The truth is that critics seem to have been misled by a superficial analogy between the spiritualistic revival accomplished by Plotinus, and the Romantic revival which marked the beginning of the present century. The two movements have, no doubt, several traits in common; but there is this great difference between them, that the latter was, what the former was not, a reaction against individualism, agnosticism, and religious unbelief. The right analogy will be found not by looking forward but by looking back. It will then be seen that the Neo-Platonists were what their traditional name implies, disciples of Plato, and not only of Plato but of Aristotle as well. They stood in the same relation to the systems which they opposed as that in which the two great founders of spiritualism had stood to the naturalistic and humanist schools of their time—of course with whatever modifications of a common standpoint were necessitated by the substitution of a declining for a progressive civilisation. Like Plato also, they were profoundly influenced by the Pythagorean philosophy, with its curious combination of mystical asceticism and mathematics. And, to complete the analogy, they too found themselves in presence of a powerful religious reaction, against the excesses of which, like him, they at first protested, although with less than his authority, and only, like him, to be at last carried away by its resistless torrent. It is to the study of this religious movement that we must now address ourselves, before entering on an examination of the latest form assumed by Greek philosophy among the Greeks themselves. _Note._—It does not enter into the plan of this work to study the educational and social aspects of Greek philosophy under the Roman Empire. Those who wish for information on the subject should consult Capes’s _Stoicism_, Martha’s _Moralistes sous l’Empire Romain_, Renan’s _Marc-Aurèle_, chap, iii., Aubertin’s _Sénèque et Saint Paul_, Havet’s _Christianisme et ses Origines_, Vol. II., Gaston Boissier’s _Religion Romaine_, Duruy’s _Histoire Romaine_, chap, lxi., Friedländer’s _Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Rom’s_, Vol. III., chap. v. (5th ed.), and Bruno Bauer’s _Christus und die Cäsaren_. CHAPTER IV. THE RELIGIOUS REVIVAL.[305] I.