176 ESSAYS SCIENTIFIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL. 



the positive laws and the conventionalities of 

 Confucianism, we find the same idea of reason 

 as the great balancing power of life, and the 

 doctrine of the Mean the centre of its moral 

 theory. 



There was a time when historians of Greek 

 philosophy used to point out what were considered 

 to be the characteristics of Greek thought, and 

 then to put down to " Oriental influence " anything 

 which did not at once agree with these character- 

 istics. How and through what channels this 

 " Oriental influence " was exercised, it was never 

 easy to determine, nor was it always thought 

 worthy of much discussion. In recent times, 

 however, a greater knowledge of Eastern systems 

 has familiarized us with much which, on the same 

 principle, ought to be attributed to " Greek in- 

 fluence." And the result has been that we have 

 learned to put aside theories of derivation, and 

 to content ourselves with tracing the evolution 

 of reason and of rational problems, and to expect 

 parallelisms even where the circumstances are 

 widely different 



We used to be told that the Greek mind, in its 

 speculation and its art, was characterized by its 

 love of order, harmony, and symmetry, in contrast 

 with the monstrous creations of the Oriental 

 imagination, and the "colossal ugliness of the 

 Pyramids ; " and it was said with reason that the 



