186 
Paracelsus. 
[April, 
credited, and something of the spirit, as well as of the mere 
letter, of his system was being infused into the new genera- 
tion of students. But Science was still in its infancy. 
Astronomy awaited the publication, in 1541, of the Coper- 
nican “ De Revolutionibus.” Chemistry was in process of 
budding off from its parent Alchemy, aided by Basil Valen- 
tine, Agricola, and Paracelsus himself. Anatomy was in an 
inchoate condition, the human body not having been sys- 
tematically depicted and described before Vesalius, in 1541. 
Botany was not much further developed, most of the in- 
formation given in text-books being taken from Greek and 
Latin authors, until the Commentaries of Fuchs were pub- 
lished in 1542. Medicine had not advanced since Hippo- 
crates and Galen, who still held sovereign sway in the 
Universities. 
The province of Science was not yet distinctly marked off 
from that of Poetry, and the mysterious and miraculous 
found ready credence, whether for its own intrinsic fascina- 
tion or because it had received the sanction of some vene- 
rated name. Yet a true spirit of induCtive research was- 
beginning to make itself felt, though, like a pilgrim doing 
penance on his way to a sacred shrine, it seemed to “ take 
three steps in advance, and one reluctantly backward.” 
New experiments were liable to be discredited by ancient 
authority, and there were many who would rather doubt 
their own eyesight than the diCIum of Aristotle, — yet these 
new experiments were repeated and varied again and again, 
till eyes could no longer refuse to see, nor ears to hear. 
But if the Old Learning was obstinate, the New was oft- 
times presumptuous ; if the Old was deaf and blind, the 
New was dazzled by a play of prismatic colours and con- 
fused by a medley of discordant notes. The two opposing 
tendencies of the time are well typified by a scene in the 
first and one in the second part of “ Faust.” In the first, 
Mephistopheles, disguised as a professor, is ironically com- 
mending to a bewildered little freshman the study of The- 
ology. And what he says of Theology might well, in the 
days of Paracelsus, have been said of all sciences as taught 
in the Universities. 
Mephistophdes . — “ You’ll always find it best to hear but one $ 
Swear by your master’s words alone. 
But stick to words, at any rate, 
And enter by this certain gate 
Into the temple of the True.” 
“ But with the words must be ideas too*’* 
Freshman a — 
