THE MEDIAEVAL ATTITUDE 



onistic to the search for spiritual beauty, — all these 

 influences must have had a powerful and lasting ef- 

 fect in directing attention to natural phenomena and 

 to man's place in nature, but our concern is rather 

 with the more direct impulse given to biology by the 

 rise of modern physics. 



The scientific Renaissance came last, and began 

 with an aroused interest in pure mathematics; it next 

 turned to astronomy; and then to mechanics. This 

 order is a natural and almost inevitable one. These 

 sciences are the most abstract, and they are the least 

 dependent in their early development on the use of 

 apparatus which at the time was not available. Biol- 

 ogy, as a science, hardly existed before the middle of 

 the eighteenth century. What interest there was in 

 the investigation of animal and plant life was con- 

 fined to physicians, and was limited to medicine, 

 anatomy, and a little physiology; but the rapid ad- 

 vance of the physical sciences prepared the way both 

 for biology and evolution. They promoted liberalism 

 and taught men to rely on observation and reason, 

 and thus broke the domination of the Church. They 

 early developed an adequate supply of instruments 

 of precision, such as the telescope and microscope, 

 and they discovered and used freely the inductive 

 scientific method. Thus, when the time was ripe, 

 biologists found the ground fully prepared for their 

 science. They could use the method and results of the 



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