HISTORY 
OF THE 
INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT 
OF 
EUROPE. 
By JOHN WILLIAM DRAPER, M.D., LL.D., 
Professor of Chemistry in the University of New York, Author of a 
" Treatise on Human Physiology," " Civil Policy of America," 
"History of the American Civil War," &c. 
IE VISED EDITION, IN TWO VOLUMES. 
VCL. II. 
NEW YORK: 
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 
FRANKLIN SQUARE. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by 
HARPER & BROTHERS, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, CONTENTS. 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. THE THREE ATTACKS: NORTHERN 
OR MORAL ; WESTERN OIJ INTELLECTUAL J EASTERN OR MILITARY. 
THE NORTHERN OR MORAL ATTACK ON THE ITALIAN SYSTEM, AND ITS TEMPORARY 
REPULSE. 
Geographical Boundaries of Italian Christianity.-Attacks upon it. 
The Northern or moral Attack.-The Emperor of Germany insists on a 
reformation in the Papacy.-Gerbert, the representative of these Ideas, 
is made Pope.-They are both poisoned by the Italians. 
Commencement of the intellectual Rejection of the Italian System.-It 
originates in the Arabian doctrine of the supremacy of Reason over 
Authority.-The question of Transubstantiation.-Rise and develop- 
ment of Scholasticism.-Mutiny among the Monks. 
Gregory VII. spontaneously accepts and enforces a Reform in the Church. 
-Overcomes the Emperor of Germany.-Is on the point of establishing 
a European Theocracy.-The Popes seize the military and monetary 
Resources of Europe through the Crusades Tage 1 
CHAPTER 1. 
CHAPTER II. 
the age oe faith in the west- (Continued'). 
THE WESTERN OR INTELLECTUAL ATTACK ON THE ITALIAN SYSTEM. 
The intellectual Condition of Christendom contrasted icith that of 
Arabian Spain. 
Diffusion of Arabian intellectual Influences through France and Sicily. 
-Example of Saracen Science in Alhazen, and of Philosophy in 
Algazzali.-Innocent III. prepares to combat these Influences.-Results 
to Western Europe of the Sack of Constantinople by the Catholics. IV 
CONTENTS. 
The spread of Mohammedan light Literature is followed by Heresy.- 
The crushing of Heresy in the South of France by armed Force, the 
Inquisition, mendicant Orders, auricular Confession, and Casuistry. 
The rising Sentiment is embodied in Frederick II. in Sicily.-His 
Conflict with and Overthrow by the Pope.-Spread of Mutiny among 
the mendicant Orders. • Page 27 
the age of faith in the west-(Continued). 
OVERTHROW OF THE ITALIAN SYSTEM BY THE COMBINED INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL 
ATTACK. 
Progress of Irreligion among the mendicant Orders.-Publication of 
heretical Books.-The Everlasting Gospel and the Comment on the 
Apocalypse. 
Conflict between Philip the Fair and Boniface VIII.-Outrage upon 
and death of the Pope. 
The French King removes the Papacy from Borne to Avignon.-Post- 
mortem Trial of the Pope for Atheism and Immorality.-Causes and 
Consequences of the Atheism of the Pope. 
The Templars fall into Infidelity. - Their Trial, Conviction, and 
Punishment. 
Immoralities of the Papal. Court at Avignon.-Its return to Borne.- 
Causes of the great Schism.-Disorganization of the Italian System.-• 
Decomposition of the Papacy.-Three Popes. 
1 he Council of Constance attempts to convert the papal Autocracy into a 
constitutional Monarchy.-It murders John Huss and Jerome of 
Prague.-Pontificate of Nicolas V.-End of the intellectual influence 
of the Italian System ... 77 
CHAPTER III. 
CHAPTER IV. 
the age of FAITH in THE west-{Concluded). 
EFFECT OF THE EASTERN OR MILITARY ATTACK.-GENERAL REVIEW OF THE AGE OF 
FAITH. 
The Fall of Constantinople.-Its momentary Effect on the Italian 
System. .CONTENTS. 
V 
General Review of the intellectual Condition in the Age of 
Faith.-Supernaturalism and its Logic spread all over Europe.-It 
is destroyed by the Jews and Arabians.-Its total Extinction. 
The Jewish Physicians.-Their Acquirements and Influence.-Their 
Collision with the Imposture-medicine of Europe.-Their Effect on 
the higher Classes.-Opposition to them. 
Two Impulses, the Intellectual and Moral, operating against the 
Mediaeval state of Things.-Downfall of the Italian System through the 
intellectual Impulse from the West and the moral from the North.- 
Action of the former through Astronomy.-Origin of the moral Impulse. 
•-Their conjoint irresistible Effect.-Discovery of the state of Affairs 
in Italy.-The Writings of Machiavelli.- What the Church had 
actually done. 
Entire Movement of the Italian System determined from a consideration 
of the four Revolts against it Page 105 
CHAPTER V. 
APPROACH OF THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
IT IS PRECEDED BY MARITIME DISCOVERY. 
Consideration of the definite Epochs of Social Life. 
Experimental Philosophy emerging in the Age of Faith. 
The Age of Reason ushered in by Maritime Discovery and the rise of 
European Criticism. 
Maritime Discovery.-The three great Voyages. 
Columbus discovers America.-De Gama doubles the Cape and reaches 
India.-Magellan circumnavigates the Earth.-The Material and 
intellectual Results of each of these Voyages. 
Digression on the Social Condition of America.-In isolated human 
Societies the process of Thought and of Civilization is always the 
same.-Man passes through a determinate succession of Ideas and 
embodies them in determinate Institutions.-The state of Mexico and 
Peru proves the influence of Law in the development of Man. . 151 VI 
CONTENTS. 
APPROACH OF THE AGE OF REASON IN ETROPE. 
IT IS PRECEDED BY THE RISE OF CRITICISM. 
Restoration of Greek Literature and Philosophy in Italy.-Development 
of Modern Languages and Rise of Criticism.-Imminent Danger to 
Latin Ideas. 
Invention of Printing.-It revolutionizes the Communication of Know- 
ledge, especially acts on Public Worship, and renders the Pulpit 
secondary. 
The Reformation.-Theory of Supererogation and Use of Indulgences. 
-The Right of Individual Judgment asserted.-Political History of 
the Origin, Culmination, and Check of the Reformation.-Its Effects 
in Italy. 
Causes of the Arrest of the Reformation.-Internal Causes in Protes- 
tantism.-External in the Policy of Rome.- The Counter-Reformation. 
-Inquisition.-Jesuits.-Secession of the great Critics.-Culmination 
of the Reformation in America.-Emergence of Individual Liberty of 
Thought Page 190 
CHAPTER VI. 
DIGRESSION ON THE CONDITION OF ENGLAND AT THE END OF THE AGE 
OF FAITH. 
RESULTS PRODUCED BT THE AGE OF FAITH. 
Condition of England at the Suppression of the Monasteries. 
Condition of England at the close of the seventeenth Century.-Locomo- 
tion, Literature, Libraries.-Social and private Life of the Laity and 
Clergy.-Brutality in the Administration of Law.- Profligacy of 
Literature.-The Theatre, its three Phases.-Miracle, Moral, and 
Real Plays. 
Estimate of the Advance made in the Age of Faith.-Comparison with 
that already made in the Age of Reason 229 
CHAPTER VII. CONTENTS. 
VII 
CHAPTER VIII. 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
REJECTION OF AUTHORITY AND TRADITION, AND ADOPTION OF SCIENTIFIC TRUTH.- 
DISCOVERY OF THIS TRUE POSITION OF THE EARTH IN THE UNIVERSE. 
Ecclesiastical Attempt to enforce the Geocentric Doctrine that the 
Earth is the Centre of the Universe, and the most important Body 
in it. 
The Heliocentric Doctrine that the Sun is the Centre of the Solar 
System, and the Earth a small Planet, comes gradually into 
Prominence. 
Struggle between the Ecclesiastical and Astronomical Parties.-Activity 
of the Inquisition.-Burning of Bruno.-Imprisonment of Galileo. 
Invention of the Telescope.-Complete Overthrow of the Ecclesiastical 
Idea.-Bise of Physical Astronomy.-Newton.-Rapid and resistless 
Development of all Branches of Natural Philosophy. 
Final Establishment of the Doctrine that the Universe is under the Do- 
minion of mathematical, and, therefore, necessary Laws. 
Progress of Man from Anthropocentric Ideas to the Discovery of his 
true Position and Insignificance in the Universe. . . . Page 252 
CHAPTER IX. 
the European age oe beason-(Continued). 
HISTORY OF THE EARTH.-BEK SUCCESSIVE CHANGES IN THE COURSE OF TIME. 
Oriental and Occidental Doctrines respecting the Earth in Time.- 
Gradual Weakening of the latter by astronomical Facts, and the Disc 
of Scientific Geology. 
Impersonal Manner in which the Problem was eventually solved, chiefly 
through Facts connected with Heat. 
Proofs of limitless Duration from inorganic Facts.-Igneous and Aqueous 
Hocks. 
Proofs of the same from organic Facts.-Successive Creations and Ex- 
tinctions of living Forms, and their contemporaneous Distribution. 
Evidences of a slowly declining Temperature, and, therefore, of a long 
Time.-The Process of Events by Catastrophe and by Law.-Analogy VIII 
CONTENTS. 
of Individual and Race Development.-Both are determined by 
unchangeable Law. 
Conclusion that the Plan of the Universe indicates a Multiplicity of 
Worlds in infinite Space, and a Succession of Worlds in infinite 
Time Page 294 
CHAPTER X. 
the European age of reason-(Continued). 
THE NATURE AND RELATIONS OF MAN. 
Position of Man according to the Heliocentric and Geocentric Theories. 
Of Animal Life.-The transitory Nature of living Forms.-Relations 
of Plants and Animals.-Animals are Aggregates of Matter expending 
Force originally derived from the Sun. 
The Organic Series.-Man a Member of it. -His Position determined 
by Anatomical and Physiological Investigation of his Nervous System.- 
Its triple Form: Automatic, Instinctive, Intellectual. 
The same progressive Development is seen in individual Man, in the 
entire animal Series, and in the Life of the Globe.-They are all under 
the Control of an eternal, universal, irresistible Law. 
The Aim of Nature is intellectual Development, and human Institutions 
must conform thereto. 
Summary of the Investigation of the Position of Man.-Production of 
Inorganic and Organic Forms by the Sun.-Nature of Animals and 
their Series.-Analogies and Differences between them and Man.-The 
Soul.- The World ........... . 337 
CHAPTER XL 
the European age of reason-(Continued). 
THE UNION OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
European Progress in the Acquisition of exact Knowledge.-Its Resem- 
blance to that of Greece. 
Discoveries respecting the Air.-Its mechanical and chemical Properties. 
-Its Relation to Animals and Plants.-The Winds.-Meteorology.- 
Sounds.-Acoustic Phenomena. CONTENTS 
IX 
Discoveries respecting the Ocean.-Physical and chemical Phenomena.- 
Tides and Currents.-Clouds.-Decomposition of Water. 
Discoveries respecting other material Substances.-Progress of Chemistry. 
Discoveries respecting Electricity, Magnetism, Light, Heat. 
Mechanical Philosophy and Inventions.-Physical Instruments.-The 
Result illustrated by the Cotton Manufacture-Steam-engine-Bleach- 
ing-Canals-Railways.-Improvements in the Construction of Ma- 
chinery.-Social Changes produced.-Its Effect on intellectual Activity. 
The scientific Contributions of various Nations, and especially of 
Italy Pago 366 
CHAPTER XII. 
CONCLUSION-THE FUTURE OF EUROPE. 
Summary of the Argument presented in this Booh respecting the mental 
Progress of Europe. 
Intellectual Development is the Object of Individual Life.-It is also the 
Result of social Progress. 
Nations arriving at Maturity instinctively attempt their own intellectual 
Organization.-Example of the Manner in which this has been done in 
China.-Its Imperfection.-What it has accomplished. 
The Organization of public Intellect is the End to which European 
Civilization is tending 392 THE INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF 
EUROPE. 
CHAPTER I. 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. THE THREE 
ATTACKS: NORTHERN OR MORAL; WESTERN OR 
INTELLECTUAL; EASTERN OR MILITARY. 
THE NORTHERN OK MORAL ATTACK ON THE ITALIAN SYSTEM, AND ITS 
TEMPORARY REPULSE. 
Geographical Boundaries of Italian Christianity.-Attacks upon it. 
The Northern or moral Attack.-The Emperor of Germany insists on a 
reformation in the Papacy.-Gerbert, the representative of these Ideas, 
is made Pope.-They are both poisoned by the Italians. 
Commencement of the intellectual Rejection of the Italian System.-It 
originates in the Arabian doctrine of the supremacy of Beason over 
Authority.-The question of Transubstantiation.-Rise and develop- 
ment of Scholasticism.-Mutiny among the Monks. 
Gregory VII. spontaneously accepts and enforces a Reform in the Church. 
-Overcomes the Emperor of Germany.-Is on the point of establishing 
a European Theocracy.-The Popes seize the military and monetary 
Resources of Europe through the Crusades. 
The realm of an idea may often be denned by geometrical 
lines. 
If from Rome, as a centre, two lines be drawn, one of 
which passes eastward, and touches the Asiatic 
shore of the Bosphorus, the other westward, and 
crosses the Pyrenees, nearly all those Mediterra- 
nean countries lying to the south of these lines 
were living, at the time of which we speak, under the 
dogma, " There is but one God, and Mohammed is his 
prophetbut the countries to the north had added to the 
The geogra- 
phical bound- 
aries of Latin 
Christianity. 2 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[cn. i. 
orthodox conception of the Holy Trinity the adoration of 
the Virgin, the worship of images, the invocation of saints, 
and a devout attachment to relics and shrines. 
I have now to relate how these .lines were pushed 
forward on Europe, that to the east by military, 
that to the west by intellectual force. On home, 
as on a pivot, they worked; now opening, now closing, 
now threatening to curve round at their extremes and 
compress paganizing Christendom in their clasp; then, 
through the convulsive throes of the nations they had 
inclosed, receding from one another and quivering through- 
out their whole length, but receding only for an instant, 
to shut more closely again. 
It was as if from the hot sands of Africa invisible 
arms were put forth, enfolding Europe in their grasp, 
and trying to join their hands to give to paganizing 
Christendom a fearful and mortal compression. There 
were struggles and resistances, but the portentous hands 
clasped at last. Historically, we call the pressure that was 
then made the Reformation. 
Not without difficulty can we describe the convulsive 
struggles of nations so as to convey a clear idea of the 
forces acting upon them. I have now to devote many 
perhaps not uninteresting, certainly not uninstructive, 
pages to these events. 
In this chapter I begin that task by relating the 
consequences of the state of things heretofore described- 
the earnestness of converted Germany and the immoralities 
of the popes. 
The Germans insisted on a reformation among eccle- 
siastics, and that they should lead lives in 
accordance with religion. This moral attack 
was accompanied also by an intellectual one, 
arising from another source, and amounting to 
a mutiny in the Church itself. In the course of centuries, 
and particularly during the more recent evil times, a 
gradual divergence of theology from morals had taken 
place, to the dissatisfaction of that remnant of thinking 
men who here and there, in the solitude of monasteries, 
compared the dogmas of theology with the dictates of 
reason. Of those, and the number was yearly increasing, 
Forces acting 
upon it. 
The Germans 
insist on a 
reform in the 
papacy. CH. I.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
3 
who had been among the Arabs in Spam, not a few had 
become infected with a love of philosophy. 
Whoever compares the tenth and twelfth centuries 
together cannot fail to remark the great intellectual 
advance which Europe was making. The ideas occupying; 
the minds of Christian men, their very turn of 
thought, had altogether changed. The earnest- 
ness of the Germans, commingling with the knowledge of 
the Mohammedans, could no longer be diverted from the 
misty clouds of theological discussion out of which Philo- 
sophy emerged, not in the Grecian classical vesture in 
which she had disappeared at Alexandria, but in the 
grotesque garb of the cowled and mortified monk. She 
timidly came back to the world as Scholasticism, persuading 
men to consider, by the light of their own reason, that dogma 
which seemed to put common sense at defiance-transub- 
stantiation. Scarcely were her whispers heard in the 
ecclesiastical ranks when a mutiny against authority arose, 
and since it was necessary to combat that mutiny with 
its own weapons, the Church was compelled to give her 
countenance to Scholastic Theology. 
Lending himself to the demand for morality, and not 
altogether refusing to join in the intellectual progress, a 
great man, Hildebrand, brought on an ecclesiastical 
reform. He raised the papacy to its maximum of power, 
and prepared the way for his successors to seize the 
material resources of Europe through the Crusades. 
Such is an outline of the events with which we have 
now to deal. A detailed analysis of those events shows 
that there were three directions of pressure upon 
Home. The pressure from the West and that 
from the East were Mohammedan. Their re- 
sultant was a pressure from the North: it was essentially 
Christian. While those were foreign, this was domestic. 
It is almost immaterial in what order we consider them; 
the manner in which I am handling the subject leads me, 
however, to treat of the Northern pressure first, then of that 
of the A Vest, and on subsequent pages of that of the East. 
It had become absolutely necessary that something 
should be done for the reformation of the papacy. Its 
crimes, such as we have related in Chapter XII.. Vol. I.. 
Heappearance 
ot philosophy. 
The three 
pressures 
upon Rome. 4 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. i. 
outraged religious men. To the master-spirit of tho 
movement for accomplishing this end we must 
closely look. He is the representative of in- 
fluences that were presently to exert a most 
important agency. 
