HISTORY of the SCIENCES. 423 



" A grofs fuperfi.ition, which debates the hu- 

 " man mind as much as religion exalts it, placed 

 " all the virtue and confidence of mankind in a 

 " ftupid veneration for images ; fo that generals 

 " were feen to raife a fiege, and lofe a town in 



" order to gain an image." He continues : 



" When I think of the profound ignorance into 

 16 which the clergy plunged the laity, 1 cannot 

 " help comparing them with thofe Scythians, of 

 " whom Herodotus Ipeaks, who put out the 

 " eyes of their (laves, that nothing might divert 

 " their attention from their labours." And 

 further on he fays : *' The fury of deputation 

 " became fo natural to the Greeks, that when 

 " Contacuzene took Constantinople, he found 

 <e the emperor John, and theemprefs Ann, bufy 

 " in a council that was held againft certain ene- 

 " mies of the monks: and when Mahomet the 

 " fecond befieged that city, he could not fufpend 

 " the theologic animofities , the council of Flo- 

 " rence engaging their attention, at that time, 

 " more than the army of the Turks." 



XI. Now let them fairly tell us, what afilft. 

 ance could be drawn for the arts and fciences 

 from fuch futile mortals as theft ? What book 

 is there left of all the lower empire that 

 a man of fenfe can bear to read ? What 

 monuments of the polite arts arc there now re- 

 mair even what traces of them are to be 



found in Conftantinople or the eaft ? A vaft 

 temple of Sophia, the cathedral of the Greek 



pi* 



