THE COMMENTATORIAL SPIRIT. 281 



the domains of morals, poetry, and the arts whose 

 aim is the production of beauty, this opposition 

 between the study of former opinion and present 

 reality, may not be so distinct ; inasmuch as it may 

 be said by some, that, in these subjects, opinions 

 are realities ; that the thoughts and feelings which 

 prevail in men's minds are the material upon which 

 we must work, the particulars from which we are 

 to generalize, the instruments which we are to use ; 

 and that, therefore, to reject the study of antiquity, 

 or even its authority, would be to show ourselves 

 ignorant of the extent and mutual bearing of the 

 elements with which we have to deal; would be 

 to cut asunder that which we ought to unite into 

 a vital whole. Yet even in the provinces of his- 

 tory and poetry, the poverty and servility of men's 

 minds during the middle ages, are shown by indi- 

 cations so strong as to be truly remarkable ; for 

 instance, in the efforts of the antiquarians of almost 

 every European country to assimilate the early 

 history of their own state to the poet's account of 

 the foundation of Rome, by bringing from the sack 

 of Troy, Brutus to England, Bavo to Flanders, and 

 so on. But however this may be, our business 

 at present is, to trace the varying spirit of the 

 physical philosophy of different ages; trusting that, 

 hereafter, this prefatory study will enable us to 

 throw some light upon the other parts of philo- 

 sophy. And in physics the case undoubtedly was, 

 that the labour of observation, which is one of 