In the train of the Emperor Otho III., when he resolved 
to put a stop to all this wickedness, was Gerbert, a French 
ecclesiastic, born in Auvergne. In his boyhood, while a 
scholar in the Abbey of Avrillac, he attracted the 
attention of his superiors; among others, of the 
Count of Barcelona, who took him to Spain. There he 
became a proficient in the mathematics, astronomy, and 
physics of the Mohammedan schools. lie spoke Arabic 
with the fluency of a Saracen. His residence at 
Cordova, where the khalif patronized all the 
learning and science of the age, and his subsequent residence 
in Borne, where he found an inconceivable ignorance and 
immorality, were not lost upon his future life. He esta- 
blished a school at Rheims, where he taught logic, music, 
astronomy, explained Virgil, Statius, Terence, and intro- 
duced what were at that time regarded as wonders, the 
globe and the abacus. He laboured to persuade his 
countrymen that learning is far to be preferred to tho 
sports of tho field. He observed the stars through tubes, 
invented a clock, and an organ played by steam. He 
composed a work on Rhetoric. Appointed Abbot of 
Bobbio, he fell into a misunderstanding with his monks, 
and had to retire first to Rome, and then to resume his 
school at Rheims. In the political events connected with 
the rise of Hugh Capet, he was again brought into 
prominence. The speech of the Bishop of Orleans at tho 
Council of Rheims, which was his composition, shows us 
how his Mohammedan education had led him to look upon 
the state of things in Christendom : " There is 
not one at Rome, it is notorious, who knows 
enough of letters to qualify him for a door-keeper; 
with what face shall he presume to teach who has never 
learned?" He does not hesitate to allude to papal briberies 
and papal crimes: " If King Hugh's embassadors could 
have bribed the pope and Crescentius, his affairs had taken 
a different turn." He recounts the disgraces and crimes of 
Foreign in- 
fluence for 
reforming the 
papacy. 
Life of Ger- 
bert. 
His Saracen 
education. 
His reproach- 
es against the 
Church. CH. I.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
5 
the pontiffs : how John XII. had cut off the nose and 
tongue of John the Cardinal; how Boniface had strangled 
John XIII.; how John XIV. had been starved to death in 
the dungeons of the Castle of St. Angelo. He demands, 
" To such monsters, full of all infamy, void of all knowledge, 
human and divine, are all the priests of God to submit- 
men distinguished throughout the world for their learning 
and holy lives ? The pontiff who so sins against his brother 
-who, when admonished, refuses to hear the voice of 
counsel, is as a publican and a sinner." With a prophetic 
inspiration of the accusations of the Reformation, he asks, 
" Is he not Anti-Christ ?" He speaks of him as " the Man 
of Sin," " the Mystery of Iniquity." Of Rome he says, 
with an emphasis doubtless enforced by his Mohammedan 
experiences, " She has already lost the allegiance of the 
East; Alexandria, Antioch, Africa, and Asia are separate 
from her ; Constantinople has broken loose from her ; the 
interior of Spain knows nothing of the pope." He says, 
" How do your enemies say that, in deposing Arnulphus, 
we should have waited for the judgment of the Roman 
bishop ? Can they say that his judgment is before that of 
God which our synod pronounced ? The Prince of the 
Roman bishops and of the apostles themselves proclaimed 
that God must be obeyed rather than men ; and Paul, the 
teacher of the Gentiles, announced anathema to him, though 
he were an angel, who should preach a doctrine different 
to that which had been delivered. Because the pontiff 
Marcellinus offered incense to Jupiter, must, therefore, 
all bishops sacrifice ?" In all this there is obviously an 
insurgent spirit against the papacy, or, rather, against its 
iniquities. 
In the progress of the political movements Gerbert was 
appointed to the archbishopric of Rheims. On 
this occasion, it is not without interest that we 
observe his worldly wisdom. It was desirable to 
conciliate the clergy-perhaps it might be done by the 
encouragement of marriage. He had lived in the poly- 
gamic court of the khalif, whose family had occasionally 
boasted of more than forty sons and forty daughters. 
Well then may he say, " I prohibit not marriage. I 
condemn not second marriages. I do not blame the eating 
His ecclesias- 
tical advance- 
ment. 6 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
[ch. i. 
of flesh." Uis election not only proved unfortunate, but, 
in the tortuous policy of the times, he was removed from 
the exercise of his episcopal functions and put under inter- 
dict. The speech of the Itoman legate, Leo, who presided 
at his condemnation, gives us an insight into the nature of 
his offence, of the intention of. Rome to persevere in her 
ignorance and superstition, and is an amusing example of 
ecclesiastical argument: " Because the vicars of Peter and 
their disciples will not have for their teachers a Plato, a 
Virgil, a Terence, and the rest of the herd of philosophers, 
who soar aloft like the birds of the air, and dive into the 
depths like the fishes of the sea, ye say that they are not 
worthy to be door-keepers, because they know not how to 
make verses. Peter is, indeed, a door-keeper-but of 
heaven!" He does not deny the systematic bribery of the 
pontifical government, but justifies it. " Did not the 
Saviour receive gifts of the wise men ?" Nor does he deny 
the crimes of the pontiffs, though he protests against those 
who would expose them, reminding them that " Ham was 
cursed for uncovering his father's nakedness." In all this 
we see the beginning of that struggle between Moham- 
medan learning and morals and Italian ignorance and 
crime, which was at last to produce such important results 
for Europe. 
Once more Gerbert retired to the court of the emperor. 
It was at the time that Otho HI. was contemplating a 
revolution in the empire and a reformation of the Church. 
He saw how useful Gerbert might be to his policy, and 
had him appointed Archbishop of Ravenna. On the 
death of Gregory V. he issued his decree for the 
election of Gerbert as pope. The low-born 
French ecclesiastic, thus attaining to the utmost height 
of human ambition, took the name of Sylvester II. 
But Rome was not willing thus to surrender her sordid 
interests; she revolted. Tusculum, the disgrace of the 
papacy, rebelled. It required the arms of the emperor to 
sustain his pontiff. For a moment it seemed as if the Re- 
formation might have been anticipated by many centuries 
-that Christian Europe might have been spared the 
abominable papal disgraces awaiting it. There was a 
learned and upright pope, an able and youthful emperor; 
Gerbert the 
pope. CH. I. J 
THE AGE OF FAITH IS THE WEST. 
7 
but Italian revenge, in the person of Stephania, the wife 
of the murdered Crescentius, blasted all these expectations. 
From the hand of that outraged and noble criminal, who, 
with more than Roman firmness of purpose, could delibe- 
rately barter her virtue for vengeance, the unsuspecting 
emperor took the poisoned cup, and left Rome 
only to die. He was but twenty-two years of 
age. Sylvester, also, was irretrievably ruined 
by the drugs that had been stealthily mixed with his food. 
He soon followed his patron to the grave. His steam 
organs, physical experiments, mechanical inventions, foreign 
birth, and want of orthodoxy, confirmed the awful imputa- 
tion that he was a necromancer. The mouth of every one 
was full of stories of mystery and magic in which Gerbert 
had borne a part. Afar off in Europe, by their evening 
firesides, the goblin-scared peasants whispered to one 
another that in the most secret apartment of the palace at 
Rome there was concealed an impish dwarf, who wore a 
turban, and had a ring that could make him invisible, or 
give him two different bodies at the same time; that, in 
the midnight hours, strange sounds had been heard, when 
no one was within but the pope; that, while he was 
among the infidels in Spain, the future pontiff had bartered 
his soul to Satan, on condition that he would make him 
Christ's vicar upon earth, and now it was plain that both 
parties had been true to their compact. In their privacy, 
hollow-eyed monks muttered to one another under their 
cowls, " Homagium diabolo fecit et male finivit." 
To a degree of wickedness almost irremediable had 
things thus come. The sins of the pontiffs were re- 
peated, without any abatement, in all the clerical ranks. 
Simony and concubinage prevailed to an extent that 
threatened the authority of the Church over the coarsest 
minds. Ecclesiastical promotion could in all directions be 
obtained by purchase; in all directions there were priests 
boasting of illegitimate families. But yet, in the 
Church itself there were men of irreproachable 
life, who, like Peter Damiani, lifted up their 
voices against the prevailing scandal. He it 
was who proved that nearly every priest in Milan had 
purchased his preferment and lived with a concubine. The 
Poisoning of 
the emperor 
and pope. 
Commencing 
protest in the 
Church against 
its sins. 8 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
[ch. i. 
immoralities thus forced upon the attention of pious men 
soon began to be followed by consequences that might 
have been expected. It is but a step from the condemna- 
tion of morals to the criticism of faith. The developing 
intellect of Europe could no longer bear the acts or tho 
thoughts that it had heretofore submitted to. The dogma 
of transubstantiation led to revolt. 
The early fathers delighted to point out the agreement 
of doctrines flowing from the principles of 
Christianity with those of Greek philosophy. 
For long it was asserted that a correspondence 
between faith and reason exists ; but by degrees 
as one dogma after another of a mysterious and unintelli- 
gible kind was introduced, and matters of belief could no 
longer be co-ordinated with the conclusions of the under- 
standing, it became necessary to force the latter into a sub- 
ordinate position. The great political interests 
involved in these questions suggested the ex- 
pediency and even necessity of compelling such a subordi- 
nation by the application of civil power. In this manner, 
as we have described, in the reign of Constantine the 
Great, philosophical discussions of religious things came to 
be discountenanced, and implicit faith in the decisions of 
existing authority required. Philosophy was subjugated 
and enslaved by theology. We shall now see what were 
the circumstances of her revolt. 
In the solitude of monasteries there was every induce- 
ment for those who had become weary of self-examination 
to enter on the contemplation of tho external world. 
Herein they found a field offering to them endless occupa- 
tion, and capable of worthily exercising their acuteness. 
But it was not possible for them to take the first step 
without offending against the decisions esta- 
blished by authority. The alternative was 
stealthy proceeding or open mutiny; but before 
mutiny there occurs a period of private sugges- 
tion and another of more extensive discussion. It was 
thus that the German monk Gotschalk, in the ninth 
century, occupied himself in the profound pro- 
blem of predestination, enduring the scourge and 
death in prison for the sake of his opinion. The presence 
Primitive 
agreement of 
philosophy 
and theology. 
Their gradual 
alienation. 
The mutiny 
against theo- 
logy commen- 
ces among the 
monks. 
Persecution of 
Gotschalk, CH. I.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
9 
of the Saracens in Spain offered an incessant provocation 
to the restless intellect of the West, now rapidly expanding, 
to indulge itself in such forbidden exercises. Arabian 
philosophy, unseen and silently, was diffusing itself 
throughout France and Europe, and churchmen could some- 
times contemplate a refuge from their enemies among the 
infidel. In his extremity, Abelard himself looked forward 
to a retreat among the Saracens-a protection from 
ecclesiastical persecution. 
In the conflict with Gotschalk on the matter of predesti- 
nation was already foreshadowed the attempt to 
set up reason against authority. John Erigena, 
who was employed by Hincmar, the Archbishop 
of Rheims, on that occasion, had already made a pilgrimage 
to the birthplaces of Plato and Aristotle, a.d. 825, and 
indulged the hope of uniting philosophy and religion in tho 
manner proposed by the ecclesiastics who were studying in 
Spain. 
From Eastern sources John Erigena had learned the 
doctrines of the eternity of matter, and even of the crea- 
tion, with which, indeed, he confounded the 
Deity himself. He was, therefore, a Pantheist; 
accepting the Oriental ideas of emanation and 
absorption not only as respects the soul of man, but like- 
wise all material things. In bis work " On the Nature of 
Things," his doctrine is, " That, as all things were originally 
contained in God, and proceeded from him into the different 
classes by which they are now distinguished, so shall they 
finally return to him and be absorbed in the source from 
which they came; in other words, that as, before the world 
was created, there was no being but God, and the causes of 
all things were in him. so, after the end of the world, there 
will be no being but God, and the causes of all things in 
him." This final resolution he denominated deification, or 
theosis. He even questioned the eternity of hell, saying, 
with the emphasis of a Saracen, "There is nothing eternal 
but God." It was impossible, under such circumstances, 
that he should not fall under the rebuke of the Church. 
Transubstantiation, as being, of the orthodox doctrines, 
the least reconcilable to reason, was the first to be attacked 
by the new philosophers. What was, perhaps, in the 
who sets up 
reason against 
authority. 
John Erigena 
falls into 
Pantheism. 10 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
[ch. i. 
beginning, no more than a jocose Mohammedan sarcasm, 
became a solemn subject of ecclesiastical discus- 
sion. Erigena strenuously upheld the doctrine 
of the Stercorists, who derived their name from 
their assertion that a part of the consecrated 
elements are voided from the body in the manner customary 
with other relics of food; a doctrine denounced by the 
orthodox, who declared that the priest could "make God," 
and that the eucharistic elements are not liable to digestion. 
And now, a.d. 1050, Berengar of Tours prominently 
brought forward the controversy respecting the 
real presence. The question had been formula- 
rized by Radbert under the term transubstantia- 
tion, and the opinions entertained respecting the sacred 
elements greatly differed ; mere fetish notions being 
entertained by some, by others the most transcendental 
ideas. In opposition to Radbert and the orthodox party, 
who asserted that those elements ceased to be what to the 
senses they appeared, and actually became transformed 
into the body and blood of the Saviour, Berengar held that, 
though there is a real presence in them, that presence is 
of a spiritual nature. These heresies were condemned by 
repeated councils, Berengar himself being offered the 
choice of death or recantation. He wisely preferred the 
latter, but more wisely resumed his offensive doctrines as 
soon as he had escaped from the hands of his persecutors. 
As might be supposed from the philosophical indefensibility 
of the orthodox doctrine, Berengar's opinions, which, indeed, 
issued from those of Erigena, made themselves felt in the 
highest ecclesiastical regions, and, from the 
manner in which Gregory VII. dealt with the 
heresiarch, there is reason to believe that he him- 
self had privately adopted the doctrines thus condemned. 
But it is in Peter Abelard that we find the repre- 
sentative of the insurgent spirit of those times. The love 
of Heloisa seems in our eyes to be justified by his extra- 
ordinary intellectual power. In his Oratory, 
" The Paraclete," the doctrines of faith and the 
mysteries of religion were without any restraint 
discussed. No subject was too profound or too sacred for 
hi s contemplation. By the powerful and orthodox influence 
The conflict 
begins on 
transubstan- 
tlation. 
Opinions of 
Berengar of 
Tours. 
The pope 
privately 
adopts them. 
Peter Abelard 
among the in- 
surgents. CH. I.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
11 
of St. Bernard, " a morigerous and mortified monk," the 
opinions of Abelard were brought under the rebuke of the 
authorities. In vain he appealed from the Council of 
Sens to Rome; the power of St. Bernard at Rome was 
paramount. " He makes void the whole Chris- 
tian faith by attempting to comprehend the 
nature of God through human reason. He ascends up 
into Heaven ; he goes down into hell. Nothing can elude 
him, either in the height above or in the nethermost 
depths. His branches spread over the whole earth. He 
boasts that he has disciples in Rome itself, even in the 
College of Cardinals. He draws the whole earth after 
him. It is time, therefore, to silence him by apostolic 
authority." Such was the report of the Council of Sens 
to Rome, a.d. 1140. 
Perhaps it was not so much the public accusation that 
Abelard denied the doctrine of the Trinity, as his asser- 
tion of the supremacy of reason-which clearly betrayed 
his intention of breaking the thraldom of authority-that 
insured his condemnation. It was impossible to restrict 
the rising discussions within their proper sphere, or to keep 
them from the perilous ground of ecclesiastical 
history. Abelard in his work entitled " Sic et 
Non," sets forth the contradictory opinions of the fathers, 
and exhibits their discord and strifes on great doctrinal 
points, thereby insinuating how little of unity there was 
in the Church. It was a work suggesting a great deal 
more than it actually stated, and was inevitably calculated 
to draw down upon its author the indignation of those 
whose interests it touched. 
Out of the discussions attending these events sprang 
the celebrated doctrines of Nominalism and 
Realism, though the terms themselves seem not 
to have been introduced till the end of the 
twelfth century. The Realists thought that the general 
types of things had a real existence; the Nominalists, 
that they were merely a mental abstraction expressed by 
a word. It was therefore the Old Greek dispute revived. 
Of the Nominalists, Roscelin of Compiegne, a 
little before a.d. 1100, was the first distin- 
guished advocate; his materializing views, as might be 
St. Bernard 
attacks him. 
The book " Sic 
et Non." 
Scholastic 
philosophy, 
rise of. 
Nominalism 
and Realism. 12 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. I. 
expected, drawing upon him the reproof of the Church. 
In this contest, Anselm, the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
attempted to harmonize reason in subordination to faith, 
and again, by his example, demonstrated the necessity of 
submitting all such questions to the decision of the 
human intellect. 
The development of scholastic philosophy, which dates 
from the time of Erigena, was accelerated by two distinct 
causes: the dreadful materialization into which, in 
Europe, all sacred things had fallen, and the 
illustrious example of the Mohammedans, who 
already, by their physical inquiries, had com- 
menced a career destined to end in brilliant 
results. The Spanish universities were filled with eccle- 
siastics from many parts of Europe. Peter the Venerable, 
the friend and protector of Abelard, who had spent much 
time in Cordova, and not only spoke Arabic fluently, but 
actually translated the Koran into Latin, mentions that, 
on his first arrival in Spain, he found several learned 
men, even from England, studying astronomy. The 
reconciliation of many of the dogmas of authority with 
common sense was impossible for men of understanding. 
Could the clear intellect of such a statesman as Hil- 
debrand be for a moment disgraced by accepting the 
received view of a doctrine like that of transubstantiation ? 
His great difficulty was to reconcile what had been 
rendered orthodox by the authority of the Church with 
the suggestions of reason, or even with that reverence for 
holy things which is in the heart of every intelligent 
man. In such sentiments, we find an explanation of the 
lenient dealings of that stern ecclesiastic with the heretic 
Berengar. He saw that it was utterly impossible to offer 
any defence of many of the materialized dogmas of the 
age, but then those dogmas had been put forth as absolute 
truth by the Church. Things had come to the point at 
which reason and theology must diverge; yet the Italian 
statesmen did not accept this issue without an 
additional attempt, and, under their permission, 
Scholastic Theology, which originated in the 
scholastic philosophy of Erigena and his followers, sought, 
in the strange union of the Holy Scriptures, the Aristo- 
The Arabs in 
Spain pro- 
mote these 
discussions. 
