Alexander the Great was 1728 (= 12 cubed) years. He gives the Roman
republic from the foundation of Rome to the battle of Actium 729 (=9
cubed) years. [Footnote: Methodus, cap. v. pp. 265 sqq.]

4.

From a believer in such a theory, which illustrates the limitations
of men's outlook on the world in the Renaissance period, we could
perhaps hardly expect a vision of Progress. The best that can be
said for it is that, both here and in his astrological creed, Bodin
is crudely attempting to bring human history into close connection
with the rest of the universe, and to establish the view that the
whole world is built on a divine plan by which all the parts are
intimately interrelated. [Footnote: Cp. Baudrillart, J. Bodin et son
temps, p. 148 (1853). This monograph is chiefly devoted to a full
analysis of La Republique.] He is careful, however, to avoid
fatalism. He asserts, as we have seen, that history depends largely
on the will of men. And he comes nearer to the idea of Progress than
any one before him; he is on the threshold.

For if we eliminate his astrological and Pythagorean speculations,
and various theological parentheses which do not disturb his
argument, his work announces a new view of history which is
optimistic regarding man's career on earth, without any reference to
his destinies in a future life. And in this optimistic view there
are three particular points to note, which were essential to the
subsequent growth of the idea of Progress. In the first place, the
decisive rejection of the theory of degeneration, which had been a
perpetual obstacle to the apprehension of that idea. Secondly, the
unreserved claim that his own age was fully equal, and in some