38 



THE GREEK SCHOOL PHILOSOPHY. 



proceeded to seek their philosophical doctrines by 

 studying such notions. They ought to have reformed 

 and fixed their usual conceptions by Observation ; 

 they only analyzed and expanded them by Reflec- 

 tion: they ought to have sought by trial, among the 

 Notions which passed through their minds, some 

 one which admitted of exact application to Facts ; 

 they selected arbitrarily* and, consequently, erro- 

 neously, the Notions according to which Facts 

 should be assembled and arranged : they ought to 

 have collected clear Fundamental Ideas from the 

 world of things by inductive acts of thought ; they 

 only derived results by Deduction from one or 

 other of their familiar Conceptions (B). 



When this false direction had been extensively 

 adopted by the Greek philosophers, we may treat 

 of it as the method of their Schools. Under that 

 title we must give a further account of it. 



