120 SCIENCE AND CULTURE 



the geometers of these. The business of the philosophers 

 of the middle ages was to deduce from the data furnished 

 by the theologians, conclusions in accordance with eccle- 

 siastical decrees. They were allowed the high privilege of 

 showing, by logical process, how and why that which the 

 Church said was true, must be true. And if their demon- 

 strations fell short of or exceeded this limit, the Church- 

 was maternally ready to check their aberrations; if need 

 were by the help of the secular arm. 



Between the two, our ancestors were furnished with a 

 compact and complete criticism of life. They were told 

 how the world began and how it would end ; they learned 

 that all material existence was but a base and insignifi- 

 cant blot upon the fair face of the spiritual world, and 

 that nature was, to all intents and purposes, the play- 

 ground of the devil; they learned that the earth is the 

 centre of the visible universe, and that man is the cy- 

 nosure of things terrestrial, and more especially was it 

 inculcated that the course of nature had no fixed order, 

 but that it could be, and constantly was, altered by the 

 agency of innumerable spiritual beings, good and bad, 

 according as they were moved by the deeds and prayers 

 of men. The sum and substance of the whole doctrine 

 was to produce the conviction that the only thing really 

 worth knowing in this world was how to secure that 

 place in a better which, under certain conditions, the 

 Church promised. 



Our ancestors had a living belief in this theory of 

 life, and acted upon it in their dealings with education, 

 as in all other matters. Culture meant saintliness 

 after the fashion of the saints of those days; the educa- 

 tion that led to it was, of necessity, theological ; and the 

 way to theology lay through Latin. 



That the study of nature further than was requisite 

 for the satisfaction of everyday wants should have any 



