Metaphysic Philosophy. 217 



But there came a time in the history of mankind 

 when some of the peoples changed their philosophy 

 — their explanation of the phenomena of the uni- 

 verse — by changing their methods of reasoning. 



Origin of Metaphysic Philosophy. 



T" 



From three to two thousand years ago, Europe, 

 Asia, and Africa established a commerce in ideas^ 

 an exchange in philosophies — carried on by the 

 navigation of the Mediterranean. During that and 

 some previous time there were built on the shores 

 of this sea many cities. Through the building of 

 these cities, and through the industries and arts 

 which sprang up therewith, society was reorganised 

 and placed upon a new basis — tribal society devel- 

 oped into national society — barbarism into civilisa- 

 tion. 



The peoples of these cities spoke diverse lan- 

 guages, and entertained diverse mythologic philoso- 

 phies. Through the intercourse which sprang up 

 between them, each learned of the philosophy of 

 the other, and the scholars of that day attempted 

 to discover in all of these diverse mythologies a 

 common body of truth upon the theory then widely 

 accepted, that they had all sprung from a common 

 source — a primitive philosophy itself the truth, — and 

 that all the philosophies then existing were degen- 

 erations therefrom. This line of investigation led 

 to a curious result. 



All of the mythologies of the cities of the Medi- 

 terranean were found to be baseless — each a fabric 



