0:01 [Music] so [Music]
0:59 the secret teachings of all ages an encyclopedic outline of masonic hermetic kabbalistic and rosicrucian symbolical philosophy being an interpretation of the secret teachings concealed within the rituals allegories and mysteries of all ages by manly p hall narrated by matthew schmitz this book is dedicated to the rational soul of the world preface numerous volumes have been written as commentaries upon the secret systems of philosophy existing in the ancient world but the ageless truths of life like many
1:45 of the earth's greatest thinkers have usually been clothed in shabby garments the present work is an attempt to supply a tome worthy of those seers and sages whose thoughts are the substance of its pages to bring about this coalescence of beauty and truth has proved most costly but i believe that the result will produce an effect upon the mind of the reader which will more than justify the expenditure work upon the text of this volume was begun the first day of january 1926 and has continued almost uninterruptedly for over two years the greater part of the research work however was carried on prior to the writing of the manuscript the collection of reference material was begun in 1921
2:31 and three years later the plans for the book took definite form for the sake of clarity all footnotes were eliminated the various quotations and references to other authors being embodied in the text in their logical order the bibliography is appended primarily to assist those interested in selecting for future study the most authoritative and important items dealing with philosophy and symbolism to make readily accessible the obtruse information contained in the book an elaborate topical cross index is included i make no claim for either the infallibility or the originality of any statement herein contained i have studied the fragmentary writings of the ancients sufficiently to realize
3:16 that dogmatic utterances concerning their tenants are worse than foolhardy traditionalism is the curse of modern philosophy particularly that of the european schools while many of the statements contained in this treatise may appear at first wildly fantastic i have sincerely endeavored to refrain from haphazard metaphysical speculation presenting the material as far as possible in the spirit rather than the letter of the original authors by assuming responsibility only for the mistakes which may appear herein i hope to escape the accusation of plagiarism which has been directed against nearly every writer on the subject of mystical philosophy having no particular ism of my own to
4:02 promulgate i have not attempted to twist the original writings to substantiate preconceived notions nor have i distorted doctrines in any effort to reconcile the irreconcilable differences present in the various systems of religio philosophic thought the entire theory of the book is diametrically opposed to the modern method of thinking four it is concerned with subjects openly ridiculed by the sophists of the 20th century its true purpose is to introduce the mind of the reader to a hypothesis of living wholly beyond the pale of materialistic theology philosophy or science the mass of obtruse material between its covers is not susceptible to perfect organization
4:47 but so far as possible related topics have been grouped together rich as the english language is in media of expression it is curiously lacking in terms suitable to the conveyance of abstract philosophical premises a certain intuitive grasp of the subtler meetings concealed within groups of inadequate words is necessary therefore to an understanding of the ancient mystery teachings although the majority of the items in the bibliography are in my own library i wish to acknowledge gratefully the assistance rendered by the public libraries of san francisco and los angeles the libraries of the scottish rite in san francisco and los angeles the libraries of the university of california in berkeley and los angeles
5:33 the mechanics library in san francisco and the cortona theosophical library at ojai california special recognition for their help is also due to the following persons mrs max heindel mrs alice palmer henderson mr ernest dawson and staff mr john howell mr paul elder mr philip watson hackett and mr john r ruxdell single books were lent by other persons and organizations to whom thanks are also given the matter of translation was the greatest single task in the research work incident to the preparation of this volume the necessary german translations which required nearly three years were
6:19 generously undertaken by mr alfred berry who declined all remuneration for his labor the latin italian french and spanish translations were made by professor homer p earl the hebrew text was edited by rabbi jacob m alcow miscellaneous short translations and checking also were done by various individuals the editorial work was done under the supervision of dr c b rowlingson through whose able efforts literary order was often brought out of literary chaos special recognition is also due the services rendered by mr robert b tummins of the staff of h.s crocker company incorporated to whom were assigned the
7:04 technical difficulties of fitting the text matter into its allotted space for much of the literary charm of the work i am also indebted to mr m m saxton to whom the entire manuscript was first dictated and to whom was also entrusted the preparation of the index the splendid efforts of mr j augustus knapp the illustrator have resulted in a series of color plates which add materially to the beauty and completeness of the work the printing of the book was in the hands of mr frederick e kiest of h.s crocker company incorporated whose great personal interest in the volume has been manifested by an untiring effort to improve the quality thereof through the gracious cooperation of dr john henry
7:51 nash the foremost designer of printing on the american continent whose great personal interest in the volume has been manifested by an untiring effort to improve the quality thereof through the gracious cooperation of dr john henry nash the foremost designer of printing on the american continent the book appears in a unique and appropriate form embodying the finest elements of the printer's craft an increase in the number of plates and also a finer quality of workmanship than was first contemplated have been made possible by mr c.e benson of the los angeles engraving company who entered heart and soul into the production of this volume the pre-publication sale this book has been without known precedent in book
8:37 history the subscription list for the first edition of 550 copies was entirely closed a year before the manuscript was placed in the printer's hands the second or king solomon edition consisting of 550 copies and the third or the esophageal edition consisting of 200 copies were sold before the finished volume was received from the printer for so ambitious a production this constitutes a unique achievement the credit for this extraordinary sales program belongs to mrs maude f gallagher who had as her ideal not to sell the book in the commercial sense of the word but to place it in the hands of those particularly interested in the subject matter it contains
9:23 valuable assistance in this respect was also rendered by numerous friends who had attended my lectures and who without compensation undertook and successfully accomplished the distribution of the book in conclusion the author wishes to acknowledge gratefully his indebtedness to each one of the hundreds of subscribers through whose advanced payments the publication of this folio was made possible to undertake the enormous expense involved was entirely beyond his individual means and those who invested in the volume had no assurance of its production and no security other than their faith in the integrity of the writer i sincerely hope that each reader will profit from the perusal of this book even as i have profited from the writing
