THE MEDIAEVAL ATTITUDE 



hastiness to arrive at conclusions, the mania for sys- 

 tems of thought, multiplied error. . . . Plato was a 

 man of sublime genius; he even knew the proper 

 method, but he applied it badly, . . . Aristotle, that 

 great man, was certainly also a great philosopher. In 

 his writings he was painstaking and exact, but, a 

 Greek, he was too prompt in deciding. . . . Plato 

 subordinated the world to ideas and Aristotle, ideas 

 to words. The one corrupted science by theology and 

 the other by dialectics, as later Proclus did by mathe- 



matics." 



Bacon stated the proper method of scientific pro- 

 cedure in these excellent terms: "For man, being a 

 member and interpreter of Nature, acts and under- 

 stands so far as he has observed of the order, the 

 works, and the mind of Nature, and can proceed no 

 further, for no power is able to loose or break the 

 chain of cause, nor is Nature to be conquered, but by 

 submission. . . . And, thus, we hope to establish 

 forever a true and legitimate union between the ex- 

 perimental and rational faculty, whose fallen and 

 inauspicious divorces and repudiations have disturbed 

 everything in the family of mankind." He believed 

 that knowledge can be advanced only slowly by the 

 unsystematic efforts of individuals who work accord- 

 ing to their personal impulses and frequently experi- 

 ment in order to verify a preconceived hypothesis. 

 Whereas science can be furthered best by a steady 

 advance along pre-defined lines by an association of 



C 105] 



