THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 137 
authority of dogmatism. With the Greek, thought itself was specula- 
tive and democratic. ‘Thus, while the Orientals had succeeded in 
building up elaborate systems of divinity and morality, they were 
necessarily devoid of any real philosophic spirit. The Greeks, on 
the other hand, had already by their critical spirit laid the founda- 
tions of scientific research. What wonder, then, that this spirit, 
when brought into contact with the splendor and mysteries of the 
East, should be led to inquire more deeply into the origin and con- 
dition of being. 
The first stages of this inquiry necessarily were but an attempt 
to explain the existence of external nature. This involved two 
questions: 1. What one principle underlies the changing forms of 
of matter? 2. How does matter take its rise ? 
A full description of the theories of these early philosophers 
would be beyond the limits of the present paper. Suffice it to ob- 
serve that they constitute but an attempt to discover some material 
substance underlying the various forms of matter. This tendency 
of early philosophy was but a necessary result of that adoration of 
external nature common to all primitive races, but more particularly 
to those of the East. : 
The first attempt to trace back the many forms of matter to some 
form of unity was made by Thales. This philosopher saw in water 
the simple uncreated substance underlying nature. Anximander fol- 
lowed with his 40 agetvon, the everlasting and divine. This substance, 
however, was not attributed with spirit or intelligence. Anaximenes 
saw in air the first cause of all things, and the primary form of 
matter. “As our soul, which is air, holds us together, so spirit and 
air animate the universe.” 
We thus see in the philosophy of Anaximenes the first dawn of 
a philosophy of consciousness. Thus far, it will be seen, philosophy 
has been engaged in the futile task of discovering in external nature 
some ground of unity which in reality exists within the mind itself. 
The first to break away from this primitive position was 
Pythagoras, who saw in number both the form and substance of 
nature, or rather an identity of the two. The chief advance in this 
was the abstract turn given to philosophic thought, for, in the language 
of Plato, ‘“‘Mathematical attributes belong neither to the world of 
the senses nor to that of pure ideas.” The reason of this ad- 
vance may be found in the contact of early philosophy with 