10:08 of it the years of labor and thought expended upon it have meant much to me the research work discovered to me many great truths the writing of it discovered to me the laws of order and patience the printing of it discovered to me new wonders of the arts and crafts and the whole enterprise has discovered to me a multitude of friends whom otherwise i might never have known and so in the words of john bunyan i penned it down until at last it came to be for length and breadth the bigness which you see manly p hall los angeles california may 28 1928
10:57 introduction philosophy is the science of estimating values the superiority of any state or substance over another is determined by philosophy by assigning a position of primary importance to what remains when all that is secondary has been removed philosophy thus becomes the true index of priority or emphasis in the realm of speculative thought the mission of philosophy a priori is to establish the relation of manifested things to their invisible ultimate cause or nature philosophy writes sir william hamilton has been defined as the science of things divine and human and of the causes in which they are contained
11:42 cicero the science of effects by their causes hobbes the science of sufficient reasons leibniz the science of things possible in as much as they are possible wolf the science of things evidently deduced from first principles descartes the science of truths sensible and abstract de congilic the application of reason to its legitimate objects tenement the science of the relations of all knowledge to the necessary ends of human reason kant the science of the original form of the ego or mental self krug the science of sciences
12:27 fitch the science of the absolute von schelling the science of the absolute indifference of the ideal and real bon shelling or the identity of identity and non-identity hegel see lectures on metaphysics and logic the six headings under which the disciplines of philosophy are commonly classified are metaphysics which deals with such abstract subjects as cosmology theology and the nature of being logic which deals with the laws governing rational thinking or as it has been called the doctrine of fallacies ethics which is the science of morality
13:13 individual responsibility and character concerned chiefly with an effort to determine the nature of good psychology which is devoted to investigation and classification of those forms of phenomena referable to a mental origin epistemology which is the science concerned primarily with the nature of knowledge itself and the question of whether it may exist in an absolute form and aesthetics which is the science of the nature of and the reactions awakened by the beautiful the harmonious the elegant and the noble [Music] plato regarded philosophy as the greatest good ever imparted by divinity to man in the 20th century however it has
13:58 become a ponderous and complicated structure of arbitrary and irreconcilable notions yet each substantiated by almost incontestable logic the lofty theorems of the old academy which iamblicus likened to the nectar and ambrosia of the gods have been so adulterated by opinion which heraclitus declared to be a falling sickness of the mind that the heavenly mede would now be quite unrecognizable to this great neoplatonist convincing evidence of the increasing superficiality of modern scientific and philosophic thought is its persistent drift towards materialism when the great astronomer laplace was asked by napoleon why he had not mentioned god in his trait
14:44 celeste the mathematician naively replied sire i had no need for that hypothesis in his treatise on atheism sir francis bacon tersely summarizes the situation thus a little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion the metaphysics of aristotle opens with these words all men naturally desire to know to satisfy this common urge the unfolding human intellect has explored the extremities of imaginable space without and the extremities of imaginable self within seeking to estimate the relationship between the one and the all the effect
15:30 and the cause nature and the groundwork of nature the mind and the source of the mind the spirit and the substance of the spirit the illusion and the reality an ancient philosopher once said he who has not even a knowledge of common things is a brute among men he who is an accurate knowledge of human concerns alone is a man among brutes but he who knows all that can be known by intellectual energy is a god among men man's status in the natural world is determined therefore by the quality of his thinking he whose mind is enslaved to his bestial instincts is philosophically not superior to the brute he whose rational faculties ponder human affairs is a man
16:17 and he whose intellect is elevated to the consideration of divine realities is already a demigod for his being partakes of the luminosity with which his reason has brought him into proximity in his encomium of the science of sciences cicero is led to exclaim o philosophy life's guide o searcher out of virtue and expeller of vices what could we and every age of men have been without thee thou hast produced cities thou hast called men scattered about into the social enjoyment of life in this age the word philosophy has little meaning unless accompanied by some other qualifying term the body of philosophy has been broken up into numerous isms
17:03 more or less antagonistic which have become so concerned with the effort to disprove each other's fallacies that the sublimer issues of divine order and human destiny have suffered deplorable neglect the ideal function of philosophy is to serve as the stabilizing influence in human thought by virtue of its intrinsic nature it should prevent man from ever establishing unreasonable codes of life philosophers themselves however have frustrated the ends of philosophy by exceeding in their wool gathering those untrained minds whom they are supposed to lead in the straight and narrow path of rational thinking to list and classify any but the more important of the now recognized schools of philosophy is beyond the space
17:48 limitations of this volume the vast area of speculation covered by philosophy will be appreciated best after a brief consideration of a few of the outstanding systems of philosophic discipline which have swayed the world of thought during the last 26 centuries the greek school of philosophy had its inception with the seven immortalized thinkers upon whom was first conferred the appellation of sofos the wise according to diagonous laertes these were thalass solon chylon patakis bias cliobulus and periender water was conceived by thales to be the primal principle or element upon which
18:35 the earth floated like a ship and earthquakes were the result of disturbances in this universal sea since thales was an ionian the school perpetuating his tenants became known as the ioniq he died in 546 bc and was succeeded by anaximander who in turn was followed by anaximenes anaxogorus and archaelos with whom the ionic school ended anaximander differing from his master thelus declared measureless and indefinable infinity to be the principle from which all things were generated anaximanus asserted heir to be the first element of the universe that souls and even the deity itself were composed of it
