Chap. III—[Progress under Ancient Religions]

§ 1.[Early Association and Competition of Cults]44
§ 2.[The Process in India]48
§ 3.[Mesopotamia]61
§ 4.[Ancient Persia]65
§ 5.[Egypt]69
§ 6.[Phoenicia]78
§ 7.[Ancient China]82
§ 8.[Mexico and Peru]88
§ 9.[The Common Forces of Degeneration]91

Chap. IV—[Relative Freethought in Israel]

§ 1.[The Early Hebrews]97
§ 2.[The manipulated prophetic literature]104
§ 3.[The Post-Exilic Literature]109

Chap. V—[Freethought in Greece] 120

§ 1.[Beginnings of Ionic Culture]123
§ 2.[Homer, Stesichoros, Pindar, and Æschylus]126
§ 3.[The Culture-Conditions]134
§ 4.[From Thales to the Eleatic School]136
§ 5.[Pythagoras and Magna Graecia]148
§ 6.[Anaxagoras, Perikles, and Aspasia]152
§ 7.[From Demokritos to Euripides]157
§ 8.[Sokrates, Plato, and Aristotle]168
§ 9.[Post-Alexandrian Greece: Ephoros, Pyrrho, Zeno,Epicurus, Theodorus, Diagoras, Stilpo, Bion, Strato, Evêmeros,Carneades, Clitomachos; The Sciences; Advance and Decline of Astronomy;Lucian, Sextus Empiricus, Polybius, Strabo; Summary]180

Chap. VI—[Freethought in ancient Rome]

§ 1.[Culture Beginnings, to Ennius and the Greeks]194
§ 2.[Lucretius, Cicero, Cæsar]201
§ 3.[Decline under the Empire]207
§ 4.[The higher Pagan ethics]215

Chap. VII—[Ancient Christianity and its Opponents]

§ 1.[Freethought in the Gospels: contradictoryforces]218
§ 2.[The Epistles: their anti-rationalism]224
§ 3.[Anti-pagan rationalism. The Gnostics]224
§ 4.[Rationalistic heresy. Arius. Pelagius. Jovinian.Aerius. Vigilantius. The religious wars]229
§ 5.[Anti-Christian thought: its decline. Celsus. Lastlights of critical thought. Macrobius. Theodore. Photinus. Theexpulsion of science. The appropriation of pagan endowments]235
§ 6.[The intellectual and moral decadence. Boethius]243