266 PHYSICAL SCIENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



ticism, because they offered nothing which could 

 fix or satisfy him. And thus the skeptical spirit 

 may deserve our notice as indicative of the defects 

 of a system of doctrine too feeble in demonstra- 

 tion to control such resistance. 



The most remarkable of these philosophical 

 skeptics is Sextus Empiricus; so called, from his 

 belonging to that medical sect which was termed 

 the empirical, in contradistinction to the rational 

 and methodical sects. His works contain a series 

 of treatises, directed against all the divisions of 

 the science of his time. He has chapters against 

 the Geometers, against the Arithmeticians, against 

 the Astrologers, against the Musicians, as well as 

 against Grammarians, Rhetoricians and Logicians ; 

 and, in short, as a modern writer has said, his skep- 

 ticism is employed as a sort of frame-work which 

 embraces an encyclopedical view of human know- 

 ledge. It must be stated, however, that his objec- 

 tions are rather to the metaphysical grounds, than to 

 the details of the sciences; he rather denies the 

 possibility of speculative truth in general, than the 

 experimental truths which had been then obtained. 

 Thus his objections to geometry and arithmetic 

 are founded on abstract cavils concerning the na- 

 ture of points, letters, unities, &c. And when he 

 comes to speak against astrology, he says, " I am 

 not going to consider that perfect science which 

 rests upon geometry and arithmetic ; for I have 

 already shown the weakness of those sciences ; nor 