19:20 annexagorus whose doctrine savers of atomism held god to be an infinite self-moving mind that this divine infinite mind not enclosed in any body is the efficient cause of all things out of the infinite matter consisting of similar parts everything being made according to its species by the divine mind who when all things were at first confusedly mingled together came and reduced them to order archaelos declared the principle of all things to be two-fold mind which was incorporeal and air which was corporeal the rarefaction and condensation of the latter resulting in fire and water respectively the stars were conceived by archaealus
20:06 to be burning iron places heraclitus who lived 536 to 470 bc and is sometimes included in the ionic school in his doctrine of change and eternal flux asserted fire to be the first element and also the state into which the world would ultimately be reabsorbed the soul of the world he regarded as an exhalation from its humid parts and he declared the ebb and flow of the sea to be caused by the sun after pythagoras of samos its founder the italic or pythagorean school numbers among its most distinguished representatives empedocles epicarmus architis alkameon hepassus
20:51 philolos and eudoxus pythagoras 580 to 500 bc conceived mathematics to be the most sacred and exact of all the sciences and demanded it of all who came to him for study a familiarity with arithmetic music astronomy and geometry he laid special emphasis upon the philosophic life as a prerequisite to wisdom pythagoras was one of the first teachers to establish a community wherein all the members were of mutual assistance to one another in the common attainment of the higher sciences he also introduced the discipline of retrospection as essential to the development of the spiritual mind pythagoreanism may be summarized as a
21:37 system of metaphysical speculation concerning the relationships between numbers and the causal agencies of existence this school also first expounded the theory of celestial harmonies or the music of the spheres john rayclin said of pythagoras that he taught nothing to his disciples before the discipline of silence silence being the first rudiment of contemplation in his sophist aristotle credits impedicles with the discovery of rhetoric both pythagoras and empedocles accepted the theory of transmigration the latter saying a boy i was then did a maid become a plant bird fish and in the vast sea
22:23 swamp archites is credited with invention of the screw and the crane pleasure he declared to be a pestilence because it was opposed to the temperance of the mind he considered a man without deceit to be as rare as a fish without bones the eliatic sect was founded by xenophonies 570-480 bc who was conspicuous for his attacks upon the cosmologic and theogonic fables of homer and hesiod zenophonies declared that god was one and incorporeal in substance and figure round in no way resembling man that he is all sight and all hearing but breathes not that he is all things the mind and wisdom
23:09 not generate but eternal impassable immutable and rational zenophonies believed that all existing things were eternal that the world was without beginning or end and that everything which was generated was subject to corruption he lived a great age and is said to have buried his sons with his own hands parmenides studied under xenophonies but never entirely subscribed to his doctrines parmenides declared the senses to be uncertain and reason the only criterion of truth he first asserted the earth to be round and also divided its surface into zones of heat and cold babbitt's adam
23:55 from babbitt's principles of light and color since the postulation of the atomic theory by democritus many efforts have been made to determine the structure of atoms and the method by which they unite to form various elements even science has not refrained from entering this field of speculation and presents for consideration most detailed and elaborate representations of these minute bodies by far the most remarkable conception of the atom evolved during the last century is that produced by the genius of dr edwin d babbitt and which is reproduced herewith the diagram is self-explanatory it must be born in mind that this apparently massive structure is actually minut as
24:40 to defy analysis not only did dr babbitt create this form of the atom but he also contrived a method whereby these particles could be grouped together in an orderly manner and thus result in the formation of molecular bodies melisas who is included in the eliatic school held many opinions in common with parmenides he declared the universe to be immovable because occupying all space there was no place to which it could be moved he further rejected the theory of a vacuum in space zeno of elia also maintained that a vacuum could not exist rejecting the theory of motion he asserted that there was but one god who was an eternal ungenerated being
25:26 like xenophonies he conceived deity to be spherical in shape the eucapis held the universe to consist of two parts one full and the other a vacuum from the infinite a host of minute fragmentary bodies descended into the vacuum where through a continual agitation they organized themselves into spheres of substance the great democritus to a certain degree enlarged upon the atomic theory of layucapus democritus declared the principles of all things to be two-fold atoms and vacuums both he asserted are infinite atoms in number vacuum and magnitude thus all bodies must be composed of atoms or vacuum atoms possessed two properties
26:13 form and size both characterized by infinite variety the soul democritus also conceived to be atomic in structure and subject to dissolution with the body the mind he believed to be composed of spiritual atoms aristotle intimates that democritus obtained his atomic theory from the pythagorean doctrine of the monad among the eliatics are also included protagoras and anaxircus socrates 469 to 399 bc the founder of the socratic sect being fundamentally a skeptic did not force his opinions upon others but through the medium of questionings caused each man to give expression to his own philosophy
26:59 according to plutarch socrates conceived every place as appropriate for reaching in that the whole world was a school of virtue he held that the solo existed before the body and prior to immersion therein was endowed with all knowledge that when the soul entered into the material form it became stupefied but that by discourses upon sensible objects it was caused to reawaken and to recover its original knowledge on these premises was based his attempt to stimulate the soul power through irony and inductive reasoning it has been said of socrates that the sole subject of his philosophy was man he himself declared philosophy to be the way of true happiness and its purpose
27:45 twofold one to contemplate god and two to abstract the soul from corporeal sense the principles of all things he conceived to be three a number god matter and ideas of god he said what he is i know not and what he is not i know matter he defined as the subject of generation and corruption idea as an incorruptible substance the intellect of god wisdom he considered the sum of the virtues among the prominent members of the socratic sect were xenophon essenes crito simon glauco
28:30 simeos and sebis professor zeller the great authority on ancient philosophies has recently declared the writings of xenophon relating to socrates the bee forgeries when the clouds of aristophanes a comedy written to ridicule the theories of socrates was first presented the great skeptic himself attended the play during the performance which caricatured him seated in a basket high in the air studying the sun socrates rose calmly in his seat the better to enable the athenian spectators to compare his own unpre-possessing features with the grotesque mask worn by the actor impersonating him the alien sect was founded by fedo of ellis a youth of noble family who was
