ARABIAN AND MEDIAEVAL SCIENCE. 65 



made from the Arabic by CAMPANUS a century later became, how- 

 ever, a more widely-known work, and it was from this that the earlier 

 printed editions were prepared. Many others imitated Adhelard in 

 resorting to the Moorish universities. It is interesting to meet with a 

 number of English names among the cultivators of the mathematical 

 sciences in those days of the almost universal ignorance which pre- 

 vailed in our own country as elsewhere. We read of DANIEL MORLAY; 

 ROBERT OF READING; WILLIAM SHELL ; CLEMENT LANGTOWN; 

 ROBERT, BISHOP OF LINCOLN, surnamed GROSSETETE; and other 

 Englishmen. 



If these persons themselves did little to add to the store of scientific 

 wealth bequeathed by the Greeks, they at least served to transmit it 

 to later times. And when men's minds began to awaken into intel- 

 lectual life after the long night of the Dark Ages, it was the study of 

 the ancient authors which gave the first impulse. These works aroused 

 in some minds a curiosity which might long have remained dormant, 

 and inspired for the knowledge of nature an enthusiasm which would 

 otherwise have been wholly expended upon theological subtleties. 

 Wisely studied, these writings might have directed research and en- 

 lightened investigation, by showing what had already been accom- 

 plished, and by illustrating methods which might have led to fresh 

 acquisitions. As a matter of fact, however, we find that during the 

 Middle Ages science made little or no progress. The minds of the 

 few who cultivated learning were in general occupied with other 

 matters, and the number of those who devoted themselves to the 

 study of nature was extremely small ; but in some extenuation of 

 the many charges which have been brought against mediaeval eccle- 

 siasticism, it should be observed that many of those who first specially 

 directed their attention to scientific studies in Christian Europe were 

 monks or bishops. Indeed, it was only among persons of this class 

 that any literary culture could be found, and before the eleventh cen- 

 tury the monasteries were the only schools of such literature and science 

 as Christendom possessed. The twelfth century witnessed the esta- 

 blishment of Christian colleges and universities ; but these institutions 

 cannot be considered to have done anything to promote the progress 

 of science. The science studies pursued in them aimed at nothing 

 higher than an acquaintance with the writings of Aristotle, and the 

 most ambitious aim of their professors was to comment upon the text 

 of the old Greek. This remark applies to collegiate institutions and 

 universities down to a comparatively recent period. Theology, meta- 

 physics, or frivolous disputes, which really turned upon verbal distinc- 

 tions, exhausted all the energies and employed all the ingenuity of 

 teachers and students. What new discoveries could be expected from 

 men trained in such schools ? 



Some illustrious examples, however, are to be noticed of students of 

 natural science, so far superior to the narrow bigotry and ignorant pre- 



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