n THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 45 



sophers escaped many of the influences which, at 

 that time, blighted natural knowledge in the 

 Christian world. On the other hand, the super- 

 stitious hopes and fears which afforded countenance 

 to astrology and to alchemy also sheltered 

 astronomy and the germs of chemistry. Whether 

 for this, or for some better reason, the founders of 

 the schools of the Middle Ages included astronomy, 

 along with geometry, arithmetic, and music, as 

 one of the four branches of advanced education ; 

 and, in this respect, it is only just to them to 

 observe that they were far in advance of those 

 who sit in their seats. The schoolmen considered 

 no one to be properly educated unless he were 

 acquainted with, at any rate, one branch of physical 

 science. We have not, even yet, reached that 

 stage of enlightenment. 



In the early decades of the seventeenth century, 

 the men of the Renaissance could show that they 

 had already put out to good interest the treasure 

 bequeathed to them by the Greeks. They had 

 produced the astronomical system of Copernicus, 

 with Kepler's great additions ; the astronomical 

 discoveries and the physical investigations of 

 Galileo ; the mechanics of Stevinus and the " De 

 Magnete " of Gilbert ; the anatomy of the great 

 French and Italian schools and the physiology of 

 Harvey. In Italy, which had succeeded Greece 

 in the hegemony of the scientific world, the 

 Accademia dei Lyncei and sundry other such 



