Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Comparison Between The Ancients And Moderns In Science And Literature.
those of a more refined and delicate complexion , we shall also perceive that the Moderns have advanced the science of Metaphysics , which is solely occupied in treating of these , to a much superior degree of perfection and rationality , than it ever possessed in ancient times . It certainly cannot be denied that the works of Plato and Aristotle , however contradictory the particular systems and theories which they contain may be . to truthand however rejected and
ex-, ploded they have been by succeeding theorists , do , nevertheless , display an exertion of the mental powers , and a profundity of thought , equal to any productions that have appeared since . But at the same time thej ' exhibit to the world , in the most forcible manner , the extravagancies , the errors , the inconsistencies and eccentricities , into which the human mind is capable of being betrayed , when reason is
overpowered by imagination , and when the right method of inquiring after truth is concealed in the imperious shades of ignorance and prejudice . Various were the sects into which the philosophers of antiquity were divided : a fact which cannot but strike those to whom the names of Stoics , Epicureans , Peripatetics , and Academicians , are familiar ; and equally various and heterogeneous were their doctrines
and opinions concerning the nature of man , the frame of the human mind , the essence of virtue , and the reality of a future state . But of all the different systems of tenets supported by these different sects , whether founded by Zeno , Epicurus , Plato , Aristotle , or Pythathagoras , not one has been adopted by the Moderns , as uniformly rational and true . Not that their writings contain nothing that accords . with truthor merits applause . Far from it . Those who most
fre-, quently peruse these valuable remains of ancient lore , are most read y to acknowledge that they are equally admirable for the sublimity and excellence of the sentiments with which they abound , as for the beauty and energy of the stile in which they are composed . But it may safely be asserted , that the speculative opinions of the Ancients ., on the philosophy of the mind , were certainly erroneous and
mistaken , when considered as a system . And we must attribute this , not to any deficiency in sagacity and penetration , or to a less vigorous exertion of the powers of the intellect , but to a wrong mode of inquiry ; in which greater range was given to the imagination and fancy than to observation and experience , which have since appeared to be the only methods of ascertaining truth , as well in the intellectual as in the natural world .
But evident as this may appear at the present day , the lapse of many centuries intervened , before the system of Aristotle was ex- ; ploded ; which , however , was only succeeded'b y another , equall y absurd in its principles and erroneous in its application . Nor did the promulgation of the wild and visionary tenets of Des Cartes receive an effectual check till the time of the celebrated Locke , who first perceived the glaring absurdities of preceding theories , and introduced into metaphysical subjects the only successful method of inquiry . It is to the . profound researches of this great philosopher that we are
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Comparison Between The Ancients And Moderns In Science And Literature.
those of a more refined and delicate complexion , we shall also perceive that the Moderns have advanced the science of Metaphysics , which is solely occupied in treating of these , to a much superior degree of perfection and rationality , than it ever possessed in ancient times . It certainly cannot be denied that the works of Plato and Aristotle , however contradictory the particular systems and theories which they contain may be . to truthand however rejected and
ex-, ploded they have been by succeeding theorists , do , nevertheless , display an exertion of the mental powers , and a profundity of thought , equal to any productions that have appeared since . But at the same time thej ' exhibit to the world , in the most forcible manner , the extravagancies , the errors , the inconsistencies and eccentricities , into which the human mind is capable of being betrayed , when reason is
overpowered by imagination , and when the right method of inquiring after truth is concealed in the imperious shades of ignorance and prejudice . Various were the sects into which the philosophers of antiquity were divided : a fact which cannot but strike those to whom the names of Stoics , Epicureans , Peripatetics , and Academicians , are familiar ; and equally various and heterogeneous were their doctrines
and opinions concerning the nature of man , the frame of the human mind , the essence of virtue , and the reality of a future state . But of all the different systems of tenets supported by these different sects , whether founded by Zeno , Epicurus , Plato , Aristotle , or Pythathagoras , not one has been adopted by the Moderns , as uniformly rational and true . Not that their writings contain nothing that accords . with truthor merits applause . Far from it . Those who most
fre-, quently peruse these valuable remains of ancient lore , are most read y to acknowledge that they are equally admirable for the sublimity and excellence of the sentiments with which they abound , as for the beauty and energy of the stile in which they are composed . But it may safely be asserted , that the speculative opinions of the Ancients ., on the philosophy of the mind , were certainly erroneous and
mistaken , when considered as a system . And we must attribute this , not to any deficiency in sagacity and penetration , or to a less vigorous exertion of the powers of the intellect , but to a wrong mode of inquiry ; in which greater range was given to the imagination and fancy than to observation and experience , which have since appeared to be the only methods of ascertaining truth , as well in the intellectual as in the natural world .
But evident as this may appear at the present day , the lapse of many centuries intervened , before the system of Aristotle was ex- ; ploded ; which , however , was only succeeded'b y another , equall y absurd in its principles and erroneous in its application . Nor did the promulgation of the wild and visionary tenets of Des Cartes receive an effectual check till the time of the celebrated Locke , who first perceived the glaring absurdities of preceding theories , and introduced into metaphysical subjects the only successful method of inquiry . It is to the . profound researches of this great philosopher that we are