146 SCIENCE AND CULTURE vi 



aberrations; if need were by the help of the secu- 

 lar arm. 



Between the two, our ancestors were furnished 

 with a compact and complete criticism of life. 

 They were told how the world began and how it 

 would end; they learned that all material exist- 

 ence was but a base and insignificant blot upon 

 the fair face of the spiritual world, and that na- 

 ture was, to all intents and purposes, the play- 

 ground of the devil; they learned that the earth 

 is the centre of the visible universe, and that man 

 is the cynosure of things terrestrial, and more es- 

 pecially was it inculcated that the course of nature 

 had no fixed order, but that it could be, and con- 

 stantly was, altered by the agency of innumerable 

 spiritual beings, good and bad, according as they 

 were moved by the deeds and prayers of men. 

 The sum and substance of the whole doctrine was 

 to produce the conviction that the only thing re- 

 ally worth knowing in this world was how to 

 secure that place in a better which, under certain 

 conditions, the Church promised. 



Our ancestors had a living belief in this theory 

 of life, and acted upon it in their dealings with 

 education, as in all other matters. Culture meant 

 saintlincss — after the fashion of the saints of those 

 days; the education that led to it was, of neces- 

 sity, theological; and the way to theology lay 

 throuirh Latin. 



That the study of nature — further than was 



