202 PHYSICAL SCIENCE IN" THE MIDDLE AGES. 



prevail in men's minds are the material upon which we must work, 

 the particulars from which we are to generalize, the instruments which 

 we are to use ; and that, therefore, to reject the study of antiquity, or 

 even its authority, would be to show ourselves ignorant of the extent 

 and mutual bearing of the elements with which we have to deal ; — 

 would be to cut asunder that which we ought to unite into a vital 

 whole. Yet even in the provinces of history and poetry, the poverty 

 and servility of men's minds during the middle ages, are shown by in- 

 dications so strong as to be truly remarkable ; for instance, in the 

 efforts of the antiquarians of almost every European country to assim- 

 ilate the early history of their own state to the poet's account of the 

 foundation of Rome, by bringing from the sack of Troy, Brutus to 

 England, Bavo to Flanders, and so on. But however this may be, our 

 business at present is, to trace the varying spirit of the physical philos- 

 ophy of different ages; trusting that, hereafter, this prefatory study 

 will enable us to throw some light upon the other parts of philosophy. 

 And in physics the case undoubtedly was, that the labor of observation, 

 which is one of the two great elements of the progress of knowledge, 

 was in a great measure superseded by the collection, the analysis, the 

 explanation, of previous authors and opinions ; experimenters were re- 

 placed by commentators ; criticism took the place of induction ; and 

 instead of great discoverers we had learned men. 



1. Natural Bias to Authority. — It is very evident that, in such a 

 bias of men's studies, there is something very natural ; however strained 

 and technical this erudition may have been, the propensities on which 

 it depends are very general, and are easily seen. Deference to the au- 

 thority of thoughtful and sagacious men, a disposition which men in 

 general neither reject nor think they ought to reject in practical mat- 

 ters, naturally clings to them, even in speculation. It is a satisfaction 

 to us to suppose that there are, or have been, minds of transcendent pow- 

 ers, of wide and wise views, superior to the common errors and blind- 

 ness of our nature. The pleasure of admiration, and the repose of con- 

 fidence, are inducements to such a belief. There are also other reasons 

 why we willingly believe that there are in philosophy great teachers, 

 so profound and sagacious, that, in order to arrive at truth, we have 

 only to learn their thoughts, to understand their writings. There is a 

 peculiar interest which men feel in dealing with the thoughts of their 

 fellow-men, rather than with brute matter. Matter feels and excites no 

 sympathies : in seeking for mere laws of nature, there is nothing of 

 mental intercourse with the great spirits of the past, as there is in stu- 