Rise of Scho- 
lastic Theo- 
logy. CH. I.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
13 
telian Philosophy, and Pantheism, to construct a scientific 
basis for Christianity. Heresy was to be combated with 
the weapons of the heretics, and a co-ordination of autho- 
rity and reason effected. Under such auspices scholastic 
philosophy pervaded the schools, giving to some of them, 
as the University of Paris, a fictitious reputation, and 
leading to the foundation of others in other cities. It 
answered the object of its politic promoters in a double 
way, for it raised around the orthodox theology an immense 
and impenetrable bulwark of what seemed to be profound 
learning, and also diverted the awakening mind of 
Western Europe to occupations which, if profitless, were 
yet exciting, and without danger to the existing state of 
things. In that manner was put off for a time the 
inevitable day in which philosophy and theology were to 
be brought into mortal conflict with each other. It was 
doubtless seen by Hildebrand and his followers that, 
though Berengar had set the example of protesting 
against the principle that the decision of a majority of 
voters in a council or other collective body should ever be 
received as ascertaining absolute truth, yet so great was 
the uncertainty of the principles on which the 
scholastic philosophy was founded, so unde- 
termined its mental exercise, so ineffectual the 
results to which it could attain, that it was 
unlikely for a long time to disturb the unity of doctrine 
in the Church. While men were reasoning round and 
round again in the same vicious circle without finding 
any escape, and indeed without seeking any, delighted 
with the dexterity of their movements, but never con- 
sidering whether they were making a^y real advance, it 
was unnecessary to anticipate inconvenience from their 
progress. 
•Here was the difficulty. The decisions of the Church 
were asserted to be infallible and irrevocable; her phi- 
losophy, if such it can be called-as must be 
the case with any philosophy reposing upon a 
final revelation from God-was stationary. But 
the awakening mind of the West was dis- 
playing, in an unmistakable way, its propensity to 
advance. As one who rides an unruly horse will some- 
Its advan- 
tages in the 
existing state 
of the Church. 
The philo- 
sophical 
dilemma of 
the Church. 14 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. I. 
times divert him from a career which could not bo 
checked by main force by reining him round and round, 
and thereby exhausting his spirit and strength, and 
keeping him in a narrow space, so the wanton efforts of 
the mind may be guided, if they cannot be checked. 
These principles of policy answered their object for a time, 
until metaphysical were changed for physical discussions. 
Then it became impossible to divert the onward move- 
ment, and on the first great question arising-that of the 
figure and place of the earth-a question dangerous to the 
last degree, since it inferentially included, the determi- 
nation of the position of man in the universe, theology 
suffered an irretrievable defeat. Between her and phi- 
losophy there was thenceforth no other issue than a 
mortal duel. 
Though Erigena is the true founder of Scholasticism, 
Roscelin, already mentioned as renewing the 
question of Platonic Universals, has been con- 
sidered by some to be entitled to that distinction. After 
him, William of Champeaux opened a school of logic in 
Taris, a.d. 1109, and from that time the University made 
it a prominent study. On the rise of the mendicant 
orders, Scholasticism received a great impulse, perhaps, as 
has been affirmed, because its disputations suited their 
illiterate state; Thomas Aquinas, the Dominican, and 
Duns Scotus, the Franciscan, founding rival schools, which 
wrangled for three centuries. In Italy, Scholasticism 
never prevailed as it did in France and elsewhere, and at 
last it died away, its uselessness, save in the political result 
before mentioned, having been detected. 
The middle of the eleventh century ushers in an epoch 
for the papacy and for Europe. It is marked 
by an attempt at a moral reformation in the 
Church-by a struggle for securing for the 
papacy independence both of the Emperors of 
Germany and of the neighbouring Italian nobles-thus 
far the pope being the mere officer of the emperor, and 
often the creature of the surrounding nobility-by the 
conversion of the temporalities of the Church, heretofore 
indirect, into absolute possessions, by securing territories 
given " to the Church, the blessed Peter, and the Roman 
Course of 
Scholasticism. 
Reaction in 
the papacy 
against these 
pressures. CH. I.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
15 
republic " to the first of these beneficiaries, excluding the 
last. As events proceeded, these minor affairs 
converged, and out of their union arose the 
great conflict of the imperial and papal powers 
for supremacy. The same policy which had 
succeeded in depriving the Roman people of any voice in 
appointments of popes-which had secularized the Church 
in Italy, for a while seized all the material resources of 
Europe through the device of the Crusades, and nearly 
established a papal autocracy in all Europe. These 
political events demand from us notice, since from them 
arose intellectual consequences of the utmos importance. 
The second Lateran Council, under Nicolas IL, accom- 
plished the result of vesting the elective power for the 
papacy in the cardinals. That was a great revolution. 
It was this council which gave to Berengar his choice 
between death and recantation. There were at this period 
three powers engaged in Italy-the Imperial, 
the Church party, and the Italian nobles. For 
the sake of holding the last in check-since it was the 
nearest, it required the most unremitting attention- 
Hildebrand had advised the popes who were his immediate 
predecessors to use the Normans, who were settled in the 
south of the peninsula, by whom the lands of the nobles 
were devastated. Thus the difficulties of their position led 
the popes to a repetition of their ancient policy; and as 
they had, in old times, sought the protection of the 
Frankish kings, so now they sought that of the Normans. 
But in the midst of the dissensions and tumults of the 
times, a great man was emerging-Hildebrand, who, with 
almost superhuman self-denial, again and again 
abstained from making himself pope. On the 
death of Alexander II. his opportunity came, and, with 
acceptable force, he was raised to that dignity, a.d. 1073. 
Scarcely was Hildebrand Pope Gregory VII. when he 
vigorously proceeded to carry into effect the 
policy he had been preparing during the pon- 
tificates of his predecessors. In many respects 
the times were propitious. The blameless lives of the 
German popes had cast a veil of oblivion over the 
abominations of their Italian predecessors. Hildebrand 
Preparation 
for a concen- 
tration of the 
papal power. 
Three parties 
in Italy. 
Hildebrand 
becomes pope. 
Hildebrand 
resolves on a 
reform. 16 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. 1. 
addressed himself to tear out every vestige of simony and 
concubinage with a remorseless hand. That task must be 
finished before he could hope to accomplish his grand 
project of an ecclesiastical autocracy in Europe, with the 
pope at its head, and the clergy, both in their persons and 
property, independent of the civil power. It was plain 
that, apart from all moral considerations, the supremacy 
of Rome in such a system altogether turned on 
the celibacy of the clergy. If marriage was 
permitted to the ecclesiastic, what was to 
prevent him from handing down, as an hereditary pos- 
session, the wealth and dignities he had obtained. In 
such a state of things, the central government at Rome 
necessarily stood at every disadvantage against the local 
interests of an individual, and still more so if many in- 
dividuals should combine together to promote, in common, 
similar interests. But very different would it be if 
promotion must be looked for from Rome-very different 
as regards the hold upon public sentiment, if such a 
descent from father to son was absolutely prevented, and 
a career fairly opened to all, irrespective of their station in 
life. To the Church it was to the last degree important 
that a man should derive his advancement from her, not 
from his ancestor. In the trials to which she was per- 
petually exposed, there could be no doubt that by such 
persons her interests would be best served. 
In these circumstances Gregory VII. took his course. 
The synod held at Rome in the first year of his pontificate 
denounced the marriage of the clergy, enforcing 
its decree by the doctrine that the efficacy of 
the sacraments altogether depended on their being ad- 
ministered by hands sinless in that respect, and made all 
communicants partners in the pastoral crime. With a 
provident foresight of the coming opposition, he carried 
out the policy he had taught his predecessors of con- 
ciliating the Normans in the south of Italy, 
fhough he did not hesitate to resist them, by 
the aid of the Countess Matilda, when they 
dared to touch the possessions of the Church. 
It was for the sake of this that the Norman invasion of 
England under William the Conqueror had already been 
Necessity of 
celibacy of 
the clergy. 
It is enforced. 
The pope 
seeks the 
friendship of 
the Normans. CH. I.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
17 
approved of, a consecrated standard and a ring containing 
a hair from the head of St. Peter sent him, and per- 
mission given for the replacement of Saxon bishops and 
other dignitaries by Normans. It was not forgotten how 
great had been the gains to the papacy, three centuries 
before, by changing the dynasty of the Franks; and thus 
the policy of an Italian town gave a permanent impress 
to the history of England. Hildebrand foresaw that the 
sword of the Italian-Norman would be wanted to carry 
out his projected ends. He did not hesitate to authorize 
the overthrow of a Saxon dynasty by the French-Norman, 
that he might be more sure of the fidelity of that sword. 
Without the countenance of the pope, the Norman could 
never have consolidated his power, nor even held his 
ground in England. 
From these movements of the papacy sprang the con- 
flict with the Emperors of Germany respecting 
investitures. The P>ishop of Milan-who, it 
appears, had perjured himself in the quarrel 
respecting concubinage - had been excommunicated by 
Alexander II. The imperial council appointed as his 
successor one Godfrey; the pope had nominated Atto. 
Hereupon Alexander had summoned the emperor to 
appear before him on a charge of simony, and granting 
investitures without his approbation. While the matter 
was yet in abeyance, Alexander died; but Gregory took 
up the contest. A synod he had assembled ordered that, 
if any one should accept investiture from a layman, both 
the giver and receiver should be excommunicated. The 
pretence against lay-investiture was that it was a usurpa- 
tion of a papal right, and that it led to the appointment 
of evil and ignorant men ; the reality was a determination 
to extend papal power, by making Rome the fountain of 
emolument. Gregory, by his movements, had thus 
brought upon himself three antagonists-the imperial 
power, the Italian nobles, and the married clergy. The 
latter, unscrupulous and exasperated, met him with his 
own weapons, not hesitating to calumniate his friendship 
with the Countess Matilda. It was also suspected that 
they were connected with the outrage perpetrated by the 
nobles that took place in Rome. On Christmas night, a.d. 
The conflict 
concerning 
investitures. 18 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. i. 
1075. in the midst of a violent rain, while the pope was 
administering the communion, a band of soldiers 
burst into the church, seized Gregory at the 
altar, stripped and wounded him, and, haling him. on 
horseback behind one of the soldiers, carried him off to a 
stronghold, from which he was rescued by the populace. 
But, without wavering for a moment, the undaunted 
pontiff pressed on his conflict with the imperial power, 
summoning Henry to Rome to account for his delin- 
quencies, and threatening his excommunication if he 
should not appear before an appointed day. In haste, 
under the auspices of the king, a synod was assembled at 
Worms; charges against the pope of licentious life, 
bribery, necromancy, simony, murder, atheism, were, in- 
troduced and sentence of deposition pronounced against 
him. On his side, Gregory assembled the third Lateran 
Council, a.d. 1076, placed King Henry under interdict, 
absolved his subjects from allegiance, and deposed him. 
A series of constitutions, clearly defining the 
new bases of the papal system, was published. 
They were to the following effect: " That the 
Roman pontiff can alone be called universal; 
that he alone has a right to depose bishops; that his 
legates have a right to preside over all bishops in a 
general council; that he can depose absent prelates; that 
he alone has a right to use imperial ornaments; that 
princes are bound to kiss his feet, and his only; that he 
has a right to depose emperors; that no synod or council 
summoned without his commission can be called general; 
that no book can be called canonical without his authority; 
that his sentence can be annulled by none, but that he may 
annul the decrees of all; that the Roman Church has been, 
is, and will continue to be infallible ; that whoever dissents 
from it ceases to be a catholic Christian, and that subjects 
may be absolved from their allegiance to wicked princes." 
The power that could assert such resolutions was near its 
culmination. 
And now was manifest the superiority of the spiritual 
over the temporal power. The quarrel with Henry went 
on, and, after a hard struggle and many intrigues to draw 
the Normans over to him, that monarch was compelled to 
Outrage on 
Hildebrand. 
He defines 
the position 
of the 
Church, CH. 1.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
19 
submit, and in the depth of winter to cross the snowy Alps, 
under circumstances of unparalleled hardship, 
to seek absolution from his adversary. Then 
ensued the scene at Canosa-a penitent in white 
raiment standing in the dreary snow of three winter days, 
January 1077, cold and fasting at the gate, seeking pardon 
and reconciliation of the inexorable, pontiff; that penitent 
was the King of Germany. Then ensued the dramatie 
scene at the sacrament, in which the gray-haired pontiff 
called upon Heaven to strike him dead on the spot if he 
were not innocent of the crimes of which he had been 
accused, and dared the guilty monarch to do the same. 
Whoever will reflect on these interesting events cannot 
fail to discern two important conclusions. The 
tone of thought throughout Europe had changed 
within the last three ages; ideas were entertained, 
doctrines originated or controverted, a policy conceived 
and attempted altogether in advance of the old times. 
Intellect, both among the clergy and the laity, had under- 
gone a great development. But the peculiar character of 
the papal power is also ascertained-that it is worldly, 
and the result of the policy of man. The outrage on 
Hildebrand shows how that power had diminished at 
its centre, but the victory over Henry that it maintained 
its strength at a distance. Natural forces diminish as 
the distance increases; this unnatural force displayed an 
opposite property. 
Gregory had carried his point. He had not only beaten 
back the Northern attack, but had established the supremacy 
of the ecclesiastical over the temporal power, 
and that point, with inflexible resolution, he 
maintained, though in its consequences it cost 
Germany a civil war. But, while he was thus unyielding 
in his temporal policy, there is reason to suppose that he 
was not without misgivings in his theological belief. In 
the war between Henry and his rival Rodolph, Gregory 
was compelled by policy to be at first neutral. He occupied 
himself with the Eucharistic controversy. This 
was at the time that he was associated with 
Berengar, who lived with him for a year. Nor 
did the pope think it unworthy of himself to put forth, 
andovercom s 
the King oi 
Germany. 
Conclusions 
from these 
events. 
Culmination 
of the ecclesi- 
astical power. 
Friendship of 
Hildebrand 
and Berengar 20 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
[ch. I. 
in excuse of the heretic, a vision, in which the Virgin Mary 
had asserted the orthodoxy of Berengar; but, as his quarrel 
with King Henry went on to new excommunications and 
depositions, a synod of bishops presumed to condemn him 
as a partisan of Berengar and a necromancer. On the 
election of Gilbert of Ravenna as antipope, Gregory, 
without hesitation, pushed his principles to their con- 
■sequences, denouncing kingship as a wicked and diabolical 
usurpation, ' an infraction of the equal rights of man. 
Hereupon Henry determined to destroy him or 
to be destroyed ; and descending again into Italy, 
a.d. 1081, for three successive years laid siege to 
Rome. In vain the amorous Matilda, with more than the 
devotion of an ally, endeavoured to succour her beleaguered 
friend. The city surrendered to Henry at Christmas, 
a.d. 1084. With his antipope he entered it, receiving 
from his hands the imperial crown. The Norman allies 
of Hildebrand at last approached in strength. The em- 
peror was compelled to retreat. A feeble attempt to hold 
the city was made. The Normans took it by surprise, and 
released Gregory from his imprisonment in the Castle 
of St. Angelo. An awful scene ensued. Some conflicts 
between the citizens and the Normans occurred; a battle 
in the streets was the consequence, and Rome was pillaged, 
sacked, and fired. Streets, churches, palaces, were left a 
heap of smoking ashes. The people by thousands were 
massacred. The Saracens, of whom there were multitudes 
in the Norman army, were in the Eternal City 
at last, and, horrible to be said, were there as 
the hired supporters of the Vicar of Christ. 
Matrons, nuns, young women, were defiled. 
Crowds of men, women, and children were carried off and 
sold as slaves. It was the treatment of a city 
taken by storm. In consternation, the pontiff 
with his infidel deliverers retired from the ruined 
capital to Salerno, and there he died, a.d. 1085. 
He had been dead ten years, when a policy was entered 
upon by the papacy which imparted to it more power than 
all the exertions of Gregory. The Crusades were 
instituted by a French pope, Urban II. Un- 
popular in Italy, perhaps by reason of his foreign birth, 
The German 
contest re- 
Bumed. 
The Moham- 
medans 
support 
Hildebrand. ' 
Sack of Rome, 
and death of 
the pope. 
The Crusades. CH. I.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
21 
he aroused his native country for the recovery of the Holy 
Land. lie began his career in a manner not now unusual, 
interfering in a quarrel between Philip of France and his 
wife, taking the part of the latter, as experience had shown 
it was always advisable for a pope to do. Soon, however, 
he devoted his attention to something more important than 
these matrimonial broils. It seems that a European 
crusade was first distinctly conceived of and its value 
most completely comprehended by Gerbert, to whom, 
doubtless, his Mohammedan experiences had suggested 
it. In the first year of his pontificate, he wrote an epistle, 
in the name of the Church of Jerusalem, to the Church 
throughout the world, exhorting Christian soldiers to come 
to her relief either with arms or money. It had been 
subsequently contemplated by Gregory VII. For many 
years, pilgrimages to Palestine had been on the increase; 
a very lucrative export trade in relics from that country 
had arisen; crowds from all parts of Europe had of late 
made their way to Jerusalem, for the singular purpose of 
being present at the great assize which the Scriptures 
were supposed to prophesy would soon take place in the 
Valley of Jehoshaphat. The Mohammedans had inflicted 
on these pious persons much maltreatment, being unable 
to comprehend the purport of their extraordinary journey, 
and probably perceiving a necessity of putting some 
restriction upon the influx of such countless multitudes. 
Peter the Hermit, who had witnessed the barbarities to 
which his Christian brethren were exposed, and the 
abominations of the holy places now in the hands of the 
infidel, roused Europe, by his preaching, to a frantic state; 
and Urban, at the Council of Clermont, a.d. 1095, 
gave authority to the Holy War. " It is the will 
of God," was the unanimous shout of the coun- 
cil and the populace. The periodical shower of 
shooting stars was seen with remarkable brilliancy on 
April 25th, and mistaken by the council for a celestial 
monition that the Christians must precipitate themselves 
in like manner on the East. From this incident we may 
perceive how little there was of inspiration in these 
blundering and violent ecclesiastical assemblages; the 
moment that they can bo brought to a scientific test their 
The Council 
of Clermont 
authorizes a 
crusade. 22 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. I. 
true nature is detected. As a preliminary exercise, a 
ferocious persecution of the Jews of France had burst 
forth, and the blood and tortures of multitudes offered a 
tardy expiation for the crimes that their ancestors had 
committed at the Crucifixion in Jerusalem, more than a 
thousand years previously. 
