Done into English by
Nayán Louise Redfield
Μηδὲν ἄγαν kαὶ γνῶθι σεαυτόν
G. P. Putnam’s Sons
New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press
1917
Copyright, 1917
BY
NAYÁN LOUISE REDFIELD
To the Travellers who have turned their Faces to the Dawn and their Steps toward the Eternal Hills is offered this rich Fruit of Wisdom, that, through it, they may achieve the Understanding of Knowledge.
TRANSLATOR’S FOREWORD
IN this twentieth century, the sacred books of the ancients are undoubtedly better understood than they were even by their contemporaries, for their authors, by the greatness of their genius, are as much nearer to us, as they were distant from them. At the close of the eighteenth century, the light which came from the illimitable mind of Fabre d’Olivet shone with solitary splendour and was destined to be seen by only a few devoted followers. But history shows that a great inspirer always appears at the beginning of every great epoch, and however small the number of his disciples, these disciples with their pupils form the magnetic chain which, according to Plato, carries his thought out into the world.