SCOT TRANSLATES AVERROES 121 



Nor must we forget to notice that the openness 

 with which this copartnery was carried on affords a 

 proof that no deceit could have been thought of in 

 the matter. Considering the past history of the 

 Toledan School, it must have been taken for 

 granted that every version which came from thence 

 under the name of a Christian scholar owed some- 

 thing to the care of his Moorish scribe. 



Even had we not been able to make such an 

 appeal to the use and wont of the times in vindi- 

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

 consideration of what was natural and inevitable 

 in such a task have served to explain what Bacon 

 found so objectionable ? The scholars from distant 

 lands who came to Toledo could not, as a rule, 

 afford to spend much time there, and were anxious 

 to use every moment of their stay to the best 

 advantage. They naturally therefore secured on 

 their arrival the services of a Jew or Moor for the 

 purpose of learning Arabic. Needing a knowledge 

 of that tongue not so much in its colloquial as its 

 literary dialect, they must have been engaged from 

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

 versing with their teachers. What then could 

 have been more suitable than that these scholars 

 should begin by attacking the very books of which 

 they desired to furnish a Latin version? This 

 method had the merit of gaining two objects at 

 once. The students learned to read Arabic, follow- 

 ing the text as it was translated to them by the 

 interpreter. Writing in Latin from his vernacular, 

 and polishing as they wrote, they engaged from 

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

 lation which had brought them to Spain. It is 



