CHAPTER III. 



THE MIDDLE AGES. 



"The lamp burns low, and through the casement bars 

 Grey morning glimmers feebly." 



BROWNING'S Paracelsus. 



55. ABOUT fourteen centuries elapsed between the publica- 

 tion of the Almagest and the death of Coppernicus (1543), 

 a date which is in astronomy a convenient landmark on the 

 boundary between the Middle Ages and the modern world. 

 In this period, nearly twice as long as that which separated 

 Thales from Ptolemy, almost four times as long as that 

 which has now elapsed since the death of Coppernicus, no 

 astronomical discovery of first-rate importance was made. 

 There were some important advances in mathematics, and 

 the art of observation was improved ; but theoretical 

 astronomy made scarcely any progress, and in some respects 

 even went backward, the current doctrines, if in some 

 points slightly more correct than those of Ptolemy, being 

 less intelligently held. 



In the Western World we have already seen that there 

 was little to record for nearly five centuries after Ptolemy. 

 After that time ensued an almost total blank, and several 

 more centuries elapsed before there was any appreciable 

 revival of the interest once felt in astronomy. 



56. Meanwhile a remarkable development of science had 

 taken place in the East during the yth century. . The 

 descendants of the wild Arabs who had carried the banner 

 of Mahomet over so large a part of the Roman empire, as 

 well as over lands lying farther east, soon began to feel the 

 influence of the civilisation of the peoples whom they had 

 subjugated, and Bagdad, which in the 8th century became 



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