turies, chiefly because it meant the continuation and acceptance 

 of a method which could lead to no advance; and, had it not been 

 that a different method and a truer one was developing with signi- 

 ficant rapidity, philosophy would still be engaged in a task of little 

 practical value and of no scientific worth. This new method was 

 being introduced by the special sciences, the ever-increasingly 

 wonderful investigations of which were greatly accelerated by the 

 Renaissance period. 



Throughout the Mediaeval Ages, the thoughts of men had been 

 centred mainly upon theological questions, and the special sciences 

 had been sadly neglected and even ostracized. Here and there were 

 faint glimmerings, which gave hope of a fuller dawn, though no 

 general acknowledgment had been given to the feeble but never- 

 theless significant gropings in mathematics, astronomy and mechan- 

 ics in Europe throughout the Mediaeval Ages. One of the most 

 remarkable of those men who, in an age definitely opposed to the 

 scientific spirit, succeeded in carrying on some investigations, was 

 Roger Bacon, 1214-1292. This man anticipated in many ways the 

 method which, later, was to lead men on to further discoveries, but 

 his work was neither understood nor appreciated. Ecclesiastical 

 authority and undue reverence for the past could not so soon be 

 overcome. But, with" the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, came the 

 Revival of Learning and the introduction of the investigations of the 

 Arabs who, represented by such men as Alhazen, Avicenna and 

 Averroes, had done much to keep alive a scientific spirit in this 

 Mediaeval period. And this was not all, for there were taking 

 place other events which were simply revolutionising the ideas of 

 men. The discovery of America and the Indies, the invention of 

 printing, of gunpowder, of the telescope and "compass opened up 

 vast and hitherto undreamed of possibilities. Added to these dis- 

 coveries and inventions were the altered political conditions, which 

 meant, in many cases, national independence and freedom. A new 

 inspiration had come to men, a new epoch of civilization seemed to 

 be opened. Before this, the spirit of man had been too much 

 "cribbed, cabined and confined" by the implicit obedience to its 

 dogmas required by the Church and by the unquestioning reliance 

 upon the teaching of Aristotle. The attitude is shown very well in 

 that well-known story about one of the lone investigators, who 



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