C 7 ] 



But, befides thefe accidental caufes, we may perhaps find a 

 reafon for the preference given to this fpecies of fcience at the 

 early approach of light, in the nature of the human mind, which, 

 when emerging out of ignorance, is apt, at its firft expan!fion, 

 to feize with avidity the more abftrufe and refined parts of know- 

 ledge. Metaphyfical refearches, and every fpecies of nice, fubtle, 



and 



was baniflied from Paris for having fuflained certain pofitions contrary to the prin- 

 ciples of this favourite philofopher on the number of the elements, and on matter 

 and form. The fame author, however, in a note on the third canto of his Pucelle, 

 limits the penalty to that of the Gallies, which feems the more probable from the 

 punifhment of De Clave, who would fcarccly have received fo (light a fentence as 

 that of batiijhment from Paris, for a crime which the law had made liable to death. 



For this marked preference given to the Ariftotelian doftrine in all CalhoUc 

 feminaries Bayle flyly affigns the following reafon : ' Apres tout, il ne faut pas 

 ♦ f'etonner que le Peripatetifme, tel qu'on Tenfeigue depuis plufieurs fiecles, trouve 

 « tant de Prote£leurs, et qu'on en croit les Interets infeparables de ceux oe la 

 ' Theologie ; car il accoutume I'Efprit a acquiefer fans evidence. Cette Reunion 

 ' d'intercts doit etre aux Peripateticiens une gage de I'lmmortalite de leur fc£le, 

 ' et aux nouveaux Philofophes un fujet de diminuer leurs Efperances.' 



The glory of Ariftotle fufFered a fiiort eclipfe at the very beginning of the thirteenth 

 century, when his metaphyficks and phyficks were prohibited from being read as 

 favouring the errors of herefy, but, having been commented upon, under the pro- 

 tection, as is fuppofed, of the Pope, by Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, 

 it again fhone forth with redoubled fplendour. 



To evince the efteem in which this great philofopher v.-as held in the more enlight- 

 ened times I (hall here cite the weighty authorities of Grotius and of Erafmus. The 

 former in the Preface to his Book, De Jure Belli et Pacis, hns thefe words, • Inter 

 ' Philofophes merito principem obtlnet locum Arilloteles, five traftandi ordinem, 

 ' five diftinguendi acumen, five Rationum pondera confideres.' And Erafmus, Epift. 

 Lib. xxviii. Ep. 13. thus fpeaks of him, ' Ariftoteles Philofophorum, ne Platone 

 ' quidem juxta M. Tullium excepto, citra controverfiam, omnium doftiffimus — Unus 

 ' hie Philofophiam, a diverfis per Fragmenta fparfim mutilatimque traditam, in or- 

 « dinem redegit, ac veluti in Corpus compegit.' 



