280 THE PROBLEM OF KNOWLEDGE 



There is perhaps no more fascinating chapter in 

 the history of humanity than the slow and tortu 

 ous processes by which the ideas set in motion by 

 that Athenian citizen who faced death as serenely 

 as he conversed with a friend, finally became the 

 intellectually organizing centers of the two great 

 movements that bridge the span between ancient 

 civilization and modern. As the personal and im 

 mediate force and enthusiasm of the movement 

 initiated by Jesus began to grow fainter and the 

 commanding influence of his own personality com 

 menced to dim, the ideas of the world and of 

 life, of God and of man, elaborated in Greek 

 philosophy, served to transform moral enthusiasm 

 and personal devotion to the redemption of hu 

 manity, into a splendid and coherent view of the 

 universe ; a view that resisted all disintegrating in 

 fluences and gathered into itself the permanent 

 ideas and progressive ideals thus far developed in 

 the history of man. 



We have only a faint idea of how this was ac 

 complished, or of the thoroughness of the work 

 done. We have perhaps even more inadequate 

 conceptions of the great organizing and central 

 izing work done by Greek thought in the political 

 sphere. When the military and administrative 

 genius of Rome brought the whole world in sub 

 jection to itself, the most pressing of practical 

 problems was to give unity of practical aim and 