29:17 bought from slavery at the instigation of socrates and who became his devoted disciple plato so highly admired fado's mentality that he named one of the most famous of his discourses the fado fado was succeeded in his school by plistinis who in turn was followed by monetimus of the doctrines of the alien sect little is known minedemus is presumed to have been inclined toward the teachings of stillpo and the magerian sect when mononetimus's opinions were demanded he answered that he was free thus intimating that most men were enslaved to their opinions minimus was apparently of a somewhat belligerent temperament and often returned from his lectures in a badly
30:04 bruised condition the most famous of his propositions is stated thus that which is not the same is different from that with which it is not the same this point being admitted monetimus continued to benefit is not the same as good therefore good does not benefit after the time of monetimus the alien sect became known as the eretrian its exponents denounced all negative propositions and all complex and obtrused theories declaring that only affirmative and simple doctrines could be true the magerian sect was founded by euclid of megara not the celebrated mathematician a great admirer of socrates the athenians passed the law
30:51 decreeing death to any citizen of megara found in the city of athens nothing daunted euclid donned women's clothing and went at night to study with socrates after the cruel death of their teacher the disciples of socrates fearing a similar fate fled to megara where they were entertained with great honor by euclid the magarian school accepted the socratic doctrine that virtue is wisdom adding to it the eliatic concept that goodness is absolute unity and all change and illusion of the senses euclid maintained that good has no opposite and therefore evil does not exist being asked about the nature of the gods he declared himself ignorant of their disposition save that they hated
31:38 curious persons the megarians are occasionally included among the dialectic philosophers euclid who died 374 bc was succeeded in his school by ubilities among whose disciples were alexanus and apollonius cronus eufantus who lived to great age and wrote many tragedies was among the foremost followers of ubilities diordurus is usually included in the mergarian school having heard ubuilty's lecture according to legend deodoris died of grief because he could not answer instantly certain questions asked him by stillpo at one time master of the magarian school theodorus held that nothing can be moved
32:23 since to be moved it must be taken out of the place in which it is and put into the place where it is not which is impossible because all things must always be in the places where they are the cynics were a sect founded by antisthenes of athens 444 to 365 bc a disciple of socrates their doctrine may be described as an extreme individualism which considers man as existing for himself alone and advocates surrounding him by inharmony suffering and direst need that be may thereby be driven to retire more completely into his own nature the cynics renounced all worldly possessions living in the rudest shelters and subsisting upon the coarsest and simplest food
33:10 on the assumption that the gods wanted nothing the cynics affirmed that those whose needs were fewest consequently approached closest to the divinities being asked what he gained by a life of philosophy and tustinis replied that he had learned how to converse with himself diagonese of sinepis is remembered chiefly for the tub in the metroim which for many years served him as a home the people of athens loved the beggar philosopher and when a youth and just bored holes in the tub the city presented diagonals with a new one and punished the youth diagonals believed that nothing in life can be rightly accomplished without excitation he maintained that everything in the world belongs to the wise a
33:56 declaration which he proved by the following logic all things belong to the gods the gods are friends to wise persons all things are common amongst friends therefore all things belong to the wise among the cynics are monuments oneesocritis kratus metroclass hipparchia who married kratos menipus and monetimus the syrianic sect founded by aristopus of serene 435 to 356 bc promulgated the doctrine of hedonism learning of the fame of socrates aristophas journeyed to athens and applied himself to the teachings of the great skeptic
34:41 socrates pained by the voluptuous and mercenary tendencies of aristopus vainly labored to reform the young man aristopus has the distinction of being consistent in principle and practice for he lived in perfect harmony with his philosophy that the quest of pleasure was the chief purpose of life the doctrines of the cerani x may be summarized thus all that is actually known concerning any object or condition is the feeling which it awakens in man's own nature in the sphere of ethics that which awakens the most pleasant feeling is consequently to be esteemed as the greatest good emotional reactions are classified as pleasant or gentle harsh and mean the end of pleasant emotion is pleasure
35:28 the end of harsh emotion grief the end of mean emotion nothing through mental perversity some men do not desire pleasure in reality however pleasure especially of a physical nature is the true end of existence and exceeds in every way mental and spiritual enjoyments pleasure furthermore is limited wholly to the moment now is the only time the past cannot be regarded without regret and the future cannot be faced without misgiving therefore neither is conducive to pleasure no man should grieve for grief is the most serious of all diseases nature permits man to do anything he desires he is limited only by his own laws and customs
36:15 a philosopher is one free from envy love and superstition and whose days are one long round of pleasure indulgence was thus elevated by aristopus to the chief position among the virtues he further declared philosophers to differ markedly from other men in that they alone would not change the order of their lives if all the laws of men were abolished among prominent philosophers influenced by the cyranic doctrines were hergacius onisris theodorus and bayan the sect of the academic philosophers instituted by plato 427 to 347 bc was divided into three major parts the old the middle and the new academy
37:02 among the old academics were specifics zinocritis poloman kratus and krantor our cecillus instituted the middle academy and carnetes founded the new chief among the masters of plato was socrates plato traveled widely and was initiated by the egyptians into the profundities of hermetic philosophy he also derived much from the doctrines of the pythagoreans cicero describes the threefold constitution of platonic philosophy as comprising ethics physics and dialectics plato defined good as threefold in character good in the soul expressed through the virtues good in the body expressed through the
37:48 symmetry and endurance of the parts and good in the external world expressed through social position and companionship in the book of spucipus on platonic definitions that great platonist thus defines god a being that lives immortally by means of himself alone sufficing for his own blessedness the eternal essence cause of his own goodness according to plato the one is the term most suitable for defining the absolute since the whole precedes the parts and diversity is dependent on unity but unity not on diversity the one moreover is before being for to be is an attribute or condition of the one
