THE REVIVAL OF SCIENCE 273 



was not the cosmogony of Genesis but the cos- 

 mogony of Milton which had enthralled and 

 misled the world. 



More distinctly than in his epics, Milton, in his 

 history, showed a leaning to the scientific method. 

 Firth has lately told us that " his conclusions 

 are roughly those of modern scholars, and his 

 reasoning practically that of a scientific historian." 

 In one respect, however, he was less than luke- 

 warm. He had no sympathy with antiquarian 

 researches and sneered at those " who take 

 pleasure to be all their lifetime raking the founda- 

 tions of old abbeys and cathedrals." 



To turn to other evidence, the better diaries 

 of any age afford us, when faithfully written, 

 as fair a clue as do the dramatists of the average 

 intelligent man's attitude towards the general 

 outlook of humanity on the problems of his age, 

 as they presented themselves to society at large. 

 The seventeenth century was unusually rich in 

 volumes of autobiography and in diaries which the 

 reading world will not readily let die. The auto- 

 biography of the complaisant Lord Herbert of 

 Cherbury gives an interesting account of the 

 education of a highly-born youth at the end of 

 the sixteenth and the beginning of the seven- 



