106 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES 



nise in this procedure the influence of a system of oral disputa 

 tion. E. See Bk. 2, p. 101, where the substance of this section 

 is repeated. Cf. Ueberweg's History of Philosophy , vol. i. , p. 432. 

 "The method of the Schoolmen consisted first in connecting the 

 doctrines to be expounded with a commentary on some work 

 chosen for the purpose. The contents of this work were divided 

 and sub -divided, until the separate propositions, of which it was 

 composed, were reached. Then these were interpreted, questions 

 were raised with reference to them, and the grounds for affirming 

 and for denying them were presented. Finally the conclusion was 

 announced," etc. Bacon means to say that the truth or false 

 hood of a proposition cannot be determined without taking into 

 account the limitations imposed by the other propositions of the 

 science, of which it forms a part. The proposition that * wages 

 tend to an equality ' is false, absolutely : it is true in the place 

 which it occupies in an English treatise on economy. 



1. 28. which solutions, etc. Milman says of Thomas Aquinas, 

 that " his luxury of distinction and definition, if it be not a con 

 tradiction, his imaginative logic is inexhaustible." Again, talk 

 ing of Scotus' vindication of the grace of God, he says that, 

 "Scotus draws a distinction (he saves everything by a distinction 

 which his subtlety never fails to furnish) between the absolute 

 and secondary will of God." Again, talking of the controversy 

 between the Scotists and Thomists, he says that "one defines 

 away necessity till it ceases to be necessity, the other fetters 

 free-will till it ceases to be free." The following may serve as an 

 instance of a "solution" which in reality consists merely of 

 formal distinctions. Thomas Aquinas thus proves that the 

 beginning of the world in time is not philosophically demon 

 strable. "It is said that the cause must precede the effect: 

 but we must draw a distinction between efficient causes and per 

 fect causes. The dictum applies to the former, but not to the 

 latter. God is a perfect cause, and could by his almighty power 

 create an eternal world. Again, that the world was created from 

 nothing does not prove its temporal origin. Here we must draw 

 a distinction between temporal succession and order. ' From 

 nothing' means 'after nothing,' but not necessarily in the sense 

 of temporal succession. Again it is said, that we cannot pursue 

 the chain of causation to infinity, but that at some point we 

 must come to that which is uncaused. Those who urge this ob 

 jection overlook the distinction between intermediary causes and 

 the absolute cause." In the Paradiso, c. 13, Dante represents 

 Thomas Aquinas as emphasizing the importance of drawing dis 

 tinctions in all affirmation or negation. The same method of 

 demonstration was employed generally by the Schoolmen both in 

 theology and physics. In the sphere of physics their formal dis 

 tinctions were generally supported by quotations from Aristotle, 

 whose physical speculations are peculiarly fanciful, so that the 



