PURE SCIENCE AND THE IDEA OF THE HOLY 



to eause its downfall, while what one would think firmly es- 

 tablished by irrefragable arguments is forthwith shattered by an 

 opponent with the greatest ease. . . ." 



In this attack Milton was thus at one with another great patron 

 saint of the scientific era, the Czech Comenius (Jan Amos Komensky), 

 who strove through forty years of exile in nearly every European 

 country for an education based on things and actions, not words 

 and ideas^ and who was later personally known to Milton when he 

 visited England in 1641 at the request of Parliament to plan a 

 reform of our educational system. But we are back in the schools at 

 Cambridge ten years before. Milton is going on, in his sonorous 

 Latin, to say; 



"How much better were it, gentlemen, and how much more 

 consonant with your dignity, now to let your eyes wander as it 

 were over all the lands depicted on the map, and to behold the 

 places trodden by the heroes of old, to range over the regions 

 made famous by wars, by triumphs, and even by the tales of 

 poets of renown, now to traverse the stormy Adriatic, now to 

 climb unharmed the slopes of fiery Etna, then to spy out the 

 customs of mankind and those states which are well-ordered; 

 next to seek out and explore the nature of all living creatures, 

 and after that to turn your attention to the secret virtues of 

 stones and herbs. And do not shrink from taking your flight 

 into the skies and gazing on the manifold shapes of the clouds, 

 the mighty piles of snow, and the source of the dews of the 

 morning; then inspect the coflfers wherein the hail is stored and 

 examine the arsenals of the thunderbolts. And do not let the 

 intent of Jupiter or of Nature elude you, when a huge and 

 fearful comet threatens to set the heavens aflame, nor let the 

 smallest star escape you of all the myriads which are scattered 

 and strewn between the poles; yes, even follow close upon the 

 sun in all his journeys, and ask account of time itself and demand 

 the reckoning of its eternal passage." 



In such a sublime manner did the spokesmen of the scientific move- 

 ment inaugurate their plan. What was inconsistent with its free 



^ Cf. the volume published on the occasion of the Tercentenary of Comenius' visit 

 to England — The Teacher of Nations, with essays by President Bene§, J. L. Paton, 

 J. D. Bemal, Ernest Barker and others (Cambridge, 1942). 



Ill 



