373 
and them. Knowledge must have been at a very bad pass indeed when that 
was sard by a father of the Church. I want to know why Christianity 
instead of encouraging science, always opposed it* Then I raise this further 
question : Is this progress which we have undoubtedly made in morals as 
well as in other things due to Christianity or to civilization ? Civilization 
of course, is a term which we should all find it rather difficult to define, and 
I will not attempt to define it, but it seems to me that it is a great question 
w lether Christianity and progress are to be considered as cause and effect 
If we want to prove scientifically that one thing is a cause and another the 
e ect, we ask, “ Do we find the two things together, and when one is absent 
is the other absent ? ” Apply that test, and we find that though Christian- 
ity and civilization are together with us at the present time, there was a 
previous time when Christianity remained and civilization disappeared • and 
tor inne centuries out of the eighteen during which Christianity has existed, 
we And Christianity present and civilization absent ; therefore I do not think 
it can be taken as proved that progress in morals is caused by ' Christianity. 
. ., C0Ur f e the reaI fact ma y be th at Christianity may be a development of 
civilization, and not civilization a development of Christianity ; and certain 
it is, that with the progress of civilization there has also been a progress in 
Christianity, which is far purer now than it was in the days of Justinian or 
oi Charlemagne. 
, Chairman.— I am glad that the paper has been so narrowly criticised, 
but it strikes me that whilst Professor Lias’s opponents were doin<* their 
worst they were with him all along. While I leave the Professor to 
defend himself generally, I would suggest to Mr. Dibdin that he will find 
that the Arabs never invented anything. All their science and art was 
traditional They worked at it very hard indeed, but most of it came from 
Greece, and a little from India, and though they elaborated it they had no 
creative intellect, no power of originating; this is my impression on the 
subject of Arabian science and literature, and I believe Professor Lias will 
concur with me. With regard to the criticism upon Tiberius I certainly 
incline to what Mr. Leach said, for I have always thought that one of 
. 1C mosfc t ° uchin 8 portions of Roman history was the account which Suetonius 
gives of the emotion of Tiberius when he was compelled to divorce the wife 
whom he had loved so much. He was badly treated, and no doubt, had he 
beeii albwed to live with her, he would have been a very much better 
orillr I"' T? agfee that hG mUSt n0t be l00ked u P° n as a Person 
g nally brutal and sensual ; but when he returned to Capri, no doubt in 
consequence of ill-treatment, he was what Professor Lias calls him. I would 
make one suggestion of my own to supplement the paper, and that is, that 
to do so, 
rpu 0 V, . "““““J Uigaaiuauuu WlllCtl 
i ne monastic libraries m every country have tended 
txt - „ ° T V ~ — in every country nave t( 
We owe much to the learning of the clergy in all ages.— Ed. 
