men are necessary to complete the sum of the Universe, which is perfect; and which would not be perfect without them, inasmuch as it supposes the existence of all possible classes of beings, in all possible degrees. Such was the system of Augustin respecting the Divine Government. In his latter years he rejected this for another: that man, since the fall, has lost immortality and free-will, so far as the doing of good is concerned, but not as affects the commission of evil; from which principle he deduced the doctrine of Absolute Predestination and Irresistible Grace. He was led to this system by a literal adherence to some expressions of Scripture to which he had occasion to refer in his dispute with Pelagius, a British monk; who, with his friend Cœlestius, came out of Ireland into Africa, and asserted the free-will of man to do good. St. Augustin likewise originated several new views respecting the soul and its faculties, e. g. respecting the inner and outer senses, and the five degrees of Intellectual Power, which have been often revived.*

234. The latter supernaturalist system of St. Augustin's became the pivot of dogmatical science in the West, owing to the weight attaching to his name. The custom of depreciating reason, and the attempt to inclose the liberty of thought and action within certain limits, which are the unavoidable consequences of Supernaturalism,* were promoted by the destruction of the Roman Empire, the inroad of barbarians, and the loss of ancient civilization, at the same time that all these things concurred, in their turn, in riveting an ecclesiastical despotism on the minds of men.

1 De Libero Arbitrio, I, 14; II, 1. 19, 20; III, 9; lib. 3, Qu. 41. 2 De Civ. Dei, XIV, 10; XV, 21; XXI, 12; XXII, 30. De Nuptiis et Concupiscentiâ, II, 34; De Natura et Gratiâ; De Gestis Pelagii; contra duas Epp. Pelagianorum; contra Julianum de Corruptione et Gratiâ; De Gratiâ et Libero Arbitrio; De Prædestinatione Sanctorum.

3 PHIL. MARHEINECKE, Dialogues on the Opinions of Augustine, with respect to Free-will and Divine Grace, Berl. 1821, 8vo.

G. F. WIGGERS, Essay towards an Historical Statement of Augus tinianism and Pelagianism, etc., Berl. 1821, 8vo.

4 De Quantit. An. n. 70, sqq.

* This censure of Supernaturalism betrays the partial spirit of the Kantian and all other Rationalisms.-ED.

Under such circumstances, the writings of the Fathers were beneficial to philosophy also, as preserving some vestiges of ancient discussions. This was especially true of the works of Augustin, and applies to the treatises on Logic, falsely imputed to him;' and which were recommended during the middle ages by the stamp of his name.

Boethius, Cassiodorus, and other Eclectics.

2

235. Besides the dry abstract of what were called the seven liberal arts, by Marcianus Capella, we remark among the works which served as text-books to the ages following, and took a rank intermediate between the ancient and modern philosophies, the works of two Patricians of the kingdom of the Ostrogoths, Boethius and Cassiodorus, the last champions of classical literature in the West. Both were Eclectics, and endeavoured to reconcile the doctrines of Plato and Aristotle. Boethius lived at the court of the Gothic king Theodoric, who caused him to be beheaded under a false suspicion of high treason. By him principally was preserved in the West some faint knowledge of the system of Aristotle. He translated some treatises of that philosopher on Logic, and wrote a commentary on the translation of the Isagoge of Porphyry by Victorinus, which was looked upon as a preparation for the study of Aristotle. He also composed, in his prison at Pavia, his treatise De Consolatione Philosophia, which became a great favourite with following ages. His contemporary Cassiodorus,5 also prePrincipia Dialectica et Decem Categoriæ, vol. I, edit. Bened.

1

2 Marcianus Minæus Felix Capella, flourished about 474. His work entitled Satyricon has been frequently printed (see FABRIC. Bibl. Lat. tom. I, p. 638), and lastly by J. A. GOEZ, Norimb. 1794, 8vo.

3 Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus Boethius, born A.D. 470. BAUR, De Boethio, 1841.

+ GERVAISE, History of Boethius the Roman senator, Paris, 1715. His works: Basil. 1570, fol.; De Consolatione, published by PERTIUS, Lugd. Bat. 1671, 8vo. Lips. 1753, 8vo. Ed. et Vitam Auctoris adjecit Jo. THEOD. BJ. HELFRECHT, Hof. 1797, 8vo.

4 Between 524 A.D. and 526.

5 Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus, born at Squillacci about 480; died in a convent, 575.

+FR. D. DE SAINTE-MARTHE, Life of Cassiodorus, Paris, 1695, 12mo. BUAT, Life of Cassiodorus; among the Dissert. of the Acad. of Sciences of Bavaria, vol. I, s. 79.

served, especially in his work De Septem Disciplinis, some relics of Grecian philosophy, and encouraged the monks to transcribe the ancient MSS. In Spain, under the dominion of the Visigoths, Isidorus, archbishop of Seville (Hispalensis), rendered a real service to learning by the composition of his useful book of reference.1 In England and Ireland science survived longer than elsewhere. Bede, the Anglo-Saxon, surnamed the Venerable, enjoyed there a great celebrity: and, assisted by the works above mentioned, composed his Abstracts, of which some time afterwards, Alcuin availed himself. (See § 245, sqq).