38:34 platonic philosophy is based upon the postulation of three orders of being that which moves unmoved that which is self-moved and that which is moved that which is immovable but moves is anterior to that which is self-moved which likewise is anterior to that which it moves that in which motion is inherent cannot be separated from its motive power it is therefore incapable of dissolution of such nature are the immortals that which has motion imparted to it from another can be separated from the source of its animating principle it is therefore subject to dissolution of such nature are mortal beings superior to both the mortals and the
39:19 immortals is that condition which continually moves yet itself is unmoved to this constitution the power of abidence is inherent it is therefore the divine permanence upon which all things are established being nobler even than self-motion the unmoved mover is the first of all dignities the platonic discipline was founded upon the theory that learning is really reminiscence or the bringing into objectivity of knowledge formerly acquired by the soul in a previous state of existence at the entrance of the platonic school in the academy were written the words let none ignorant of geometry enter here plato from thomason's regul day figures groups
40:07 therms fountains vases at otres ornaments plato's real name was aristocles when his father brought him to study with socrates the great skeptic declared that on the previous night he had dreamed of a white swan which was an omen that his new disciple was to become one of the world's illumined there is a tradition that the immortal plato was sold as a slave by the king of sicily after the death of plato his disciples separated into two groups one the academics continued to meet in the academy where once he had presided the other the peripatetics removed to the lyceum under the leadership of aristotle 384 to 322 bc
40:52 plato recognized aristotle as his greatest disciple and according to philipponis referred to him as the mind of the school if aristotle were absent from the lectures plato would say the intellect is not here of the prodigious genius of aristotle thomas taylor writes in his introduction to the metaphysics when we consider that he was not only well acquainted with every science as his works abundantly evans but that he wrote on almost every subject which is comprehended in the circle of human knowledge and this with matchless accuracy and skill we know not which to admire most the penetration or extent of his mind of the philosophy of aristotle the same author says
41:38 the end of aristotle's moral philosophy is perfection through the virtues and the end of his contemplative philosophy a union with the one principle of all things aristotle conceived philosophy to be two-fold practical and theoretical practical philosophy embraced ethics and politics theoretical philosophy physics and logic metaphysics he considered to be the science concerning that substance which has the principle of motion and rest inherent to itself to aristotle the soul is that by which man first lives feels and understands hence to the soul he assigned three faculties nutritive sensitive and intellective he further considered the soul to be
42:23 twofold rational and irrational and in some particulars elevated the sense perceptions above the mind aristotle defined wisdom as the science of first causes the four major divisions of his philosophy are dialectics physics ethics and metaphysics god is defined as the first mover the best of beings and a movable substance separate from sensible things void of corporeal quantity without parts and indivisible platonism is based upon a priori reasoning aristotelianism upon a posteriori reasoning aristotle taught his pupil alexander the great to feel that if he had not done a good deed he had not reigned that day
43:10 among his followers were theophrastus strato lyco aristo cretolus and diodorus of skepticism as propounded by pirro of ellis 365 to 275 bc and by tyman sextus empiricus said that those who seek must find or deny they have found or can find or persevere in the inquiry those who suppose they have found truth are called dogmatists those who think it incomprehensible are the academics those who still seek are the skeptics the attitude of skepticism towards the knowable is summed up by sextus empiricus in the following words but the chief ground of skepticism is
43:57 that to every reason there is an opposite reason equivalent which makes us forbear to dogmatize the skeptics were strongly opposed to the dogmatists and were agnostic in that they held the accepted theories regarding deity to be self-contradictory and undemonstrable how asked the skeptic can we have indubited knowledge of god knowing not his substance form or place for while philosophers disagree irreconcilably on these points their conclusions cannot be considered as undoubtedly true since absolute knowledge was considered unattainable the skeptics declared the end of their discipline to be in opinionatives in disturbance in impulsives moderation and in
44:43 disquietives suspension the sect of the stoics was founded by zeno 340 to 265 bc the satean who studied under cradius the cynic from which sect the stoics had their origin xeno was succeeded by clianthes chrysippus xeno of tarsus diagones antipater pineteus and posidonius most famous of the roman stoics are epictatus and marcus aurelius the stoics were essentially pantheists since they maintained that as there is nothing better than the world the world is god zeno declared that the person of the world is diffused throughout it as seed stoicism is a materialistic philosophy
45:30 and joining voluntary resignation to natural law chrysippus maintained that good and evil being contrary both are necessary since each sustains the other the soul was regarded as a body distributed throughout the physical form and subject to dissolution with it though some of the stoics held that wisdom prolonged the existence of the soul actual immortality is not included in their tenets the soul was said to be composed of eight parts the five senses the generative power the vocal power and an eighth or hegemonic part nature was defined as god mixed throughout the substance of the world all things were looked upon as bodies either corporeal or incorporeal
46:16 the problem of diversity from kircher's ars magnus scienti in the above diagram kircher arranges 18 objects in two vertical columns and then determines the number of arrangements in which they can be combined by the same method kercher further estimates that 50 objects may be arranged in almost unlimited combinations from this it will be evident that infinite diversity is possible for the countless parts of the universe may be related to each other in an incalculable number of ways and through the various combinations of these limitless subdivisions of being infinite individuality and infinite variety must inevitably result thus it is further evident that life can never become monotonous or exhaust the
47:02 possibilities of variety meekness marked the attitude of the stoic philosopher while diagonus was delivering a discourse against anger one of his listeners spat contemptuously in his face receiving the insult with humility the great stoic was moved to retort i am not angry but am in doubt whether i ought to be so or not epicurus of samos 341-270 bc was the founder of the epicurean sect which in many respects resembles the sirianic but is higher in its ethical standards the epicureans also posited pleasure as the most desirable state but conceived it to be a grave and dignified state achieved through renunciation of those
