146 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



not from the study of nature, but from what lay much 

 closer to them the observation of men. Their theories 

 accordingly took an anthropomorphic form. To super- 

 sensual beings, which, " however potent and invisible, 

 were nothing but a species of human creatures, perhaps 

 raised from among mankind, and retaining all human 

 passions and appetites," 1 were handed over the rule and 

 governance of natural phenomena. 



Tested by observation and reflection, these early no- 

 tions failed in the long run to satisfy the more penetrating 

 intellects of our race. Far in the depths of history we 

 find men of exceptional power differentiating themselves 

 from the crowd, rejecting these anthropomorphic notions, 

 and seeking to connect natural phenomena with their phy- 

 sical principles. But, long prior to these purer efforts 

 of the understanding, the merchant had been abroad, and 

 rendered the philosopher possible; commerce had been 

 developed, wealth amassed, leisure for travel and specula- 

 tion secured, while races educated under different condi- 

 tions, and therefore differently informed and endowed, 

 had been stimulated and sharpened by mutual contact. 

 In those regions where the commercial aristocracy of 

 ancient Greece mingled with their Eastern neighbors, the 

 sciences were born, being nurtured and developed by free- 

 thinking and courageous men. The state of things to be 

 displaced may be gathered from a passage of Euripides 

 quoted by Hume. "There is nothing in the world; no 

 glory, no prosperity. The gods toss all into confusion; 

 mix everything with its reverse, that all of us, from our 

 ignorance and uncertainty, may pay them the more wor- 



1 Hume, "Natural History of Religion." 



