6 EVOLUTION 



further advanced than we are to-day. Unfortunately, 

 speculations of this kind fell into contempt in Europe, and 

 the night of the Dark Ages settled on the ruins of the 

 older civilisations. Only here and there do we catch a 

 glimpse of the truths that Greece had discovered. It has 

 often been pointed out that St. Augustine, one of the most 

 learned Fathers of the Church, was in some sense an 

 evolutionist. God, he said in his interpretation of 

 Genesis, had been content to put "the seeds of things" in 

 the primitive earth, so that the plants and animals had 

 been more or less self-developed. At Alexandria, which 

 became the Athens of the later Greek world, the early 

 Fathers had been in close touch with Greek culture, and 

 these are lingering traces of Greek influence in the new 

 thought. But in later life St. Augustine frowned on all 

 such speculation, and spoke harshly of the best of the 

 Greeks. 



In the course of the Middle Ages we find more than 

 one strong thinker, like Scotus Erigena (ninth century) 

 or Giordano Bruno (put to death 1600), attempting to 

 bring speculation back to Greek lines; but it was not 

 until after the full revival of ancient learning that it 

 returned to profitable avenues of research. Greek 

 learning had in the meantime passed on to the Arabs, 

 and their scholars began to develop the more scientific 

 methods of Aristotle, who had fully recognised the value 

 of minute observation. From Arab Spain the new 

 spirit crossed the Pyrenees, and soon such men as 

 Roger Bacon and Albert the Great were laying the 

 foundations of experimental science in the heart of 

 Christendom. When the Renaissance and the Reforma- 

 tion occurred in succession, the hindrances to freedom 

 of speculation grew more and more enfeebled. 



In the new and stimulating atmosphere men began 

 again to look out on nature with keen, inquiring eyes. 



