tinued_).

PRE-SOCRATIC SCHOOL _(continued_).

IDEALIST: PYTHAGORAS--XENOPHANES--PARMENIDES--ZENO. NATURAL REALIST:
ANAXAGORAS.

SOCRATIC SCHOOL.

SOCRATES.

In the previous chapter we commenced our inquiry with the assumption
that, in the absence of the true inductive method of philosophy which
observes, and classifies, and generalizes facts, and thence attains a
general principle or law, two only methods were possible to the early
speculators who sought an explanation of the universe--1st, That of
reasoning from physical analogies; or, 2d, That of deduction from
rational conceptions, or _a priori_ ideas.

Accordingly we found that one class of speculators fixed their attention
solely on the mere phenomena of nature, and endeavored, amid sensible
things, to find a _single_ element which, being more subtile, and
pliable, and universally diffused, could be regarded as the ground and
original of all the rest, and from which, by a vital transformation, or
by a mechanical combination and arrangement of parts, all the rest
should be evolved. The other class passed beyond the simple phenomena,
and considered only the abstract _relations_ of phenomena among
themselves, or the relations of phenomena to the necessary and universal
ideas of the reason, and supposed that, in these relations, they had
found an explanation of the universe. The former was the Ionian or
Sensation school; the latter was the Italian or Idealist school.

We have traced the method according to which the Ionian school
proceeded, and estimated the results attained. We now come to consider
the method and results of

THE ITALIAN OR IDEALIST SCHOOL.

This school we have found to be naturally subdivided into--1st, The
_Mathematical_ sect, which attempted the explanation of the universe by
the abstract conceptions of number, proportion, order, and harmony; and,
2d, The _Metaphysical_ school, which attempted the interpretation of the
universe according to the _a priori_ ideas of unity, of Being _in se_,
of the Infinite, and the Absolute.

_Pythagoras of Samos_(born B.C. 605) was the founder of the Mathematical
school.

We are conscious of the difficulties which are to be encountered by the
student who seeks to attain a definite comprehension of the real
opinions of Pythagoras. The genuineness of many of those writings which
were once supposed to represent his views, is now questioned. "Modern
criticism has clearly shown that the works ascribed