76 THE PATH OF SCIENCE 



part of the university system, and they were proud of their 

 social rank and their education. They encouraged particu- 

 larly the study of the ancient languages, in which the writings 

 of the past were to be found. Curiously enough, much of 

 Greek thought, the writings of Aristotle, for instance, had 

 been kept alive during the Dark Ages of Europe by transla- 

 tion into Arabic and by preservation by the Arabs, who had 

 swept over Africa and through a great part of Spain. No 

 true eclipse of learning had occurred among the Arabs, whose 

 cycle of civilization was in a different phase from that of the 

 western world. But the Arabic philosophy, and particularly 

 its devotion to the writings of the Prophet as the source of 

 authority, provided little stimulus to original thinking. The 

 writings of many of the Greek authors had been translated 

 into Arabic through Syriac, which was the language in many 

 parts of the Byzantine Empire and had from the third cen- 

 tury replaced Greek in W^estern Asia. Thus, during the 

 greatest period of Moslem rule in the eighth century, the old 

 Syriac versions of the works of the outstanding Greek writers 

 ^vere revised, and in the next century many of them were 

 translated into Arabic. Galen's writings as well as those of 

 Aristotle were widespread in Arabic translations. 



In the fourteenth century, the ancient classics began to be 

 recovered, Greek was studied, and the Arabic works ^vere 

 translated into Latin and even retranslated into Greek. It 

 was not until the fifteenth century that the original Greek 

 versions were available instead of those that had passed 

 through the difficulties of the Arabic translation. As has 

 already been mentioned, the introduction of the art of print- 

 ing in the middle of the fifteenth century was of the utmost 

 importance for its influence on science. The first books to 

 be printed were, ho\\ ever, the classics rather than the prod- 

 ucts of conteinporary thought. First came the Bible and the 

 works of authors of theological authority, then the treatises 

 on law and medicine, and the writings of classical antiquity. 

 Many contemporary Avriters are, however, to be found among 

 the early printed books. 



