Vi PEEFACE. 



of repetition and of variation in the plan of execution. Nor is 

 it pretended that they furnish a complete and uninterrupted 

 history of philosophy. Still it is believed that the reader, 

 while making himself acquainted with the lives of some of the 

 most remarkable men of ancient times, will acquire a tolerable 

 notion of the chief phases that speculative opinion presented 

 in the ancient world; and that what the picture thus loses in 

 point of uniformity and continuity, it gains in reality and clear- 

 ness. 



It is almost unnecessary to speak of the important place that 

 Greek and Roman Philosophy holds in the history of intellectual 

 progress. "Whatever has been done since had its spring in the 

 speculative energy of Greece; and the present position of phi- 

 losophy cannot be rightly understood without making ourselves 

 acquainted with the speculations of the men with whom it 

 originated. 



The intelligent reader will perceive the deficiencies and errors 

 of the different systems of doctrine here sketched without 

 having them pointed out to him at every step ; nor will he less 

 recognise and admire the genius of the men, though they ad- 

 vanced many things that, in the light of the nineteenth century 

 of the Christian era, may seem wrong or were ridiculous. 



