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CHAPTER IV. 

 OF THE DOGMATISM OF THE STATIONARY PERIOD. 



IN speaking of the character of the age of com- 

 mentators, we noticed principally the ingenious 

 servility which it displays; the acuteness with 

 which it finds ground for speculation in the ex- 

 pression of other men's thoughts ; the want of all 

 vigour and fertility in acquiring any real and new 

 truths. Such was the character of the reasoners of 

 the stationary period from the first ; but, at a later 

 day, this character, from various causes, was modi- 

 fied by new features. The servility which had 

 yielded itself to the yoke, insisted upon forcing it 

 on the necks of others ; the subtlety which found all 

 the truth it needed in certain accredited writings, 

 resolved that no one should find there, or in any 

 other region, any other truths; speculative men 

 became tyrants without ceasing to be slaves; to 

 their character of commentators they added that of 

 dogmatists. 



1. Origin of the Scholastic Philosophy. The 

 causes of this change have been very happily ana- 

 lyzed and described by several modern writers 1 . 



1 Dr. Hampden, in the Life of Thomas Aquinas, in the Encyc. 

 Metrop. Degerando, Hist. Comparee, vol. iv. Also Tennemann, 

 Hist, of Phil. vol. viii. Introduction. 



