[8] 



Justinian next ordered the teaching of philosophy to 

 be discontinued at Athens, and closed all the schools. 

 The sciences were made to conform to Genesis, which 

 was declared to be the only true account of the origin of 

 nature ; and the earth was declared to be flat, the sky 

 spreading over it like a dome or, in the words of St. 

 Augustine, like a skin in which all the bodies moved to 

 give light to man. Lactantius declared the globular 

 theory to be heretical. " Is it possible," he said, ;c that 

 man can be so absurd as to believe that the crops and 

 the trees on the other side of the earth hang downwards, 

 and that men have their feet higher than their heads ? If 

 you ask them how they defend these monstrosities, how 

 things do not fall away from the earth on that side, they 

 reply that the nature of things is such that heavy bodies 

 tend towards the centre, like the spokes of a wheel, 

 while light bodies, as clouds, smoke, fire, tend from the 

 centre to the heavens on all sides. Now, I am really at 

 a loss what to say of those who, when they have once 

 gone wrong, steadily persevere in their folly, and defend 

 one absurd opinion by another." St. Augustine also said 

 that " it is impossible there should be inhabitants on the 

 opposite side of the earth, since no such race is recorded 

 by Scripture among the descendants of Adam;" and 

 again : " In the day of judgment men on the other side 

 of a globe could not see the Lord descending through 

 the air." Thus perished all the grand work effected by 

 the Ptolemies. Science was annihilated, progress arrested, 

 and the dark ages had commenced, which lasted until the 

 time of Luther and Copernicus, in the commencement 

 of the sixteenth century. Throughout this long and 

 dreary period the most cruel enormities were practised 

 upon unoffending people ; the Church became gorged 

 with wealth ; the clergy gave themselves up to all kinds 

 of lust and debauchery ; relics were sold, dispensations 

 bartered ; and no one's property or person was safe. 

 Progress was, however, only arrested for a time. 



About the year 570 Mohammed was born in Arabia, 

 and in 610 he declared to the world that he had been 

 commissioned by the angel Gabriel to preach the unity 

 of god. He appears to have been a very remarkable 

 religious enthusiast, who believed himself in his divine 



