94 SUBJECT OF THE FOLLOWING CHAPTERS.
of the discussion indeed takes it out of the sphere of any but a professed history of philosophy, not merely because of its extremely technical form, which it is difficult to render into modern language, but also because the apparent minuteness and triviality of its distinctions, unless subjected to a long and searching examination, tend rather to conceal than to disclose the ferment of thought from which it sprang. But we shall learn perhaps more of the real character of the age and of the forces at work in it by studying the manner in which men learned and taught, and had their controversies, and making acquaintance with some types of its culture, than by a direct analysis of its dialectical theories.
