"Sed omnem sermonis elegantiam, et Latini sermonis venustatem, stridor lectionis Hebraicæ sordidavit. Nostis enim et ipsæ" (_i.e._ Paula and Eustochium, to whom his letter is addressed) "quod plus quam quindecim anni sunt, ex quo in manus meas nunquam Tullius, nunquam Maro, nunquam Gentilium literarum quilibet Auctor ascendit: et si quid forte inde, dum loquimur, obrepit, quasi antiqua per nebulam somnii recordamur. Quod autem profecerim ex linguæ illius infatigabili studio, aliorum judicio derelinquo: _ego quid in meâ amiserim, scio_ . . . Si quis eloquentiam quærit vel declamationibus delectatur, habet in utrâque linguâ Demosthenem et Tullium, Polemonem et Quintilianum. Ecclesia Christi non de Academiâ et Lyceo, sed de vili plebeculâ congregata est. . . . Quotusquisque nunc Aristotelem legit? Quanti Platonis vel libros novêre vel nomen? Vix in angulis otiosi eos senes recolunt. Rusticanos vero et piscatores nostros totus orbis loquitur, universus mundus sonat."] CONTENTS. PRE-SOKRATIC PHILOSOPHY. CHAPTER I. Speculative Philosophy in Greece, before and in the time of Sokrates. Change in the political condition of Greece during the life of Plato 1 Early Greek mind, satisfied with the belief in polytheistic personal agents, as the real producing causes of phenomena 2 Belief in such agency continued among the general public, even after the various sects of philosophy had arisen 3 Thales, the first Greek who propounded the hypothesis of physical agency in place of personal. Water, the primordial substance, or [Greek: a)rchê/] 4 Anaximander--laid down as [Greek: a)rchê/] the Infinite or Indeterminate--generation of the elements out of it, by evolution of latent, fundamental contraries--astronomical and geological doctrines _ib._ Anaximenes--adopted Air as [Greek: a)rchê/]--rise of substances out of it, by condensation and rarefaction 7 Pythagoras--his life and career--Pythagorean brotherhood--great political influence which it acquired among the Greco-Italian cities--incurred great enmity, and was violently put down 8 The Pythagoreans continue as a recluse sect, without political power 9 Doctrine of the Pythagoreans--Number the Essence of Things _ib._ The Monas--[Greek: a)rchê/], or principle of Number--geometrical conception of number--symbolical attributes of the first ten numbers, especially of the Dekad 11 Pythagorean Kosmos and Astronomy--geometrical and harmonic laws guiding the movements of the cosmical bodies 12 Music of the Spheres 14 Pythagorean list of fundamental Contraries--Ten opposing pairs _ib._ Eleatic philosophy--Xenophanes 16 His censures upon the received Theogony and religious rites _ib._ His doctrine of Pankosmism; or Pantheism--the whole Kosmos is Ens Unum or God--[Greek: E(\n kai\ Pan]. Non-Ens inadmissible 17 Scepticism of Xenophanes--complaint of philosophy as unsatisfactory 18 His conjectures on physics and astronomy _ib._