238 PHYSICAL SCIENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



powerful school of Platonists (not Neoplatonists) was formed in Italy, 

 including some of the principal scholars and men of genius of the 

 time ; as Picus of Mirandula in the middle, Marsilius Ficinus at the end, 

 of the fifteenth century. At one time, it appeared as if the ascend- 

 ency of Aristotle was about to be overturned ; but, in physics at least, 

 his authority passed unshaken through this trial. It was not by dis- 

 putation that Aristotle could be overthrown ; and the Platonists were 

 not persons whose doctrines led them to use the only decisive method 

 in such cases, the observation and unfettered interpretation of facts. 



The history of their controversies, therefore, does not belong to our 

 design. For like reasons we do not here speak of other authors, who 

 opposed the scholastic philosophy on general theoretical grounds of 

 various kinds. Such examples of insurrection against the dogmatism 

 which we have been reviewing, are extremely interesting eveuts in the 

 history of the philosophy of science. But, in the present work, we 

 are to confine ourselves to the history of science itself ; in the hope 

 that we may thus be able, hereafter, to throw a steadier light upon 

 that philosophy by which the succession of stationary and progressive 

 periods, which we are here tracing, maybe in some measure explained. 

 We are now to close our account of the stationary period, and to 

 enter upon the great subject of the progress of physical science in 

 modern times. 



5. Subjects omitted. Civil Law. Medicine. — My object has been 

 to make my way, as rapidly as possible, to this period of progress; 

 and in doing this, I have had to pass over a long and barren track, 

 where almost all traces of the right road disappear. In exploring this 

 region, it is not without some difficulty that he who is travelling With 

 objects such as mine, continues a steady progress in the proper direc- 

 tion ; for many curious and attractive subjects of research come in his 

 way : he crosses the track of many a controversy, which in its time 

 divided the world of speculators, and of which the results may be 

 traced, even now, in the conduct of moral, or political, or metaphysical 

 discussions ; or in the common associations of thought, and forms of 

 language. The wars of the Nominalists and Realists ; the disputes 

 concerning the foundations of morals, and the motives of human 

 actions ; the controversies concerning predestination, free will, grace, 

 and the many other points of metaphysical divinity; the influence of 

 theology and metaphysics upon each other, and upon other subjects of 

 human curiosity ; the effects of opinion upon politics, and of political 

 condition upon opinion ; the influence of literature and philosophy 



