The principal component elements in the progressive struggle of the historical development of Idealism and Realism were, “Hellenism ” on the one side, and a misunderstood “Christianity” on the other. Hellenism, in spite of its Platonic idealism, still represented the embodiment of the forces of nature, while Christianity strove for the spiritualization and “disembodiment” of all phenomena, and of man himself. This tendency, which took its origin in the ascetics of India and the mystic priests of Egypt, produced that grand and mighty phenomenon of monasticism, the aim of which was to retire from the world, and to attain a state of conscious blissfulness in this life. Monks were said to be able to dispense with food, to float in the air, to have intercourse with angels and sometimes also with demons, to see with bodily eyes the glories of the saints, to pierce the future, and to lead an incorporeal life in spite of their living bodies. An EgyptoBuddhistic Platonism began to sway the minds of Christian believers, and they thronged in tens of thousands to people deserts and woods, mountains and sea-shores, with anchorets, pillar saints, coenobites, and hermits. Humanity was apparently altogether absorbed in a spiritualized stoicism, applying Epicurus's principles to an ascetic life, finding joy, contentment.