usness, and it now proved useful for godliness, being in some
part a preliminary discipline (propaideia tis ousa) for those who reap
the fruits of faith through demonstration. Perhaps we may say it was
given to the Greeks with this special object; for philosophy was to the
Greeks what the Law was to the Jews, 'a schoolmaster to bring them to
Christ.'"--CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS.

Philosophy, says Cousin, is the effort of _reflection_--the attempt of
the human mind to develop in systematic and logical form that which has
dimly revealed itself in the spontaneous thought of ages, and to account
to itself in some manner for its native and instinctive beliefs. We may
further add, it is the effort of the human mind to attain to truth and
certitude on purely rational grounds, uncontrolled by traditional
authorities. The sublime era of Greek philosophy was, in fact, an
independent effort of human reason to solve the great problems of
existence, of knowledge, and of duty. It was an attempt to explain the
phenomenal history of the universe, to interpret the fundamental ideas
and laws of human reason, to comprehend the utterances of conscience,
and to ascertain what Ultimate and Supreme Reality underlies the world
of phenomena, of thought, and of moral feeling.[848] And it is this
which, for us, constitutes its especial value; that it was, as far as
possible, a result of simple reason; or, if at any time Faith asserted
its authority, the distinction is clearly marked: If this inquiry was
fully, and honestly, and logically conducted, we are entitled to presume
that the results attain by this effort of speculative thought must
harmonize with the positive utterances of the Divine Logos--the Eternal
Reason, whose revelations are embalmed and transmitted to us in the Word
of God. If the great truth that man is "the _offspring of God"_ and as
such "_the image and glory of God_" which is asserted, alike, by Paul
and the poet-philosophers of Tarsus and Mysia, be admitted, then we may
expect that the reason of man shall have some correlation with the
Divine reason. The mind of man is the _chef-d'oeuvre_ of Divine art. It
is fashioned after the model which the Divine nature supplies. "Let us
make man in _our_ image after _our_ likeness." That image consists in
epignosis--_knowledge;_ dikalosyne--_justice_; and
osiotes--_benevolence._ It is not merely the _capacity_ to know, to be
just, and to be beneficent; it is _actual_ knowledge, justice, and