CHAPTER THREE 



The Mediaeval Attitude Towards Science 



WITH the collapse of Greek thought, we enter a 

 long period of nearly eighteen and one-half 

 centuries in which science and natural philosophy 

 have practically no influence on thought. When the 

 soldier of Marcellus slew Archimedes at the siege of 

 Syracuse in the year 212 b.c, he not only took from 

 the world the greatest engineer and physicist of an- 

 cient times, but he also by his deed symbolized the 

 death of science itself. Rome, relieved of the fear of 

 the Carthaginians, immediately turned her energies 

 to the conquest of Greece. And while, as a tribute to 

 the intellectual glory of Athens, an appearance of 

 liberty was granted her citizens, their spirit and vi- 

 vacity of thought were crushed. The world for the 

 following seven centuries was Roman, and Rome in 

 her entire history never produced either a philosopher 

 or a man of science of true originality. The Roman 

 youth either studied in Greece or was taught by 

 Greeks at home, but the life of the mature man was 

 one of affairs, and such time as he gave to letters was 

 the period of leisure rather than of serious concern for 

 the intellectual life. 



A gradual dissolution of the original Roman forti- 

 tude and morals set in with the despotic splendour of 



1:753 



