Then he will see that the two seasons, though in many points so like each other, are yet, in a far deeper way, different.
And so it is with the world's history.

Isolate certain phenomena, and they do, without doubt, repeat themselves; but it is only when isolated that they can be said to do so.

In many points the European thought and civilisation of to-day may seem to be a repetition of what has been before; we may fancy that we recognise our brothers in the past, and that we can, as the writer above quoted says, shake hands with them across the intervening years.

But this is really only a deceiving fancy, when applied to such deep and universal questions as those we have now to deal with--to religion, to positive thought, and to the worth of life.

The positivists and the unbelievers of the modern world, are not the same as those of the ancient world.