146 SCIENCE AND CULTURE VI 



aberrations; if need were by the help of the 

 secular 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 nature 

 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 especially 

 was it inculcated that the course of nature had 

 no fixed order, but that it could be, and constantly 

 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 pro- 

 duce the conviction that the only thing really 

 worth knowing in this world was how to secure 

 that place in a better which, under certain condi- 

 tions, 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 

 saintliness after the fashion of the saints of those 

 days ; the education that led to it was, of necessity, 

 theological ; and the way to theology lay through 

 Latin. 



That the study of nature further than was re- 



