[ 6 ] 



may be concluded from the Gran Comento, as Dante flyles it, 

 written on his works by the Arabian Averroes * about half a cen- 

 tury previous to the time of the poet. 



The perpetual, violent, and trifling controverfies alfo, which 

 long difgraced the Chriflian church, had introduced an ardent 

 paffion for difpute, and a fpirit of nice argumentation, and had 

 prepared the minds of men to adopt and to admire the fubtle and 

 unintelligible jargon of the fchools. Eager for vidory in this war 

 of words, Ariftotle's logic was greedily ftudied as an armour of 

 defence, and a means of fuccefsful controverfy ; and the fame 

 fpirit of nice difcrimination exciting in the mind a love for what 

 was difficult to be underftood, and an ambition to be thought to 

 comprehend what was fcarcely intelligible, his philofophy was 

 revered in proportion to its obfcurity, and has confequently ob- 

 tained fuch a fandion and bigotted preference, that it ftill remains, 

 as it were by prefcription, the exclufive dodrinc of almoft all 

 European feminaries f. 



But, 



* Averroes, or Averroys, died in the year 1206. I have flyled him n/; -^ra^;a«, 

 and fuch indeed he was by defcent, though born at Cordova in Spain ; from whence 

 he migrated into the dominions of the Icing of Morocco, by whom he was invited to 

 fettle in his country, and was raifed to offices of the highcfl: dignity and importance. 



f This was undoubtedly the facl not long fince, and dill, I believe, continues to be 

 true, particularly in Italy. 



We are told by Voltaire, EfTai fur les Mccurs, &c. Tom. x. p. 222. 410 Edition: 

 that fo late as in the reign of Louis XIII. in or about the year 1624, the Parliament 

 of Paris prohibited under pain of death the teaching any thing contrary to the dodtrine 

 of Ariftotle, and that a perfon of the name De Clave, together with his alTociates, 



was 



