CHAPTER V. 



PROGRESS IN THE MIDDLE AGES AND DURING THE 

 REVIVAL. 



CONTINUING our sketch we now arrive at the Medieval and 

 Revival periods in Europe the third and fourth eras of 

 scientific advancement during which science wholly passed 

 from the Saracenic to the European World. The gradual 

 advance during this period is far more astonishing than even 

 the brilliant achievements of the Arabs, considering the 

 formidable and terrifying obstacles which stood in the way. 

 The Saracen pursued his studies in the face of heaven and 

 in full freedom. Science was to him no forbidden fruit, and 

 if he made a discovery he was held in high honour for it 

 throughout Islam. Our mediaeval lover of science, on the 

 contrary, was obliged to pursue his researches underground, 

 so to speak, and hide his discoveries from all eyes. He was 

 for ever haunted by the maddening vision of the stake. 

 That science was cultivated at all under such circumstances, 

 in solitude, practically without books, without teachers, was 

 a proof of energy of intellect and will deserving all our 

 sympathy and admiration; but that science thus pursued 

 should have extended its roots and branches, and yielded 

 fresh fruit, is a fact which should make us revere our mediaeval 

 teachers as ideal heroes of the most exalted order, for they 

 were staking their lives every day, not as proud knights 

 seeking to win a holy relic or a lady's love with lance on 

 their hip and crest on their helm, but as devoted and 

 defenceless heralds facing the wakeful hydra armed with 



