Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Excerpt from Ancient Philosophy: A Treatise of Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy, Anterior to the Christian Era
The article on Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy in the Encyclopoedia Metropolitana was undertaken at the desire of the late Rev. Hugh James Rose, who became Editor of that work after the death of Mr. Smedley. Mr. Rose expressed his wish, that the form of the treatise should be historical, and not didactic. I thought that there were many histories of Philosophy already; that the space allotted to a single article in an Encyclopaedia was hardly sufficient to contain one; and that I was very incompetent to write it. At the same time, the reasons which Mr. Rose gave for objecting to a dogmatical treatise seemed to me very weighty.
On consideration I believed that I should be acting in conformity with the wishes of the accomplished Editor, who had, I knew, a very hearty dislike to mere historical abridgments, if, leaving the student to seek for a formal and regular account of systems in the many French or German works which profess to furnish one, I contented myself with offering him a few hints which might help him in examining the purpose of the most conspicuous teachers; in reading their books, when they had left any; in connecting them with the country or the age wherein they flourished. If I confined myself to this object, I hoped that the article, however short and imperfect, would not necessarily be superficial.
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