THEIR MYSTICISM. 319 



regard to them we have no evidence, as with re- 

 gard to Europeans we have, that they are capable, 

 on subjects of physical speculation, of originating 

 sound and rational general principles. The Arts 

 may have had their birth in all parts of the globe ; 

 but it is only Europe, at particular favoured 

 periods of its history, which has ever produced 

 Sciences. 



We are, however, now speaking of a long 

 period, during which this productive energy was 

 interrupted and suspended. During this period 

 Europe descended, in intellectual character, to the 

 level at which the other parts of the world have 

 always stood. Her Science was then a mixture 

 of Art and Mysticism ; we have considered several 

 forms of this Mysticism, but there are two others 

 which must not pass unnoticed, Alchemy and Magic. 



We may observe, before we proceed, that the 

 deep and settled influence which Astrology had ob- 

 tained among men, appears perhaps most strongly 

 in the circumstance, that the most vigorous and 

 clear-sighted minds which were concerned in the 

 revival of science, did not, for a long period, shake 

 off the persuasion, that there was, in this art, some 

 element of truth. Roger Bacon, Cardan, Kepler, 

 Tycho Brahe, Francis Bacon, are examples of this. 

 These, or most of them, rejected all the more ob- 

 vious and extravagant absurdities with which the 

 subject had been loaded; but still conceived that 

 some real and valuable truth remained when all 



