l and Nature, which come later in the spiritual
rank. Of God the philosophers said we could not tell what He is, but
only what He is not. The highest point, beyond which strictly
philosophical inquirers did not penetrate, was the active intellect,--a
sort of soul of the world in Aristotelian garb--the principle which
inspires and regulates the development of humanity, and in which lies
the goal of perfection for the human spirit. In theological language the
active intellect is described as an angel. The inspirations which the
prophet receives by angelic messengers are compared with the irradiation
of intellectual light, which the philosopher wins by contemplation of
truth and increasing purity of life. But while the theologian
incessantly postulated the agency of that God whose nature he deemed
beyond the pale of science, the philosopher, following a purely human
and natural aim, directed his efforts to the gradual elevation of his
part of reason from its unformed state, and to its final union with the
controlling intellect which moves and draws to itself the spirits of
those who prepare themselves for its influences. The philosophers in
their way, like the mystics of Persia (the Sufites) in another, tended
towards a theory of the communion of man with the spiritual world, which
may be considered a protest against the practical and almost prosaic
definiteness of the creed of Mahomet.

Arabian philosophy, at the outset of its career in the 9th century, was
able without difficulty to take possession of those resources for
speculative thought which the Latins had barely achieved at the close of
the 12th century by the slow process of rediscovering the Aristotelian
logic from the commentaries and verses of Boetius. What the Latins
painfully accomplished, owing to their fragmentary and unintelligent
acquaintance with ancient philosophy, was already done for the Arabians
by the scholars of Syria. In the early centuries of the Christian era,
both within and without the ranks of the church, the Platonic tone and
method were paramount throughout the East. Their influence was felt in
the creeds which formulated the orthodox dogmas in regard to the Trinity
and the Incarnation. But in its later days the Neo-Platonist school came
more and more to find in Aristotle the best exponent and interpreter of
the philosopher whom they thought divine. It was in this spirit that
Porphyry, Themistius and Joannes Philoponus composed their comment