derived the original characters of their alphabet from a
number of sources. The Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet about
800-1000 B.C.

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CHAPTER XIII

GREEK PHILOSOPHY

_The Transition from Theology to Inquiry_.--The Greek theology prepared
the way for the Ionian philosophy. The religious opinions led directly
up to the philosophy of the early inquirers. The Greeks passed slowly
from accepting everything with a blind faith to the rational inquiry
into the development of nature. The beginnings of knowing the
scientific causes were very small, and sometimes ridiculous, yet they
were of immense importance. To take a single step from the "age of
credulity" toward the "age of reason" was of great importance to Greek
progress. To cease to accept on faith the statements that the world
was created by the gods, and ordered by the gods, and that all
mysteries were in their hands, and to endeavor to find out by
observation of natural phenomena something of the elements of nature,
was to gradually break from the mythology of the past as explanatory of
the creation. The first feeble attempt at this was to seek in a crude
way the material structure and source of the universe.

_Explanation of the Universe by Observation and Inquiry_.--The Greek
mind had settled down to the fact that there was absolute knowledge of
truth, and that cosmogony had established the method of creation; that
theogony had accounted for the creation of gods, heroes, and men, and
that theology had foretold their relations. A blind faith had accepted
what the imagination had pictured. But as geographical study began to
increase, doubts arose as to the preconceived constitution of the
earth. As travel increased and it was found that none of the terrible
creatures that tradition had created inhabited the islands of the sea
or coasts of the mainland, earth lost its terrors and disbelief in the
system of established {216} knowledge prevailed. Free inquiry was
slowly substituted for blind credulity.

This freedom of inquiry had great influence on the intellectual
development of man. It was the discovery of truth through the relation
of cause and effect, which he might observe by opening his eyes and
using his reason. The development of theories of the universe through
tradition and the imagination gave exercise to the emotions and
beliefs; but change from faith in the fixity of the past to the future
by observation led to intellec