CHAPTER IV.
PHILOSOPHY.
Greekphilosophy was early divided into two great systems represented by Plato and Aristotle. The first gathered the moral beauty of his age into his teaching, and was the progenitor of moralists; while the second, who came upon the central highway of civilization at a later period, expressed the other half of the mental world, and was the patriarch of natural philosophers. The Platonists and Aristotleians were perpetuated in continuous but separate lines of disciples, until both schools had become quite degenerate in the third century before Christ, when they were mainly displaced during the Augustan age by the disciples of Zeno and Epicurus. Then began the dismemberment of Greek speculation, and the founder of the Academy, with his famous pupil and rival, the first of peripatetics, who in their joint action gave to philosophy all its parts, and constituted it a science, were virtually set aside. And yet portions of their several systems continually re-appeared in the multiform schools which subsequently arose; but so long as philosophical disquisition obtained in any sect, morals were an inheritance from Plato, and natural philosophy from Aristotle.
Stoicism and Epicureanism originated at nearly the same time, and were in violent struggle with each other until about a century before the Christian era. When at the lowest degree of exhaustion, they passed into Rome, and were cultivated without any speculative originality, but became in many instances a favorite recreation with men of might. The Periclean age had been filled by a philosophy which, without forgetting the universe and God, had especially a human and moral character. The age which followed was intensely practical, and borrowed only such speculative theories as were suitedto their martial and ambitious pursuits. The age of Augustus was characterized throughout by eclecticism in philosophy, and that not of the noblest kind. But the three great objects of thought, nature, man, God, were not overlooked; through the first the culminating point was reached, and as the epoch closed religious philosophy began to beam with auspicious light.
As in the realm of art, we found the absence of all true grandeur and simplicity, so will the facts appear in the department now under consideration. The sublime folly of Stoicism only leads to the baseness of Epicurean belief. Such will doubtless be observed down to the second century of Christian truth on earth, when there was no longer any thing great to think or act under the empire, and the only genial asylum for aspiring souls was the invisible world.
When Rome had become the centre of civilization, she possessed no native works adequate to the wants of the age. Greek literature and philosophy were introduced in systems greatly epitomized, to master which was deemed an accomplishment not to be hoped for by the common mind. Very few acquired that more adequate appreciation which Cato and Scipio, Atticus and Cicero possessed. In the early days of the Republic there were many illustrious examples of practical Stoicism; but the system of philosophy known by that name, though best adapted to the mental structure of that people, attained its highest development not until a late period under the empire. After the literary stores of Greece had been introduced, each system had its run, and the hardy discipline of the Porch was particularly admired.
Antisthenes, the founder of this Cynical sect, was born at Athens,B.C.420, of a Thracian mother. Hereditary character fitted the appropriate agent at the outset to mold the destinies of western hordes. From all accounts, the external conduct of Antisthenes was excessively absurd and extravagant; but in intellect he was respectable, and as a man, was in many respects superior to the generality of his followers. Unlike them, he never decried science and literature, but was himself an author; and he is said to have left behind him ten volumes of his works, though they have all now perished. According to Cicero, he maintained the unity of the supreme Being in opposition to popular polytheism, and that his writingswere valuable, rather as monuments of his sagacity than of his erudition.
Diogenes, bornB.C.414, was extremely licentious in early life, but at a later period, as is not uncommon, rushed to the opposite extreme of morose asceticism and fanatical mortification. All writers represent his temperament as being fervid and enthusiastic, and his humor as coarse as it was caustic. The fragmentary sayings of his which have been preserved exhibit a homely fierceness, in which it is difficult to say whether the character of sagacity or scurrility most predominates. Calling out once, "Men, come hither," and numbers flocking about him, he beat them all away with a stick, saying, "I called for men, and not varlets." Seeing some women hanged upon an olive tree, "I wish," remarked he, "that all trees bore the same fruit!" Such indiscriminate scoffing tended to repress the nobler impulses of our better nature, and to chill that enthusiasm without which nothing great or good was ever accomplished. It was an intrinsically mean spirit, clearly seen and well rebuked on the occasion referred to in the following anecdote: When Diogenes trod upon Plato's robe, and exclaimed, "I trample under foot the pride of Plato," the sage replied, "True, but it is with the greater pride of Diogenes."
