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A History of the Intellectual Development of Europe.
A History of the Intellectual Development of Europe Author:John William Draper Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF EUROPE. CHAPTER I. ON THE GOVERNMENT OF NATURE BY LAW. The Subject of this Work proposed,—It Difficulty. Gradual Acquis... more »ition of the Idea of'Natural Government by Law.—It is eventually sustained by Astronomical, Meteorological, and Physiological Discoveries.—Illustrations from Kepler's Laws, the Trade-winds, Migrations of Birds, Balancing of Vegetable and Animal Life, Variation of Species and their Permanence. Individual Man is an Emblem of Communities, Nations, and Universal Humanity. — They exhibit Epochs of Life lue his, and like him are under the Control of Physical Conditions, and therefore of Late. Plan of this Work.—The intellectual History of Greece.—It Five characteristic Ages.—European intellectual History. Grandeur of the Doctrine that the World is governed by Law. I Intend, in this work, to consider in what manner the advancement of Europe in civilization has taken place, to ascertain how far The.ubjei.t its progress lias been fortuitous, and bow far determined ?? ?™!- primordial law. Does the procession of nations in time, like the erratic phantasm of a dream, go forward without reason or order ? or, is there a predetermined, a solemn march, in which all must join, ever moving,- ever resist- lessly advancing, encountering and enduring an inevitable succession of events ? In a philosophical examination of the intellectual and political history of nations, an answer to these questions is to be found. But how difficult it is to master the mass of facts necessary to be collected, to handle so great an accumulation, to arrange it in the clearest point of view ; how difficult it is to select correctly the representative men, ?, ¿????? to produce them in the proper scenes, and to conduct sue- an1 Bmndeur. cessfully s...« less