Page:Collected Works of Dugald Stewart Volume 1.djvu/42

24 seized and transmitted. It is, in fact, such leading characters alone which furnish matter for philosophical history. To enumerate the names and the labours of obscure or even secondary authors, (whatever amusement it might afford to men of curious erudition,) would contribute but little to illustrate the origin and filiation of consecutive systems, or the gradual development and progress of the human mind.