with intermediate beings, who are sometimes conceived of as metaphysical entities, and at other times appear as the demons of popular belief. This mental habit, which is connected with Plato and Pythagoras, among the older systems, forms the transition to Neoplatonism. The appearance of Neoplatonism introduces the last stage in the development of Greek philosophy. [(3) Religious School of Neoplatonists.] Yet even this turn in Greek philosophy was not uninfluenced by the circumstances of the times. Since the end of the second century after Christ, the decline of the Roman Empire progressed apace. Dread of the dangers which threatened it on all sides, the pressure of the times and distress made startling progress. All means of defence hitherto employed had proved unavailing to stem destruction. With ruin everywhere impending, the desire and longing for higher assistance increased. No such assistance was forthcoming from the old gods of Rome or the religious faith of the day; despite which circumstances were daily becoming more hopeless. Then it was that the desire for foreign forms of worship which had been gradually spreading over the Roman world since the last days of the Republic, and which the circumstances of the Empire had stimulated, gained ground. That desire was favoured by the highest power in the state, under the Oriental and half Oriental emperors who for nearly half a century after Septimius Severus occupied the imperial throne. The state and the gods of the state were continually losing their hold on the respect of men. Meanwhile, on the one hand, Oriental worships, mysteries old and new, and foreign heathen religions of the most varying kinds, were ever gaining fresh adherents. On the other, Christianity was rapidly acquiring a power which enabled it openly to enter the lists for supremacy among the recognised religions of the state. The powerful monarchs who about the middle of the third century attempted to refound the Empire, had not for their object to restore a specifically Roman form of government, but to bring the various elements which composed the Empire under one sovereign will by fixed forms of administration. In this attempt Diocletian and Constantine succeeded. The Roman character asserted itself, as a ruling and regulating power, but it did so under the influence of another originally foreign character. The Empire was a congeries of nations artificially held together, and arranged on a carefully-designed plan; its centre of gravity lay not within the nation, but in the simple will of the prince, himself exalted above all rules and laws of state, and deciding everything without appeal and without responsibility.