latively, it is a step in the ladder which reaches to heaven: for although the philosophy of every country has had its birth, and growth, and decay, the universal philosophy of the world has been a mighty and glorious progression-a continual brightening of the light which lighteth humanity towards the golden age. THE history of philosophy is an inquiry | aspects: considered absolutely, it is a cirinto its historical causes: it has two cle returning upon itself; considered rebranches one general, embracing the connection of the whole series of philosophical systems from the birth of thought until now-the other particular, restricting itself to some one period or country. And thus the history of philosophy may be represented as a series of cycles linked with one another more or less slenderly; as a grand historical catena, which binds into unity the whole line of thinkers from Pythagoras to Hegel, and gives us not only the facts which philosophy has evolved, but also the laws of philosophical development. Each cycle has thus two * Essai sur les Ecoles Philosophiques chez les It is under these two aspects that we propose to consider the schools of Arabia: in themselves, as the philosophical development of a particular people in relation, as a result and a cause, whose influence reaches even to ourselves. For the sake of clearness in a subject where confusion is easy, we shall treat the latter of these aspects as fully as our limits will 11 |