The Project Gutenberg eBook, History of the Intellectual Development of
Europe, Volume I (of 2), by John William Draper

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Title: History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, Volume I (of 2)
Revised Edition

Author: John William Draper

Release Date: February 21, 2010 [eBook #31345]
Most recently updated: October 9, 2010

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE INTELLECTUAL
DEVELOPMENT OF EUROPE, VOLUME I (OF 2)***

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Note: Project Gutenberg also has Volume II of this two-volume work.
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HISTORY OF THE INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF EUROPE.

by

JOHN WILLIAM DRAPER, M.D., LL.D.,

Professor of Chemistry in the University of New York, Author of a
"Treatise on Human Physiology," "Civil Policy of America,"
"History of the American Civil War," &c.

REVISED EDITION, IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

[Illustration]

New York:
Harper & Brothers, Publishers,
Franklin Square.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by
Harper & Brothers,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

PREFACE.

At the meeting of the British Association 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 assume a more striking position when their sci