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DISSERTATION.—PART FIRST.
cessively seized and transmitted.[1] It is, in fact, such leading characters alone which furnish matter for philosophical history. To enumerate the names and the labours of obscure or even secondary authors, (whatever amusement it might afford to men of curious erudition,) would contribute but little to illustrate the origin and filiation of consecutive systems, or the gradual development and progress of the human mind.
- ↑ I have ventured here to combine a scriptural expression with an allusion of Plato's to a Grecian game; an allusion which, in his writings, is finely and pathetically applied to the rapid succession of generations, through with the continuity of human life is maintained from age to age; and which are perpetually transferring from hand to hand the concerns and duties of this fleeting scene. Τεγγᾶγτεις χᾶὶ ἰχτρίφογγτὶς παῖðας, χαɵάχἰρ λαμπάðα τὸγ βίογ παραðiðογτiς ἄλλαγ.—(Plato, Leg. lib. vi.
"Et quasi cursores vitaï lampada tradunt."Lucret.
