MAN OF SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHER. 251 



never arrived at a systematic dialectically conducted phi 

 losophy &quot; a fact of much significance; for I may remark 

 in passing that among oriental peoples at large, and other 

 peoples long habituated to despotic control, thinking and 

 teaching are entirely dogmatic: absolute authority charac 

 terizes at once external government and internal govern 

 ment. It is only on passing to partially-free societies that 

 we meet with appeals to individual judgments a giving of 

 reasons for beliefs. 



Apparently because Greece was a congeries of independ 

 ent states often at variance with one another, and because 

 these states had their respective religious worships akin but 

 not identical, there never arose in Greece a priestly hier 

 archy ; and apparently the lack of one impeded some of the 

 professional developments. Partly, perhaps, for this rea 

 son, but chiefly for the reason that scientific progress in 

 Egypt and Assyria preceded Greek civilization, science in a 

 slightly developed state was imported. Sir G. C. Lewis re 

 peats the testimonies of sundry ancient authors to the effect 

 that the Egyptian priests 



&quot;regarded their astronomical science as an esoteric and mysterious 

 doctrine, and that they disclosed it to curious strangers with reluctance 

 (Strab., xvii, 1. 29). . . . Similar statements are made with respect 

 to Assyrian astronomy (Plat. Epinom. 7, p. 987). This derivation 

 does not rest merely on general declarations, but it is fortified by 

 detailed accounts of visits of Greek philosophers to Egypt, to Assyria, 

 and to other oriental countries, made for the purpose of profiting by 

 the lessons of the native priests and sages.&quot; Thus Thales, Pherecydes 

 of Syros, Pythagoras, Democritus, (Enopides of Chios, Eudoxus, 

 Solon, Anaxagoras, Plato are said to have visited Egypt, and to have 

 received instruction from the priests. 



And from his work may be added this further passage: 

 &quot; Aristotle . . . says that mathematical science originated 

 in Egypt, on account of the leisure which the priests en 

 joyed for contemplation. 7 Respecting which statement 

 may be interposed the remark that whether the name &quot; ge 

 ometry &quot; was a translation of the Egyptian equivalent word 



