Perhaps no task is more complex and difficult than to enter sympathetically into the thought of those of a by-gone age, and view the problems of their life and the mysteries of their world with kindred eyes—the eyes of their minds, limited by their ignorance , enlightened by their wisdom. Our minds are so easily fixed in the attitudes of the modern world which with contempt dismisses the cosmic concepts of the ancient peoples as infantile imaginings without lasting value. But it is impossible to understand antiquity—its philosophy, its history, its literature—if we place its people outside the world which they mentally pictured around them. This it was that gave rise to their rites, their religion, their laws and customs, and their attitudes to life.

Outline of Section C: The Nature of the Universe1. The Infinite2. The First Natural Point3. Swedenborgian and Modern Cosmology4. Modern Cosmology