DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13851#0794
38
A SHORT HISTORY OP GRECIAN LITERATURE.
ly be expected to maintain their ground in the jarring commotion of the world, whea
passion too often usurps dominion over judgment, when pleasure leads astray into for-
bidden paths, and ambition tempts to rise to greatness at the expence of every virtue,
The philosophy of Aristotle came by degrees to supersede all others, and during
the dark ages, maintained unrivalled sway in the Romish church. The schoolmen
looked up to Aristotle as a being of superior nature, and implicitly adopted all his
opinions. He furnished them by his doctrine of syllogisms, with instruments which
they wielded with great dexterity in maintaining and propagating their ahsurd no-
tions. Since the revival of learning his reputation has been upon the decline. In-
stead of inventing theories and reasoning upon possibilities, the attention of philoso-
phers has been directed, under the guidance of thegreat Lord Bacon, to experiments,
observation and cautious induction. Instead of investigating causes which lie be-
yond the reach of the human faculties, they employ themselves to better purpose in
noticing effects, in discovering general laws, and in examining the phenomena of the
universe. Yet his ethics, his politics, and his observations upon poetry may be read
with great advantage, as they contain much useful information, and many sound ob-
servations upon men and manners. His dissertations upon poetry in particular, have
furnished almost all the critics since his time with the rules of their art. They were
founded upon the best models, the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer* and the tragedies of
.Eschylus, Sophocles and Euripides.
A SHORT HISTORY OP GRECIAN LITERATURE.
ly be expected to maintain their ground in the jarring commotion of the world, whea
passion too often usurps dominion over judgment, when pleasure leads astray into for-
bidden paths, and ambition tempts to rise to greatness at the expence of every virtue,
The philosophy of Aristotle came by degrees to supersede all others, and during
the dark ages, maintained unrivalled sway in the Romish church. The schoolmen
looked up to Aristotle as a being of superior nature, and implicitly adopted all his
opinions. He furnished them by his doctrine of syllogisms, with instruments which
they wielded with great dexterity in maintaining and propagating their ahsurd no-
tions. Since the revival of learning his reputation has been upon the decline. In-
stead of inventing theories and reasoning upon possibilities, the attention of philoso-
phers has been directed, under the guidance of thegreat Lord Bacon, to experiments,
observation and cautious induction. Instead of investigating causes which lie be-
yond the reach of the human faculties, they employ themselves to better purpose in
noticing effects, in discovering general laws, and in examining the phenomena of the
universe. Yet his ethics, his politics, and his observations upon poetry may be read
with great advantage, as they contain much useful information, and many sound ob-
servations upon men and manners. His dissertations upon poetry in particular, have
furnished almost all the critics since his time with the rules of their art. They were
founded upon the best models, the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer* and the tragedies of
.Eschylus, Sophocles and Euripides.