It does not fall within my plan to give a detailed 
description of the Crusades. It is enough to say that, 
though the clergy had promised the protection of God to 
every one who would thus come to his assistance-an 
ample reward for their pious work in this life, and the hap- 
piness of heaven in the next-Urban's crusade 
failed not only disastrously, but hideously, so 
far as the ignorant rabbles, under Peter the Hermit and 
Walter the Penniless, were concerned. Nevertheless, 
under the better-organized expeditions that soon followed, 
Jerusalem was captured, July 15th, a.d. 1099. The long 
and ghastly line of bones whitening the road through 
Hungary to the East showed how different a thing it was 
for a peaceable and solitary pilgrim, with his staff, and 
wallet, and scallop-shell, to beg his way, and a disorderly 
rabble of thousands upon thousands to rush forward without 
any subordination, any organization, trusting only to the 
providence'of God. The van of the Crusades consisted of 
two hundred and seventy-five thousand men, accompanied 
by eight horses, and preceded by a goat and a goose, into 
which some one had told them that the Holy Ghost had 
entered. Driven to madness by disappointment and 
famine-expecting, in their ignorance, that every town 
they came to must be Jerusalem-in their extremity they 
laid hands on whatever they could. Their track was 
marked by robbery, bloodshed, and fire. In the first 
crusade more than half a million of men died. It was far 
more disastrous than the Moscow retreat. 
But still, in a military sense, the first crusade accom- 
plished its object. The capture of Jerusalem, 
as might be expected under such circumstances, 
was attended by the perpetration of atrocities almost 
beyond belief. What a contrast to the conduct of the 
Arabs! When the Khalif Omar took Jerusalem, a.d. 637, 
he rode into the city by the side of the Patriarch 
The first cru- 
sade. 
Storming of 
Jerusalem. [CH. I. 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
23 
Sophronius, conversing with him on its antiquities. At 
the hour of prayer, he declined, to perform his devotions 
in the Church of the Resurrection, in which he chanced to 
be, but prayed on the steps of the Church of Constantine; 
" for," said he to the patriarch, " had I done so, the Mus- 
selmen in a future age would have infringed the treaty, 
under colour of imitating my example." But, in the 
capture by the Crusaders, the brains of young children 
were dashed out against the walls; infants were thrown 
over the battlements; every woman that could be seized 
was violated; men were roasted at tires; some were ripped 
open, to see if they had swallowed gold; the Jews were 
driven into their synagogue, and there burnt; a massacre 
of nearly 70,000 persons took place; and the pope's legate 
was seen " partaking in the triumph." 
It had been expected by the politicians who first projected 
these wars that they would heal the divisions of 
the Latin and Greek churches, and give birth to 
a European republic, under the spiritual presi- 
dency of the pope. In these respects they proved a failure. 
It does not appear that the popes themselves personally 
had ever any living faith in the result. Not one of them 
ever joined a crusade; and the Church, as a corporation, 
took care to embark very little money in these under- 
takings. But, though they did not answer to the original 
intention, they gave, in an indirect way, a wonderful 
stimulus to the papal power. Under the plausible pre- 
tences offered by them, the pope obtained 
control over the person of every Christian man 
from the highest to the lowest. The cross once 
taken, all civil control over the Crusader ceased 
-he became the man of the Church. Under those pre- 
tences, also, a right was imperceptibly acquired of raising 
revenue in all parts of Europe; even the clergy might 
l)C assessed. A drain was thus established on the re- 
sources of distant nations for an object which no man 
dared to gainsay; if he adventured on any such thing, he 
must encounter the odium of an infidel-an atheist. A 
steady stream of money flowed into Italy. Nor was it 
alone by this taxation of every Christian nation without 
permission of its government-this empire within every 
Political re- 
sults of the 
Crusades. 
Give to Rome 
the control of 
men and 
money in Eu- 
rope. 24 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[CH. I. 
empire-immense wealth accrued to the projectors, while 
the infatuation could be kept up, by the diminished rate 
at which land could be obtained. Domains were thrown 
into the market; there were few purchasers except the 
Church. Immense domains were also given away by 
weak-minded sinners, and those on the point of death, for 
the salvation of their souls. Thus, all things considered, 
the effect of the Crusades, though not precisely that 
which was expected, was of singular advantage to the 
Church, giving it a commanding strength it had never 
before possessed. 
In their resistance to the German attack the popes 
never hesitated at any means. They prompted Prince 
Henry to revolt against their great antagonist, his father; 
they intervened, not to rebuke, but to abet him, when he 
threw his father into prison and deprived him of the 
necessaries of life. They carried their vengeance beyond 
tlie grave. \\ hen the aged emperor, broken in heart, 
escaped from their torment, and was honourably buried 
by the Bishop of Liege, that prelate was forthwith ex- 
communicated and compelled to disinter the corpse. But 
crimes like these, against which human nature revolts, 
meet with retribution. This same Prince 
Henry, becoming Henry V., was forced by cir- 
cumstances to resume his father's quarrel, and to refuse to 
yield his right of granting investitures, lie marched upon 
Rome, and at the point of the sword compelled his adver- 
sary, Pope Paschal II., to surrender all the possessions and 
royalties of the Church-compelled him to crown him 
emperor-not, however, until ihe pontiff had been sub- 
jected to the ignominy of imprisonment, and brought into 
condemnation among his own party. 
Things seemed to be going to ruin in Rome, and such 
must inevitably have been the issue, had not an extra- 
neous influence arisen in Bernard of Clairvaux, 
to whom Europe learned to look up as the 
beater down of heresies, theological and political. 
He had been a pupil of William of Champeaux, 
the vanquished rival of Abelard, and Abelard he hated 
with a religious and personal liatc. He was a wonder- 
worker. Iio excommunicated the flics which infested a 
Resistance of 
Henry V. 
Bernard of 
Clairvaux 
stimulates 
the second 
crusade. CH. I.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
25 
church-they all fell down dead and were swept out by 
the basketful. He has been described as "the mellifluous 
doctor, whose works are not scientific, but full of unction." 
He could not tolerate the principle at the basis of Abe- 
lard's philosophy-the assertion of the supremacy of reason. 
Of Arnold of Brescia-who carried that principle to its 
political consequences, and declared that the riches and 
power of the clergy were inconsistent with their profession 
-he was the accuser and punisher. Bernard preached 
a new crusade, authenticating his power by miracles, 
affirmed to be not inferior to those of our Saviour; pro- 
mising to him who should slay an unbeliever happiness 
in this life and Paradise in the life to come. 
This second crusade was conducted by kings, 
and included fanatic ladies, dressed in the armour of men ; 
but it ended in ruin. 
It was reserved for the only Englishman who ever 
attained to the papacy to visit Rome with the punishment 
she had so often inflicted upon others. Nicolas Break- 
spear-Adrian IV.-put the Eternal City under interdict, 
thereby ending the republic which the partisans of Arnold 
of Brescia had set up. But in this he was greatly aided 
by a change of sentiment in many of the inhabitants of 
Borne, who had found to their cost that it was more 
profitable for their city to be the centre of Christianity 
than the seat of a phantom republic. As an equivalent 
for his coronation by Adrian, Frederick Barbarossa agreed 
to surrender to the Church Arnold of Brescia. With 
indecent haste, the moment she had obtained 
possession of her arch-enemy she put him to 
death-not delivering him over to the secular 
arm, as the custom had been, but murdering him with her 
own hand. Seven centuries have elapsed, and the blood 
of Arnold is still crying from the ground for retribution. 
Notwithstanding a new-the third-crusade, things went 
from bad to worse in the Holy Land. Saladin had re- 
taken Jerusalem, a.d. 1187. Barbarossa was drowned in a 
river in Pisidia. Bichard of England was treacherously 
imprisoned; nor did the pope interfere for Birth of Fre- 
this brave soldier of the Cross. In the mean- d,rickIL 
time, the Emperors of Germany had acquired Sicily by 
Its failure. 
Murder of 
Arnold of 
Brescia. 26 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. i. 
marriage-an incident destined to be of no little im- 
portance in the history of Europe; for, on the death of the 
Emperor Henry VI. at Messina, his son Frederick, an 
infant not two years old, was left to be brought up in that 
island. What the consequences were we shall soon see. 
If we review the events related in this chapter, we find 
that the idolatry and immorality into which 
Rome had fallen had become connected with 
material interests sufficiently powerful to ensure 
their perpetuation; that converted Germany insisted on a 
reform, and therefore made a moral attack on the Italian 
system, attempting to carry it into effect by civil force. 
This attack was, properly speaking, purely moral, the 
intellectual element accompanying it being derived from 
Western or Arabian influences, as will be shown in the next 
chapter; and, in its resistance to this, the papacy wras not 
only successful, but actually was able to retaliate, over- 
throwing the Emperors of Germany, and being even on 
the point of establishing a European autocracy, with the 
pope at its head. It was in these events that the Reform- 
ation began, though circumstances intervened to postpone 
its completion to the era of Luther. Henceforth we see 
more and more plainly the attitude in which the papacy, 
through its material interests, was compelled to stand, as 
resisting all intellectual advancement. Our subject has 
therefore here to be left unfinished until we shall have 
described the Mohammedan influences making pressures 
on the West and the East. 
Review of the 
preceding 
events. CHAPTER II. 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST-(Continued). 
THE WESTERN OR INTELLECTUAL ATTACK ON THE ITALIAN SYSTEM. 
The intellectual Condition of Christendom contrasted with that of 
Arabian Spain. 
Diffusion of Arabian intellectual Influences through France and Sicily. 
-Example of Saracen Science in Alhazen, and of Philosophy in 
Algazzali.-Innocent III. prepares to combat these Influences.-Results 
to Western Europe of the Sack of Constantinople by the Catholics. 
'IRe spread of Mohammedan light Literature is followed by Heresy - 
The crushing of Heresy in the South of France by armed Force.-The 
Inquisition, mendicant Orders, auricular Confession, and Casuistry. 
The rising Sentiment is embodied in Frederick II. in Sicily.-His 
Conflict with and Overthrow by the Pope.--Spread of Mutiny among 
the mendicant Orders. 
A pressure upon the Italian system had meantime been 
arising in the West. It was due to the presence 
of the Arabs in Spain. It is necessary, there- 
fore, to relate the circumstances of their invasion 
and conquest of that country, and to compare their social 
and intellectual condition with the contemporary state of 
Christendom. 
From the barbarism of the native people of Europe, who 
could scarcely be said to have emerged from the savage 
state, unclean in person, benighted in mind, 
inhabiting huts in which it was a mark of wealth 
if there were bulrushes on the floor and straw mats against 
the wall; miserably fed on beans, vetches, roots, and even 
the bark of trees; clad in garments of untanned skin, or at 
the best of leather-perennial in durability, but not conducive 
to personal purity-a state in which the pomp of royalty 
The pressure 
from the West 
upon Borne. 
Barbarism of 
Europe. 28 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
[ch. ii. 
was sufficiently and satisfactorily manifested in the equi- 
page of the sovereign, an ox-cart, drawn by not less than 
two yokes of cattle, quickened in their movements by the 
goads of pedestrian serfs, whose legs were wrapped in 
wisps of straw; from a people, devout believers in all the 
wild, fictions of shrine-miracles and preposterous relics; 
from the degradation of a base theology, and from the disputes 
of ambitious ecclesiastics for power, it is pleasant to turn 
to the south-west corner of the continent, where, under 
auspices of a very different kind, the irradiations of light 
were to break forth. The crescent in the West was soon 
to pass eastward to its full. 
But I must retrace my stops through four centuries, 
and resume the description of the Arabian movement after 
the subjugation of Africa, as related in the former volume, 
Chapter XI. 
These were the circumstances of the Arab conquest of 
Spain. In that country the Arian Creed had been sup- 
planted by the orthodox, and the customary persecutions 
had set in. From the time of the Emperor 
Hadrian, who had transported 50,000 Jewish 
families into Spain, that race had greatly increased, and, 
as might be expected, had received no mercy at the hands 
of the orthodox. Ninety thousand individuals had 
recently suffered compulsory baptism, and so had been 
brought under the atrocious Catholic law that whoever has 
been baptized shall be compelled to continue the observances 
of the Church. The Gothic monarchy was elective, and 
Koderic had succeeded to the throne, to the prejudice of 
the heirs of his predecessor. Though a very brave soldier, 
he was a luxurious and licentious man. It was the custom 
of the Goths to send their children to Toledo to be edu- 
cated, and, under these circumstances, a young girl of 
extraordinary beauty, the daughter of Count Julian, 
governor of Ceuta in Africa, was residing there. King 
Koderic fell passionately in love with her, and, being unable 
to overcome her virtuous resolution by persuasion, resorted 
to violence. The girl found means to inform her father of 
what had occurred. "By the living God!" exclaimed the 
count, in a paroxysm of rage, " I will be revenged." But, 
dissembling his wrath, he crossed over into Spain, had an 
Arab invasion 
of Spain. CH. II.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
29 
understanding with Oppas, the Archbishop of Toledo, and 
other disaffected ecclesiastics, and, under specious pretences, 
lulled the suspicions of Roderic, and brought his daughter 
away. And now he opened communications with the Emir 
Musa, prevailing upon him to attempt the conquest of the 
country, and offering that he himself would take the lead. 
The conditions were settled between them, and the consent 
of the khalif to the expedition obtained. Tarik, a lieutenant 
of the emir, was sent across the Straits with the van of the 
army, lie landed on the rock called, in memory of his 
name, Gibraltar, April, a.d. 711. In the battle that 
ensued, a part of Roderic's troops, together with 
the Archbishop of Toledo, consummated their 
treasonable compact, and deserted to the Arabs; the rest 
were panic-stricken. In the rout, Roderic himself was 
drowned in the waters of the Guadalquivir. 
Tarik now proceeded rapidly northward, and was soon 
joined by his superior, the Emir Musa, who was not, 
perhaps, without jealousy at his success. As the Arab 
historians say, the Almighty delivered the idolaters into 
their hand, and gave them one victory after another. As 
the towns successively fell, they left them in charge of tho 
Jews, to whose revenge the conquest was largely due, and 
who could be thoroughly trusted; nor did they pause in 
their march until they had passed the French frontier and 
reached the Rhone. It was the intention of Musa to cross the 
European continent to Constantinople, subjugating the 
Frank, German, and Italian barbarians by the way. At 
this time it seemed impossible that France could escape 
the fate of Spain; and if she fell, the threat of Musa would 
inevitably have come to pass, that he would preach the Unity 
of God in the Vatican. But a quarrel had arisen between 
him and Tarik, who had been imprisoned and even 
scourged. The friends of the latter, however, did not fail 
him at the court of Damascus. An envoy from the Khalif 
Alwalid appeared, ordering Musa to desist from his enter- 
prise, to return to Syria, and exonerate himself of the 
things laid -to his charge. But Musa bribed the envoy to 
let him advance. Hereupon the angry khalif dispatched 
a second messenger, who, in face of the Moslems and 
Christians, audaciously arrested him, at the head of his 
Its conquest. 30 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. n. 
troops, by the bridle of his horse. The conqueror of Spain 
was compelled to return. lie was cast into prison, fined 
200,000 pieces of gold, publicly whipped, and his life with 
difficulty spared. As is related of Belisarius, Musa was 
driven as a beggar to solicit charity, and the Saracen con- 
queror of Spain ended his days in grief and absolute want. 
The dissensions among the Arabs, far more than the 
sword of Charles Martel, prevented the Mohammedaniza- 
tion of France. Their historians admit the 
great check received at the battle of Tours, in 
which Abderrahman was killed ; they call that 
field the 1'lace of the Martyrs; but their accounts 
by no means correspond to the relations of the Christian 
authors, who affirm that 375,000 Mohammedans fell, and 
only 1500 Christians. The defeat was not so disastrous 
but that in a few months they were able to resume their 
advance, and their progress was arrested only by re- 
newed dissensions among themselves-dissensions not alone 
among the leaders in Spain, but also more serious ones 
of aspirants for the khalifate in Asia. On the overthrow 
of the Ommiade house, Abderrahman, one of that family, 
escaped to Spain, which repaid the patronage of its conquest 
by acknowledging him as its sovereign, lie madi Cordova 
the seat of his government. Neither he nor his immediate 
successors took any other title than that of Emir, out of 
respect to the khalif, who resided at Bagdad, the metro- 
polis of Islam, though they maintained a rivalry with him 
in the patronage of letters and science. Abderrahman 
himself strengthened his power by an alliance with 
Charlemagne. 
Scarcely had the Arabs become firmly settled in Spain 
when they commenced a brilliant career. Adopt- 
ing what had now become the established policy 
of the Commanders of the Faithful in Asia, the 
Emirs of Cordova distinguished themselves as 
patrons of learning, and set an example of refinement 
strongly contrasting with the condition of the native 
European princes. Cordova, under their administration, 
at its highest point of prosperity, boasted of more than 
two hundred thousand houses, and more than a million 
of inhabitants. After sunset, a man might walk through 
Arrest of Mo- 
hanimedan- 
ism in West- 
ern Europe. 
Civilization 
and splendour 
of the Spanish 
Arabs. CH. II.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
31 
it m a straight line for ten miles by the light of the public 
lamps. Seven hundred years after this time there was not 
so much as one public lamp in London. Its streets were 
solidly paved. In Paris, centuries subsequently, whoever 
stepped over his threshold on a rainy day stepped up to his 
ankles in mud. Other cities, as Granada, Seville, Toledo, 
considered themselves rivals of Cordova. The palaces of 
the khalifs were magnificently decorated. Those sovereigns 
might well look down with supercilious contempt on the 
dwellings of the rulers of Germany, France, and England, 
which were scarcely better than stables-chimneyless, 
windowless, and with a hole in the roof for the smoke to 
escape, like the wigwams of certain Indians. The Spanish 
Mohammedans had brought with them all the luxuries and 
prodigalities of Asia. Their residences stood forth against 
the clear blue sky, or were embosomed in woods. 
