348 HISTORY OF JfHILOSOPHY. 



From this epoch may be dated the youth of knowledge. The four 

 succeeding centuries gave us a Plato, an Aristotle, a Zeno of Citium, 

 a Pyrrho, and an Epicurus. The entire realm of philosophy was 

 visited by its enthusiastic votaries no part was left unexplored ; and, 

 if their theories have proved false, the ground of their systems un- 

 tenable, the fault is not to be laid to their want of excelling ingenuity 

 or unwearied industry. 



In the third division, however rife in political events, important 

 not merely to the world of that time, but exercising a prospective in- 

 fluence over that of our own, we may rather remark the fading of 

 science than its flourishing. When the mighty empire of Rome gave 

 way beneath the weight of its northern enemies, and a reign of bar- 

 barism took place of that of civilization, philosophy was for a time 

 enveloped in the same dark shadows, and its further progress, nay, 

 its very existence, seemed forbidden for ever. 



The revival of learning under Charlemagne and Alfred, and the 

 rapid progress of the Arabs under the caliphs, mark the commence- 

 ment of the fourth period. During this, the reign of scholastic philo- 

 sophy, a slow a very slow advance was made inhuman knowledge; 

 and for eight long centuries the gaudy show of subtleties vainly at- 

 tempted to supply the place of original ideas and bold conceptions. 



An extraordinary concourse of events determines the epoch at which 

 the last period commences, about the conclusion of the fifth and begin- 

 ning of the sixth centuries. Columbus added a new world to our old one. 

 The art of printing was discovered, and by its ready dissemination of 

 the opinions of individuals, the facilities it afforded for the promulga- 

 tion of truth, paved the way for the reformation of the church by 

 Luther and Calvin. The wisdom of Bacon and the skill of Galileo 

 belong also to this brilliant era. Original minds gave scope to the 

 breadth of their intellect, and opened for themselves new roads to 

 distinction. The arts of peace prevailed over the excitements of war, 

 and the gown of the student replaced the cloak of the soldier. Phi- 

 losophy again 'shone forth in all her ancient splendour, breaking 

 through the clouds and darkness of ignorance, like the sun through 

 the mists of the morning. This restoration once begun there seem 

 no limits set to the improvement of science, but those which divide 

 mortality from the divine essence. 



CHAPTER I. 



FIRST PERIOD. The Origin of Philosophy . 



PHILOSOPHY may be viewed in two lights : as a science, and as an 

 art. 



As a science its first object is the study of the moral and intellectual 

 nature of man : its second is the knowledge of the systems of all ex- 

 isting matter, the generality of the laws of the universe, and the con- 

 nection between cause and effect. 



Considered as an art its end is the application of the theories ob- 

 tained by it in its former character to practical purposes, and the 

 education and exercise of our faculties. 



