Affiliation of the Arabians with the Nestorians and Jews. 1st. The Nestorians, their Persecutions, and the diffusion of their Sectarian Sub-digression on Greek Medicine.-The Asclepions.-Philosophical Im- Sub-digression on Egyptian Medicine.-It is founded on Anatomy and Physiology. Dissections and Vivisections.-The great Alexandrian 2nd. The Jewish Physicians.-Their Emancipation from Superstition.- The contemporary Tendency to Magic, Necromancy, the Black Art.-The The Arabs originate scientific Chemistry.-Discover the strong Acids, Phosphorus, etc.-Their Geological Ideas.—Apply Chemistry to the Practice of Medicine.-Approach of the Conflict between the Saracenic Origin of IMAGE-WORSHIP.--Inutility of Images discovered in Asia and Africa during the Saracen Wars.-Rise of Iconoclasm. The Emperors prohibit Image-worship.—The Monks, aided by Court Fe- males, sustain it.-Final Victory of the latter. Image-worship in the West sustained by the Popes.-Quarrel between the Emperor and the Pope.—The Pope, aided by the Monks, revolts and allies himself with the Franks. THE MONKS.-History of the Rise and Developement of Monasticism.— Hermits and Coenobites.-Spread of Monasticism from Egypt over Eu- rope.-Monk Miracles and Legends.-Humanization of the Monastic Establishments.-They materialize Religion, and impress their Ideas on ' ERRATUM.-Page 23, line 4 from top, for "not easily accessible," read "not only easily accessible." THE INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPEMENT OF EUROPE. I CHAPTER I. ON THE GOVERNMENT OF NATURE BY LAW. INTEND, in this work, to consider in what manner the The subject advancement of Europe in civilization has taken place, to ascertain how far its progress has been fortuitous, and how far determined by primordial law. Does the procession of nations in time, like the erratic phantasm of a dream, go forward without reason or order? or, is there a predetermined, a solemn march, in which all must join, ever moving, ever resistlessly advancing, encountering and enduring an inevitable succession of events? proposed. ty and In a philosophical examination of the intellectual and poli- Its difficultical history of nations, an answer to these questions is to be grandeur. found. But how difficult it is to master the mass of facts necessary to be collected, to handle so great an accumulation, to arrange it in the clearest point of view! how difficult it is to select correctly the representative men, to produce them in the proper scenes, and to conduct successfully so grand and complicated a drama as that of European life! Though in one sense the subject offers itself as a scientific problem, and in that manner alone I have to deal with it, in another it swells into a noble epic,—the life of humanity, its warfare and repose, its object and its end. VOL. I. B Individual life of a Man is the archetype of society. Individual developement is the model of social progress. Some have asserted that human affairs are altogether determined by the voluntary action of men; some, that the Providence of God directs us in every step; some, that all events are fixed by Destiny. It is for us to ascertain how far each of these affirmations is true. The life of individual man is of a mixed nature. In part mixed kind. he submits to the free-will impulses of himself and others, in part he is under the inexorable dominion of law. He insensibly changes his estimate of the relative power of each of these influences as he passes through successive stages. In the confidence of youth he imagines that very much is under his control; in the disappointment of old age, very little. As time wears on, and the delusions of early imagination vanish away, he learns to correct his sanguine views, and prescribes a narrower boundary for the things he expects to obtain. The realities of life undeceive him at last, and there steals over the evening of his days an unwelcome conviction of the vanity of human hopes. The things he has secured are not the things he expected. He sees that a Supreme power has been using him for unknown ends, that he was brought into the world without his own knowledge, and is departing from it against his own will. It foreshadows Whoever has made the physical and intellectual history of social life. individual man his study, will be prepared to admit in what a surprising manner it foreshadows social history. The equilibrium and movement of humanity are altogether physiological phenomena. Yet not without hesitation may such an opinion be frankly avowed, since it is offensive to the pride, and to many of the prejudices and interests of our age. An author who has been disposed to devote many years to the labour of illustrating this topic, has need of the earnest support of all who prize the truth; and, considering the extent and profundity of his subject, his work, at the best, must be very imperfect, requiring all the forbearance and even the generosity of criticism. In the intellectual infancy of a savage state, Man transfers The Idea of Government by Law. 3 nions of to Nature his conceptions of himself, and, considering that First opieverything he does is determined by his own pleasure, regards savage life. all passing events as depending on the arbitrary volition of a superior but invisible power. He gives to the world a constitution like his own. The tendency is necessarily to superstition. Whatever is strange, or powerful, or vast, impresses his imagination with dread. Such objects are only the outward manifestations of an indwelling spirit, and therefore worthy of his veneration. After Reason, aided by Experience, has led him forth from these delusions as respects surrounding things, he still clings to his original ideas as respects objects far removed. In the distance and irresistible motions of the stars he finds arguments for the supernatural, and gives to each of those shining bodies an abiding and controlling genius. The mental phase through which he is passing permits him to believe in the exercise of planetary influences on himself. govern law. But as reason led him forth from fetichism, so in due time Fetichism displaced it again leads him forth from star-worship. Perhaps not by starwithout regret does he abandon the mythological forms he worship. has created; for, long after he has ascertained that the planets are nothing more than shining points, without any perceptible influence on him, he still venerates the genii once supposed to vivify them, perhaps even he exalts them into immortal gods. Philosophically speaking, he is exchanging by ascending The idea of degrees his primitive doctrine of arbitrary volition for the ment by doctrine of law. As the fall of a stone, the flowing of a river, the movement of a shadow, the rustling of a leaf, have been traced to physical causes, to like causes at last are traced the revolutions of the stars. In events and scenes continually increasing in greatness and grandeur, he is detecting the dominion of law. The goblins, and genii, and gods who successively extorted his fear and veneration, who determined events by their fitful passions or whims, are at last displaced by the noble conception of one Almighty Being, who rules the universe according to reason, and therefore according to law. In this manner the doctrine of government by law is extended, until at last it embraces all natural events. It was |