INDISTINCTNESS OF IDEAS. 195 



0. JTtyitct of Physical Reasoning in Christendom. If the Arabians, 

 who, during the ages of which we are speaking, were the most eminent 

 cultivators of science, entertained only such comparatively feeble and 

 servile notions of its doctrines, it will easily be supposed, that in the 

 Christendom of that period, where physical knowledge was compara- 

 tively neglected, there was still less distinctness and vividness in the 

 prevalent ideas on such subjects. Indeed, during a considerable period 

 of the history of the Christian Church, and by many of its principal 

 authorities, the study of natural philosophy was not only disregarded 

 but discommended. The great practical doctrines which were pre- 

 sented to men's minds, and the serious task?, of the regulation of the 

 will and affections, which religion impressed upon them, made inquiries 

 of mere curiosity seem to be a reprehensible misapplication of human 

 powers ; and many of the fathers of the Church revived, in a, still more 

 peremptory form, the opinion of Socrates, that the only valuable philoso- 

 phy is that which teaches us our moral duties and religious hopes. 7 

 Thus Eusebius savs, 8 "It is not through ignorance of the things ad- 



*> ' O O O 



mired by them, but through contempt of their useless labor, that we 

 think little of these matters, turning our souls to the exercise of better 



* O 



things." When the thoughts were thus intentionally averted from 

 those ideas which natural philosophy involves, the ideas inevitably be- 

 came very indistinct in their minds; and they could not conceive that 

 any other persons could find, on such subjects, grounds of clear con- 

 viction and certainty. They held the whole of their philosophy to be, 

 as Lactantius 9 asserts it to be, " empty and false." " To search," says 

 he, " for the causes of natural things ; to inquire whether the sun be 

 as large as he seems, whether the moon is convex or concave, whether 

 the stars are fixed in the sky or float freely in the air ; of what size 

 and of what material are the heavens; whether they be at rest or in 

 motion ; what is the magnitude of the earth ; on what foundations it is 

 suspended and balanced ; to dispute and conjecture on such matters, 

 is just as if we chose to discuss what we think of a city in a remote 

 country, of \vhieh we never heard but the name." It is impossible to 

 express more forcibly that absence of any definite notions on physical 

 subjects which led to this tone of thought. 



7. Question of Antipodes. TVith such habits of thought, we are 

 not to be surprised if the relations resulting from the best established 

 theories were apprehended in an imperfect and incongruous manner 



Brucker, iii. 817. 3 /Voy;. Ev. xv. 61. 9 List. 1. iii. init. 