Zeno was bornB.C.362, at Citium, on the coast of Cyprus. His father was engaged in commerce, and had imported some disquisitions written by the pupils of Socrates. The sparks from Athens fell where they kindled, and young Zeno soon devoted himself wholly to philosophy. The Cynic, Crates, prepared him for still maturer discipline under the tuition of Xenocrates and of Stilpo. After this protracted preparation, he opened a school of his own, and selected the Portico, a public edifice, ornamented with pictorial works by Polygnotus, Myco, and Pandamus. Hence the descriptive phrase in the history of philosophy of the Painted Porch, and the philosophers of the Porch. The regularity of life, severity of doctrine, and keenness of argument common to this new master, gave him great influence through a long life. He is said to have been tall in stature, thin in person, and abstemious, with a countenance by no means attractive. He died at the advanced age of ninety-eight. In his later period, Epicurus grew apprehensive of his perpetually growing fame, and was jealous of his moral superiority.
Cleanthes, bornB.C.320, greatly modified the doctrines of the Stoical school. He was originally a wrestler, and preserved through life much of that hardy vigor of body which qualified him for the functions of a gladiator. He was extremely poor, and whilst attending the school of Zeno by day, he was compelled to work at night to earn a scanty sustenance. It is related that his robust appearance, whilst apparently an idler, excited municipal suspicion; and when he was required to account for his mode of living, a gardener for whom he drew water, and a woman for whom he ground flour, came forward to attest his honest industry. He was not quick to invent, but was indefatigable to explore what others had taught. Fifty-six volumes are said to have been written by him, but none of them are now extant.
Chrysippus, born in Cilicia,B.C.280; and Posidonius, who diedB.C.135, were the chief links to extend this chain westward, and connect it with that great Stoic who arose on the remotest border of the Augustan age.
Lucius Annæus Seneca was born at Cordova, only eight years before Christ. His father was an eminent writer on rhetoric, some of whose productions are still extant. The son was delicate in health, but nothing could repress his love of research. He first studied the Peripatetic philosophy under Papirius Fabian, and afterwards, as far as a master who professed to despise all learning could teach, he learned the follies of the Cynics from Demetrius. By his father's request, Seneca then entered upon public life, and became a pleader at the bar. In this walk he so far distinguished himself as finally to become a distinguished favorite in the court of Claudius. But in consequence of some difficulty respecting Julia, the daughter of Germanicus, he fell into disgrace, and was banished to the island of Corsica. It is said that Agrippina, the mother of Nero, interceded in his behalf, and Seneca was recalled. On returning to Rome, he first became the tutor of Nero, and subsequently his minister. The wretched pupil, in the exercise of imperial suspicion, as false probably as it was murderous, caused his teacher and friend to be destroyed. From the exhausted and emaciated state of his frame, the death of Seneca is reported to have been a painful one. In the presence of his wife and other friends, he opened the veins of his arms and legs; and, as the processwas too slow, he ordered a draught of poison to be administered to him. Still lingering, he desired to be laid in a warm bath, and as he entered, he sprinkled the standers by, saying, "I offer this libation to Jupiter the deliverer." His vital blood then gushed forth, and he speedily expired.
