CHAPTER VI. 



NUMEROUS CAUSES OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 



Now, in order more fully to account for the immense 

 development of science during the Mediaeval and Revival 

 Periods, we must not omit to mention other concurrent 

 causes of progress, at once numerous and powerful, besides 

 those upon which we have already laid particular stress, 

 The roots of that development were both ancient and deep,, 

 and they were of a nature to grow vigorously, if slowly. 



By the side of the influence exercised by the Arabs, 

 and through them by antiquity, the social and political 

 changes which took place in Europe, between the time of 

 the Crusades and that of the Revival, constituted a revolu- 

 tion probably unique in magnitude in the annals of the 

 human race since the other revolutions, such as the 

 Revival itself and the Reformation, were, in part, offshoots 

 of it and that revolution, as we will proceed to show, was 

 exceedingly favourable to the scientific advance. 



The Crusades caused the birth and rapid growth of 

 European industry, and the latter necessarily led to the 

 individual emancipation from serfdom, and to the communal 

 and political enfranchisement of millions of men, many of 

 whom formed a wealthy Burgess class remarkable for thrift, 

 ambition, and energy. Soon, many of the drawbacks which 

 existed in antiquity began to disappear, while new elements 

 of advancement, all of them irresistible, came into being.* 



* See Hallam's "State of Europe in the Middle Ages," Vol. II.,. 

 chapter ix., part 2. 



