddenly 

 ceased to progress and have remained inactive during a long series 

 of centuries, while among the Greeks, though later in taking its first 

 flight, it made large strides towards perfection, and was the cradle of 

 that famous era which is memorable for its discoveries and produc- 

 tions even at this date. 



Many circumstances combined to produce this effect. Causes pe- 

 culiar to and inherent in science and the course it then followed had 

 an essential influence on the difference of these destinies. Probably 

 there was nothing which had a more direct tendency to retard the 

 progress of philosophy in the east than the division into castes. His- 

 tory teaches us that wherever this division prevails an impenetrable 

 barrier is opposed to the march of improvement. The spirit of emu- 

 lation is extinguished, and ambition, the greatest incentive to labour, 

 perishes in the absence of those honours which it aspires to as the re- 

 ward of its industry. 



The commerce of ideas, by which the mistakes of individuals are 

 rectified, is checked, the privilege of knowledge, reserved in the east 

 for a favoured caste, by being a privilege generated pride, the source 

 of errors as well as an obstacle to their correction. As all knowledge 

 was confined to the members of a caste, it was in itself a patrimony by 

 which they retained their superiority. The mystery, which was an in- 

 dispensable condition of this privilege, prevented free discussion and 

 promoted the use of enigmatical expressions and obscure notions. 

 They readily renounced the power of understanding themselves to 

 obtain the advantage of not being understood by others. 



When the Greeks began the study of philosophy they were not 

 shackled by any such bonds. Their priests had neither hereditary dis- 

 tinction nor peculiar privilege, except in their sacerdotal character. 

 The poets, their first philosophers as well as historians, instead of 

 closing their records to the eye of the vulgar, adapted their produc- 

 tions to the taste of the multitude, and eagerly sought their applause. 

 The productions of genius were common property, the richesof a nation. 

 Following the example of the poets, wise men redoubled their efforts 

 to surpass each other in the study of positive science. They preached 

 their doctrines in open day, and if the story be true of Anaximander's 

 being insulted in the course of a lecture by a child, we cannot sup- 

 pose they were reverenced as more than mortals or beings exempted 

 from the pains incidental to humanity. Among the Asiatics the su- 

 perior station pre-existed, and the knowledge was communicated as 

 an attribute of it Among the Greeks, dignity of place was the re- 



* It is ricrht to state that the materials of these papers hare been chiefly 

 from the valuable work of M. Degerando. 



2 L 2 