Epictetus, whose living influence extended towards the end of the second century of the Christian era, was the great ornament of the Stoic school during the reigns of Domitian and Hadrian. He was born a slave, and was maimed in person, but obtained his manumission by excellence of conduct, and proved himself one of the best monitors of his age. Ten years later, the emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus came forth the next in succession to this illustrious slave among the ornaments of the Stoic school. The reign of this victorious and philosophic monarch forms part of the happy period in which the vast extent of the Roman empire has been characterized as having "been governed by absolute power under the guidance of virtue and wisdom." Antoninus early profited by the lessons of severe wisdom, and honored them by an exemplary life. In his palace he preserved the systematic regularity of a general, and in his camp he composed a great part of those philosophical meditations which have cast so much renown on his name. The lives of Cato and Brutus also, the one more formal and severe, as of a person evidently aiming to support a character, the other more genial and free, like one who had really caught the spirit of the old republican time, were molded strongly by the same creed. Both were true utterances of Roman Stoicism, and have thrown a splendor around the doctrine which it could never have obtained either from its first teachers or from Seneca and the rhetoricians who perpetuated its vitiating existence down to the lowest point of feebleness.
When Greek philosophy was introduced among the Romans, Stoicism was the most popular, but the creed of Epicurus was adopted by many distinguished men. The popular poem of Lucretius was a captivating recommendation of the system to many; and other writers, such as Horace and Atticus, Pliny the younger, and Lucian of Samosata, are known to have been of this school.
Epicurus was born in the island of Samos,B.C.341. When in his thirty-second year, he first opened a school at Mitylene, where,and at Lampsacus, he taught for five years. This was at the time when sophists and sensualists were wanted at Rome, and they were brought there as part of the spoils of the conqueror, to march, like other slaves, in his triumph, and furnish an additional luxury. When Rome had become politically dominant to the largest extent, she yet remained in arts and letters the humble pupil of Greece. Augustan literature, in all of its departments, was to a great degree borrowed from the Greek, but with every kind of derivative process, from servile translation to the most adroit adaptation. Lucretius, Catullus, Horace, Virgil, Cicero, were all indebted to Greek models, as well as Terence, Ovid, and Seneca, but each to a graduated extent. They all borrowed according to their wants, each one transforming his plunder with more or less originality, according to the powers of his mind. Philosophy at Rome emitted many sparks of light, fragments of moral truth, but left behind no symmetrical and consistent system except that of Epicurus, a creed formed on a plain so low that no declination could be made to appear. It has been remarked, that while of the eight teachers in the Porch, from Zeno to Posidonius, every one modified the doctrines of his predecessor; and while the beautiful philosophy of Plato had degenerated into dishonorable scepticism, the Epicurean system remained unchanged. This has been accounted for on the ground just mentioned, and also with reference to the power of that mental indolence which disposes the mind to rest contented with views that are comprehensible without reflection, and which are not inimical to the indulgence of lust. The more thoughtful Romans were obliged to take what they could get, and they adopted the late and degenerated systems of Greek philosophy for two reasons: first, they had a natural affinity for them, and secondly, they were incapable of appreciating the earlier and better schools. The doctrine of Epicurus attracted a crowd of partisans in the martial metropolis, in consequence of its accommodating character, and the indulgence it afforded to the most groveling desires. But very few of the Roman Epicureans distinguished themselves as philosophers, and not one advanced a step beyond the doctrines of his master.
Lucretius Carus, bornB.C.95, claims a place among philosophers as well as poets. In his time, the Epicurean principles obtained the greatest popularity, and that in no small degreethrough his own splendid talents. Consistently with his frigid atheism, and proud rejection of a superintending Providence, the perverted child of genius, who had risen on the breath of popular favor to the equestrian rank, died a wretched suicide when only forty-four years old.
We should not forget that the Epicureans, the Stoics, the Academics, and other sects, subsequent to the time of Alexander, are not to be spoken of as the Greek schools. They belong to a later and generally different age, in which little of philosophic worth was produced, and still less remains. Of Epicurus three letters are preserved by Diogenes Laertius; of Zeno, nothing; of Cleanthes, a single hymn to Jupiter; of the Academics, or New Platonists, a few traditions only.
