74 THE GREEK SCHOOL PHILOSOPHY. 



required all the penetration of Newton and his fol- 

 lowers to detect this law in the scanty fragments 

 by which it is transmitted. 



Argument of this kind is palpably insufficient to 

 cover the failure of the Greek attempts at a general 

 physical philosophy; or rather we may say, that 

 such arguments, since they are as good as can be 

 brought in favour of such an opinion, show more 

 clearly how entire the failure was. I proceed now 

 to endeavour to point out its causes. 



Sect. 2. Cause of the Failure of the Greek Phy- 

 sical Philosophy. 



THE cause of the failure of so many of the at- 

 tempts of the Greeks to construct physical science 

 is so important, that we must endeavour to bring it 

 into view here; though the full developement of 

 such subjects belongs rather to the philosophy of in- 

 duction. The subject must, at present, be treated 

 very briefly. 



I will first notice some errors which may na- 

 turally occur to the reader's mind, as possible causes 

 of failure, but which, we shall be able to show, 

 were not the real reasons in this case. 



The cause of failure was not the neglect of facts. 

 It is often said that the Greeks disregarded experi- 

 ence, and spun their philosophy out of their own 

 thoughts alone ; and this is supposed by many to be 

 their essential error. It is, no doubt, true, that the 

 disregard of experience is a phrase which may be 



