1 PHYSICAL SCIENCE 



between Seneca and the Renascence, from which the era 

 of true science is to be dated. The Q.N. is the last word 

 spoken on the subject by the classical world, and practi- 

 cally the only work of its kind that survives to us in 

 Latin. Various commentators on Aristotle and Seneca 

 have, probably unconsciously, appeared as champions of 

 either author's claim to be considered as the authority 

 in Science during the Middle Ages. All the materials 

 for forming an unbiassed judgment are to be found in 

 Dr. Sandys' History of Classical Scholarship (vol. i.). 



Seneca possessed one or two initial advantages. In 

 the first place, Latin, in which he wrote, was understood 

 and spoken throughout the world, whereas for many 

 centuries Greek was over large tracts of it, particularly 

 in the West, an unknown tongue. Again, Seneca was 

 for long supposed to be a Christian, claimed by the early 

 fathers as " one of us," and ranked by Jerome among the 

 Ecclesiastical Writers. There was not therefore the same 

 prejudice against his works as is known to have existed 

 in the early Christian centuries against pagan authors, 

 especially against the poets. 



As a matter of fact, the knowledge of Aristotle's works, 

 at any rate in the West, seems to have been derived in 

 the first instance from Arabic translations made in the 

 ninth century and brought to Spain about the twelfth 

 century, while from 1204 onwards he was known in 

 Latin translations made direct from the Greek MSS., 

 which were now accessible. "In Roger Bacon's day, not- 

 withstanding his eagerness for promoting the study of 

 Aristotle in the original Greek, it was the Latin Aristotle 

 alone that was studied in the schools " (Sandys, op. cit. 575). 

 That was about the year 1267. Seneca seems to have 

 been well known, chiefly as a moralist, through the Middle 

 Ages. He " was famous as the author of the Naturales 

 Quaestiones" (ib. 627 *) also. Saint-Hilaire's claim, there- 

 fore (Arist. Meteor. Pref. ii. iii.), "that Aristotle laid 

 down the law on Meteorology, as in everything else, from 

 the age of Alexander right up to the Renascence," must 



1 See, besides, pp. 387, 541, 547, 560, 569, etc. 



