4 NOVEMBER 1893, Page 37

BarLy Greek, Philosophy. By John Burnet, M.A. (A. and C.

Black.)—We cannot pretend properly to estimate, in the space at our command, this important book. The introduction is espe- cially noticeable for its assertion of the real originality of Greek thought when it first took a philosophical form. ' Herodotus, who was overpowered by the material greatness of Egypt, has given false ideas of the indebtedness of Greece to that country. Even in the case of geometry, which it is a commonplace to ascribe to the dwellers by the Nile, the science seems to have come from Greece. Mr. Burnet begins, with the Milesian school, to which 'Males, Anaximander and Anaximenes belonged, and goes on to treat of Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, the Pythagoreans, the Younger Eleatics (represented by Zeno), and others. He shows always a well-filled store of knowledge, and writes in an attractive style.