SCIENCE IN EARLY ENGLAND. 731 



the eleventh century. Much progress had long before been made in 

 other countries. The great Alexandrian school — the closing scene of 

 which was the murder of Hypatia in 414 — had been continued for two 

 centuries in Persia; thence it was carried by the Arab conquerors into 

 Spain, and flourished abundantly from the ninth century onward at 

 Granada, Cordova, Toledo, Seville, and elsewhere; but owing to the 

 lack of travelers sufficiently versed in Arabic, and at the same time 

 capable of assimilating the new ideas, their diffusion into England took 

 place very slowly. The philosopher's stone and potable gold, the elixir 

 of life, were undreamed of till the Arabian influence was felt, and chem- 

 istry and medicine were in a state of which the less said the better. 



Of those who endeavored to keep alight the flame of science in this 

 country were, in the first place, Bede, the monk of Jarrow (672-735), 

 styled in after times the Venerable, the Father of English learning, 

 whose work, De Natura Kerum, served as as a foundation for other 

 writers for a long period, though it only represents a very small part of 

 his literary labors. It is chiefly a cosmography and cosmogony, the 

 same which had prevailed in Europe for many centuries. The earth was 

 the center of the universe, and the firmament a sphere, bounded by fire; 

 beyond this was heaven, the abode of angelic natures, capable of human 

 and superhuman functions. The planets were seven in number and 

 revolved within the firmament; comets were stars suddenly developed, 

 which portended pestilence, revolution, war, or tempest; lightning was 

 produced by the collision of clouds, just as fire is produced by striking 

 two flints. This idea is to be found in Lucretius, first century B. C, 

 in Book VI, De Berum JSTatura: "It lightens then, when the clouds 

 have struck out by their collision many seeds of fire, just as if a stone 

 were to strike another stone or a piece of iron, for then, too, light bursts 

 out and fire scatters about bright sparks." Probably the same notion 

 had been current for untold ages before this. 



Two other works of Bede's were written to elucidate questions con- 

 nected with Easter, this feast having at all times presented problems of 

 a most thorny kind. Characteristically enough, Bede believed that the 

 world in his day was old, decrepid, worn out, and in its sixth stage, and 

 that it would shortly come to an end. 



Toward the end of the seventh century (in 668, to be very precise), 

 Theodore, a native of Tarsus, was made Archbishop of Canterbury, and 

 taught astronomy and arithmetic in the schools, while Albert, Arch- 

 bishop of York, also diffused the higher branches of knowledge. Under 

 the system of the schools, learning was divided into seven arts, the 

 "Trivium," comprising grammar, logic, and rhetoric, and the "Quad- 

 rivium," namely, arithmetic, geometry (probably mensuration or sur- 

 veying, not Euclidean geometry), astronomy, and music. The number 

 of arts was, however, sometimes expanded to ten by the inclusion of 

 astrology, medicine, and mechanics, though these occasionally replace 

 grammar, logic, and rhetoric, instead of supplementing them. 



After these we have Gerbert, born about 950, better known in later 



