TO
His Excellency the Chevalier Bunsen
THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED,
AS A SMALL TOKEN OF GRATITUDE FOR HIS KINDNESS
AND OF RESPECT FOR HIS CHARACTER.
Preface
TO THE SECOND EDITION.
The article on Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy in the Encyclopædia 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 Encyclopædia 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. The remarks in it could not be a substitute for the reflections of the reader, or for an examination of the original sources: they might lead, I hoped, to both.
Nearly twelve years after the death of the kind-hearted and excellent man under whose auspices I began this essay, I have been requested to prepare it for separate publication. In looking over it after so long an interval, I have discovered that it accomplished very inadequately even the humble object which I had originally proposed to myself. I failed, as it now seems to me, in a clear apprehension of the word Philosophy,—in seeing what part different nations had taken in the inquiries which it denotes,—in tracing the workings of the Wisdom which had guided these inquiries,—in noticing how one grew out of another. I found also I had indulged far too much in disquisition, and too little in biography. Some of these errors I have endeavoured to correct in the present volume, a great portion of which is entirely new. Some of them, I have no doubt, remain, and will be as offensive to the reader as they are to the writer. I wish him at least to understand what I have attempted, that he may be the more aware of my deficiencies, may suffer less from them, and may not judge me by the standard of learned and elaborate books, which I never pretended to imitate. I should have been glad to have expunged the disagreeable affectation of the plural pronoun; but I did not like to destroy altogether the connection between this volume and the Encyclopædia, seeing that I have many personal reasons for being thankful that I had the honour of contributing to its pages.
The present volume treats only of Ancient Philosophy; the second part of the original article will require to be entirely re-written.
London: July 1850.