Ghazzali's Alchemy of Happiness. 



39 



as illustrating the intellectual life and the philosophical 

 schools of the Mohammedans. Still his writings were less 

 known than either of the two others. His principal work, 

 The Destruction of the Philosophers, called forth in reply 

 one of the two most important works of Averroes entitled 

 The Destruction of the Destruction. Averroes, in his com- 

 mentary upon Aristotle, extracts from Ghazzali copi- 

 ously for the purpose of refuting bis views. A short treatise 

 of his had been published at Cologne, in 1506, and Pocock 

 had given in Latin his interpretation of the two funda- 

 mental articles of the Mohammedan creed. Von Hammer 

 printed in 1838, at Vienna, a translation of a moral essay, 

 Eyuha el Weled, as a new year's token for youth. 



It has been reserved to our own times to obtain a more 

 intimate acquaintance with Ghazzali, and this chiefly by 

 means of a translation by M. Pallia, into French, of his Con- 

 fessions, wherein he announces very clearly his philosophic- 

 al views; and from an essay on his writings by M. Smolders. 

 In consequence, Mr. Lewes, who in his first edition of the 

 Biographical History of Philosophy, found no place for Ghaz- 

 zali, is induced in his last edition, from the evidence which 

 that treatise contains that he was one of the controlling 

 minds of his age, to devote an entire section to an exhibi- 

 tion of his opinions in the same series with Abelard and 

 Bruno, and to make him the typical figure to represent 

 Arabian philosophy. For a full account of Ghazzali's 

 school of philosophy, we refer to his history and to the two 

 essays, just mentioned. We would observe, very briefly how- 

 ever, that like most of the learned Mohammedans of his age, 

 he was a student of Aristotle. While they regarded all 

 the Greek philosophers as infidels, they availed themselves 

 of their logic and their principles of philosophy to maintain, - 

 as far possible, the dogmas of the Koran. Ghazzali's mind 

 possessed however Platoniziug tendencies, and he affi- 

 liated himself to the Soofies or Mystics in his later years. 



