India and Greece were the two great homes of ancient philosophy, and while Indian philosophy was monist, Greek philosophy was uniformly dualistic. We have only incidental references to Greek philosophy, in which Dr. Bussell is a master; but we have instead an account of various religions and religious movements in the Near East, more especially the physico-ethical dualism of Zoroaster, the astral cult of Babylonia, and the orgiastic worships of Asia Minor.
The oriental empires and then the Macedonian and the Roman brought all these into close contact, and ultimately under Hellenistic and Jewish influences there arose the so-called oriental philosophy which found expression on the one hand in Gnosticism and Manichaeism, and in neo-Platonism on the other. The soul of man is the subject of this new philosophy; it is regarded as a visitant from the divine pleroma; it has fallen into sin and misery; and it seeks redemption. The upward path may be physically considered, as in Gnosticism, and astral fatalism as the barrier to be overcome. Or we may rise through the intellect to intuition, ecstasy, and mysticism, as in Neo-Platonism, a philosophy which was Christianised by the Pseudo-Dionysius. All these currents of thought had their influence in the Middle Ages, and all find a place in the present work.
The Middle Ages are ushered in by the rise of the Mediaeval Papacy, the advent of Islam, and the rule of barbarian chiefs throughout the Western Empire; and they close with the dawn of the Italian Renaissance and the exile of the Popes from Rome. During these seven centuries (a.d. 600-1300) Christendom and Islam between them divided the civilised world from the Atlantic to the Pamirs. It was no time for original thought or the cultivation of philosophy; and indeed Dr. Bussell contends that philosophy has made no notable advance since the days of Proclus. The entire energies of the Mediaeval period were devoted to the assimilation of foreign elements and to the elaboration of a new society—a remark which applies not only to Europe and the Mediterranean basin or the Near East, but also to Northern India, the former home of philosophy but now of the Rajputs, and hermetically sealed against all
