forward to the tranquillity of extinction. Of these things,
however, we should think doubtingly, since the mind can produce
no certain knowledge from its internal resources alone. It is
unphilosophical to inquire into first causes; we must deal only
with phenomena. Above all, we must never forget that man cannot
ascertain absolute truth, and that the final result of human
inquiry into the matter is, that we are incapable of perfect
knowledge; that, even if the truth be in our possession, we
cannot be sure of it.

What, then, remains for us? Is it not this--the acquisition of
knowledge, the cultivation of virtue and of friendship, the
observance of faith and truth, an unrepining submission to
whatever befalls us, a life led in accordance with reason?

PLATONISM IN THE MUSEUM. But, though the Alexandrian Museum was
especially intended for the cultivation of the Aristotelian
philosophy, it must not be supposed that other systems were
excluded. Platonism was not only carried to its full development,
but in the end it supplanted Peripateticism, and through the New
Academy left a permanent impress on Christianity. The
philosophical method of Plato was the inverse of that of
Aristotle. Its starting- point was universals, the very existence
of which was a matter of faith, and from these it descended to
particulars, or details. Aristotle, on the contrary, rose from
particulars to universals, advancing to them by inductions.

Plato, therefore, trusted to the imagination, Aristotle to
reason. The former descended from the decomposition of a
primitive idea into particulars, the latter united particulars