e manner in which universal Reason controls nature. Hence the
necessity of a cultivation of physics, without which we cannot
distinguish good from evil. The sage is directed to remember that
Nature, in her operations, aims at the universal, and never spares
individuals, but uses them as means for accomplishing her ends. It is
for him, therefore, to submit to his destiny, endeavouring continually
to establish the supremacy of Reason, and cultivating, as the things
necessary to virtue, knowledge, temperance, fortitude, justice. He is at
liberty to put patriotism at the value it is worth when he remembers
that he is a citizen of the world; he must train himself to receive in
tranquillity the shocks of Destiny, and to be above all passion and all
pain. He must never relent and never forgive. He must remember that
there are only two classes of men, the wise and the fools, as "sticks
can only either be straight or crooked, and very few sticks in this
world are absolutely straight."

* * * * *

[Sidenote: Rise of Greek science.]

[Sidenote: Political position of the Ptolemies.]

[Sidenote: They co-ordinate Egyptian idolatry and Greek scepticism.]

From the account I have given of Aristotle's philosophy, it may be seen
that he occupied a middle ground between the speculation of the old
philosophy and the strict science of the Alexandrian school. He is the
true connecting link, in the history of European intellectual progress,
between philosophy and science. Under his teaching, and the material
tendencies of the Macedonian campaigns, there arose a class of men in
Egypt who gave to the practical a development it had never before
attained; for that country, upon the breaking up of Alexander's
dominion, B.C. 323, falling into the possession of Ptolemy, that general
found himself at once the depositary of spiritual and temporal power. Of
the former, it is to be remembered that, though the conquest by Cambyses
had given it a severe shock, it still not only survived, but displayed
no inconsiderable tokens of strength. Indeed, it is well known that the
surrender of Egypt to Alexander was greatly accelerated by hatred to the
Persians, the Egyptians welcoming the Macedonians as their deliverers.
In this movement we perceive at once the authority of the old
priesthood. It is hard to tear up by the roots an ancient religion, the
ramifications of which have solidly insinuated themselves among a
populace.