The device on an old Roman coin, of Julius Cæsar bearing a book in one hand and a sword in the other, represents the genius of many a distinguished citizen of the Republic. Of such was Varro, for he was a soldier, and at the same time the most erudite of his countrymen. He was born at Rieti, near the celebrated cascade of Terni, in Italy. Cæsar appreciated the extensive learning of Varro, and entrusted to him the formation of the great public library. He was a man of ponderous information and unwearied industry, but without a spark of literary taste or philosophical genius. No Roman author wrote so much as he did, and, excepting Pliny, no one probably read so much; yet, notwithstanding all his learning and diligence, he has left nothing that is possessed of either superficial polish or substantial worth.
Not so Marcus Tullius Cicero. He was bornB.C.107, and in the realm of philosophy, as in eloquence, was the noblest Roman of them all. Like most young men of good family, he was instructed by Greek preceptors, and early occupied himself with ancient philosophy, directing his attention principally to the Academic and Stoic systems. Plato, Aristotle, and Epicurus engrossed his esteem by turns, as he was an eclectic in taste, and confined himself to no particular school. But his philosophical works, wrought upon the model of Plato, are the most valuable collection of interesting discussions on the grandest themes. In the era of Cicero, scepticism and dogmatism distracted the schools and destroyed the life of philosophy. As Sir James Mackintosh has said,"The Sceptics could only perplex, and confute, and destroy. Their occupation was gone as soon as they succeeded. They had nothing to substitute for what they overthrew; and they rendered their own art of no further use. They were no more than venomous animals, who stung their victims to death, but also breathed their last into the wound."
Cicero speculated after a mode which admitted of great freedom to his genius, controlled by no particular sect, but was at heart most interested in the severest principles, and became almost a Stoic. Doubtless that was the noblest school then extant, the most harmonious with the spirit of Rome, and which preserved her greatest citizens amid the dissoluteness and ferocity of her imperial career. The ennobling influence exerted by that system was exemplified while it exalted the slave of one of Nero's courtiers to become an efficient moral teacher, and breathed equity and mercy into the ordinary concerns of every man. Especially was it honored by the examples of Marcius Portius Cato, and of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, who did much to keep alive a loftier regard for virtue and truth throughout all time.
The historians of philosophy have often admired the memorable scenes in which Cæsar mastered a nobility of which Lucullus and Hortensius, Sulpicius and Catullus, Pompey and Cicero, Brutus and Cato, were members. From the time of Scipio, they had sought the Greek philosophy as an amusement or an ornament. The influence of the degenerate Grecian systems was exerted upon all the leading spirits of Rome during five centuries, from Carneades to Constantine. Cassius was an Epicurean, and so was the adroit time-server Atticus, the courtier of each fortunate tyrant of the hour, who could embrace Cicero in all the apparent frankness of true friendship, and then abandon him to kiss the hand of Anthony, imbrued in his blood. Marcus Brutus represented the nobler school of Plato; and if in a fearful crisis he trampled on all venerable precedents of justice to guard the sacred principle itself, it was the result of a direful necessity which he could neither avoid nor resist.
