TllK /;//./ '.ivy ADDR& 



men to look with slum,.- upon their own bodies, as hin- 

 il ranees to tin- absorption of the creature in tin- blessedness 

 of the Creator. Finally came the scholastic philosophy, 

 a fusion, according to Lan-e, of tin- least mature notions 

 of Aristotle with the Christianity of the West. Intel- 

 lectual immobility was the result. As a traveler without 

 a compa-s in a fog may warn; ting be 18 



making way. ami iind himself after iiours of toil at his 

 starting-point, so the schoolmen, having "tied ami untied 

 the same knots, and formed and dissipated the 

 clouds," * found themselves at the end of centuries in their 

 old position. 



With regard to the influence wielded by Aristotle in the 

 middle ages, and which, to a less extent, lie still wields, I 

 would ask permission to make one remark. When the 

 human mind has achieved greatness and given evidence of 

 extraordinary power in one domain, there is a tendency to 

 credit it with similar power in all other domains. Thus 

 theologians have found comfort and assurance in the 

 thought that Newton dealt with the question of revelation 

 forgetful of the fact that the very devotion of bis powers, 

 through all the best years of bis life, to a totally different 

 class of ideas, not to speak of any natural disqualification. 

 I to rentier him le.-s. instead of more competent to 

 deal with theological and historic questions. Goethe, 

 starting from his established great ness as a poet, and indeed 

 from bis positive discoveries in natural history, produced 

 a profound impression among the painters of (irrmany, 

 when be published his " Farbenlehre," in which be en- 

 deavored to overthrow Newton's theory of colors. This 

 theory be deemed so obviously absurd, that be considered 

 its author a charlatan, and attacked him with a correspond- 

 ing vehemence of language. In the domain of natural 

 history, (iocthe had made really considerable disco v 

 and we have high authority for assuming that, had lie 

 devoted himself wholly to that side of 



:eaehed an eminence comparable with that which be 



attained as a poet. In sharpness of < n. in the 



'ion of analogies apparently remote, in the cliwwili'M- 



tion and organization of facts according to the analogies 



discer possessed aitmordinaq powers. These 



* WLewell. 



