had but little taste for it, still its truths were systematized and explained by Cicero, and formed no small accession to the treasures with which cultivated intellects sought everywhere to be enriched.  It formed an essential part of the intellectual wealth of the civilized world, when civilization could not prevent the world from falling into decay and ruin.  And as it was the noblest triumph which the human mind, under Pagan influences, ever achieved, so it was followed by the most degrading imbecility into which man, in civilized countries, was ever allowed to fall.  Philosophy, like art, like literature, like science, arose, shone, grew dim, and passed away, leaving the world in night.  Why was so bright a glory followed by so dismal a shame?  What a comment is this on the greatness and littleness of man!

In all probability the development of Greek philosophy originated with the Ionian Sophoi, though many suppose it was derived from the East.  It is questionable whether the Oriental nations had any philosophy distinct from religion.  The Germans are fond of tracing resemblances in the early speculations of the Greeks to the systems which prevailed in Asia from a very remote antiquity.  Gladish sees in the Pythagorean system an adoption of Chinese doctrines; in the Heraclitic system, the influence of Persia; in the Empedoclean, Egyptian speculations; and in the Anaxagorean, the Jewish creeds.  But the Orientals had theogonies, not philosophies.  The Indian speculations aim at an exposition of ancient revelation.  They profess to liberate the soul from the evils of mortal life,—­to arrive at eternal beatitudes.  But the state of perfectibility could be reached only by religious ceremonial observances and devout contemplation.  The Indian systems do not disdain logical discussions, or a search after the principles of which the universe is composed; and hence we find great refinements in sophistry, and a wonderful subtilty of logical discussion, though these are directed to unattainable ends,—­to the connection of good with evil, and the union of the Supreme with Nature.  Nothing seemed to come out of these speculations but an occasional elevation of mind among the learned, and a profound conviction of the misery of man and the obstacles to his perfection.  The Greeks, starting from physical phenomena, went on in successive series of inquiries, elevating themselves above matter, above experience, even to the loftiest abstractions, until they classified the laws of thought.  It is curious how speculation led to demonstration, and how inquiries into the world of matter prepared the way for the solution of intellectual phenomena.  Philosophy kept pace with geometry, and those who observed Nature also gloried in abstruse calculations.  Philosophy and mathematics seem to have been allied with the worship of art among the same men, and it is difficult to say which more distinguished them,—­aesthetic culture or power of abstruse reasoning.