394 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES. 



been first imbued, and particularly by this, as we have ob- 

 served, that his philosophy was the same with that of Aris- 

 totle. 



In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the philosophy of 

 Aristotle had the entire possession of the public schools ; but 

 at this period a spirit of inquiry necessarily began to produce 

 some doubts and differences of opinion, and accordingly some 

 efforts were made to introduce other systems. These efforts, 

 however, were feeble; and no change was produced till the 

 time when Galileo and Bacon introduced, if not a new philo- 

 sophy, at least a new method of philosophizing. This method, 

 consisting of mathematical reasonings and experimental inqui- 

 ries, had so many advantages over that which was followed 

 by the schools, and so readily discovered the errors and friv- 

 olities of these, that it soon weakened the authority, and at 

 length entirely exploded the system of the Aristotelians. 



The system of Galen in physic was upon the same founda- 

 tion, and therefore necessarily shared in the same ruin. At the 

 same time the dogmatic system of the chemists, though neither 

 better founded, nor more applicable than that of the Galenists, 

 yet as being in opposition to the tyranny of establishment, 

 was received with some degree of favour by the followers of the 

 new method of philosophizing ; and, as the arts of the chemists 

 afforded and promised many assistances to the new scheme of 

 experimental philosophy, the chemists in general were cherished 

 and protected. 



It was in Germany that the chemical practitioners especially 

 prevailed; and there was hardly a sovereign court in that coun- 

 try in which an alchymist and a chemical practitioner of physic 

 were not retained. Even the Galenical practitioners there came 

 soon to employ the remedies of the Chemists ; and Sennertus, 

 one of the most eminent Galenists of Germany, endeavoured to 

 reconcile the two opposite parties. 



Linacre and Kay, the restorers of physic in England, were 

 zealous Galenists ; but as no regular school of physic was ever 

 well established in this country, the persons destined to physic 

 chiefly resorted to the schools of Italy and France, where they 

 generally became Galenists ; and although the London college 