236. In the East the pretended works (of a mystical character) of Dionysius the Areopagite, believed to be the contemporary of our Lord and his Apostles, and first bishop of Athens, acquired considerable celebrity, and in the middle ages proved a rich mine to the Mystics (§ 229, 230, and 246). They embraced a sort of adaptation of the doctrine of Emanation and of Platonism in general to Christianity; and are generally supposed to belong to the third or fourth century, though some, as Dallæus, refer them to the sixth.* It is true that literature in general still survived in the Grecian Empire, but without spirit or originality. It owed its existence to the aristocratic constitution which still sub

Cassiodori Opera Omnia op. et stud. GARETII, Rotomag. 1679, 2 vols. fol.; et Venet. 1729. 1 Died A.D. 636.

Isidori Hispalensis Originum seu Etymologiarum libri XX. Aug. Vind. 1472, fol., c. not. JAC. GOTHOFREDI in Auctorib. Lat. p. 811: and in the edition of his Opp. ed. JAC. DU BREUIL, Paris, 1601 fol. col. 1617. 2 Born 673; died 735.

Bedæ Opera Omnia, tom. I, III, Paris, 1521 et 1544; Colon. 1612 and 1688, 8 vols. fol.

3 De Cœlesti Hierarchiâ, de Divinis Nominibus, de Ecclesiasticâ Hierarchiâ, de Mystica Theologia. DIONYS. Areop. Opp. Gr. Bas. 1539; Ven. 1558; Paris. 1562, 8vo.; Gr. et Lat. Paris. 1615, fol.; Antverp. 1634, 2 vols. fol.; and with Dissertations on the Author, Paris, 1644, 2 vols. fol.

4 The most recent inquiries on this subject are those of Jo. GE. VITAL. ENGELHARDT, Diss. de Dionysio Areopagita Plotinizante, præmissis Observationibus de Historia Theologiæ Mysticæ rite tractanda, § I et II, Erl. 1820, 8vo. L. FRID. OTTO BAUMGARTEN-CRUSIUS, Progr. de Dionysio Areopagita, Jen. 1823, 4to.

HELFFERICH, Die Christliche Mystik, in ihrer Entwickelung und in ihren Denkmalen, 1842, 2 Bande.

sisted in the Greek Church (differing in this respect from the Latin, which fell under the dominion of Papacy) and to the degree of attention still bestowed on the Greek philosophers. In the sixth century, John Stobaus, who was inclined to the doctrines of Neoplatonism (§ 222); and subsequently, in the ninth, the patriarch Photius,' formed valuable collections of extracts from different ancient authors. Aristotle also was better appreciated in this part of the empire. James of Edessa, the Monophysite, caused the dialectic treatises to be translated into Syriac. John of Alexandria, surnamed Philoponus, (an Eclectic), distinguished himself by his Greek Commentaries on Aristotle; from whom, nevertheless, he differed on the question of the eternity of the world; and after him John of Damascus, not only gave to the East for the first time a system of Theology (§ 230, 231); but by his works continued to direct public attention to the study of the Aristotelian philosophy, which was not extinguished till the downfall of the Greek Empire (§ 283). 1 Born A.D. 858, died 891.

Mvpioßißxiov, ed. HOESCHEL, Aug. Vind. 1601. 2 Died about 608.

TRECHSEL, Ueber Johannes Philoponos.

Kritiken von ALTMANN und UMBREIT, 1835.

In den Studien und

His Commentaries—Or the Analytics (First and Second), On the Physics, Metaphysics, De Anima, and other works of Aristotle, appeared, for the most part, at Venice, in the sixteenth century.

3 Died about 754; also known by the name of Chrysorrhoas.

4 "Eкdεσis tỷs oplodážns tiotewç.-Opera ed. LE QUIEN, Paris. 1712, 2 vols. fol.

PART THE SECOND.

SECOND PERIOD.

HISTORY OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE
MIDDLE AGES,

OB, THE SCHOLASTIC SYSTEM; FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE NINTH TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

Attempts of the Reason towards the cultivation of Science, under the influence of an extraneous principle and positive laws.

History of the Philosophy of the Middle Ages and of the Schoolmen. (From 800 to the Fifteenth Century.)

237. The spirit of philosophical curiosity which had possessed so much influence throughout the preceding period, dwindled to a very slender thread, and influenced in a very inferior degree the public mind during the days of barbarism and ignorance, on which we are about to enter. At the same time a new System and new Method were contained in embryo in the precious remains of old philosophy, and acquired the name of the Scholastic; because it was principally formed in the schools founded since the time of Charlemagne. That great monarch, so astonishingly superior to the age in which he lived, very properly began the work

See the Work of LAUNOY, § 245; and J. M. UNOLD, De Societate Literaria a Carolo M. instituta, Jen. 1752, 4to.

It must not be forgotten, however, that such studies were cultivated at a still earlier period in Great Britain. See MURRAY, De Britannia atque Hibernia sæculo a sexto inde ad decimum literar. domicilio; in the Nov. Comment. Soc. Gott. tom. II, part II, p. 72.

P