38 TWO THEORIES OF KNOWLEDGE 



came in time to attempt to give an account not only 

 of the immediate objects which surround him, 

 but of the whole choir of Heaven and furniture of 

 Earth. In this advance the Greeks took a leading 

 part. 



When we first make acquaintance through 

 historical records with the intellectual activity 

 of the Greek mind, we find it engaged in the con- 

 struction of various such schemes for an explanation 

 of the world usually called cosmogonies. 



It was at this stage of intellectual progress that 

 what we might call an interruption occurred in the 

 normal process of evolution. Great intellectual 

 activity had for some time prevailed in the Greek 

 communities ; several men of conspicuous genius 

 notably Heracleitus and Parmenides had carried 

 speculation as to the origin and nature of the 

 world to a height hitherto undreamt of. These 

 achievements and the consciousness of continual 

 progress had engendered in Athens particularly 

 what might be called an epidemic of intellectual 

 pride. 



^ On this scene Socrates appeared, plain, blunt, 

 critical. His teaching was in effect an appeal to 

 men to reflect : to turn their attention away from 

 the world which they were supposed to be explaining 

 to the contemplation of their own Minds by which 



