THE DECLINE OF ANCIENT LEARNING 55 



to those of the present. Men lived with no extensive knowl- 

 edge of the past and with no conception of the possibilities 

 held in store by the future. 



A constructive side of the period, in relation to science, is 

 seen in the preservation of the older learning and in the pro- 

 tection afforded to scholars by the monasteries. Knowledge 

 of the ancient world descended in manuscripts that were 

 preserved by the Church, though not widely known until 

 the Revival of Learning. This service of conservation was 

 of inestimable value, despite the pious frauds of the copyists 

 which cast suspicion upon the accuracy of many of the 

 writings transmitted. As to the protection of scholars, it 

 appears that the monasteries and cathedrals were the only 

 places, in which there was opportunity for the practice of 

 scholarly pursuits, during the welter of social and economic 

 unrest of the five centuries that followed the year 500 

 a. d., since they offered the first opportunity for an intellec- 

 tual life protected from the turmoil of the world. The 

 celibacy of the clergy was unfortunate, in so far as it tended 

 to check the reproduction of minds capable of intellectual 

 attainment. But the intellectual and ethical idealism of the 

 monastic life, when at its best, was a potent factor in the 

 eventual development of a greater measure of intellectual 

 activity. The universities of Europe arose in intimate union 

 with the scholarly activities of the Church and clergy. In 

 biological science, the knowledge of medicine was trans- 

 mitted, if not extended, because of the service of religion to 

 the afflicted. In these respects, the Middle Ages appear as 

 the conserver of the older learning and to some extent the 

 protector of the new. 



INFLUENCE OF THE ARAB CIVILIZATION 



Leaving Europe, we now turn to another continent and to 

 another race which inherited and extended the ancient 

 learning in science. The Arabs, during their century of con- 