Krug, in his history of philosophy, admits only two divisions, those of ancient and modern. He assumes as the line of demarcation, the decline of government, manners, arts, and sciences, duringthe first five centuries of the Christian era. In the above rapid review, we have already passed the culminating point in pagan philosophy at Rome, in the age of Augustus and Cicero. When Alexander had annihilated the republican liberty of Greece, he opened the way for an active commerce between the East and the West, which greatly contributed to enlarge the sphere of the new type of dialectic science. From Periclean excellence, a progressive decline became observable in the spirit of philosophy, which was continuously directed to humbler objects, of a more pedantic character, in commentaries, and compilations without end. Thus Alexandria, from the time of the Ptolemies, became the point of departure whence all the remnants of ancient wisdom emigrated to the opening wilds of the West. Every thing was wisely arranged with this intent. Indian sages came there to meditate, and perceived the connection between their faith and the old Egyptian mysteries. The Persian, who had before waged war against those mysteries, at length declared his belief in the conflict of good and evil powers. Thither came a powerful colony of Jews, and not only built a temple in Egypt, but at the command of an Egyptian monarch the Jewish scriptures were translated into Greek. The same country where speculation began was destined to accumulate at the most favorable point the latest productions, amalgamated into a form exactly fitted to prospective uses, and then, through other agencies as wonderfully prepared be transmitted to the corresponding field. From Moses to Christ, every intellectual stream was made to be tributary to that central river; and from Christ to Constantine, the direction and destination are identical still. When Egypt became a Roman province, proof was given that there was something stronger in the world than Greek subtilty, and which in turn could be equally well subordinate to the ultimate good of mankind. Three Greeks, masters of the Peripatetic, Academic, and Stoic doctrines, were sent as hostages of war to Rome, at the same time that Lucullus and Sylla were enriching the Capitol with conquered libraries. The latter, after the capture of Athens,B.C.84, sent thither the collection of Apellicon, which was particularly rich in the works of Aristotle. It is worthy of special note that then and there the works of the great founder of later systems were first published. But simultaneously with the era when Greece had losther political existence, and Rome her republican constitution, the spirit of ancient research was exhausted, and a new philosophy arose from the decay of effete systems. A fresh dogmatical system was established by the New Platonists on a broader basis, in order to prop up the ancient religion, and to oppose a barrier to the rapid progress of the new, but which ended in the wildest metaphysical dreams. In the mean time, Christian teachers, who at first rejected and condemned Greek philosophy, ended by adopting it, in part at least, thus intending to complete and fortify their religious system. This work of fundamental preparation continued until the disunion of the eastern and western empires opened the way for the erection of that grand and romantic superstructure for which the world was by the above instrumentalities prepared.
It was well observed by Justin Martyr, "Those persons before the Christian era, who endeavored by the strength of human understanding to investigate and ascertain the nature of things, were brought into the courts of justice as impious and over-curious." But with the Messiah came more auspicious days, when on all sides schools arose whose ruling character was religious, and whose processes were no longer abstraction, but inspiration and illumination. Philo, born some years before Christ, and Numerius, two centuries after, both leaders of Jewish cabals; and the leading Gnostics, Simon Magus, Menander the Samaritan, and Corinthus, of the first century, as well as Saturninus, Basilides, Carpocrates, and Valentinus, of the second, all had an important preparatory work to perform. Plotinus and Porphyry, too, wrought a good work in their day. And when the apostate Julian, as the incarnated school of Alexandria, became the hero of mysticism, and ascended the throne of Rome, it was that thus he might more manifestly extinguish the lingering brilliancy of the East, and occasion a fairer unfolding in the West. With him and Proclus, sensualism and idealism ended, and Greek philosophy expired in giving birth to that new civilization which dates from the sixth century.
Modern scholars have searched through the voluminous commentators upon Aristotle, which the learned eclecticism of the third, fourth, and fifth centuries of our era produced, some of them still only existing in manuscript, but have found but little worthy of preservation. The time had come when one could no longerhear Plato, in his own silvery tongue, delivering that allegory which compares the human soul to a chariot with winged horses and driver, and which resolves its purest thoughts into reminiscences of a brighter life and nobler companionship. During the martial sway of imperial Rome, the beautiful philosophic fabric which the Greeks had fashioned, like the web of Penelope, was mutilated, defaced, and nearly destroyed.
The Romans were more arbitrary in their ideas than the Greeks, and much less inventive; they were neither as acute to demonstrate, nor as methodical to arrange the elements and results of knowledge. The literary medium of their theories was as declamatory as their notions were loose, and both their political and moral habits tended to obscure their dim conceptions of moral truth. The only redeeming quality amongst them, was national vigor, displayed mainly in warlike pursuits. From the first, the citizens of the Republic seem to have anticipated the attainment of universal empire, and they put forth endeavors commensurate with the presentiment they felt with regard to their destiny. Though unworthy to claim supremacy of esteem for any mental or philosophical enterprise of their own, it should be said to their credit, that they entertained a more vivid and enduring belief in the dignity and predetermined necessity of human advancement than was common to the Greeks. But national excellence in the realms of refined art and thought, was not to be expected while they assigned these pursuits chiefly to slaves. Virgil made one of his a poet; and Horace himself, like several inferior authors, was the son of a freedman. Leading philosophers and coarsest buffoons, the preceptor who taught, and the physician who healed, the architect who built, and the undertaker who buried, were all vassals. It has been said by the most valid authority, that not an avocation, connected with agriculture, manufactures, or education, can be named, but it was the patrimony of slaves.
