NATURAL SCIENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGE 8 291 



not merely was opposed by the unscientific attitude, but was itself 

 tinged by fantastic theories and false data. Yet the scientific attitude, 

 like the spirit of nationality, was at work in the seeming chaos; grad- 

 ually it shook itself free from error, and, by the increasing application 

 of truly scientific methods, won a similar triumph to that which the 

 sovereign political power gained by its gradual development of govern- 

 mental institutions. 



This was the process going on in the twelfth and thirteenth cen- 

 turies. When men still believed in demons and witches and divina- 

 tion from dreams, it is not surprising that they believed also in nat- 

 ural magic. Only a small part of nature's secrets were revealed to 

 them ; of the rest they felt that almost anything might turn out to be 

 true. It was a time when " one vast realm of wonder spreads around."' 

 They had to struggle against a huge burden of error and superstition 

 which Greece and Eome and the Arabs handed down to them ; yet they 

 must try to assimilate what was of value in Aristotle, Galen, Pliny, 

 Ptolemy, and the rest. Crude naive beginners they were in many re- 

 spects. Yet they show an interest in nature and its problems; they 

 are drawing the line between science and religion; they make some 

 progress in mathematics, geography, physics and chemistry; they not 

 only talk about experimental method, they actually make some in- 

 ventions and discoveries of use in the future advance of science. 

 Moreover, they themselves feel that they are making progress. They 

 do not hesitate to disagree with their ancient authorities, when they 

 know something better. Eoger Bacon affirms that many scientific facts 

 and truths are known in his time of which Plato and Aristotle, Hippo- 

 crates and Galen, were ignorant. The ancients, says Peter of Spain 

 in effect, were philosophers, but we are experimenters. Magic still 

 lingers but the march of modern science has begun. 



