OUR OBLIGATIONS TO GREEK THOUGHT, 239 
also to abstract conceptions in endless variety; but the knowledge 
of early years affords the base and material of all subsequent 
modifications. And, in like manner, though the comparison is not 
perfect, it will be seen in a careful study of Greek philosophy, that 
during the period covered by its developments up to the days of 
Aristotle, it really occupies a position, relative to all subsequent 
speculations, similar to that of our early childhood to the intel- 
lectual operations of our succeeding years. Those thoughtful 
Greeks, as compared with other people, appear to have looked out 
for the first time on the great Objective, under the influence of a 
philosophic instinct, and to have grasped once for all the great 
problems destined to absorb the highest thought of coming genera- 
tions. In them arose the intense yearning for unity amidst 
conflicting diversity, which, from that day to this, has been the 
guiding spirit of all scientific toil, and the indestructible evidence, 
within the breast of the philosopher, of the existence of an 
all-comprehending law. With respect to the constitution of the 
physical and mental worlds, to them belongs the bonour of having 
beaten out, in spite of the lack of an antecedent literature, the 
principal paths along which our course must be taken if we would 
end our quest in the goal of a final solution. Possibly, amidst the 
wealth of our scientific appliances, the ample means at our disposal 
for minute verification of our hypotheses, and the remarkable 
practical issues in daily common life of our acquired mastery over 
many of nature’s secrets, we may at first be half inclined to look, 
with feelings bordering on contempt, upon the ancient Greek cos- 
mogonies. But a closer inspection of the facts of the case will 
reveal to us that the noble passion for scientific precision and unity, 
so characteristic of our age, has been transmitted through the 
contagion of Greek feeling in higher literature, and that nearly 
every theory of the ultimate constitution of the Kosmos, advocated 
within the last two hundred years, is but an enlargement, and not 
always an improvement, upon the systems propounded by the Greeks. 
It is unfortunate for us that we have, in most instances, the conclu- 
sion arrived at, with only slight indications of the processes of which 
they were the issue. Yet it may suffice for our purpose just to 
notice the remarkable similarity between some of the ancient and 
modern theories. 
Take the system of Pythagoras, which is said to have postulated 
Number as the dpyy of all things—one being the essence of Number. 