They had polished marble balconies, overhang- 
ing orange-gardens; courts with cascades of water ; shady 
retreats provocative of slumber in the heat of the day; 
retiring-rooms vaulted with stained glass, speckled with 
gold, over which streams of water were made to gush; the 
floors and walls were of exquisite mosaic. Here, a fountain 
of quicksilver shot up in a glistening spray, the glittering 
particles falling with a tranquil sound, like fairy bells; there, 
apartments into which cool air was drawn from the flower- 
gardens, in summer, by means of ventilating towers, and 
in winter through earthen pipes, or caleducts, imbedded in 
the walls-the hypocaust, in the vaults below, breathing 
forth volumes of warm and perfumed air through these 
hidden passages./ The walls were not covered with 
wainscot, but adorned with arabesques, and paintings of 
agricultural scenes and views of Paradise. From the 
ceilings, corniced with fretted gold, great chandeliers hung, 
one of which, it is said, was so large that it contained 1804 
lamps. Clusters of frail marble columns surprised the 
beholder with the vast weights they bore. In the boudoirs 
of the sultanas they were sometimes of verd antique, and 
incrusted with lapis lazuli. The furniture was of sandal 
and citron wood, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, ivory, silver, 
or relieved with gold and precious malachite. In orderly 
confusion were arranged vases of rock crystal, Chinese 
Their palaces 
and gardens. 32 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. ii. 
porcelains, and tables of exquisite mosaic. The winter 
apartments were hung with rich tapestry ; the floors were 
covered with embroidered Persian carpets. Pillows and 
couches, of elegant forms, were scattered about the rooms, 
perfumed with frankincense. It was the intention of the 
Saracen architect, by excluding the view of the external 
landscape, to concentrate attention on his work; and since 
the representation of the human form was religiously for- 
bidden, and that source of decoration denied, his imagina- 
tion ran riot with the complicated arabesques he introduced, 
and sought every opportunity of replacing the prohibited 
works of art by the trophies and rarities of the garden. 
Por this reason, the Arabs never produced artists; religion 
turned them from the beautiful, and made them soldiers, 
philosophers, and men of affairs. Splendid flowers and rare 
exotics ornamented the courtyards and even the inner 
chambers. Great care was taken to make due provision 
for the cleanliness, occupation, and amusement of the 
inmates. Through pipes of metal, water, both warm and 
cold, to suit the season of the year, ran into baths of 
marble ; in niches, where the current of air could be arti- 
ficially directed, hung dripping alcarazzas. There were 
whispering-galleries for the amusement of the women; 
labyrinths and marble play-courts for the children ; for the 
master himself, grand libraries. The Khalif Alhakem's 
was so large that the catalogue alone filled forty 
volumes. He had also apartments for the tran- 
scribing, binding, and ornamenting of books. A taste for 
caligraphy and the possession of splendidly-illuminated 
manuscripts seems to have anticipated in the khalifs, both 
of Asia and Spain, the taste for statuary and paintings 
among the later popes of Rome. 
Such were the palace and gardens of Zehra, in which 
Abderrahman III. honoured his favourite sultana. 
The edifice had 1200 columns of Greek, Italian, 
Spanish, and African marble. Its hall of 
audience was incrusted with gold and pearls. 1 hrough the 
long corridors of its seraglio black eunuchs silently glided. 
The ladies of the harem, both wives and concubines, were 
the most beautiful that could be found. To that establish- 
ment alone 6300 persons were attached. The body-guard 
Libraries and 
works of taste. 
The court of 
Abderrahnran 
HI. CH. n.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
33 
of the sovereign was composed of 12,000 horsemen, whose 
cimeters and belts were studded with gold. This was that 
Abderrahman who, after a glorious reign of fifty years, sat 
down to count the number of days of unalloyed happiness 
he had experienced, and could only enumerate fourteen. 
" Oh man!" exclaimed the plaintive khalif, " put not thy 
trust in this present world." 
No nation has ever excelled the Spanish Arabs in the 
beauty and costliness of their pleasure-gardens. To them 
we owe the introduction of very many of our 
most valuable cultivated fruits, such as the peach. 
Retaining the love of their ancestors for the cooling effect of 
water in a hot climate, they spared no pains in the super- 
fluity of fountains, hydraulic works, and artificial lakes in 
which fish were raised for the table. Into such a lake, 
attached to the palace of Cordova, many loaves were cast 
each day to feed the fish. There were also menageries of 
foreign animals; aviaries of rare birds ; manufactories in 
which skilled workmen, obtained from foreign countries, 
displayed their art in textures of silk, cotton, linen, and all 
the miracles of the loom ; in jewelry and filigree-work, 
with which they ministered to the female pride of the 
sultanas and concubines. Under the shade of cypresses 
cascades disappeared ; among flowering shrubs there were 
winding walks, bowers of roses, seats cut out of the reck, 
and crypt-like grottoes hewn in the living stone. Nowhere 
was ornamental gardening better understood ; for not only 
did the artist try to please the eye as it wandered over the 
pleasant gradation of vegetable colour and form-he alsi 
boasted his success in the gratification of the sense of smell 
by the studied succession of perfumes from beds of flowers. 
To these Saracens we are indebted for many of our per- 
sonal comforts. Religiously cleanly, it was not 
possible for them to clothe themselves according 
to the fashion of the natives of Europe, in a garment un- 
changed till it dropped to pieces of itself, a loathsome mass 
of vermin, stench, and rags. No Arab who had been a 
minister of state, or the associate or antagonist of a sove- 
reign, would have offered such a spectacle as the corpse of 
Thomas a Becket when his haircloth shirt was removed. 
They taught us the use of the often-changed and often- 
Social habits 
of the Moors. 
Their domes- 
tic life. 34 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. ii. 
washed under-garment of linen or cotton, which still passes 
among ladies under its old Arabic name. ' But to cleanli- 
ness they were not unwilling to add ornament. Especially 
among women of the higher classes was the love of finery 
a passion. Their outer garments were often of silk, 
embroidered and decorated with gems and woven gold. 
So fond were the Moorish women of gay colours and the 
lustre of chrysolites, hyacinths, emeralds, and sapphires, 
that it was quaintly said that the interior of any public 
building in which they were permitted to appear looked 
like a flower-meadow in the spring besprinkled with rain. 
In the midst of all this luxury, which cannot be regarded 
by the historian with disdain, since in the end it 
produced a most important result in the south of 
France, the Spanish khalifs, emulating the 
example of their Asiatic compeers, and in this strongly 
contrasting with the popes of Rome, were not only fhe 
patrons, but the personal cultivators of all the branches of 
human learning. One of them was himself the author of 
a work on polite literature in not less than fifty volumes ; 
another wrote a treatise on algebra. When Zaryab the 
musician came from the East to Spain, the Khalif Abder- 
rahman rode forth to meet him in honour. The College 
of Music in Cordova was sustained by ample government 
patronage, and produced many illustrious professors. 
The Arabs never translated into their own tongue tho 
great Greek poets, though they so sedulously collected and 
translated the Greek philosophers. Their religious senti- 
ments and sedate character caused them to abomi- 
nate the lewdness of our classical mythology, 
and to denounce indignantly any connexion 
between the licentious, impure Olympian Jove 
and the Most High God as an insufferable and unpardonable 
blasphemy. Haroun Alraschid had gratified his curiosity by 
causing Homer to bo translated into Syriac, but he did not 
adventure on rendering the great epics into Arabic. Not- 
withstanding this aversion to our graceful but not unobjec- 
tionable ancient poetry, among them originated the Tensons, 
or poetic disputations, carried afterward to perfection 
among the Troubadours; from them, also, the Provencals 
learned to employ jongleurs. Across the Pyrenees, literary, 
They culti- 
vate litera- 
ture, music, 
bat dis- 
approve of 
European my- 
thology. CH. II.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
35 
philosophical, and military adventurers were perpetually 
passing ; and thus the luxury, the taste, and above all, tho 
chivalrous gallantry and elegant courtesies of Moorish 
society found their way from Granada and 
Cordova to Provence and Languedoc. The 
French, and German, and English nobles im- 
bibed the Arab admiration of the horse; they 
learned to pride themselves on skilful riding. Hunting 
and falconry became their fashionable pastimes; they tried 
to emulate that Arab skill which had produced the cele- 
brated breed of Andalusian horses. It was a scene of 
grandeur and gallantry ; the pastimes were tilts and tour- 
naments. The refined society of Cordova prided itself in 
its politeness. A gay contagion spread from the beautiful 
Moorish miscreants to their sisters beyond the mountains ; 
the south of France was full of the witcheries of female 
fascinations, and of dancing to the lute and mandolin. 
Even in Italy and Sicily the love-song became the favourite 
composition; and out of these genial but not orthodox 
beginnings the polite literature of modern 
Europe arose. The pleasant epidemic spread by 
degrees along every hillside and valley. In 
monasteries, voices that had vowed celibacy 
might be heard carolling stanzas of which St. Jerome would 
hardly have approved; there was many a juicy abbot, who 
could troll forth in jocund strains, like those of the merry 
sinners of Malaga and Xeres, the charms of women and 
wine, though one was forbidden to the Moslem and one to 
the monk. The sedate greybeards of Cordova had already 
applied to the supreme judge to have the songs of the 
Spanish Jew, Abraham Ibn Sahal, prohibited; for there 
was not a youth, nor woman, nor child in the city who 
could not repeat them by heart. Their immoral tendency 
was a public scandal. The light gaiety of Spain was 
reflected in the coarser habits of the northern countries. 
11 was an archdeacon of Oxford who some time afterward 
sang, 
" Mihi sit propositum in taberna mori, 
Vinum sit appositum morientis ori, 
Ut dicant, cum venerint angelorum chori; 
'Deus sit propitius huic potatori,'" etc. 
The south 
of France 
contracts 
their tastes. 
Light litera- 
ture spreads 
into Sicily 
and Italy. 36 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
[ch. ii. 
Even as early as the tenth century, persons having a 
taste for learning and for elegant amenities found their 
way into Spain from all adjoining countries; a practice 
in subsequent years still more indulged in, when it became 
illustrated by the brilliant success of Gerbert, who, as we 
have seen, passed from the Infidel University of Cordova 
to the papacy of Rome. 
The khalifs of the West carried out the precepts of Ali, 
the fourth successor of Mohammed, in the 
patronage of literature. They established libra- 
ries in all their chief towns; it is said that not fewer 
than seventy were in existence. To every mosque was 
attached a public school, in which the children of the poor 
were taught to read and write, and instructed in the 
precepts of the Koran. For those in easier circumstances 
there were academies, usually arranged in twenty-five or 
thirty apartments, each calculated for accommodating four 
students; the academy being presided over by a rector. 
In Cordova, Granada, and other great cities, there were 
universities frequently under the superintendence of 
Jews; the Mohammedan maxim being that the real learn- 
ing of a man is of more public importance than any 
particular religious opinions he may entertain. In this 
they followed the example of the Asiatic khalif, Haroun 
Alraschid, who actually conferred the superintendence of 
his schools on John Masue, a Nestorian Christian. The 
Mohammedan liberality was in striking contrast with 
the intolerance of Europe. Indeed, it may be doubted 
whether at this time any European nation is sufficiently 
advanced to follow such an example. In the universities 
some of the professors of polite literature gave lectures 
on Arabic classical works; others taught rhetoric or 
composition, or mathematics, or astronomy. From these 
institutions manv of the practices observed in our colleges 
were derived. They held Commencements, at which 
poems were read and orations delivered in presence of the 
public. They had also, in addition to these schools of 
general learning, professional ones, particularly for me- 
dicine. 
With a pride perhaps not altogether inexcusable, the 
Arabians boasted of their language as being the most 
The Arabian 
school system. CH. II.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
37 
perfect spoken by man. Mohammed himself, when chal- 
lenged to produce a miracle in proof of the 
authenticity of his mission, uniformly pointed 
to the composition of the Koran, its unapproach- 
able excellence vindicating its inspiration. The 
orthodox Moslems-the Moslems are those who are sub- 
missively resigned to the Divine will-are wont to assert 
that every page of that book is indeed a conspicuous 
miracm. It is not then surprising that, in the Arabian 
schools, great attention was paid to the study of language, 
and that so many celebrated grammarians were produced. 
By these scholars, dictionaries, similar to those now in 
use, were composed ; their copiousness is indicated by the 
circumstance that one of them consisted of sixty volumes, 
the definition of each word being illustrated or sustained 
by quotations from Arab authors of acknowlegcd repute. 
They had also lexicons of Greek, Latin, Hebrew; and 
cyclopedias such as the Historical Dictionary of Sciences 
of Mohammed Ibn Abdallah, of Granada. In their highest 
civilization and luxury they did net forget the amuse- 
ments of their forefathers-listening to the tale-teller, 
who never failed to obtain an audience in the midst of 
Arab tents. Around the evening fires in Spain the wan- 
dering literati exercised their wonderful powers of 
Oriental invention, edifying the eager listeners by such 
narrations as those that have descended to us in the 
Arabian Nights' Entertainments. The more sober and 
higher efforts of the educated were, of course, directed to 
pulpit eloquence, in conformity with the example of all the 
great Oriental khalifs, and sanctified by the practice of the 
Prophet himself. Their poetical productions embraced all 
the modern minor forms-satires, odes, elegies, etc.; but 
they never produced any work in the higher walks of poesy, 
no epic, no tragedy. Perhaps this was due to 
their false fashion of valuing the mechanical 
execution of a work. They were the authors 
and introducers of rhyme; and such was the luxuriance 
and abundance of their language, that, in some of their 
longest poems, the same rhyme is said to have been used 
alternately from the beginning to the end. Where such 
mechanical triumphs were popularly prized, it may bo 
Cultivation 
of grammar, 
rhetoric, com- 
position. 
Defects of 
their litera- 
ture. 38 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. ii. 
supposed that the conception and spirit would be indif- 
ferent. Even among the Spanish women there were not 
a few who, like Velada, Ayesha, Lahana, Algasania, 
achieved reputation in these compositions; and some of 
them were daughters of khalifs. And this is the more in- 
teresting to us, since it was from the Provencal poetry, the 
direct descendant of these efforts, that European lite- 
rature arose. Sonnets and romances at last displaced the 
grimly-orthodox productions of the wearisome and ignorant 
fathers of the Church. 
If fiction was prized among the Spanish Arabs, history 
was held in not less esteem. Every khalif had his own 
historian. The instincts of the race are perpetually 
peeping out; not only were there historians of the 
Commanders of the Faithful, but also of celebrated horses 
and illustrious camels. In connexion with history, sta- 
tistics were cultivated; this having been, it may be said, 
a necessary study, from the first enforced on the Saracen 
officers in their assessment of tribute on conquered mis- 
believers, and subsequently continued as an object of 
taste. It was, doubtless, a similar necessity, arising from 
their position, that stamped such a remarkably 
practical aspect on the science of the Arabs 
generally. Many of their learned men were 
travellers and voyagers, constantly moving about for 
the acquisition or diffusion of knowledge, their acquire- 
ments being a passport to them wherever they went, 
and a sufficient introduction to any of the African or 
Asiatic courts. They were thus continually brought in 
contact with men of affairs, soldiers of fortune, statesmen, 
and became imbued with much of their practical spirit; 
and hence the singularly romantic character which the 
biographies of many of these men display, wonderful 
turns of prosperity, violent deaths. The scope of their 
literary labours offers a subject well worthy of meditation ; 
it contrasts with the contemporary ignorance of Europe. 
Some wrote on chronology; some on numismatics; some, 
now that military eloquence had become objectless, wrote 
on pulpit oratory; some on agriculture and its allied 
branches, as the art of irrigation. Not one of the purely 
mathematical, or mixed, or practical sciences was omitted. 
Their taste 
for practical 
science. CH. n.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
39 
Out of a list too long for detailed quotation, I may recall 
a few names. Assamh, who wrote on topography and 
statistics, a brave soldier, who was killed in the inva- 
sion of France, a.d. 720; Avicenna, the great 
physician and philosopher, who died a.d. 1037; 
Averroes, of Cordova, the chief commentator on 
Aristotle, a.d. 1198. It was his intention to unite 
the doctrines of Aristotle with those of the Koran. To 
him is imputed the discovery of spots upon the sun. The 
leading idea of his philosophy was the numerical unity 
of the souls of mankind, though parted among millions of 
living individuals. He died at Morocco. Abu Othman 
wrote on zoology; Alberuni, on gems-he had travelled 
to India to procure information; Rhazes, Al Abbas, and 
Al Beithar, on botany-the latter had been in all parts of 
the world for the purpose of obtaining specimens. Ebn 
Zoar, better known as Avenzoar, may be looked upon 
as the authority in Moorish pharmacy. Pharmacopoeias 
were published by the schools, improvements on the old 
ones of the Nestorians: to them may be traced the 
introduction of many Arabic words, such as syrup, julep, 
elixir, still used among apothecaries. A competent 
scholar might furnish not only an interesting, but valuable 
book, founded on the remaining relics of the 
Arab vocabulary; for, in whatever direction we 
may look, we meet, in the various pursuits of 
peace and war, of letters and of science, Saracenic vestiges. 
Our dictionaries tell us that such is the origin of admiral, 
alchemy, alcohol, algebra, chemise, cotton, and hundreds 
of other words. The Saracens commenced the application 
of chemistry, both to the theory and practice of medicine, 
in the explanation of the functions of tiie human body 
and in the cure of its diseases. Nor was their surgery 
behind their medicine. Albucasis, of Cordova, 
shrinks not from the performance of the most 
formidable operations in his own and in the 
obstetrical art; the actual cautery and the knife arc 
used without hesitation. He has left us ample descrip- 
tions of the surgical instruments then employed; and from 
him we learn that, in operations on females in which con- 
siderations of delicacy intervened, the services of properly 
Their con- 
tinued incli- 
i ation to the 
study of me- 
dicine. 
Relics of the 
Arab vocab- 
ulary. 
Their medi- 
cine and sur- 
gsry. 40 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. it. 
instructed women were secured. How different was all 
this from the state of things in Europe: the Christian 
peasant, fever-stricken or overtaken by accident, hied 
to the nearest saint-shrine and expected a miracle; the 
Spanish Moor relied on the prescription or lancet of his 
physician, or the bandage and knife of his surgeon. 
