46 THE MAIN CURRENTS OF ZOOLOGY 



General ignorance prevailed. The means of dis- 

 semination of knowledge did not exist, but the chief 

 factor in the overthrow of learning was the arrest of 

 inquiry into natural phenomena and the substitution 

 therefor of a metaphysical method. The priesthood 

 had access to the manuscript writings, and they, with 

 the medical men of the period, became the educated 

 classes. Under these conditions the direction of 

 intellectual life was assumed by the theologians who 

 were chiefly interested in contemplation of the 

 spiritual and the supernatural and the medical men 

 were submerged by the general change in the in- 

 tellectual atmosphere. 



A world-shunning spirit was engendered that was 

 hostile to scientific inquiry and observations of nature 

 came to be looked on as prompted by impious cu- 

 riosity, and as an attempt to pry into the secrets 

 of the Creator. Without the wholesome effect of 

 observation and experiment, mystical explanations 

 were invented for natural phenomena and ignorance 

 and superstition prevailed. To question the mystical 

 interpretations of nature was to invite theological 

 persecution. No science could prosper under these 

 conditions, and zoology languished in common with 

 the other sciences. 



