350 PHYSICAL SCIENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



which we inherit from that which has been so dis- 

 paragingly termed the Stationary Period. Above 

 all, let us look at the monuments of architecture 

 of this period ; the admiration and the despair 

 of modern architects, not only for their beauty, 

 but for the skill disclosed in their construction. 

 With all these evidences before us, how can we 

 avoid allowing that the masters of the middle ages 

 not only made some small progress in Astronomy, 

 which has, grudgingly as it would seem, been ad- 

 mitted in a former Book ; but also that they were 

 no small proficients in other sciences, in Optics, 

 in Harmonics, in Physics, and, above all, in Me- 

 chanics ? 



If, it may be added, we are allowed in the pre- 

 sent day, to refer to the perfection of our Arts 

 as evidence of the advanced state of our physical 

 philosophy ; if our steam-engines, our gas-illumi- 

 nation, our buildings, our navigation, our manu- 

 factures, are cited as triumphs of science; shall 

 not prior inventions, made under far heavier dis- 

 advantages, shall not greater works, produced in 

 an earlier state of knowledge, also be admitted as 

 witnesses that the middle ages had their share, 

 and that not a small or doubtful one, of science ? 



To these questions I answer, by distinguishing 

 between Art, and Science in that sense of general 

 Inductive Systematic Truth, which it bears in this 

 work. To separate and compare, with precision, 

 these two processes, belongs to the Philosophy of 



