THE PATH OF EVOLUTION 



heretical and were punished as such. Ethics and 

 morality were under the same jurisdiction, and needed 

 no extraneous advice. The metaphysics of Aristotle, 

 and later of Plato, in their association with theology 

 were restricted to the consideration of the abstract 

 nature of being : that all substances consisted of the 

 Form the ideal or spiritual existence united with 

 a gross, inert Matter, in itself devoid of all properties 

 whatever. The doctrines of the nature of the Uni- 

 versals; the question whether all things existed in 

 the abstract or in the individual ; whether man, for 

 instance, had an abstract or real being, not merely a 

 verbal one, as apart from any individual man, was 

 the subject matter of endless argument and fierce dis- 

 pute, far beyond even the last days of Scholasticism. 



According to Plato, Socrates says: "He is the 

 wisest of men who, like Socrates, knows well that he 

 is in truth worthless, so far as wisdom is concerned. 

 (Apology, C. 9.) The really disgraceful ignorance is 

 to think that you know what you really do not 

 know." (Apology, C. 17.) Modern science teaches 

 us the same lesson. We think we have learned much. 

 We have gathered many facts regarding phenomena, 

 but the more learning we have the more conscious 

 we become that of absolute knowledge we have noth- 

 ing ! 



It is only when we attempt to define accurately the 