In mathematics the Arabians acknowledged their in- 
debtedness to two sources, Greek and Indian, but they 
greatly improved upon both. The Asiatic khalifs 
had made exertions to procure translations of 
Euclid, Apollonius, Archimedes, and other Greek 
geometers. Almaimon, in a letter to the Emperor The- 
ophilus, expressed his desire to visit Constantinople if 
his public duties would have permitted. He requests of 
him to allow Leo the mathematician to come to Bagdad to 
impart to him a portion of his learning, pledging his word 
that he would restore him quickly and safely again. 
" Do not," says the high-minded khalif, " let diversity of 
religion or of country cause you to refuse my request. Do 
what friendship would concede to a friend. In return, I 
offer you a hundred weight of gold, a perpetual alliance 
and peace." True to the instincts of his race and the 
traditions of his city, the Byzantine sourly and insolently 
refused the request, saying that " the learning which 
had illustrated the Itoman name should never be imparted 
to a barbarian." 
From the Hindus the Arabs learned arithmetic, especially 
that valuable invention termed by us the Arabic 
numerals, but honourably ascribed by them to 
its proper source, under the designation of 
" Indian numerals." They also entitled their 
treatises on the subject " Systems of Indian Arithmetic." 
This admirable notation by nine digits and cipher occasioned 
a complete revolution in arithmetical computations. As 
in the case of so many other things, the Arab impress is 
upon it; our word cipher, and its derivatives, ciphering, 
etc., recall the Arabic word tsaphara or ciphra, the name 
for the 0, and meaning that which is blank or void. 
Mohammed Ben Musa, said to be the earliest of the Saracen 
authors on algebra, and who made the great improvement 
of substituting sines for chords in trigonometry, wrote also 
Liberality of 
the Asiatic 
khalifs. 
Their great 
improve- 
ments in 
arithmetic. CH. II.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
41 
on this Indian system. He lived at the end of the ninth 
century ; before the end of the tenth it was in common use 
among the African and Spanish mathematicians. Ebn 
Junis, a.d. 1008, used it in his astronomical works. From 
Spain it passed into Italy, its singular advantage in com- 
mercial computation causing it to be eagerly adopted in 
the great trading cities. We still use the word algorithm 
in reference to calculations. The study of algebra was 
intently cultivated among the Arabs, who gave it the 
name it bears. Ben Musa, just referred to, was the 
inventor of the Common method of solving quadratic 
equations. In the application of mathematics to 
astronomy and physics they had been long dis- 
tinguished. Almaimon had determined with 
considerable accuracy the obliquity of the ecliptic. His 
result, with those of some other Saracen astronomers, is as 
follows: 
a.d. 830. Almaimon 23° 35' 52" 
„ 879. Albategnius, at Aracte 23° 35' 00 
„ 987. About Wefa, at Bagdad 23° 35' 00 
„ 995. About Rihau, with a quadrant of 25 feet radius 23° 35' 00 
„ 1080. Arzachael 23° 34' 00 
Almaimon had also ascertained the size of the earth from 
the measurement of a degree on the shore of the Red Sea- 
an operation implying true ideas of its form, and in 
singular contrast with the doctrine of Constantinople and 
Rome. While the latter was asserting, in all its absurdity, 
the flatness of the earth, the Spanish Moors were teaching 
geography in their common schools from globes. In 
Africa, there was still preserved, with almost religious 
reverence, in the library at Cairo, one of brass, reputed to 
have belonged to the great astronomer Ptolemy. Al Idrisi 
made one of silver for Roger II., of Sicily; and Gerbert 
used one which he had brought from Cordova in the school 
he established at Rheims. It cost a struggle of several 
centuries, illustrated by some martyrdoms, before the 
dictum of Lactantius and Augustine could be overthrown. 
Among problems of interest that were solved may be 
mentioned the determination of the length of the year 
by Albategnius and Thebit Ben Corrah; and increased 
Their astro- 
nomical dis- 
coveries. 42 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
Tch. II. 
accuracy was given to the correction of astronomical 
observations by Alhazen's great discovery of atmospheric 
refraction. Among the astronomers, some composed tables; 
some wrote on the measure of time; some on the improve- 
ment of clocks, for which purpose they were the first to 
apply the pendulum; some on instruments, as the astrolabe. 
The introduction of astronomy into Christian Europe has 
been attributed to the translation of the works of Moham- 
med Fargani. In Europe, also, the Arabs were the first 
to build observatories ; the Giralda, or tower of Seville, 
was erected under the superintendence of G eber, the 
mathematician, a.d. 1196, for that purpose. Its fate was 
not a little characteristic. After the expulsion of the 
Moors it was turned into a belfry, the Spaniards not know- 
ing what else to do with it. 
I have to deplore the systematic manner in which the 
literature of Europe has contrived to put out of 
sight our scientific obligations to the Moham- 
medans. Surely they cannot be much longer 
hidden. Injustice founded on religious rancour 
and national conceit cannot be perpetuated for ever. 
What should the modern astronomer say when, remember- 
ing the contemporary barbarism of Europe, he finds the 
Arab Abul Hassan speaking of tubes, to the extremities of 
which ocular and object diopters, perhaps sights, were 
attached, as used at Meragha ? what when he reads of the 
attempts of Abdurrahman Sufi at improving the photometry 
of the stars? Are the astronomical tables of Ebn Junis 
(a.d. 1008), called the Hakemite tables, or Ihe Ilkanic 
tables of Nasser Eddin Tasi, constructed at the great 
observatory just mentioned, Meragha, near Tauris, a.d. 
1259, ortho measurement of time by pendulum oscillations, 
and the methods of correcting astronomical tables by 
systematic observations-are such things worthless indica- 
tions of the mental state ? The Arab has left his intellectual 
impress on Europe, as, before long, Christendom will have 
to confess; he has indelibly written it on the heavens, as 
any one may see who reads the names of the stars on a 
common celestial globe. 
Our obligations to the Spanish Moors in the arts of 
life are even more marked than in the higher branches 
Europe tries 
to hide its 
obligations to 
them. ch. n.J 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
43 
of science, perhaps only because our ancestors were better 
prepared to take advantage of things connected 
with daily affairs. They set an example of 
skilful agriculture, the practice of which was 
regulated by a code of laws. Not only did they attend to 
the cultivation of plants, introducing very many new 
ones, they likewise paid great attention to the breeding of 
cattle, especially the sheep and horse. To them we owe 
the introduction of the great products, rice, sugar, cotton, 
and also, as we have previously observed, nearly all the 
fine garden and orchard fruits, together with many less 
important plants, as spinach and saffron. To them Spain 
owes the culture of silk ; they gave to Xeres and Malaga 
their celebrity for wine. They introduced the Egyptian 
system of irrigation by flood-gates, wheels, and pumps. 
They also promoted many important branches of industry ; 
improved the manufacture of textile fabrics, earthenware, 
iron, steel; the Toledo sword-blades were everywhere 
prized for their temper. The Arabs, on their expulsion 
from Spain, carried the manufacture of a kind of leather, 
in which they were acknowledged to excel, to Morocco, 
from which country the leather itself has now taken ifs 
name. They also introduced inventions of a more ominous 
kind-gunpowder and artillery. The cannon they used 
appeared to have been made of wrought iron. But perhaps 
they more than compensated for these evil contrivances by 
the introduction of the mariner's compass. 
The mention of the mariner's compass might lead 
us correctly to infer that the Spanish Arabs 
were interested in commercial pursuits, a con- 
clusion to which we should also come when we consider 
the revenues of some of their khalifs. That of Abderrah- 
man III. is stated at five and a half million sterling-a 
vast sum if considered by its modern equivalent, and 
far more than could possibly be raised by taxes on the 
produce of the soil. It probably exceeded the entire 
revenue of all the sovereigns of Christendom taken to- 
gether. From Barcelona and other ports an immense 
trade with the Levant was maintained, but it was mainly 
in the hands of the Jews, who, from the first invasion 
of Spain by Musa, had ever been the firm allies and 
Improve- 
ments in the 
arts of life. 
Their com- 
merce. 44 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
ferr. ii. 
collaborators of the Arabs. Together they had participated 
in the dangers of the invasion; together they had shared 
its boundless success ; together they had held in irreverent 
derision, nay, even in contempt, the woman-worshippers 
and polytheistic savages beyond the Pyrenees-as they 
mirthfully called those whose long-delayed vengeance 
they were in the end to feel; together they were expelled. 
Against such Jews as lingered behind the hideous persecu- 
tions of the Inquisition were directed. But in the days 
of their prosperity they maintained a merchant marine 
of more than a thousand ships. They had factories and 
consuls on the Tanais. With Constantinople alone they 
maintained a great trade; it ramified from the Black Sea 
and East Mediterranean into the interior of Asia; it 
reached the ports of India and China, and extended along 
the African coast as far as Madagascar. Even in these 
commercial affairs the singular genius of the Jew and 
Arab shines forth. In the midst of the tenth century, 
when Europe was about in the same condition that 
Caffraria is now, enlightened Moors, like Abul Cassem, 
were writing treatises on the principles of trade and 
commerce. As on so many other occasions, on these affairs 
they have left their traces. The smallest weight they 
used in trade was the grain of barley, four of which were 
equal to one sweet pea, called in Arabic carat. We still 
use the grain as our unit of weight, and still speak of 
gold as being so many carats fine. 
Such were the Khalifs of the West; such their splen- 
dour, their luxury, their knowledge; such some 
of the obligations we are under to them- 
obligations which Christian Europe, with sin- 
gular insincerity, has ever been fain to hide. The cry 
against the misbeliever has long outlived the Crusades. 
Considering the enchanting country over which they ruled, 
it was not without reason that they caused to be engraven 
on the public seal, " The servant of the Merciful rests 
contented in the decrees of God." What more, indeed, 
could Paradise give them? But, considering also the 
evil end of all this happiness and pomp, this learning, 
liberality, and wealth, we may well appreciate the solemn 
truth which these monarchs, in their day of pride and 
Obligations to 
the Khalifs of 
the West. ch. n.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
45 
power, grandly wrote in the beautiful mosaics on their 
palace walls, an ever-recurring warning to him who 
owes dominion to the sword, " There is no conqueror 
but God." 
The value of a philosophical or political system may bo 
determined by its fruits. On this principle I examined in 
Vol. I., Chapter XII., the Italian system, estimating its re- 
ligious merit from the biographies of the popes, 
which afford the proper criterion. In like manner, 
the intellectual state of the Mohammedan nations 
at successive epochs may be ascertained from 
what is its proper criterion, the contemporaneous scientific 
manifestation. 
At the time when the Moorish influences in Spain began 
to exert a pressure on the Italian system, there were 
several scientific writers, fragments of whose works have 
descended to us. As an architect may judge of the skill 
of the ancient Egyptians in his art from a study of the 
Pyramids, so from these relics of Saracenic learning we may 
demonstrate the intellectual state of the Mohammedan 
people, though much of their work has been lost and more 
has been purposely destroyed. 
Among such writers is Alhazen; his date was about 
a.d. 1100. It appears that he resided both in Snain 
and Egypt, but the details of his biography 
are very confused. Through his optical works, 
which have been translated into fjatin, he is 
best known to Europe. He was the first to correct the 
Greek misconception as to the nature of vision, showing 
that the rays of light come from external objects to the 
eye, and do not issue forth from the eye, and 
impinge on external things, as, up to his time, 
had been supposed. His explanation does not 
depend upon mere hypothesis or supposition, but is plainly 
based upon anatomical investigation as well as on geo- 
metrical discussion. He determines that the retina 
is the seat of vision, and that impressions made 
by light upon it are conveyed along the optic 
nerve to the brain. Though it might not be convenient, 
at the time when Alhazen lived, to make such an ac- 
knowledgment, no one could come to these conclusions, 
Examination 
of Moham- 
medan 
science. 
Review of the 
works of 
Alhazen. 
He corrects 
the theoty of 
vision. 
Determines 
the function 
of the retina. 46 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. ii. 
nor, indeed, know anything about these facts, unless he 
had been engaged in the forbidden practice of dissection. 
With felicity he explains that we see single 
when we use both eyes, because of the formation 
of the visual images on symmetrical portions of the two 
retinas. To the modern physiologist the mere mention of 
such things is as significant as the occurrence of an arch 
in the interior of the pyramid is to the architect. But 
Alhazen shows that our sense of sight is by no means a 
trustworthy guide, and that there are illusions arising from 
the course which the rays of Lght may take when they 
suffer refraction or reflexion. It is in the discussion of 
one of these physical problems that his scientific greatness 
truly shines forth. He is perfectly aware that the atmos- 
phere decreases in density with increase of 
height; and from that consideration he shows 
that a ray of light, entering it obliquely, follows 
a curvilinear path which is concave toward the 
earth; and that, since the mind refers the position of 
an object to the direction in which the ray of light from it 
enters the eye, the result must be an illusion as respects 
the starry bodies; they appear to us, to use the Arabic 
term, nearer to the zenith than they actually 
are, and not in their true place. We see them in 
the direction of the tangent to the curve of refraction as 
it reaches the eye. Hence also he shows that we actually 
sec the stars, and the sun, and the moon before they have 
risen and after they have set-a wonderful illusion. Ho 
shows that in its passage through the air the curvature of 
a ray increases with tlie increasing density, and that its 
path does not depend on vapours that chance to be present, 
but on the variation of density in the medium. To this 
refraction he truly refers the shortening, in their vertical 
diameter, of the horizontal sun and moon; to 
its variations he imputes the twinkling of the 
fixed stars. The apparent increase of size of the 
former bodies when they are in the horizon he refers to a 
mental deception, arising from the presence of intervening 
terrestrial objects. He shows that the effect of refraction 
is to shorten the duration of night and darkness by 
prolonging the visibility of the sun, and considering the 
Explains sin- 
gle vision. 
Traces the 
course of a 
ray of light 
through the 
air. 
Astronomical 
refraction. 
The horizon- 
tal sun and 
moon. CH. II. 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
47 
reflecting action of the air, he deduces that beautiful ex- 
planation of the nature of twilight-the light 
that we perceive before the rising and after the 
setting of the sun-which we accept at the present time 
as true. With extraordinary acuteness, he ap- 
plies the principles with which he is dealing to 
the determination of the height of the atmos- 
phere, deciding that its limit is nearly 58| miles 
All this is very grand. Shall we compare it with the 
contemporaneous monk miracles and monkish philosophy 
of Europe? It would make a profound impression if 
communicated for the first time to a scientific society in 
oui' own age. Nor perhaps does his merit end here. If 
the Book of the Balance of Wisdom, for a translation of 
which we are indebted to M. Khanikoff, the Russian 
consul-general at Tabriz, be the production of Alhazen, of 
which there seems to be internal proof, it offers us evidence 
of a singular clearness in mechanical conception for which 
we should scarcely have been prepared, and, if it be not 
his, at all events it indisputably shows the scientific 
acquirements of his age. In that book is plainly 
set forth the connexion between the weight of 
the atmosphere and its increasing density. The weight of 
the atmosphere was therefore understood before Torricelli. 
This author shows that a body will weigh differently in a 
rare and in a dense atmosphere; that its loss of 
weight will be greater in proportion as the air is 
more dense. Iio considers the force with which plunged 
bodies will rise through heavier media in which they 
are immersed, and discusses the submergence of floating 
bodies, as ships upon the sea. He understands the doctrine 
of the centre of gravity. He applies it to the 
investigation of balances and steelyards, show- 
ing the relations between the centre of gravity and the 
centre of suspension-when those instruments will set 
and when they will vibrate. He recognizes gravity as a 
force; asserts that it diminishes with the distance; but 
falls into the mistake that the diminution is as the dis- 
tance, and not as its square. He considers gravity as 
terrestrial, and fails to perceive that it is universal-that 
was reserved for Newton. He knows correctly the relation 
Explains the 
twilight. 
Determines 
the Height of 
the atmos- 
phere. 
The weight of 
the air. 
Principles of 
hydrostatics. 
Theory of the 
balance. 48 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. II. 
between the velocities, spaces, and times of falling bodies, 
and has very distinct ideas of capillary at- 
traction. lie improves the construction of that 
old Alexandrian invention, the hydrometer- 
the instrument which, in a letter to his fair but 
pagan friend Hypatia, the good Bishop of Ptolemais, 
Synesius, six hundred years previously, requests her to 
have made for him in Alexandria, as he wishes to try the 
wines he is using, his health being a little delicate. The 
determinations of the densities of bodies, as 
given by Alhazen, approach very closely to our 
own ; in the case of mercury they are even 
more exact than some of those of the last century. I join, 
as, doubtless, all natural philosophers will do, in the 
pious prayer of Alhazen, that, in the day of judgment, 
the All-Merciful will take pity on the soul of Abur-Baihan, 
because he was the first of the race of men to construct 
a table of specific gravities; and I will ask the same for 
Alhazen h.mself, since he was the first to trace the cur- 
vilinear path of a ray of light through the air. Though 
more than seven centuries part him from our times, 
the physiologists of this age may accept him as their 
compeer, since he received and defended the doctrine 
now forcing its way, of the progressive development of 
animal forms. He upheld the affirmation of those who 
said that man, in his progress, passes through a 
definite succession of states ; not, however, " that 
he was once a bull, and was then changed to 
an ass, and afterwards into a horse, and after that into 
an ape, and finally became a man." This, he says, is only 
a misrepresentation by " common people" of what is really 
meant. The " common people" who withstood Alhazen 
have representatives among us, themselves the only example 
in the Fauna of the world of that non-development which 
they so loudly affirm. At the best they are only passing 
through some of the earlier forms of that series of trans- 
mutations to which the devout Mohammedan in the above 
quotation alludes. 
The Arabians, with all this physical knowledge, do not 
appear to have been in possession of the thermometer, though 
they knew the great importance of temperature measures. 
Gravity; ca- 
pillary attrac- 
tion ; the hy- 
drometer. 
Tables of 
specific gra- 
vities. 
The theory of 
development 
of organisms. CH. II.7 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
49 
employing the areometer for that purpose. They had 
detected the variation in density of liquids by heat, but 
not the variation in volume. In their measures of time 
they were more successful; they had several kinds of 
clepsydras. A balance clepsydra is described in the work 
from which I am quoting. But it was their great 
astronomer, Ebn Junis, who accomplished the most valuable 
of all chronometric improvements. He first 
applied the pendulum to the measure of time. 
