32 HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE OF SCIENCE 



spirit of truth by the work of Hippocrates and his school 

 (c. 400 b. c.) in medicine, by that of Archimedes (287-212 

 b. c.) in mechanics, and of Aristarchus (c. 270 b. c.) in his 

 heliocentric theory of the universe. 19 But everywhere 

 speculation outran ascertained fact. Although Greek 

 philosophy permeated the theology of Christendom for 

 many centuries, and although the science of Hippocrates, 

 of Archimedes, and of Aristarchus, and the great Aristotelian 

 tradition flowed into Europe through Rome and Constanti- 

 nople, only to be fully acknowledged as Greek in origin in the 

 period of the Renaissance, the birthplace of modern science 

 was not Greece but western Europe. In Hellenic thought, 

 science was as a rising tide, while philosophy was at the flood. 

 Among the causes for the decline of Greek civilization may 

 have been the failure to appreciate the solid ground of 

 scientific fact upon which has been founded the material and 

 spiritual progress of modern times. 



The Greek did not sufficiently acknowledge science, with 

 its demand for sure even though slow progress, as distinct 

 from the speculations of philosophy. Nor can one consider 

 the science of Greece apart from its philosophy, since the 

 Greeks were philosophical scientists to a degree which even 

 philosophers have not surpassed in later days. Of all the 

 speculations, non-scientific at the time but since brought 

 within the realm of science, those concerning the nature of 

 matter and the origin of life are of most interest at the 

 present day. The very existence of such speculations indi- 

 cates a remarkable advance in thought. When indulging in 

 them, these philosopher-scientists were reflecting upon and 

 offering hypotheses for problems which twenty centuries 

 later became subject matter for exact science. Empedocles 

 separated energy from matter, and Democritus developed a 



19 Libby, Walter, "An Introduction to the History of Science." Also: 

 Sedgwick, W. T., and Tyler, H. W., "A Short History of Science"; and 

 Browne, C. A., "Four Anniversaries in the History of Greek Philosophy," 

 The Open Court, Dec, 1915. 



