(L.) p. 272. It appears however that scriptural arguments were found on the other side. St. Jerome says3, speaking of the two cherubims with four faces, seen by the prophet, and the interpretation of the vision; "Alii vero qui philosophorum stultam sequunter sapientiam, duo hemispheria in duobus templi cherubim, nos et antipodes, quasi supinos et cadentes homines suspicantur." (M.) p. 305. The reader will find an interesting view of the School of Alexandria, in M. Barthelemy SaintHilaire's Rapport on the Memoires sent to the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences at Paris, in consequence of its having, in 1841, proposed this as the subject of a prize, which was awarded in 1844. M. Saint-Hilaire has prefixed to this Rapport a dissertation on the Mysticism of that school. He, however, uses the term Mysticism in a wider sense than my purpose, which regarded mainly the bearing of the doctrines of this school upon the progress of the Inductive Sciences, led me to do. Although he finds much to admire in the Alexandrian philosophy, he declares that they were incapable of treating scientific questions. The extent to which this is true is well illustrated by the extract which he gives from Plotinus, on the question, "Why objects appear smaller in proportion as they are more distant." Plotinus denies that the reason of this is that the angles of vision become smaller. His reason for this denial is curious enough. If it were so, he says, how could the heaven appear smaller than it is, since it occupies the whole of the visual angle? (N.) p. 361. In the Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, I have given an account at considerable length 3 Comm. in Ezech., 1. 6. of Roger Bacon's mode of treating Arts and Sciences; and have also compared more fully his philosophy with that of Francis Bacon; and I have given a view of the bearing of this latter upon the progress of Science in modern times. See Phil. Ind. Sc. B. XII. chaps. 7 and 11. (o.) p. 362. Since the publication of my first edition, Mr. Willis has shown that much of the "mason-craft of the middle ages consisted in the geometrical methods by which the artists wrought out of the blocks the complex forms of their decorative system. To the general indistinctness of speculative notions on mechanical subjects prevalent in the middle ages, there may have been some exceptions, and especially so long as there were readers of Archimedes. Boëtius had translated the mechanical works of Archimedes into Latin, as we learn from the enumeration of his works by his friend Cassiodorus (Variar. lib. 1. cap. 45), "Mechanicum etiam Archimedem latialem siculis reddidisti." But Mechanicus was used in those times rather for one skilled in the art of constructing wonderful machines than in the speculative theory of them. The letter from which the quotation is taken is sent by King Theodoric to Boëtius, to urge him to send the king a water-clock. Cyclopum educta caminis Mænia conspicio, atque adverso fornice portas. His demum exactis, perfecto munere Divæ, VIRGIL, En. vi. 630. They leave at length the nether gloom, and stand To happier plains they come, and fairer groves, Its lucid depths above their favoured heads; And, purged from mists that veil our earthly skies, INTRODUCTION. Of Formal and Physical Astronomy. E have thus rapidly traced the causes of the WE almost complete blank which the history of physical science offers, from the decline of the Roman empire, for a thousand years. Along with the breaking up of the ancient forms of society, were broken up the ancient energy of thinking, the clearness of idea, and steadiness of intellectual action. This mental declension produced a servile admiration for the genius of the better periods, and thus, the spirit of Commentation: Christianity established the claim of truth to govern the world; and this principle, misinterpreted and combined with the ignorance and servility of the times, gave rise to the Dogmatic System: and the love of speculation, finding no secure and permitted path on solid ground, went off into the regions of Mysticism. The causes which produced the inertness and blindness of the stationary period of human knowledge, began at last to yield to the influence of the principles which tended to progression. The indistinctness of thought, which was the original feature in the decline of sound knowledge, was in a measure remedied by the steady cultivation of pure mathematics and astronomy, and by the pro |