THE MEDIAEVAL ATTITUDE 



always be avoided, but that they are to be used only 

 as a confession of ignorance, and never be permitted 

 to stand in the way of the certain and sure progress of 

 induction. Bacon may justly be criticised for mistaken 

 notions, but when all has been said, he stands as the 

 one who best understood the revolt of the Renaissance, 

 and who pointed out most lucidly the way for the re- 

 vival of science. And for this reason, such a criticism 

 as Huxley's should be discussed at length because we 

 are, today, lapsing again into metaphysical scientific 

 methods through our unrestrained use of unverifiable 

 hypotheses. A return to the sober and wholesome 

 method of Bacon would do us a world of good. Our 

 debauch of evolution, of aethers, and of electrons is 

 fast carrying us back into the state of mediaeval ab- 

 surdities. 



The supreme importance of Bacon's work lay in 

 the fact that it gave men self-confidence in their 

 powers of elucidation. The acceptance of the new 

 scientific method, together with the rapid growth of 

 physics, mathematics, astronomy, and the rise of 

 chemistry, necessarily had a profound effect in awak- 

 ening the mind to observe and to depend on the rea- 

 son. Possibly even more important, as an indirect in- 

 fluence on the new tendency towards rationalism, was 

 the growing power of the Protestant Reformation. 

 The very essence of protestantism is that the indi- 

 vidual is the final arbiter of his beliefs and may not 

 escape the burden of responsibility by submission of 