Providence is to be honored by a grateful recognition of the part Rome performed in human advancement. Perpetual peace is the hypothesis of absolute immobility. But as progress is necessitated on the part of imperfect creatures in their perpetual approach towards perfection, war will be certain sometimes, and may always be profitable. War is the bloody exchange of ideas, shocksincident to the car of improvement. The truth which was victorious and absolute yesterday, becomes relatively false to-day, and will need to be conquered by a greater and more enduring truth to-morrow. That, in turn, will have to retreat before some superior good, and thus only can consummate excellence be attained. Great leaders, whether martial or mental, are but embodied ideas, actuating and transforming the ages; and every thing about them, even their death, is but a phenomenon of universal life. Platea and Salamis, Arbela and Pharsalia, were the great steps of democracy toward universal mastership. Victory always remains with the new spirit; and freedom, like truth, never can become old; they are in God, and thereby the final battle and widest conquest must eventually be secured. Not one great campaign was ever lost to humanity, nor ever will be. Every historical nation has had specific seed given it to sow, from the harvest of which succeeding nations have derived strength to cultivate a rougher, but richer, field. The scenery changes with each act performed, but the plot goes steadily on. God is making the tour of the world, and every new phase of civilization is an additional proof of a divinely identical plan.
The first great element of humanity which received a full development was beauty, the nearest in space, and most like in character, to Eden. The next was force, that which was most requisite to take up and carry forward the materials of after growth, and this was unfolded in a position the most central and adapted to its comprehensive design. The third element was science; the discriminating, purifying, enlarging, and consolidating power destined to bear the precious aggregation of lapsed cycles upon the immense stage whereon should be unfolded an amelioration the most complete, through the richest benefits both human and divine. It was not possible for these to have a simultaneous development, but were vouchsafed in their proper order, that they might best insure the highest result. An epoch is the period required by a given principle for its matured growth, and will be displaced by its successor through some form of revolution. When the commission assigned a timely idea is performed, it will be superseded because the advent of its superior has come; but the antiquated ever wars against the necessity of removal, and sees not that progressive destiny hasrendered it obsolete. Hence the need of constraint, sometimes through arguments, and sometimes through arms. But in every instance, the successor adds completeness to what went before, and all the diversity of epochs and arms conduce to but one and the same end. Wait the rising of the next curtain, if you would better understand the wisdom of the transpiring plot. If one asks why this or that nation came into the world, answer by noting what there was to do, what idea to represent, and what means to be employed. We have seen what Greece existed for, and there is no more mystery as to the mission of Rome. We give an explanation of her wars, but have no apology to offer in their behalf.
The evening of Greek philosophy threw a few beautiful rays over the dark and tempestuous domain of the Augustan age. Its early lessons taught the Roman generals to appreciate the mental treasures which lay upon the track of their remote campaigns, and mitigated the savageness of war with the amenities of moral excellence. The classical tour of Æmilius, and the more refined pursuits of Africanus, were greatly superior to the coarseness of the earlier Anitius and the ignorant Mummius. Still more enlightened was the age and its heroes, when Sylla enjoyed at Athens the refined conversation of Atticus, his political opponent, and bore about with him the inestimable writings of Aristotle. At the brief epoch of culmination, Cæsar, from the remotest provinces, corresponded with Cicero on philosophical topics; and Pompey, when he had accepted the submission of both the East and the West, lowered his fasces in reverence of the wisdom of Posidosius.
