354 PHYSICAL SCIENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



practical and theoretical importance ! They may 

 in their operation have changed the face of the 

 world ; but in the history of the principles of the 

 sciences to which they belong, they may be omitted 

 without being missed. 



As to that part of the objection which was 

 stated by asking, why, if the arts of our age prove 

 its scientific eminence, the arts of the middle ages 

 should not be received as proof of theirs ; we must 

 reply to it, by giving up some of the pretensions 

 which are often put forwards on behalf of the sci- 

 ence of our times. The perfection of the mechani- 

 cal and other arts among us proves the advanced 

 condition of our sciences, only in so far as these 

 arts have been perfected by the application of some 

 great scientific truth, with a clear insight into its 

 nature. The greatest improvement of the steam- 

 engine was due to the steady apprehension of an 

 atmological doctrine by Watt; but what distinct 

 theoretical principle is illustrated by the beautiful 

 manufactures of porcelain, or steel, or glass? A 

 chemical view of these compounds, which would 

 explain the conditions of success and failure in their 

 manufacture, would be of great value in art ; and 

 it would also be a novelty in chemical theory ; so 

 little is the present condition of those processes a 

 triumph of science, shedding intellectual glory on 

 our age. And the same might be said of many, 

 or of most, of the processes of the arts as now 

 practised. 



