the Orphic sect, to whom quite possibly it came indirectly from India,
although even this is by no means certain, and is in fact highly
doubtful. But even if this be true, it proves nothing. Re-incarnation
is of little importance in Greek philosophy. Even in Plato, who makes
much of it, it is quite unessential to the fundamental ideas of his
philosophy, and is only artificially connected with them. And the
influence of this doctrine upon Plato's philosophy was thoroughly bad.
It was largely responsible for leading him into the main error of his
philosophy, which it required an Aristotle to correct. All this will
be evident when we come to consider the systems of Plato and
Aristotle.

The origin of Greek philosophy is not to be found in India, or Egypt,
or in any country outside Greece. The Greeks themselves were solely
responsible for it. It is not as if history traces back their thought
only to a point at which it was already highly developed, and cannot
explain its beginnings. We know its history from the time, so to
speak, when it was in the cradle. In the next two chapters we shall
see that the first Greek attempts at philosophising were so much the
beginnings of a beginner, were so very crude and unformed, that it is
{18} mere perversity to suppose that they could not make these simple
efforts for themselves. From those crude beginnings we can trace the
whole development in detail up to its culmination in Aristotle, and
beyond. So there is no need to assume foreign influence at any point.

Greek philosophy begins in the sixth century before Christ. It begins
when men for the first time attempted to give a scientific reply to
the question, "what is the explanation of the world?" Before this era
we have, of course, the mythologies, cosmogonies, and theologies of
the poets. But they contain no attempt at a naturalistic explanation
of things. They belong to the spheres of poetry and religion, not to
philosophy.

It must not be supposed, when we speak of the philosophy of Greece,
that we refer only to the mainland of what is now called Greece. Very
early in history, Greeks of the mainland migrated to the islands of
the Aegean, to Sicily, to the South of Italy, to the coast of Asia
Minor, and elsewhere, and founded flourishing colonies. The Greece of
philosophy includes all these places. It is to be thought of rather
racially than territorially. It is the philosophy of the men of Greek
race, wherever they happened t