Cato deprecated the introduction of Greek philosophy into his country, because he foresaw that in learning to dispute upon all things, the Romans would end by believing in nothing. The result verified the foreboding. Though repeatedly banished from the metropolis, the degenerate philosophers triumphed over the resistance of laws, the wisdom of the senate, and the destinies of the eternal city. A few dreamers, armed with scepticism, accomplished what the world's entire force was unable to achieve; they conquered with opinions the superb Republic which had subjugated earth with arms, thus adding another fact confirmatory of the general truth, that all the empires which history has recognized as established by time and prudence, sophists have overthrown.When a false maxim becomes a ruling principle in popular opinion, the logic of nations, mightier than cannon, bears a fearful force for evil, as otherwise it is the most powerful agent of good. An individual may be made to recoil before conclusions, communities never. A fatal charm more potent than the horror of self-destruction entices them, and even in perishing they obey a general law, the inflexible rectitude of which can never be exhausted, whether applied to error or truth, and by virtue of which the upright are preserved until their goodness has been most widely and enduringly diffused. As every doctrine is composed necessarily of truth or error, usually a mixture of both, there is an influence for good or evil wrought upon the minds wherein it is received. But while falsehood may in some ages and places so accumulate as to work ruin to a degree, the mightier truth is in reserve which in due time will readjust the balance, and augment the good. False religion presided over the cradle of ancient nations, and false philosophy attended them to the tomb; nevertheless, each succeeding birth and death was a fresh ascent toward fairer realms and brighter hopes. The civilization of Rome was exceedingly imperfect. Much expense was employed to entertain the populace, but there was little virtue in their instruction. From all quarters of the known world crowds gathered in their theatres; literature and art flourished after a fashion, and extreme courtesy for a while added attractions to an effeminate and voluptuous philosophy. The people yielded to the blandishments so congenial to gross tastes, and their history celebrates a period of happiness such as Romans could enjoy, that characteristic felicity which began under the Triumvirate, and with Nero found a fitting end.
Greece developed individuality of the finest type, and Rome created a social compact on the grandest scale; but it was reserved for a yet further step in westward civilization to blend these two elements, personal independence and social loyalty, under the auspices of liberty governed by law. Neither the Greeks nor Romans had a separate term for institution, that truest exponent of modern society. But this grand conservative and redeeming power in due time appeared, when there arose, amidst the ruins of exhausted imperialism, a society both young and ardent, united in a firm and fruitful faith, inwardly gifted with preternatural power,and endowed with an unlimited capacity for external expansion. This was Christianity, the blessed philosophy of God on earth. The necessity of replying to heathen adversaries, and the desire of defining and enforcing the Christian doctrines, gradually led to the formation of a species of philosophy peculiar to Christianity, and which successively assumed different aspects, with respect to its principles and object. The spirit of Grecian philosophy thus transferred into the writings of the early fathers, in after times proved the material germ of original speculations. Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Arnobius, and Lactantius, first employed philosophy as an auxiliary to assist in winning over the more cultivated classes to the Christian religion. Subsequently it was turned to the refutation of heresies, and lastly applied to the elucidation and formal statement of the prevailing creed.
Most distinguished of his age was Aurelius Augustinus, bornA.D.354, at Tagaste in Africa. After having studied the scholastic philosophy, and became an ardent disciple of the Manicheans, he was converted to the orthodox faith under the preaching of Ambrose, at Milan,A.D.387, and eighteen years after was made bishop of Hippo. The religious philosophy of this great writer became the pivot of dogmatical science in the West, and has swayed the destinies of millions of minds from the time Justinian closed the classic schools, and the Gothic king Theodoric put Boethius, the last of the ancient philosophers, to death. Augustin, who ended the Augustan age of philosophy, while yet far from the great centre of the succeeding age, now sleeps at Pavia, in the very bosom of its domain. Such is the grand truth of universal history; all living greatness, and even the remains of the dead, move only toward the West.