nces, and, by uniting the various races under the rule of the
empire was bringing to its consummation the work begun by the Macedonian
conqueror, it could not fail to influence the train of thought. On the
one hand the political and ideal structure of Greek life was crumbling
and bringing down the support and guiding principle supplied by the
duties of citizenship and the devotion to the commonwealth. Man was
thrown upon himself to find the principles of conduct. The customary
morality and religion had been shaken in their foundations. The
belief in the old gods and the old religion was undermined. Philosophy
endeavoured to occupy the place left vacant by the gradual decay of the
national religion. The individual, seeking for support and spiritual
guidance, found it, or at least imagined he had found it, in philosophy.
The conduct of life became the fundamental problem, and philosophy
assumed a practical aspect. It aimed at finding a complete art of
living. It had a thoroughly ethical stamp, and became more and more a
rival of and opposed to religion. Such were the tendencies of the Stoic
and Epicurean schools. The Roman rule was greatly favourable to such
a development of thought. The Romans were a practical nation, had no
conception of nor appreciation for purely theoretical problems, and
demanded practical lessons and philosophical investigations which would
serve as a guide for life. Thus the political tendency of the time
towards practical wisdom had imparted a new direction to philosophical
thought. Yet, as time went on, a deep feeling of dissatisfaction seized
the ancient world in the midst of all the glories of the Roman rule.
This huge empire could offer to the peoples, which it had welded
into one mighty unit, no compensation for the loss of their national
independence; it offered them no inner worth nor outer fortune. There
was a complete discord running through the entire civilisation of the
Graeco-Roman world. The social condition of the empire had brought with
it extreme contrasts in the daily life. The contrasts had become more
pronounced. Abundance and luxury existed side by side with misery
and starvation. Millions were excluded from the very necessaries of
existence. With the sense of injustice and revolt against the
existing inequality of the state of society, the hope for some future
compensation arose. The millions excluded from the worldly possessions
turned longingly to a better world. The thoughts