Laplace, in the fifth note to his Systeme du Monde, avails 
himself of the observations of this philosopher, with those 
of Albategnius and other Arabians, as incontestable proof 
of the diminution of the eccentricity of the earth's 
orbit. He states, moreover, that the observation 
of Ebn Junis of the obliquity of the ecliptic, 
properly corrected for parallax and refraction, gives for the 
year a.d. 1000 a result closely approaching to the theoretical. 
He also mentions another observation of Ebn Junis, 
October 31, a.d. 1007, as of much importance in reference 
to the great inequalities of Jupiter and Saturn. I have 
already remarked that, in the writings of this great 
Arabian, the Arabic numerals and our common 
arithmetical processes are currently used. From 
Africa and Spain they passed into Italy, finding ready 
acceptance among commercial men, who recognised at once 
their value, and, as William of Malmesbury says, being a 
wonderful relief to the " sweating calculatorsan epithet 
of which the correctness will soon appear to any one who 
will try to do a common multiplication or division problem 
by the aid of the old Homan numerals. It is said that 
Gerbert-Pope Sylvester-was the first to introduce a 
knowledge of them into Europe ; he had learned them at 
the Mohammedan university of Cordova. It is in allusion 
to the cipher, which follows the 9, but which, added to 
any of the other digits, increases by tenfold its power, 
that, in a letter to his patron, the Emperor Otho III., with 
humility he playfully but truly ssys, "I am like the last 
of all the numbers." 
The overthrow of the Roman by the Arabic numerals 
foreshadowed the result of a far more important-a poli- 
tical-contest between those rival names. But, before 
The pendu- 
lum clock. 
Astronomical 
works of Ebn 
Junis. 
The Arabic 
numerals. 50 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. ii. 
showing how the Arabian intellect pressed upon Borne, 
and the convulsive struggles of desperation which Bome 
made to resist it, I must for a moment consider 
the former under another point of view, and 
speak of Saracen philosophy. And here Algazzali shall be 
my guide. He was born a.d. 1058. 
Let us hear him speak for himself. He is relating his 
attempt to detach himself from the opinions which he had 
imbibed in his childhood : " I said to myself, 
' My aim is simply to know the truth of things; 
consequently, it is indispensable for me to ascertain what 
is knowledge.' Now it was evident to me that certain 
knowledge must be that which explains the object to be 
known in such a manner that no doubt can remain, so that 
in future all error and conjecture respecting it must be 
impossible. Not only would the understanding then need 
no efforts to be convinced of certitude, but security against 
error is in such close connexion with knowledge, that, 
even were an apparent proof of falsehood to be 
brought forward, it would cause no doubt, 
because no suspicion of error would bo possible. Thus, 
when I have acknowledged ten to be more than three, if 
any one were to say, ' On the contrary, three is more than 
ten, and. to prove the truth of my assertion, I will change 
this rod into a serpent,' and if he were to change it, my 
conviction of his error would remain unshaken. His 
manoeuvre would only produce in me admiration for his 
ability. I should not doubt my own knowledge. 
" Then was I convinced that knowledge which I did not 
possess in this manner, and respecting which I had not 
this certainty, could inspire me with neither confidence 
nor assurance; and no knowledge without assurance 
deserves the name of knowledge. 
" Having examined the state of my own knowledge, I 
found it divested of all that could be said to have these 
qualities, unless perceptions of the senses and irrefragable 
principles were to be considered such. I then said to my- 
self, ' Now. having fallen into this despair, the only hope 
of acquiring incontestable convictions is by the 
perceptions of the senses and by necessary 
truths.' Their evidence seemed to me to be indubitable. 
Arabian phi- 
losophy. 
The writings 
of Algazzali. 
The certitude 
of knowledge. 
Fallibility 
of the senses. CH. II.] 
THE AGE OE FAITH IN THE WEST. 
51 
I began, however, to examine the objects of sensation and 
speculation, to see if they possibly could admit of doubt. 
Then doubts crowded upon me in such numbers that my 
incertitude became complete. Whence results the con- 
fidence I have in sensible things? The strongest of all 
our senses is sight; and yet, looking at a shadow, and 
perceiving it to be fixed and immovable, we judge it to be 
deprived of movement; nevertheless, experience teaches 
us that, when we return to the same place an hour after, 
the shadow is displaced, for it does not vanish suddenly, 
but gradually, little by little, so as never to be at rest. If 
we look at the stars, they seem to be as small as money- 
pieces ; but mathematical proofs convince us that they are 
larger than the earth. These and other things are judged 
by the senses, but rejected by reason as false. I abandoned 
the senses, therefore, having seen all my confidence in 
their truth shaken. 
" ' Perhaps,' said I, ' there is no assurance but in the 
notions of reason, that is to say, first principles, as that 
ten is more than three; the same thing cannot have been 
created and yet have existed from all eternity; to exist 
and not to exist at the same time is impossible.' 
"Upon this the senses replied, 'What assurance have 
you that your confidence in reason is not of the 
same nature as your confidence in us ? When 
you relied on ns, reason stepped in and gave us the lie; 
had not reason been there, you would have continued to 
rely on us. Well, may there not exist some other judge 
superior to reason, who, if he appeared, would refute the 
judgments of reason in the same way that reason refuted 
us ? The non-appearance of such a judge is no proof of 
his non existence.' 
" I strove in vain to answer the objection, and my 
difficulties increased when 1 came to reflect on 
sleep. I said to myself, ' During sleep, you give 
to visions a reality and consistence, and you have no 
suspicion of their untruth. On awakening, you are made 
aware that they were nothing but visions. What assurance 
have you that all you feel and know when you are awake 
does actually exist ? It is all true as respects your condi- 
tion at that moment; but it is nevertheless possible that 
Fallibility 
of reason. 
The nature 
of dreams. 52 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. ii. 
another condition should present itself which should be to 
your awakened state that which to your awakened state is 
now to you sleep ; so that, as respects this higher condition, 
your waking is but sleep.' " 
It would not be possible to find in any European work 
a clearer statement of the scepticism to which philosophy 
leads than what is thus given by this Arabian. Indeed, 
it is not possible to put the argument in a more effective 
way. His perspicuity is in singular contrast with the 
obscurity of many metaphysical writers. 
" Reflecting on my situation, I found myself bound to 
this world by a thousand ties, temptations assailing me on 
all sides. I then examined my actions. The best were 
those relating to instruction and education, and 
even there I saw myself given up to unimportant 
sciences, all useless in another world. Reflecting on the 
aim of my teaching, I found it was not pure in the sight 
of the Lord. I saw that all my efforts were directed 
toward the acquisition of glory to myself. Having, there- 
fore, distributed my wealth, I left Bagdad and retired into 
Syria, where I remained two years in solitary struggle 
with my soul, combating my passions, and exercising my- 
self, in the purification of my heart and in preparation for 
the other world." 
This is a very beautiful picture of the mental struggles 
and the actions of a truthful and earnest man. In all 
this the Christian philosopher can sympathize with the 
devout Mohammedan. After all, they are not very far 
apart. Algazzali is not the only one to whom such thoughts 
have occurred, but he has found words to tell his experience 
better than any other man. And what is the conclusion 
at which he arrives ? The life of man, he says, 
is marked by three stages: "the first, or infantile 
stage, is that of pure sensation ; the second, which begins 
at the age of seven, is that of understanding; the third is 
that of reason, by means of which the intellect perceives 
the necessary, the possible, the absolute, and all those 
higher objects which transcend the understanding. But 
after this there is a fourth stage, when another eye is 
opened, by which man perceives things hidden from 
others-perceives all that will be-perceives the things 
Intellectual 
despair. 
Algazzali's 
ages of man. ch. n.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
53 
that escape the perceptions of reason, as the objects of 
reason escape the understanding, and as the objects of the 
understanding escape the sensitive faculty. This is pro- 
phetism." Algazzali thus finds a philosophical basis for 
the rule of life, and reconciles religion and philosophy. 
And now I have to turn from Arabian civilized life, its 
science, its philosophy, to another, a repulsive state of 
things. With reluctance I come back to the Italian 
system, defiling the holy name of religion with its intrigues, 
its bloodshed, its oppression of human thought, its hatred 
of intellectual advancement. Especially I have 
now to direct attention to two countries, the 
scenes of important events-countries in which 
the Mohammedan influences began to take effect 
and to press upon Rome. These are the South of France 
and Sicily. 
Innocent III. had been elected pope at the early age of 
thirty-seven years, a.d. 1198. The papal power had 
reached its culminating point. The weapons of the Church 
had attained their utmost force. In Italy, in Germany, 
in France and England, interdicts and excommunications 
vindicated the pontifical authority, as in the cases of the 
Duke of Ravenna, the Emperor Otho, Philip Augustus of 
France, King John of England. In each of these cases it 
was not for the sake of sustaining great moral principles 
or the rights of humanity that the thunder was launched-- 
-it was in behalf of temporary political interests; interests 
that, in Germany, were sustained at the cost of a long Avar, 
and cemented by assassination; in France, 
strengthened by the well-tried device of an 
intervention in amatrimonialbroil-the domestic 
quarrel of the king and queen about Agnes of Meran. 
" Ah ! happy Saladin said the insulted Philip, when his 
kingdom was put under interdict; "he has no pope above 
him. I too will turn Mohammedan." 
So, likewise, in Spain, Innocent interfered in the matri- 
monial life of the King of Leon. The remorseless venality 
of the papal government was felt in every direc- 
tion. Portugal had already been advanced to 
the dignity of a kingdom on payment of an annual 
Renewal of 
the operation 
of Moham- 
medan in- 
flaences. 
Interference 
of innocent 
IH.in France 
In Spain and 
Portugal 54 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
Tch. II. 
tribute to Rome. The King of Aragon held his kingdom 
as feudatory to the pope. 
In England, Innocent's interference assumed a different 
aspect. He attempted to assert his control over 
the Church in spite of the king, and put the 
nation under interdict because John would not 
permit Stephen Langton to be Archbishop of Canterbury. 
It was utterly impossible that affairs could go on with 
such an empire within an empire. For his contumacy, 
John was excommunicated ; but, base as he was, he defied 
his punishment for four years. Hereupon his subjects 
were released from their allegiance, and his kingdom 
offered to any one who would conquer it. In his ex- 
tremity, the King of England is said to have sent a 
messenger to Spain, offering to become a Mohammedan. 
The religious sentiment was then no higher in him than 
it was, under a like provocation, in the King of France, 
whose thoughts turned in the same direction. But, 
pressed irresistibly by Innocent, John was compelled to 
surrender his realm, agreeing to pay to the pope, in 
addition to Peter's pence, 1000 marks a year as a token of 
vassalage. When the prelates whom he had refused or 
exiled returned, he was compelled to receive them on his 
knees-humiliations which aroused the indignation of the 
stout English barons, and gave strength to those move- 
ments which ended in extorting Magna Charta. Never, 
however, was Innocent more mistaken than in the 
character of Stephen Langton. John had, a second time, 
formally surrendered his realm to the pope, and done 
homage to the legate for it; but Stephen Langton was the 
first-at a meeting of the chiefs of the revolt against the 
king, held in London, August 25th, 1213-to suggest that 
they should demand a renewal of the charter of Henry I. 
From this suggestion Magna Charta originated. Among 
the miracles of the age, he was the greatest miracle of all; 
his patriotism was stronger than his profession. The 
wrath of the pontiff knew no bounds when he learned that 
the Great Charter had been conceded. In his bull, he 
denounced it as base and ignominious; he anathematized 
the king if he observed it; he declared it null and void. 
It was not the policy of the Roman court to permit so 
In England; 
denounces 
Magna Charta. CH. II.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IM THE WEST. 
55 
much as the beginnings of such freedom. The appoint- 
ment of Simon Langton to the archbishopric of York was 
annulled. One De Gray was substituted for him. It 
illustrated the simony into which the papal government 
had fallen, that De Gray had become, in these transactions, 
indebted to Borne ten thousand pounds. In fact, through 
the operation of the Crusades, all Europe was 
tributary to the pope. He had his fiscal agents 
in every metropolis; his travelling ones wander- 
ing in all directions, in every country, raising revenue by 
the sale of dispensations for all kinds of offences, real and 
fictitious-money for the sale of appointments, high and 
low-a steady drain of money from every realm. Fifty 
years after the time of which we are speaking, Bobert 
Grostete, the Bishop of Lincoln and friend of Boger Bacon, 
caused to be ascertained the amount received by foreign 
ecclesiastics in England. He found it to be thrice the 
income of the king himself. This was on the occasion of 
Innocent IV. demanding provision to be made for three 
hundred additional Italian clergy by the Church cf 
England, and that one of his nephews-a mere boy- 
should have a stall in Lincoln cathedral. 
While thus Innocent III. was interfering and intriguing 
with every court, and laying every people under tribute, 
he did not for a moment permit his attention to 
be diverted from the Crusades, the singular 
advantages of which to the papacy had now 
been fully discovered. They had given to the 
pope a suzerainty in Europe, the control of its military as 
well as its momentary resources. Not that a man like 
Innocent could permit himself to be deluded by any hopes 
of eventual success. The crusades must inevitably prove, 
so far as their avowred object was concerned, a failure. 
The Christian inhabitants of Palestine were degraded 
and demoralized beyond description. Their ranks were 
thinned by apostasy to Mohammedanism. In Europe, not 
only the laity begun to discover that the money provided 
for the wars in the Holy Land was diverted from its 
purpose, and in some inexplicable manner, found its way 
into Italy-even the clergy could not conceal their 
suspicions that the proclamation of a crusade was merely 
The drain of 
money from 
that country. 
Goading of 
Europe into 
a new cru- 
sade. 56 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. ii. 
the preparation for a swindle. Nevertheless, Innocent 
pressed forward his schemes, goading on Christendom by 
upbraiding it with the taunts of the Saracens. " Where," 
they say, "is your God, who can not deliver you out of 
our hands ? Behold! we have defiled your sanctuaries ; 
we have stretched forth our arm ; we have taken at the 
first assault, we hold in despite of you, those your desirable 
places, where your superstition had its beginning. Where 
is your God ? Let him arise and protect you and himself." 
"If thou bo the Son of God, save thyself if thou canst; 
redeem the land of thy birth from our hands. Restore 
thy cross, that we have taken, to the worshippers of the 
Cross." With great difficulty, however, Innocent succeeded 
in preparing the fourth crusade, a.d. 1202. The Venetians 
consented to furnish a fleet of transports. But the 
expedition was quickly diverted from its true purpose; 
the Venetians employing the Crusaders for the capture of 
Zara from the King of Hungary. Still worse, and shame- 
ful to be said-partly from the lust of plunder, and partly 
through ecclesiastical machinations-it again turned aside 
for an attack upon Constantinople, and took 
that city by storm a.d. 1204, thereby establish- 
ing Latin Christianity in the Eastern metro- 
polis, but, alas! with bloodshed, rape, and fire. 
On the night of the assault more houses were burned than 
could be found in any three of the largest cities in France. 
Even Christian historians compare with shame the storm- 
ing of Constantinople by the Catholics with the 
capture of Jerusalem by Saladin. Pope Innocent 
himself was compelled to protest against enor- 
mities that had outrun his intentions. lie says : " They 
practised fornications, incests, adulteries in the sight 
of men. They abandoned matrons and virgins, con- 
secrated to God, to the lewdness of grooms. They lifted 
their hands against the treasures of the churches-what 
is more heinous, the very consecrated vessels-tearing the 
tablets of silver from the very altars, breaking in pieces 
the most sacred things, carrying off crosses and relics." 
In St. Sophia, the silver was stripped from the pulpit; 
an exquisite and highly-prized table of oblation was 
broken in pieces; the sacred chalices were turned into 
The crusade 
is used for the 
seizure of 
Constanti- 
nople. 
Sack of that 
city by the 
Catholics. ch. n.J 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE VEST. 
57 
drinking-cups ; the gold fringe was ripped off the veil 
of the sanctuary. Asses and horses were led into the 
churches to carry off the spoil. A prostitute mounted the 
patriarch's throne, and sang, with indecent gestures, a 
ribald song. The tombs of the emperors were rifled ; and 
the Byzantines saw, at once with amazement and anguish, 
the corpse of Justinian-which even decay and putrefac- 
tion had. for six centuries spared in his tomb-exposed to 
the violation of a mob. It had been understood among 
those who instigated these atrocious proceedings that the 
relics were to be brought into a common stock and 
equitably divided among the conquerors! but each 
ecclesiastic seized and secreted whatever he could. The 
idolatrous state of the Eastern Church is illustrated bv 
some of these relics. Thus the Abbot Martin 
obtained for his monastery in Alsace the follow- 
ing inestimable articles; 1. A spot of the blood of our 
Saviour; 2. A piece of the true cross ; 3. The arm of the 
Apostle James; 4. Part of the skeleton of John the 
Baptist; 5.-I hesitate to write such blasphemy-"A 
bottle of the milk of the Mother of God ! " In contrast 
with the treasures thus acquired may be set relics of a very 
different kind, the remains of ancient art which 
they destroyed : 1. The bronze charioteers from 
the Hippodrome; 2. The she-wolf suckling Romulus and 
Remus; 3. A group of a Sphinx, river-horse, and cro- 
codile ; 4. An eagle tearing a serpent; 5. An ass and his 
driver, originally cast by Augustus in memory of the 
victory of Actium; 6. Bellerophon and Pegasus; 7. A 
bronze obelisk; 8. Paris presenting the apple to Venus; 
9. An exquisite statute' of Helen ; 10. The Hercules of 
Lysippus ; 11. A Juno, formerly taken from the temple at 
Samos. The bronzes were melted into coin, and thousands 
of manuscripts and parchments were burned. From that 
time the works of many ancient authors disappeared 
altogether. 
With well-dissembled regret, Innocent took the new 
order of things in the city of Constantinople under his 
protection. The bishop of Rome at last appointed the 
Bishop of Constantinople. The acknowledgment of papal 
sunremacv was complete. Rome and Venice divided 
The relics 
found there. 
and works of 
art destroyed. 58 
THE AGE OF FAITH III THE WEST. 
