SCOT TRANSLATES AVERROES 121 



must we forget to notice that the openness 

 A-ith which this copartnery was carried on affords a 

 )roof that no deceit could have been thought of in 

 ,he matter. ConsideriDg the past history of the 

 Toledan School, it must have been taken for 

 granted that every version which came from thence 

 mder the name of a Christian scholar owed some- 

 hinor to the care of his Moorish scribe. 



Even had we not been able to make such an 

 .ppeal to the use and wont of the times in vindi- 

 ation of Scot's method of work, might not a little 

 onsideration of what was natural and inevitable 

 such a task have served to explain what Bacon 

 und so objectionable ? The scholars from distant 

 ids who came to Toledo could not, as a ride, 

 brd to spend much time there, and were anxious 

 use every moment of their stay to the best 

 ^vantage. They naturally therefore secured on 

 .eir arrival the services of a Jew or Moor for the 

 urpose of learning Arabic. Needing a knowledge 

 f that tongue not so much in its colloquial as its 

 terary dialect, they must have been engaged from 

 te first in the study of a text rather than in con- 

 Tsing with their teachers. What then could 

 ,ve been more suitable than that these scholars 

 ;ould begin by attacking the very books of which 

 iey desired to furnish a Latin version? This 

 .ethod had the merit of gaming two objects at 

 ice. The students learned to read Arabic, follow- 

 er the text as it was translated to them by the 

 terpreter. Writing in Latin from his vernacular, 

 id polishing as they wrote, they engaged from 

 ie day of their arrival in the very work of trans- 

 ,tion which had brought them to Spain. It is 



