226 PHYSICAL SCIENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



is an additional exemplification of those habits of thought which pre- 

 vented the progress of real science, and the acquisition of that com- 

 mand over nature which is founded on science, during the interval 

 now before us. 



But there is another aspect under which the opinious connected 

 with this pursuit may serve to illustrate the mental character of the 

 Stationary Period. 



The tendency, during the middle ages, to attribute the character of 

 Magician to almost all persons eminent for great speculative or prac- 

 tical knowledge, is a feature of those times, which shows how exten- 

 sive and complete was the inability to apprehend the nature of real 

 science. In cultivated and enlightened periods, such as those of 

 ancient Greece, or modern Europe, knowledge is wished for and ad- 

 mired, even by those who least possess it : but in dark and degraded 

 periods, superior knowledge is a butt for hatred and fear. In the one 

 case, men's eyes are open ; their thoughts are clear ; and, however 

 high the philosopher may be raised above the multitude, they can 

 catch glimpses of the intervening path, and see that it is free to all, 

 and that elevation is the reward of energy and labor. Iu the other 

 case, the crowd are not only ignorant, but spiritless ; they have lost 

 the pleasure in knowledge, the appetite for it, and the feeling of dignity 

 which it gives : there is no sympathy which connects them with the 

 learned man : they see him above them, but know not how he is raised 

 or supported : he becomes an object of aversion and envy, of vague 

 suspicion and terror ; and these emotions are embodied and confirmed 

 by association with the fancies and dogmas of superstition. To consider 

 superior knowledge as Magic, and Magic as a detestable and criminal 

 employment, was the form which these feelings of dislike assumed ; 

 and at one period in the history of Europe, almost every one who 

 had gained any eminent literary fame, was spoken of as a magician. 

 Naudseus, a learned Frenchman, in the seventeenth century, wrote 

 " An Apology for all the Wise Men who have been unjustly reported 

 Magicians, from the Creation to the present Age." The list of persons 

 whom he thus thinks it necessary to protect, are of various classes and 

 ages. Alkindi, Geber, Artephius, Thebit, Raymund Lully, Arnold de 

 Villa Nora, Peter of Apono, and Paracelsus, had incurred the black 

 suspicion as physicians or alchemists. Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon. 

 Michael Scott, Picus of Mirandula, and Trithemius, had not escaped 

 it, though ministers of religion. Even dignitaries, such as Robert 

 Grosteste, Bishop of Lincoln, Albertus Magnus, Bishop of Ratisbon, 



