90 



who saw that light six long centuries ago ; yet a 

 child rather of our age than of his own. As 

 Abelard had closed the gates upon the neo-platonist 

 tradition of Alexandria, so Ockham closed them 

 against realism in all its forms ; and the Church 

 cursed them both. In his own person the occupa- 

 tion of professorial chairs by Franciscans came to 

 an end ; Paris and the Thomists could not con- 

 sistently oppose nominalism ; Duns the North- 

 umbrian had inflated realism into a monstrous 

 phantasm, and speculative reason had to submit 

 to the yoke of verification. Yet what could 

 nominalism do for theology, or for clerical schools ? 

 The Franciscans for the most part had turned to 

 mysticism, and thenceforth the man of science and 

 the devotee were to work apart. Furthermore, by 

 Ockham philosophy gained a new meaning, or lost 

 all meaning. Before Locke, Voltaire, and Kant, 

 Ockham demonstrated that faculties were not 

 substances ; and differentiated logic, psychology, 

 ; and natural science 1 . 



But if, as I have said, the way for Harvey and 

 the other pioneers of natural knowledge was thus 

 prepared for them, it was still, even in the seven- 

 1 Vid. p. 50. 



