CAUSE OF ITS FAILURE. 81 



want of classification of facts ; but because the clas- 

 sification was one in which no real principle was 

 contained. 



4. Since, as we have said before, two things are 

 requisite to science, Facts and Ideas; and since, as 

 we have seen, Facts were not wanting in the physical 

 speculations of the ancients, we are naturally led to 

 ask, Were they then deficient in Ideas ? Was there 

 a want among them of mental activity, and logical 

 connexion of thought? But it is so obvious that 

 the answer to this inquiry must be in the negative, 

 that we need not dwell upon it. No one who 

 knows anything of the history of the ancient Greek 

 mind, can question, that in acuteness, in ingenuity, 

 in the power of close and distinct reasoning, they 

 have never been surpassed. The common opinion, 

 which considers the defect of their philosophical 

 character to reside rather in the exclusive activity 

 of such qualities, than in the absence of them, is at 

 least so far just. 



5. We come back again, therefore, to the ques- 

 tion, What was the radical and fatal defect in the 

 physical speculations of the Greek philosophical 

 schools ? 



To this I answer : The defect was, that though 

 they had in their possession Facts and Ideas, the 

 Ideas were not distinct and appropriate to the 

 Facts (D). 



The peculiar characteristics of scientific ideas, 

 which I have endeavoured to express by speaking 

 VOL. i. G 



