Volume I Part 1 (1/2)
History of the Intellectual Development of Europe.
Volume I.
by John William Draper.
PREFACE.
At the meeting of the British a.s.sociation for the Advancement of Science, held at Oxford in 1860, I read an abstract of the physiological argument contained in this work respecting the mental progress of Europe, reserving the historical evidence for subsequent publication.
This work contains that evidence. It is intended as the completion of my treatise on Human Physiology, in which man was considered as an individual. In this he is considered in his social relation.
But the reader will also find, I think, that it is a history of the progress of ideas and opinions from a point of view heretofore almost entirely neglected. There are two methods of dealing with philosophical questions--the literary and the scientific. Many things which in a purely literary treatment of the subject remain in the background, spontaneously a.s.sume a more striking position when their scientific relations are considered. It is the latter method that I have used.
Social advancement is as completely under the control of natural law as is bodily growth. The life of an individual is a miniature of the life of a nation. These propositions it is the special object of this book to demonstrate.
No one, I believe, has. .h.i.therto undertaken the labour of arranging the evidence offered by the intellectual history of Europe in accordance with physiological principles, so as to ill.u.s.trate the orderly progress of civilization, or collected the facts furnished by other branches of science with a view of enabling us to recognize clearly the conditions under which that progress takes place. This philosophical deficiency I have endeavoured in the following pages to supply.
Seen thus through the medium of physiology, history presents a new aspect to us. We gain a more just and thorough appreciation of the thoughts and motives of men in successive ages of the world.
In the Preface to the second edition of my Physiology, published in 1858, it was mentioned that this work was at that time written. The changes that have been since made in it have been chiefly with a view of condensing it. The discussion of several scientific questions, such as that of the origin of species, which have recently attracted public attention so strongly, has, however remained untouched, the principles offered being the same as presented in the former work in 1856.
_New York, 1861._
THE INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF EUROPE.
CHAPTER I.
ON THE GOVERNMENT OF NATURE BY LAW.
_The subject of this Work proposed.--Its difficulty._
_Gradual Acquisition of the Idea of Natural Government by Law.--Eventually sustained by Astronomical, Meteorological, and Physiological Discoveries.--Ill.u.s.trations 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 like his, and, like him are under the Control of Physical Conditions, and therefore of Law._
_Plan of this Work.--The Intellectual History of Greece.--Its Five characteristic Ages.--European Intellectual History._
_Grandeur of the Doctrine that the World is governed by Law._
[Sidenote: The subject proposed.]
I intend, in this work, to consider in what manner the advancement of Europe in civilization has taken place, to ascertain how far its progress has been fortuitous, and how far determined by 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 resistlessly advancing, encountering and enduring an inevitable succession of events?
[Sidenote: Its difficulty and grandeur.]