47:47 mental and emotional inconstancies which are productive of pain and sorrow epicurus held that as the pains of the mind and soul are more grievous than those of the body so the joys of the mind and soul exceed those of the body the syrianics asserted pleasure to be dependent upon action or motion the epicureans claimed rest or lack of action to be equally productive of pleasure epicurus accepted the philosophy of democritus concerning the nature of atoms and based his physics upon this theory the epicurean philosophy may be summed up in four canons one sense is never deceived and therefore every sensation and every perception of an appearance is true
48:33 2. opinion follows upon sense and is super added to sensation and capable of truth or falsehood 3. all opinion attested or not contradicted by the evidence of sense is true 4. an opinion contradicted or not attested by the evidence of sense is false among the epicureans of note were metrodus of lampsicus xeno of sidon and phaedrus eclecticism may be defined as the practice of choosing apparently irreconcilable doctrines from antagonistic schools and constructing there from a composite philosophic system in harmony with the convictions of the eclectic himself eclecticism can scarcely be considered
49:20 philosophically or logically sound for as individual schools arrive at their conclusions by different methods of reasoning so the philosophic product of fragments from these schools must necessarily be built upon the foundation of conflicting premises eclecticism accordingly has been designated the layman's cult in the roman empire little thought was devoted to philosophic theory consequently most of its thinkers were of the eclectic type cicero is the outstanding example of early eclecticism for his writings are a veritable potpourri of invaluable fragments from earlier schools of thought eclecticism appears to have had its inception at the moment when men first doubted the possibility of discovering ultimate truth
50:05 observing all so-called knowledge to be mere opinion at best the less studious furthermore concluded that the wiser course to pursue was to accept that which appeared to be the most reasonable of the teachings of any school or individual from this practice however arose a pseudo-broad-mindedness devoid of the element of preciseness found in true logic and philosophy the neo-pythagorean school flourished in alexandria during the first century of the christian era only two names stand out in connection with it apollonius of tyanna and moderatus of gades neopythagoreanism is a link between the older pagan philosophies and neoplatonism like the former it contained many exact
50:52 elements of thought derived from pythagoras and plato like the latter it emphasized metaphysical speculation and ascetic habits a striking similarity has been observed by several authors between neo-pythagoreanism and the doctrines of the essenes special emphasis was laid upon the mystery of numbers and it is possible that the neo-pythagoreans had a far wider knowledge of the true teachings of pythagoras than is available today even in the first century pythagoras was regarded more as a god than a man and the revival of his philosophy was resorted to apparently in the hope that his name would stimulate interest in the deeper systems of learning but greek philosophy had passed the zenith of its splendor the mass of
51:38 humanity was awakening to the importance of physical life and physical phenomena the emphasis upon earthly affairs which began to assert itself later reached maturity of expression in 20th century materialism and commercialism even though neoplatonism was to intervene and many centuries passed before this emphasis took definite form aeneus at the gate of hell from virgil's aeneid dryden's translation virgil describes part of the ritual of a greek mystery possibly the elusivian in his account of the descent of aeneas to the gate of hell under the guidance of the sybil of that part of the ritual portrayed above the immortal poet writes
52:24 full in the midst of this infernal road an elm displays her dusky arms abroad the god of sleep there hides his heavy head and empty dreams on every leaf are spread of various forms unnumbered specters more centaurs and double shapes besieged the door before the passage horrid hydra stands and bryarius with all his hundred hands gorgonz gerion with his triple frame and vain chimera vomits empty flame the chief unsheathed his shining steel prepared though seized with sudden fear to force the guard offering his brandished weapon at their face had not the sybil stopped his eager
53:09 pace and told him what those empty phantoms were forms without bodies and in passive air although ammonius sacus was long believed to be the founder of neoplatonism the school had its true beginning in platinus ad204 to 269 prominent among the neoplatonists of alexandria syria rome and athens were porphyry amblicus celestius the emperor julian plutarch and proclass neoplatonism was the supreme effort of decadent pagandam to publish and thus preserve for posterity its secret or unwritten doctrine in its teachings ancient idealism found its most perfect expression
53:55 neoplatonism was concerned almost exclusively with the problems of higher metaphysics it recognized the existence of a secret and all-important doctrine which from the time of the earliest civilizations had been concealed within the rituals symbols and allegories of religions and philosophies to the mind unacquainted with its fundamental tenets neoplatonism may appear to be a mass of speculations interspersed with the extravagant flights of fancy such a viewpoint however ignores the institutions of the mysteries those secret schools into whose profundities of idealism nearly all of the first philosophers of antiquity were initiated when the physical body of pagan thought collapsed an attempt was made to
54:41 resurrect the form by instilling new life into it by the unveiling of its mystical truths this effort apparently was barren of results despite the antagonism however between pristine christianity and neoplatonism many basic tenets of the latter were accepted by the former and woven into the fabric of patristic philosophy briefly described neoplatonism is a philosophic code which conceives every physical or concrete body of doctrine to be merely the shell of a spiritual verity which may be discovered through meditation and certain exercises of a mystic nature in comparison to the esoteric spiritual truths which they contain the corporeal bodies of religion and philosophy were considered relatively of little value
55:27 likewise no emphasis was placed upon the material sciences the term patristic is employed to designate the philosophy of the fathers of the early christian church patristic philosophy is divided into two general epochs antaenicine and post-nicene the antinocene period in the main was devoted to attacks upon paganism and to apologies and defenses of christianity the entire structure of pagan philosophy was assailed and the dictates of faith elevated above those of reason in some instances efforts were made to reconcile the evident truths of paganism with christian revelation evident among the antonescene fathers were saint iranius clement of alexandria and justin martyr
56:13 in the post-nicene period more emphasis was placed upon the unfoldment of christian philosophy along platonic and neoplatonic lines resulting in the appearance of many strange documents of a lengthy rambling and ambiguous nature nearly all of which were philosophically unsound the post-nicene philosophers included athanasius gregory of nissa and cyril of alexandria the patristic school is notable for its emphasis upon the supremacy of man throughout the universe man was conceived to be a separate and divine creation the crowning achievement of deity and an exception to the suzerainty of natural law to the patristics it was inconceivable that there should ever exist another
