THE WONDERS OF LIFE 



tinct idea of it The categorical imperative was sup- 

 posed to determine our moral sense and the distinction 

 between good and evil. In the further progress of his 

 ethical metaphysics Kant expressly urged that practical 

 reason should take precedence of theoretical — ^in other 

 words, that faith is superior to knowledge. In this way 

 he enabled theology and irrational faith to find a place 

 in his system and claim supremacy over all rational 

 knowledge of nature. 



The older Greek philosophy had been purely monistic, 

 Anaximander and his disciple Anaximenes (in the sixth 

 century b.c.) conceiving the world in the sense of our 

 modem hylozoism, but Plato introduced (two hundred 

 years afterwards) the dualistic view of things. The world 

 of bodies is real, accessible to our sensible experience, 

 changeable and transitory ; opposed to it is the world of 

 spirits, only to be reached by thought, supersensual, 

 ideal, immutable, and eternal. Material things, the 

 objects of physics, are only transient symbols of the 

 eternal ideas, which are the subject of metaphysics. 

 Man, the most perfect of all things, belongs to both 

 worlds; his material frame is mortal, the prison of the 

 immortal and invisible soul. The eternal ideas are only 

 embodied for a time in the world of bodies here below ; 

 they dwell eternally in the world of spirits beyond, 

 where the supreme idea (God, or the idea of the good) 

 controls all in perfect unity. The human soul, endowed 

 with free-will, is bound to develop the three cardinal 

 virtues (wisdom, fortitude, and prudence) by the cultiva- 

 tion of its three chief moral faculties (thought, courage, 

 and zeal). These fundamental principles of Plato's 

 teaching, systematically presented by his pupil Aristotle, 

 met with a very general acceptance, as they could easily 

 be combined with the teaching of Christianity which 

 arose four hundred years afterwards. The great maj ority 

 of later philosophic and religious systems followed the 



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