THALES TO LINNAEUS 17 



misfortune to be born in it. All that was great 

 and noble in the thought of Greece and Rome 

 was rigorously suppressed. The "perfecting 

 principle" of Aristotle was wrested to theolog- 

 ical uses. An emaciated form of his philosophy, 

 and a literal interpretation of the scriptures, 

 constituted the only permissible studies. Out- 

 side this dilution of Aristotle, the only thing in 

 Greek thought which appealed to the medieval 

 mind was the Pythagorean mystical use of 

 numbers. The conclusions reached by that 

 method were truly remarkable, especially when 

 we remember that they engaged such notable 

 men as Augustine, the celebrated Bishop of 

 Hippo. 



These are examples : Because there are three 

 persons in the trinity, Father, Son, and Holy 

 Ghost, three orders in the church, bishops 

 priests and deacons; three degrees of attain- 

 ment, light, purity and knowledge; three 

 virtues, faith, hope and charity, and three eyes 

 in a honeybee; therefore, there can only be 

 three colors, red, yellow and blue. Because 

 there were seven churches in the apocalypse, 

 seven golden candlesticks, seven cardinal 

 virtues, seven deadly sins and seven sacra- 

 ments; therefore, there could only be seven 

 planets and seven metals. Because there were 

 seventy-two disciples and seventy-two inter- 