56:58 creature so noble so fortunate or so able as man for whose sole benefit and edification all the kingdoms of nature were primarily created patristic philosophy culminated in augustinianism which may be best defined as christian platonism opposing the pulaskian doctrine that man is the author of his own salvation augustinianism elevated the church and its dogmas to a position of absolute infallibility a position which it successfully maintained until the reformation gnosticism a system of emanationism interpreting christianity in terms of greek egyptian and persian metaphysics appeared in the later part of the first century of the christian era practically all the information extent
57:45 regarding the gnostics and their doctrines stigmatized as heresy by the anti-nascene church fathers is derived from the accusations made against them particularly from the writings of saint arenas in the third century appeared manichaeism a dualistic system of persian origin which taught that good and evil were forever contending for universal supremacy in manichaeism christ is conceived to be the principle of redeeming good in contradistinction to the man jesus who was viewed as an evil personality the death of bolthius in the 6th century marked the close of the ancient greek school of philosophy the 9th century saw the rise of the new school of scholasticism which sought to reconcile philosophy with theology
58:32 representative of the main divisions of the scholastic school were the eclecticism of john of salisbury the mysticism of bernard of clairvault and saint bonaventura the rationalism of peter abelard and the pantheistic mysticism of meister eckhart among the arabian aristotelians were avacina and avarose the zenith of scholasticism was reached with the advent of albertus magnus and his illustrious disciple saint thomas aquinas thomism the philosophy of saint thomas aquinas sometimes referred to as the christian aristotle sought to reconcile the various factions of the scholastic school thomism was basically aristotelian with
59:18 the added concept that faith is a projection of reason scotism or the doctrine of volunteerism promulgated by johannes duns scotus a franciscan scholastic emphasized the power and efficacy of the individual will as opposed to thomasum the outstanding characteristic of scholasticism was its fanatic effort to cast all european thought in an aristotelian mold eventually the schoolmen descended to the level of mere word mongers who picked the words of aristotle so clean that nothing but the bones remained it was this decadent school of meaningless verbiage against which sir francis bacon directed his bitter shafts of irony and which he relegated to the
1:00:03 potter's field of discarded notions the bocconian or inductive system of reasoning whereby facts are arrived at by a process of observation and verified by experimentation cleared the way for the schools of modern science bacon was followed by thomas hobbs for some time his secretary who held mathematics to be the only exact science and thought to be essentially a mathematical process hobbes declared matter to be the only reality and scientific investigation to be limited to the study of bodies the phenomena relative to their probable causes and the consequences which flow from them under every variety of circumstance hobbes laid special stress upon the significance of words declaring
1:00:49 understanding to be the faculty of perceiving the relationship between words and the objects for which they stand having broken away from the scholastic and theological schools post-reformation or modern philosophy experienced a most prolific growth among many diverse lines according to humanism man is the measure of all things rationalism makes the reasoning faculties the basis of all knowledge political philosophy holds that man must comprehend his natural social and national privileges empiricism declares that alone to be true which is demonstrable by experiment or experience moralism emphasizes the necessity of right conduct as a fundamental philosophic tenet idealism asserts the realities of the
1:01:34 universe to be super physical either mental or psychical realism the reverse and phenomenalism restricts knowledge to facts or events which can be scientifically described or explained the most recent developments in the field of philosophic thought are behaviorism and neorealism the former estimates the intrinsic characteristics through an analysis of behavior the latter may be summed up as the total extinction of idealism baruch despinoza the imminent dutch philosopher conceived god to be a substance absolutely self-existent and needing no other conception besides itself to render it complete and intelligible the nature of this being was held by
1:02:19 spinoza to be comprehensible only through its attributes which are extension and thought these combine to form an endless variety of aspects or modes the mind of man is one of the modes of infinite thought the body of man one of the modes of infinite extension through reason man is unable to elevate himself above the illusionary world of the senses and find eternal repose in perfect union with the divine essence spinoza it has been said deprived god of all personality making deity synonymous with the universe german philosophy had its inception with gottfried wilhelm von liebenitz whose theories are permeated with the qualities of optimism and idealism
1:03:06 leibniz's criteria of sufficient reason revealed to him the insufficiency of descartes theory of extension and he therefore concluded that substance itself contained an inherent power in the form of an incalculable number of separate and all sufficient units matter reduced to its ultimate particles ceases to exist as a substantial body being resolved into a mass of immaterial ideas or metaphysical units of power to which leibniz applied the term monad thus the universe is composed of an infinite number of separate monadic entities unfolding spontaneously through the objectification of innate active qualities all things are conceived as consisting of single monads of varying magnitudes
1:03:52 or of aggregations of these bodies which may exist as physical emotional mental or spiritual substances god is the first and greatest monad the spirit of man is an awakened monad in contradistinction to the lower kingdoms whose governing monadic powers are in a semi-dormant state the ptolemaic scheme of the universe from an old print courtesy of carl oscar borg in ridiculing the geocentric system of astronomy expounded by claudius ptolemy modern astronomers have overlooked the philosophic key to the ptolemaic system the universe of ptolemy is a diagrammatic representation of the relationships existing between the various divine and elemental parts of
1:04:38 every creature and is not concerned with astronomy as that science is now comprehended in the above figure special attention is called to the three circles of zodiacs surrounding the orbits of the planets these zodiacs represent the threefold spiritual constitution of the universe the orbits of the planets are the governors of the world and the four elemental spheres in the center represent the physical constitution of both man and the universe ptolemy's scheme of the universe is simply a cross-section of the universal aura the planets and elements to which he refers having no relation to those recognized by modern astronomers though a product of the limnitzian wolfian school emmanuel kant like locke
