THE PATH OF EVOLUTION 



by addressing themselves to the heart of man, to his 

 sentiment of morality, and to his imagination, that 

 the ancient Hebrews sought to cherish and to propa- 

 gate the belief in the one Being the Creator of all 

 things. The existence of God, the spirituality of 

 the soul, the knowledge of good and evil, were not 

 with them the results of a series of syllogisms ; they 

 believed in God, the Creator, who had revealed Him- 

 self to their ancestors, and whose existence seemed to 

 be above the reasoning of men ; their moral faculties 

 flowed naturally to the conviction to the inward 

 sentiment of a just and good God." * 



It is impossible, nevertheless, to be in close contact 

 with the speculative minds of others, without an effect, 

 greater or less, on one's own mind. The doctrines 

 held by the Alexandrine Hebrews, and especially the 

 writings of Philo Judseus, show how strong this in- 

 fluence has been. The dialectics of Aristotle were 

 called upon to defend the Montecallemin doctrines of 

 the Karaite Hebrews (borrowed from those of the 

 Arabian Montecallemin), the object of which was to 

 establish the fundamentals of Judaism upon a philo- 

 sophical basis. 



The principal theses defended in the writings of 

 the Montecallemiu Karaites were : " The original 

 matter has not been from all eternity ; the world has 



*Ibid. P. 461. 

 18 



