BOOK IV. 



PHYSICAL SCIENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



GENERAL REMARKS 



IN the twelfth Book of the Philosophy, in which I have given a Re- 

 view of Opinions on the Nature of Knowledge and the method of 

 seeking it, I have given some account of several of the most important 

 persons belonging to the ages now under consideration. I have there 

 (vol. ii. b. xii. p. 146) spoken of the manner in which remarks made 

 by Aristotle came to be accepted as fundamental maxims in the schools 

 of the middle ages, and of the manner in which they were discussed 

 by the greatest of the schoolmen, as Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, 

 and the like. I have spoken also (p. 149) of a certain kind of recog- 

 nition of the derivation of our knowledge from experience ; as shown 

 in Richard of St. Victor, in the twelfth century. I have considered 

 (p. 152) the plea of the admirers of those ages, that religious authority 

 was not claimed for physical science. 



I have noticed that the rise of Experimental Philosophy exhibited 

 two features (chap. vii. p. 155), the Insurrection against Authority, 

 and the Appeal to Experience : and as exemplifying these features, I 

 have spoken of Raymond Lully and of Roger Bacon. I have further 

 noticed the opposition to the prevailing Aristotelian dogmatism mani- 

 fested (chap, viii.) by Nicolas of Cus, Marsilius Ficinus, Francis Patri- 

 cks, Picus of Mirandula, Cornelius Agrippa, Theophrastus Paracelsus, 

 Robert Fludd. I have gone on to notice the Theoretical Reformers of 

 Science (chap, ix.), Bernardinus Telesius, Thomas Campauella, Andreas 

 Caesalpinus, Peter Ramus ; and the Protestant Reformers, as Melanc- 

 thon. After these come the Practical Reformers of Science, who have 

 their place in the subsequent history of Inductive Philosophy ; Leo 

 nardo da Vinci, and the Heralds of the dawning light of real science, 

 whom Francis Bacon welcomes, as Heralds are accosted in Homer : 



Xalptre KI/PVKC; Aioj iiyyt^oi lift *:a( avSp&v. 

 Hail, Heralds, messengers of Gods and men ! 



