livering thus emphatically my own views on this profound topic
perhaps I do wrong. It is becoming to speak with humility on that which
has been glorified by the great writers of Greece, of India, of
Alexandria, and, in later times, of Europe.

[Sidenote: Complete analogy between Greek and Indian process of
thought.]

In conclusion, I would remark that the view here presented of the
results of Greek philosophy is that which offers itself to me after a
long and careful study of the subject. It is, however, the affirmative,
not the negative result; for we must not forget that if, on the one
hand, the pantheistic doctrines of the Nature of God, Universal
Animation, the theory of Emanation, Transmutation, Absorption,
Transmigration, etc., were adopted, on the other there was by no means
an insignificant tendency to atheism and utter infidelity. Even of this
negative state a corresponding condition occurred in the Buddhism of
India, of which I have previously spoken; and, indeed, so complete is
the parallel between the course of mental evolution in Asia and Europe,
that it is difficult to designate a matter of minor detail in the
philosophy of the one which cannot be pointed out in that of the other.
It was not without reason, therefore, that the Alexandrian philosophers,
who were profoundly initiated in the detail of both systems, came to the
conclusion that such surprising coincidences could only be accounted for
upon the admission that there had been an ancient revelation, the
vestiges of which had descended to their time. In this, however, they
judged erroneously; the true explanation consisting in the fact that the
process of development of the intellect of man, and the final results to
which he arrives in examining similar problems, are in all countries the
same.

[Sidenote: Variation of practical application explained.]

It does not fall within my plan to trace the application of these
philosophical principles to practice in daily life, yet the subject is
of such boundless interest that perhaps the reader will excuse a single
paragraph. It may seem to superficial observation that, whatever might
be the doctrinal resemblances of these philosophies, their application
was very different. In a general way, it may be asserted that the same
doctrines which in India led to the inculcation of indifference and
quietism, led to Stoic activity in Greece and Italy. If the occasion
permitted, I could, nevertheless, demonstrate