6 z PHILOSOPHIC SCIENCES. 



the ever-shining Star of Science. lie was born in 1274, in the British Isles 

 in England according to some, in Ireland according to others ; but the pro- 

 bability is, as his name implies, that he was Scotch. Tie donned the garb of 

 St. Francis before going to study at Morton College, Oxford, and his talents 

 at first lay in the direction of mathematics. But he soon filled the chair of 

 philosophy in the college where he had completed his classes, and thousands 

 of pupils assembled to hear him (Fig* 47). He studied theology, and 

 obtained his doctor's degree at Paris, and the superior of the Franciscans 

 sent him to Cologne, where he taught both theology and philosophy. He 

 died in 1308, at the early age of thirty-four, leaving behind him an enormous 

 mass of philosophical treatises, which were not collated till the seventeenth 

 century, when they were published in twenty-five folio volumes. 



Albertus Magnus had sought in natural philosophy the fundamental basis 

 of knowledge, and St. Thomas thought that it was to be found in theology, 

 while Duns Scotus endeavoured to trace it back to logic. According to him, 

 syllogism is the sole rule of certainty. But, as M. Ilaureau remarks, starting 

 from this principle, the journey is full of perils. ])uns Scotus, in fact, 

 was very near falling into them, and only escaped by taking refuge behind 

 the qujbbles of sophistry. He was, nevertheless, a firm believer and full 

 of piety, and it was from his ardour in dialectics that he was led to uphold 

 the most extreme views of the realists. In his researches into the distinct 

 nature of every compound, he endeavoured to extract from it the various 

 qualities which he found inherent in or adherent to the same subject. In this 

 way he looked upon matter separated from all form, form separated from all 

 matter, or merely matter separated from certain forms, and at the same time 

 united to certain others. Each of these notions, each of these distinct 

 conceptions, he made to correspond with a nature, an existence of its own- 

 It was to obscure and intangible lucubrations such as these that scholasticism 

 devoted voluminous treatises, which led to passionate discussion, and which 

 were the main subject of conversation amongst the students while they were 

 pacing up and down the Pre-aux-Clercs (Fig. 47). 



The champions of St. Thomas and Duns Scotus waged war against each 

 other for several centuries in the vague domain of obscure abstractions. 

 Alexander of Hales was superseded by Duns Scotus, as represented by his 

 disciples and followers, viz. Francois de Mayronis (surnamcd the Enlightened 

 Doctor), Antonio Andrea, John Bassolius, and I'ietro d'Aquila (Fig. 48). The 



