56 



meagre and might be a mischievous amusement ; 

 and it sought to confine speculations to final 

 causes, that is to the animation of the world 

 by an intelligent Being, as man animates his 

 own instruments : though, as Roger Bacon de- 

 clared, final causes must have physical means. 

 Even Locke thought nature to be hopelessly com- 

 plex, and urged that ethics is the proper study of 

 man. The asceticism derived from the East, dis- 

 dainful of carnal things, brought the dualism of 

 matter and spirit into monstrous eminence ; and, 

 in respect of medicine, in a few generations it 

 turned the cleanest people in the world into the 

 most filthy 1 . Moreover, are we not bound to admit 

 that, as ultimate analysis was dangerous to the 

 synthesis of the Faith, so for unwieldy and un- 

 stable societies in which ethical and political 

 habits had not yet become engrained, to descend 

 from transcendental explanations to explanations 

 by lower categories was fraught with some danger 

 to lofty and imposing standards of custom and 

 conduct? Nature is too base, says St Anselm, 



1 Those who are curious in manners will observe that 

 during the last few years the medievalising clergy in England 

 have discarded that fair linen which in the elder clergy was 

 the emblem and the example of cleanliness. 



