A RETROSPECTIVE GLANCE 



discharge of lightning, the barbarians suffered more 

 than "their opponents. We may well question whether 

 the philosophical emperor himself put any other inter- 

 pretation than this upon the incident. But, on the 

 other hand, we need not doubt that the major part of 

 his soldiers would very readily accept such an ex- 

 planation as that given by Dion Cassius, just as most 

 readers of a few centuries later would accept the ex- 

 planation of Xiphilinus. It is well to bear this thought 

 in mind in considering the static period of science upon 

 which we are entering. We shall perhaps best under- 

 stand this period, and its seeming retrogressions, if we 

 suppose that the average man of the Middle Ages was 

 no more credulous, no more superstitious, than the 

 average Roman of an earlier period or than the 

 average Greek; though the precise complexion of his 

 credulity had changed under the influence of Oriental 

 ideas, as we have just seen illustrated by the narrative 

 of Xiphilinus. 



