CHAPTER IX 



THE LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 



HITHERTO we have taken little notice of the fame 

 oy which Michael Scot is most widely known in 

 iterature ; preferring to speak first of the authentic 

 ? acts and real employments of his life, so far as 

 bhese can now be ascertained. It would be im- 

 proper, however, to close our investigation without 

 :aking some account of that darker reputation 

 svhich has so long represented him to the world 

 is a magician and dealer in forbidden lore. If we 

 aave deferred so long the consideration of this 

 matter, the reason may be found in the fact that 

 there seems to be no truth in such stories. They 

 live only in legend, and in the literature of 

 romance, and must therefore be held apart by a 

 firm line from the domain of sober historical in- 

 quiry. 



This conclusion, be it observed, is not based 

 apon the prevailing opinion of the present day that 

 isuch arts are impossible, nor has it thence been 

 reached by way of the inference that because magic 

 Ls impossible, therefore Michael Scot cannot have 

 meddled in it. Such was not at all the view held 

 sin the thirteenth century. Then scholars as well 

 is the unlearned, and clergy as well as laity, be- 

 ilieved firmly in the possibility, nay, the reality, of 



