THE BOOK-MEN. 477 



Hence he encouraged education, for he found it furnished men capa- 

 ble of serving him effectually in all his aspirations. But who could 

 give education? None but the clerks or book-men, who were then 

 the only men of science. 



Passing beyond this reign, we see the effects of this policy gradu- 

 ally developing themselves. During the tenth century, the arithmet- 

 ical figures we now use to write down numbers were first introduced 

 into Europe. Previously the Roman letters I, V, X, L, C, etc., had 

 been employed to express numeric quantities. The advantage of the 

 new method we can all appreciate, for it is the method we all use at 

 present. But who first introduced and taught this improvement in 

 arithmetical notation, with all the facilities it affords for the calcula- 

 tions ? We owe the importation to the book-men who traveled to 

 acquire knowledge from the Arabs who had conquered Spain, and 

 whose schools at Cordova had acquired great celebrity. Thus we see 

 the advance of science was from one set of book-men to another set 

 of book-men, and from their schools to the people. 



In this and the preceding century too, we find that it had become 

 a common practice for the doctors of philosophy and theology to 

 challenge each other to public debates ; and that it became fashion- 

 able for the gentry to be present at these intellectual duels, where 

 thought met thought in a struggle to convince of truths or convict of 

 error. 



From theologians arose the most distinguished philosophers of the 

 times. We could, in our advanced state of knowledge, consider the 

 scientific opinions they advanced as unworthy of our serious considera- 

 tion ; but then they were of the utmost importance, in this, that they 

 were incitements to thought and to further investigation. This was 

 the main thing in an age of intellectual obscurity, to bring forth 

 more and more light from the first sparks of truth. The mind once 

 awakened, curiosity and reflection once aroused, a process of develop- 

 ment of right reason was inaugurated, which in time spread itself 

 from the mind of man over all nature. 



This takes place in the midst of the first Crusades, by which hun- 

 dreds of thousands were led to perish disastrously ; but restless and 

 curious philosophers followed in the wake of war and rapine, and 

 hovered around the armies to bring back from the East all the science 

 they could gather. We often read of the improvement in science the 

 West of Europe derived from the Crusades ; but the story is always 

 told so as to leave the impression that the plunder the mind brought 

 back from Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria, was 

 gathered there by the boorish soldiers and their captains. A moment's 

 thought will, however, set us right on this point. Science could only 

 be gathered by men already partially acquainted with science, by men 

 having a taste for it, by the scholars and the book-men. To them, 

 therefore, must we award all the praise for any scientific advantage 



