2^0 MEMOIRS OF 



glimmerings of existence shown during the 

 middle ages, and throwing the same deep tone 

 of interest over every epoch, the revival of let- 

 ters gave fresh scope to his discourse. It was 

 no longer a mere dawning, or a decay, which at 

 times seemed hopeless ; but it was a series of 

 brilliant discoveries, which spread their influ- 

 ence over the remotest parts of the world ; and, 

 beginning with printing, he, in his opening lec- 

 ture to the second part of his course, premised, 

 that he should no longer be able to enter into 

 those details which had accompanied his account 

 of preceding ages. The subject became too 

 vast, and during the seventeenth, eighteenth, 

 and nineteenth centuries, the number of authors 

 multiplied to such a degree, that it was impossi- 

 ble for him to do more than select the most im- 

 portant, and he was obliged to divide science 

 itself into several branches, in order to be more 

 easily comprehended. The first branch thus 

 noticed was anatomy, the progress of which he 

 traced to the middle of the seventeenth century. 

 He in lilvc manner treated zoology, and the tra- 

 vels which threw light upon it. He then pro- 

 ceeded to botany, mineralogy, and chemistry, 

 bringing each down to the same period. 



The discoveries of Galileo and Descartes were 



