DOGMATISM OF THE STATIONARY PERIOD. 339 



already noted as the fountain of the physics of the 

 Greek schools of philosophy, were also the only 

 source from which the schoolmen of the middle 

 ages drew their views, or rather their arguments : 

 and though these notional and verbal relations 

 were invested with a most complex and pedantic 

 technicality, they did not, on that account, become 

 at all more precise as notions, or most likely to lead 

 to a single real truth. Instead of acquiring dis- 

 tinct ideas, they multiplied abstract terms ; instead 

 of real generalizations, they had recourse to verbal 

 distinctions. The whole course of their employ- 

 ments tended to make them, not only ignorant 

 of physical truth, but incapable of conceiving its 

 nature. 



Having thus taken upon themselves the task of 

 raising and discussing questions by means of ab- 

 stract terms, verbal distinctions, and logical rules 

 alone, there was no tendency in their activity to 

 come to an end, as there was no progress. The 

 same questions, the same answers, the same diffi- 

 culties, the same solutions, the same verbal subtle- 

 ties, sought for, admired, cavilled at, abandoned, 

 reproduced, and again admired, might recur with- 

 out limit. John of Salisbury 18 observes of the Pa- 



18 He studied logic at Paris, at St. Gene vie ve, and then left 

 them. " Duodecennium mihi elapsum est diversis studiis oc- 

 cupatum. Jucundum itaque visum est veteres quos reliqueram, 

 et quos adhuc Dialectica detinebat in monte, (Sanctse Genovefae) 

 revisere socios, conferre cum eis super ambiguitatibus pristinis ; 

 ut nostrum invicem collatione mutua commetiremur profectum. 



Z 2 Inventi 



