12 SCIENCE AND CULTURE. [LECT. 



terrestrial ; and more especially was it inculcated that 

 the course of nature had no fixed order, but that it 

 could be, and constantly was, altered by the agency 

 of innumerable spiritual beings, good and bad, accord- 

 ing as they were moved by the deeds and prayers of 

 men. The sum and substance of the whole doctrine 

 was to produce the conviction that the only thing 

 really worth knowing in this world was how to secure 

 that place in a better which, under certain conditions, 

 the Church promised. 



Our ancestors had a living belief in this theory of 

 life, and acted upon it in their dealings with educa- 

 tion, as in all other matters. Culture meant saintli- 

 ness after the fashion of the saints of tljose days ; 

 the education that led to it was, of necessity, theolo- 

 gical ; and the way to theology lay through Latin. 



That the study of nature further than was requi- 

 site for the satisfaction of everyday wants should 

 have any bearing on human life was far from the 

 thoughts of men thus trained. Indeed, as nature had 

 been cursed for man's sake, it was an obvious conclu- 

 sion that those who meddled with nature were likely 

 to come into pretty close contact with Satan. And, 

 if any born scientific investigator followed his instincts, 

 he might safely reckon upon earning the reputation, 

 and probably upon suffering the fate, of a sorcerer. 



Had the western world been left to itself in 

 Chinese isolation, there is no saying how long this 

 state of things might have endured. But, happily, 

 it was not left to itself. Even earlier than the 

 thirteenth century, the development of Moorish civili- 



