monsters around him. From this condition he developed 

 into a more civilised being, becoming an agriculturalist, 

 afterwards a manufacturer of stuffs and hardware, and 

 still later a member of an organised state. These changes 

 probably occupied hundreds of thousands of years, com- 

 pared to which enormous lapse of time the period 

 embraced between the Egypto-Greek or classic era and 

 the present moment is a mere speck on the face of time. 

 We are now tolerably well acquainted with the civilisa- 

 tion of the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, which had 

 existed for many centuries before the time of Aristotle, 

 and which some four or five centuries before our era had 

 commenced its entry upon the wide field of scientific 

 development which followed the conquest of Persia by 

 Alexander the Great. These civilisations, which for 

 centuries had been bound up with the vain superstitions 

 connected with the legion of divinities of Olympus, of 

 Memphis, and of Thebes, were gradually casting off the 

 yoke of ignorance, and becoming more acquainted with 

 the majesty of the operations of nature. Philosophers 

 began to publicly declaim against the Olympian absur- 

 dities, and to ridicule the notion of miracles or prodigies ; 

 traditions began to be doubted and were fast being cast 

 aside; Zeus and his court were ceasing to command 

 respect; and the priests were often publicly insulted. 

 The Ionian gods of Homer, as well as the Doric of 

 Hesiod, appeared likely to be quickly committed to the 

 darkness of oblivion. Powerful and influential resistance 

 was, of course, opposed to the wave of progress and 

 reason ; the philosophers were branded as Atheists and 

 their followers persecuted rigorously ; Euripides was de- 

 clared a heretic, and ^Eschylus narrowly escaped being 

 stoned to death for blasphemy. So great was the oppo- 

 sition offered to the movement that the philosophers 

 would undoubtedly have been silenced for some time to 

 come had it not been for the sudden military expedition 

 against the Persians. Alexander, with his 38,000 Mace- 

 donian soldiers, having crossed the Hellespont, B.C. 334, 

 proceeded to subjugate the imperious monarch of Persia, 

 and, after successfully conquering Asia x Minor and Syria, 

 completely defeated the Persian army led by King 

 Darius, and took possession of the great city of Babylon. 



