CONCLUSION 217 



breaking the mental habits of a thousand years, and in 

 forming a true conception of scientific relationships ? 



Compared with the empirical and fragmentary know- 

 ledge which the peoples of the East had laboriously 

 gathered during long centuries, Greek science con- 

 stitutes a veritable miracle. Here the human mind 

 for the first time conceived of the possibility of estab- 

 lishing a limited number of principles, and of deducing 

 from these a number of truths which are their rigorous 

 consequence. 



Beyond the fugitive data of sensation, the Greeks 

 sought for the relationships, which impress the mind 

 as being founded on fact and reason. They were the 

 first to make known the connection of thought and 

 language, and to notice the difference between reason- 

 ing and the facts on which it is based. 



This work, begun by Parmenides and the sophists, 

 was carried on by Socrates and Plato, and completed 

 by Aristotle. Parmenides caught a glimpse of a realm 

 of truth unshaken by changing opinions ; the sophists 

 laid the foundations of grammar ; Socrates established 

 the relationship which exists between the general idea 

 and particular ideas contained in it. Plato dis- 

 tinguished two dialectic processes in the realm of 

 thought, the one which proceeds from hypotheses to 

 consequences, the other which starting from hypotheses 

 goes back to the principles which justify them. Finally, 

 Aristotle, in the imposing edifice of his logic, co-ordinates 

 the results obtained by his predecessors. In no other 

 civilization and amongst no other nation do we find 

 any similar systematic and rational analysis of human 

 thought. 



Through this analysis the Greeks were led to visualize 

 in every science a matter and a form. The former 

 varies with the object peculiar to each science ; the 

 latter is found in every system of reasoned knowledge. 



By the form, a consequence is connected to its law 



