VI SCIENCE AND CULTURE 145 



The reason of this singular contradiction between 

 the actions of men alike animated by a strong and 

 disinterested desire to promote the welfare of 

 their fellows, is easily discovered. 



At that time, in fact, if any one desired know- 

 ledge beyond such as could be obtained by his 

 own observation, or by common conversation, his 

 first necessity was to learn the Latin language, in- 

 asmuch as all the higher knowledge of the western 

 world was contained in works written in thai 

 language. Hence, Latin grammar, with logic and 

 rhetoric, studied through Latin, were the funda- 

 mentals of education. With respect to the sub- 

 stance of the knowledge imparted through this 

 channel, the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, as 

 interpreted and supplemented by the Romish 

 Church, were held to contain a complete and 

 infallibly true body of information. 



Theological dicta were, to the thinkers of those 

 days, that which the axioms and definitions of 

 Euclid are to the geometers of these. The 

 business of the philosophers of the middle ages 

 was to deduce from the data furnished by the 

 theologians, conclusions in accordance with 

 ecclesiastical decrees. They were allowed the 

 high privilege of showing, by logical process, 

 how and why that which the Church said 

 was true, must be true. And if their demon- 

 strations fell shorb of or exceeded this limit, the 

 Church was maternally ready to check their 



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