-14 THE PROGRESS OF S( H > n 



foundations of physical science. But, without 

 entering into the discussion of that large question, 

 it is certain that the labours of these early workers 

 in the field of natural knowledge were brought to 

 a standstill by the decay and disruption of the 

 Roman Empire, the consequent disorganisation of 

 society, and ti^diversion of men's thoughts from 

 sublunary u^^^B to the problems of the super- 

 natural worlffSggested by Christian dogma in 

 the Middle Ages. And, notwithstanding sporadic 

 attempts to recall men to the investigation of 

 nature, here and there, it was not until the 

 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that physical 

 science made a new start, founding itself, at first, 

 altogether upon that which had been done by the 

 Greeks. Indeed, it must be admitted that the 

 men of the Renaissance, though standing on the 

 shoulders of the old philosophers, were a long 

 time before they saw as much as their forerunners 

 had done. 



The first serious attempts to carry further the 

 unfinished work of Archimedes, Hipparchns, and 

 Ptolemy, of Aristotle and of Galen, naturally 

 enough arose among the astronomers and the 

 physicians. For the imperious necessity of seek- 

 ing some remedy for the physical ills of life had 

 insured the preservation of more or less of the 

 wisdom of Hippocrates and his successors; and, 

 by a happy conjunction of circumstances, the 

 h and the Arabian physicians and philo- 