1:05:23 dedicated himself to investigation of the powers and limits of human understanding the result was his critical philosophy embracing the critique of pure reason the critique of practical reason and the critique of judgment dr w j durant sums up kant's philosophy in the concise statement that he rescued mind from matter the mind kant conceived to be the selector and coordinator of all perceptions which in turn are the result of sensations grouping themselves about some external object in the classification of senses and ideas the mind employs certain categories of sense time and space of understanding quality relation modality and causation and the unity of appreciation
1:06:09 being subject to mathematical laws time and space are considered absolute and sufficient bases for exact thinking khan's practical reason declared that while the nature of pneumon could never be comprehended by the reason the fact of morality proves the existence of three necessary postulates free will immortality and god in the critique of judgment kant demonstrates the union of the pneumon and the phenomenon in art and biological evolution german super intellectualism is the outgrowth of an overemphasis of kant's theory of the autocratic supremacy of the mind over sensation and thought the philosophy of joham gottlieb fitched was a projection of kant's philosophy
1:06:55 wherein he attempted to unite kant's practical reason with his pure reason fitch held that the known is merely the contents of the consciousness of the knower and that nothing can exist to the knower until it becomes part of those contents nothing is actually real therefore except the facts of one's own mental experience recognizing the necessity of certain objective realities friedrich william joseph von schelling who succeeded fitched in the chair of philosophy at jenna first employed the doctrine of identity as the groundwork for a complete system of philosophy whereas fitch regarded self as the absolute von schelling conceived infinite and eternal mind to be the all-pervading cause realization of the absolute is made
1:07:40 possible by the intellectual intuition which being a superior or spiritual sense is able to dissociate itself from both subject and object counts categories of space and time von schelling conceived to be positive and negative respectively and material existence the result of the reciprocal action of these two expressions von schelling also held that the absolute in its process of self-development proceeds according to a law or rhythm consisting of three movements the first a reflective movement is the attempt of the infinite to embody itself in the finite the second that of subsumption is the attempt of the absolute to return to the infinite after involvement in the finite the third that of reason is the neutral
1:08:27 point wherein the two former movements are blended george willem frederick hegel considered the intellectual intuition of von schelling to be philosophically unsound and hence turned his attention to the establishment of a system of philosophy based upon pure logic of hegel it has been said that he began with nothing and showed with logical precision how everything had proceeded from it in logical order hegel elevated logic to a position of supreme importance in fact as a quality of the absolute itself god he conceived to be a process of unfolding which never attains to the condition of unfoldment in like manner thought is without either beginning or end hegel further believed that all things
1:09:13 are their existence to their opposites and that all opposites are actually identical thus the only existence is the relationship of opposites to each other through whose combinations new elements are produced as the divine mind is an eternal process of thought never accomplished hegel assails the very foundation of theism and his philosophy limits immortality to the overflowing deity alone evolution is consequently the never-ending flow of divine consciousness out of itself all creation though continually moving never arrives at any state other than that of ceaseless flow johann friedrich herbert's philosophy was a realistic reaction from the idealism of fitch and von schelling to
1:09:59 herbert the true basis of philosophy was the great mass of phenomena continually moving through the human mind examination of phenomena however demonstrates that a great part of it is unreal at least incapable of supplying the mind with actual truth to correct the false impressions caused by phenomena and discover reality herbart believed it necessary to resolve phenomena into separate elements for reality exists in the elements and not in the whole he stated that objects can be classified by three general terms thing matter and mind the first a unit of several properties the second an existing object the third a self-conscious being all three notions give rise however to
1:10:45 certain contradictions with whose solution herbart is primarily concerned for example consider matter though capable of filling space if reduced to its ultimate state it consists of incomprehensibly minute units of divine energy occupying no physical space whatsoever the tree of classical mythology from horts the new pantheon before a proper appreciation of the deeper scientific aspects of greek mythology is possible it is necessary to organize the greek pantheon and arrange its gods goddesses and various superhuman hierarchies in concontinated order proclass the great neoplatonist in his commentaries on the theology of plato gives an invaluable key to the
1:11:32 sequence of the various deities in relation to the first cause and the inferior powers emanating from themselves when thus arranged the divine hierarchies may be likened to the branches of a great tree the roots of this tree are firmly embedded in unknowable being the trunk and larger branches of the tree symbolize the superior gods the twigs and leaves the innumerable existences dependent upon the first and unchanging power the true subject of arthur schopenhauer's philosophy is the will the object of his philosophy is the elevation of the mind to the point where it is capable of controlling the will schopenhauer likens the will to a strong blind man who carries on his shoulders the intellect which is a weak lame man
1:12:18 possessing the power of sight the will is the tireless cause of manifestation and every part of nature the product of will the brain is the product of the will to know the hand the product of the will to grasp the entire intellectual and emotional constitutions of man are subservient to the will and are largely concerned with the effort to justify dictates of the will thus the mind creates elaborate systems of thought simply to prove the necessity of the thing willed genius however represents the state wherein the intellect has gained supremacy over the will and the life is ruled by reason and not by impulse the strength of christianity said schopenhauer lay in its pessimism and conquest of individual will
1:13:05 his own religious viewpoints resembled closely the buddhistic to him nirvana represented the subjugation of will life the manifestation of the blind will to live he viewed as a misfortune claiming that the true philosopher was one who recognizing the wisdom of death resisted the inherent urge to reproduce his kind of frederick willem nietzsche it has been said that his peculiar contribution to the cause of human hope was the glad tidings that god had died of pity the outstanding features of nietzsche's philosophy are his doctrine of eternal recurrence and the extreme emphasis placed by him upon the will to power a projection of schopenhauer's will to live
1:13:50 niche believed the purpose of existence to be the production of a type of all-powerful individual
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