Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

448 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH ANDthe weakness and groundlessness of stoic doctrines.It is chiefly in his assaults on the assertions andassumptions of his adversaries that Carneades isvictorious : when i he attempts anything positiveon his own side, it amounts to this, that a rationalman will take probability for his guide, when hecannot be assured of truth : and his chief meritappears to have been in more accurately determiningthe degrees of probability.The contests of these schools bring us downto the middle of the second century before Christ,when Greece fell under the dominion of Rome.From this time forth not only were Greek philosophersof eminence drawn to live themselvesat Rome, and so to meet her statesmen and noblesin habits of intercourse, but the higher classes ofthe great capital commonly completed their educationby visiting and studying at Athens, Rhodes,and other centres of Grecian thought. Thusthe fusion of Greece with the empire, while herpolitical importance dwindled away, her influenceupon the mind of her subjugators was immenselyincreased. But the Roman on his side obtaineda sort of victory. As a rule he was anything butan original thinker. He was an essentially practicalman : he had a steady instinct which ledhim to distrust first causes and general principles.The Greek schools were to him of value only as3t For a full account of the line of thought followed by Carneades,-see Zeller, vol. iii. part 1, pp. 454-477.