[ch. ii. 
between them the ill-gotten gains of their undertaking. 
If anything had been wanting to open the eyes 
of Europe, surely what had thus occurred should 
have been enough. The pope and the doge- 
the trader in human credulity and the trader of 
the Adriatic -had shared the spoils of a crusade meant by 
religious men for the relief of the Holy Land. 
The bronze horses, once brought by Augustus 
from Alexandria, after his victory over Antony 
and transferred from Rome to Constantinople by its 
founder, were set before the Church of St Mark. They 
were the outward and visible sign of a less obvious event 
that was taking place, For to Venice was brought a 
residue of the literary treasures that had escaped the fire 
and the destroyer; and while her comrades in the outrage 
were satisfied, in their ignorance, with fictitious relics, she 
took possession of the poor remnant of the glorious works 
of art, of letters, and of science. Through these was 
hastened the intellectual progress of the West. 
So fell Constantinople, and fell by the parricidal hands 
of Christians. The days of retribution for the curse sho 
had inflicted on Western civilization were now 
approaching. In these events she received a 
first instalment of her punishment. Three 
hundred years previously, the historian Luitprand, who 
was sent by the Emperor Otho I. to the court of Nice- 
phorus Phocas, says of her, speaking as an eye-witness, 
" That city, once so wealthy, so flourishing, is now 
famished, lying, perjured, deceitful, rapacious, greedy, 
niggardly, vaingloriousand since Luitprand's time she. 
had been pursuing a downward career. It might have 
been expected that the concentration of all the literary and 
scientific treasures of the Roman empire in Constantinople 
would have given rise to great mental vigour-that to 
Europe she would have been a brilliant focus of light. 
But when the works on jurisprudence by Tribo- 
nian, under Justinian, have been mentioned, 
what is there that remains? There is Sto- 
phanus, the grammarian, who wrote a dictionary, and 
Procopius, the historian, who was secretary to 'Belisarius 
in his campaigns. There is then a long interval almost 
The pope and 
the doge 
divide the 
spoil. 
Works of art 
carried to 
Venice. 
The punish- 
ment of Con- 
stantinople. 
The literary 
worthlessness 
of that city. CH. II.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
59 
without a literary name, to Theophylact Simocatta, and to 
the Ladder of Paradise of John Climacus. The mental 
excitement of the iconoclastic dispute presents us with John 
of Damascus; and the ninth century, the Myriobiblion 
and Nomacandn of Photius. Then follows Constantine 
Porphyrogenitus, vainly and voluminously composing; 
and Basil II. doubtless truly expresses the opinion of the 
time, as he certainly does the verdict of posterity respect- 
ing the works of his country, when he says that learning 
is useless and unprofitable lumber. The Alexiad of Anna 
Comnena, and the history of Byzantine affairs by Nice- 
phorous Bryennius, hardly redeem their age. This barren- 
ness and worthlessness was the effect of the system intro- 
duced by Constantine the Great. The long line of 
emperors had been consistent in one policy-the repression 
or expulsion of philosophy; and yet it is the uniform 
testimony of those ages that the Eastern convents were 
full of secret Platonism-that in stealth, the doctrines of 
Plato were treasured up in the cells of Asiatic monks. 
The Byzantines had possessed in art and letters all the 
best models in the world, yet in a thousand years they 
never produced one original. Millions of Greeks never 
advanced one step in philosophy or science-never made 
a single practical discovery, composed no poem, no tragedy 
worth perusal. The spirit of their superficial literature- 
if literature it can be called-is well shadowed forth in 
the story of the patriarch Photius, who composed at 
Bagdad, at a distance from his library, an analysis of 280 
works he had formerly read. The final age of the city 
was signalized by the Baarlamite controversy 
respecting the mysterious light of Mount Thabor 
-the possibility of producing a beatific vision 
and of demonstrating, by an unceasing inspec- 
tion of the navel for days and nights together, the 
existence of two eternal principles, a visible and an 
invisible God! 
What was it that produced this barrenness, 
this intellectual degradation in Constantinople ? 
The tyranny of Theology over Thought. 
But with the capture of Constantinople by the Latins 
other important events were occurring. Everywhere an 
The absurdity 
of its intel- 
lectual pur- 
suits. 
Cause of all 
this. 60 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THF WEST. 
[ch. II. 
intolerance of papal power was engendering. The monas- 
teries became infected, and even from the holy 
lips of monks words of ominous import might be 
heard. In the South of France the intellectual 
insurrection first took form. There the influence of the 
Mohammedans and Jews beyond the Pyrenees 
began to manifest itself. The songs of gallantry; 
tensons, or poetical contests of minstrels; 
satires of gay defiance; rivalry in praise of the ladies; 
lays, serenades, pastourelles, redondes, such as had already 
drawn forth the condemnation of the sedate Mussulmen of 
Cordova, had gradually spread through Spain and found 
a congenial welcome in France. The Troubadours were 
singing in the langue d'Oc in the south, and the 
Trouveres in the langue d'Oil in the north. 
Thence the merry epidemic spread to Sicily and 
Italy. Men felt that a relief from the grim ecclesiastic was 
coming. Kings, dukes, counts, knights, prided themselves 
on their gentle prowess. Tho humbler minstrels found 
patronage among ladies and at courts : sly satires against 
the priests, and amorous ditties, secured them a welcome 
among the populace. When the poet was deficient in 
voice, a jongleur went with him to sing ; and often there 
was added the pleasant accompaniment of a musical instru- 
ment. The Provencal or langue d'Oc was thus widely 
diffused; it served the purposes of those unacquainted 
with Latin, and gave the Italians a model for thought and 
versification, to Europe the germs of many of its future 
melodies. While the young were singing, the old were 
thinking; while the gay were carried away with romance, 
the grave were falling into heresy. But, true to her 
instincts and traditions, the Church had shown 
her determination to deal rigorously with all 
such movements. Already, a.d. 1134, Peter de 
Brueys had been burned in Languedoc for denying infant 
baptism, the worship of the cross, and transubstantiation. 
Already Henry the Deacon, the disciple of Peter, had been 
disposed of by St. Bernard. Already the valleys of 
Piedmont were full of Waldenses. Already the Poor Men 
of Lyons were proclaiming the portentous doctrine that 
the sanctity of a priest lay not in his office, but in tho 
Heresy fol- 
lows litera- 
ture. 
Spread of gay 
literature 
from Spain. 
The Trouba- 
dours and 
Trouveres. 
Commencing 
resistance of 
Home. CH. II.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
61 
manner of his life. They denounced the wealth of the 
Church, and the intermingling of bishops in bloodshed 
and war; they denied transubstantiation, invocation of 
saints, purgatory, and especially directed their hatred 
against the sale of indulgences for sin. The rich cities of 
Languedoc were full of misbelievers, They were given up 
to poetry, music, dancing. Their people, numbers of whom 
had been in the Crusades or in Spain, had seen the Saracens. 
Admiration had taken the place of detestation. Amid 
shouts of laughter, the Troubadours went through the 
land, wagging their heads, and slyly winking their eyes, 
and singing derisive songs about the amours of the priests, 
and amply earning denunciations as lewd blasphemers and 
atheists. Here was a state of things demanding the 
attention of Innocent. The methods he took for its cor- 
rection have handed his name down to the 
maledictions of posterity. He despatched a 
missive to the Count of Toulouse-who already 
lay under excommunication for alleged inter- 
meddling with the rights of the clergy-charging him with 
harbouring heretics and giving offices of emolument to 
Jews. The count was a man of gay life, having, in 
emulation of some of his neighbours across the Pyrenees, 
not fewer than three wives. His offences of that kind 
were, however, eclipsed by those with which he was now 
formally charged. It chanced that, in the ensuing disputes, 
the pope's legate was murdered. There is no reason to 
believe that Haymond was concerned in the crime. But 
the indignant pope held him responsible; instantly 
ordered to be published in all directions his excommunica- 
tion, and called upon Western Christendom to 
engage in a crusade against him, offering, to 
him whoever chose to take them, the wealth and 
possessions of the offender. So thoroughly was 
he seconded by the preaching of the monks, that half a 
million of men, it is affirmed, took up arms. 
For the count there remained nothing but to submit. 
He surrendered up his strong places, was com- 
pelled to acknowledge the crimes alleged against 
him, and the justice of his punishment. He swore that 
he would no longer protect heretics. Stripped naked to 
Innocent III. 
alarmed at 
the spread of 
heresy. 
He proclaims 
a crusade 
against the 
Count of 
Toulouse, 
and dis- 
ciplines him. 62 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. ii. 
his middle, with a rope round his neck, he was led to the 
altar, and there scourged. But the immense army that 
had assembled was not to be satisfied by these inflictions 
on an individual, though the pope might be. They had 
come for blood and plunder, and blood and plunder they 
must have. Then followed such scenes of horror as the 
sun had never looked on before. The army was officered 
by Roman and French prelates; bishops were its generals, 
an archdeacon its engineer. It was the Abbot Arnold, the 
legate of the pope, who, at the capture of Beziers, was 
inquired of by a soldier, more merciful 'or more 
weary of murder than himself, how he should 
distinguish and save the Catholic from the 
heretic. " Kill them all," he exclaimed; " God 
will know his own." At the Church of St. Mary Mag- 
dalene 7000 persons were massacred, the infuriated 
Crusaders being excited to madness by the wicked asser- 
tion that these wretches had been guilty of the blasphemy 
of saying, in their merriment, " S. Mariam Magdalenam 
fuisse concubinam Christi." It was of no use for them io 
protest their innocence. In the town twenty thousand 
were slaughtered, and the place then fired, to be left a 
monument of papal vengeance. At the massacre of Lavaur 
400 people were burned in one pile; it is remarked that 
" they made a wonderful blaze, and went to burn ever- 
lastingly in hell." Language has no powers to express the 
atrocities that took place at the capture of the different 
towns. Ecclesiastical vengeance rioted in luxury. The 
soil was steeped in the blood of men-the air polluted by 
their burning. From the reek of murdered women, 
mutilated children, and ruined cities, the Inquisition, that 
infernal institution, arose. Its projectors intended 
it not cnly to put an end to public teaching, 
but even to private thought. In the midst of 
these awful events, Innocent was called to another tribunal 
to render his account. He died a.d. 1216. 
It was during the pontificate of this great criminal that 
the mendicant orders were established. The 
course of ages had brought an unintelligibility 
into public worship. The old dialects had become 
obsolete; new languages were forming. Among those 
Atrocities of 
the Crusaders 
in the South 
of France. 
Institution of 
the Inquisi- 
tion. 
Establish- 
ment of men- 
dicant orders. cn. 11.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
63 
classes, daily increasing in number, whose minds were 
awakening, an earnest desire for instruction was arising. 
Multitudes were crowding to hear philosophical discourses 
in the universities, and heresy was spreading very fast. 
But it was far from being confined to the intelligent. The 
lower orders furnished heretics and fanatics too. To an- 
tagonize the labours of these zealots-who, if they had been 
permitted to go on unchecked, would quickly have dis- 
seminated their doctrines through all classes of society-- 
the Dominican and Franciscan orders were founded. They 
were well adapted for their duty. It was their business 
to move among the people, preaching to them, in their own 
tongue, wherever an audience could be collected. Tho 
scandal under which the Church was labouring because of 
her wealth could not apply to these persons who lived by 
begging alms. Their function was not to secure their own 
salvation, but that of other men. 
St. Dominic was born a.d. 1170. His birth and life 
were adorned with the customary prodigies. Miracles and 
wonders were necessary for anything to make a 
sensation in the West. His was an immaculate 
conception, he was free from original sin. He was regarded 
as the adopted son of the Virgin ; some were even disposed 
to assign him a higher dignity than that. He began his 
operations in Languedoc; but, as the prospect opened out 
before him, he removed from that unpromising region to 
Rome, tho necessary centre of all such undertakings as his. 
Here he perfected his organization; instituted his friars, 
nuns, and tertiaries; and consolidated his pretensions by 
the working of many miracles. He exorcised three 
matrons, from -whom Satan issued forth under the form of 
a great black cat, which ran up a bell-rope and vanished. 
A beautiful nun resolved to leave her convent. Happen- 
ing to blow her nose, it dropped off into hei handkerchief; 
but, at the fervent prayer of St. Dominic, it was replaced, 
and in gratitude, tempered by fear, she remained. St. 
Dominic could also raise the dead. Nevertheless, he died 
a.d. 1221, having worthily obtained the title of the burner 
and slayer of heretics. To him has been attributed the 
glory or Ihe crime of being the inventor of " the Holy 
Inquisition." In a very few years his order boasted of 
St. Dominic. 64 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. ii. 
nearly 500 monasteries, scattered over Europe, Asia, 
Africa. 
St. Francis, the compeer of St. Dominic, was born a.d. 
1182. His followers delighted to point out, as it 
would seem not without irreverence, a resem- 
blance to the incidents that occurred at the birth of our 
Lord. A prophetess foretold it; he was born in a stable ; 
angels sung forth peace and good-will in the air; one, under 
the form of Simeon, bore him to baptism. In early life he 
saw visions and became ecstatic. His father, Peter Bernar- 
dini, a respectable tradesman, endeavoured to restrain his 
eccentricities, at first by persuasion, but eventually more 
forcibly, appealing for assistance to the bishop, to prevent 
the young enthusiast from squandering his means in alms 
to the poor. On that functionary's gently remonstrating, 
and pointing out to Francis his filial obligations, ho 
strippeu himself naked before the people, exclaiming, 
" Peter Bernardini was my father; I have now but one 
Father, he that is in heaven." At this affecting renuncia- 
tion of all earthly possessions and earthly ties, those 
present burst into tears, and the good bishop threw his 
own mantle over him. When a man has come to this 
pass, there is nothing he cannot accomplish. 
It is related that, when application was first made to 
Innocent to authorize the order, he refused; but, 
very soon recognizing the advantages that would 
accrue, he gave it his hearty patronage. So 
rapid was the increase, that in a.d. 1219 it numbered not 
fewer than five thousand brethren. It was founded on 
the principles of chastity, poverty, obedience. They were 
to live on alms, but never to receive money. After a life 
of devotion to the Church, St. Francis attained his re- 
ward, a.d. 1226. Two years previous to his death, by a 
miraculous intervention there were impressed on his 
person marks answering to the wounds on our Saviour. 
These were the celebrated stigmata. A black growth, 
like nails, issued forth from the palms of his hands and 
his feet; a wound from which blood and water distilled 
opened in his side. It is not to be wondered at that 
these prodigies met with general belief. This was the 
generation which received as inestimable relics, through 
St. Francis. 
Authoriza- 
tion of these 
orders. cn. ii.] 
THE. AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
65 
Andrew of Hungary, the skulls of St. Stephen and St. 
Margaret, the hands of St. Bartholomew and St. Thomas, 
a slip of the rod of Aaron, and one of the water-pots of 
the marriage at Cana in Galilee. 
The papal government quickly found the prodigious 
advantage arising from the institution of these 
mendicant orders. Vowed to poverty, living on 
alms, hosts of friars, begging and barefoot, 
pervaded all Europe, coming in contact, under the most 
favourable circumstances, with the low'est grades of society. 
They lived and moved among the populace, and yet were 
held sacred. The accusations of dissipation and luxury 
so forcibly urged against the regular clergy were alto- 
gether inapplicable to these rope-bound, starving fanatics. 
Through them the Italian government had possession of 
the ear of Europe. The pomp of worship in an unknown 
tongue, the gorgeous solemnities of the Church, were 
far more than compensated by the preaching of these 
missionaries, who held forth in the vernacular wherever 
an audience could be had. Among the early ones, some 
had been accustomed to a wandering life. Brother Paci- 
ficus, a disciple of St. Francis, had been a celebrated 
Trouvere. In truth, they not only warded off the present 
pressing danger, but through them the Church retained 
her hold on the labouring classes for several subsequent 
centuries. The pope might truly boast that the Poor Men 
of the Church were more than a match for the Poor Men 
of Lyons. Their influence began to diminish only when 
they abandoned their essential principles, joined in the 
common race for plunder, and became immensely rich. 
Not only did Innocent III. thus provide himself with 
an ecclesiastical militia suited to meet the obviously im- 
pending insurrection, he increased his power greatly but 
insidiously by the formal introduction of auricular con- 
fession. It was by the fourth Lateran Council 
that the necessity of auricular confession was 
first formally established. Its aim was that no 
heretic should escape, and that the absent priest should 
be paramount even in the domestic circle. In none but 
a most degraded and superstitious society can such an 
infamous institution be tolerated. It invades the sacred 
Influence de- 
rive d from 
these orders. 
Introduction 
of auricular 
confession. 66 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. ii. 
privacy of life-makes a man's wife, children, and servants 
his spies and accusers. When any religious system stands 
in need of such a social immorality, we may be sure thaf 
it is irrecoverably diseased, and hastening to its end. 
Auricular confession led to an increasing necessity for 
casuistry, though that science was not fully 
developed until the time of the Jesuits, when ii 
gave rise to an extensive literature, with a lax system and 
a false morality, guiding the penitent rather with a view 
to his usefulness to the Church than to his own reforma- 
tion, and not hesitating at singular indecencies in its 
portion having reference to married life. 
Great historical events often find illustrations in repre- 
sentative men. Such is the case in the epoch we are now 
considering. On one side stands Innocent, true 
to the instincts of his party, interfering with 
all the European nations; launching forth his interdicts 
and excommunications; steeped in the blood of French 
heretics; hesitating at no atrocity, even the outrage and 
murder of women and children, the ruin of flourishing 
cities, to compass his plans; in all directions, under a 
thousand pretences, draining Europe of its money; calling 
to his aid hosts of begging friars ; putting forth imposture 
miracles; organizing the Inquisition, and invading the 
privacy of life by the contrivance of auricular confession. 
On the other side stands Frederick II., the Emperor ol 
Germany. His early life, as has been already 
mentioned, was spent in Sicily, in familiar inter- 
course writh Jews and Arabs, and Sicily to the last was the 
favoured portion of his dominions. To his many other 
accomplishments he added the speaking of Arabic as 
fluently as a Saracen. He delighted in the society oi 
Mohammedan ladies, vdio thronged his court. His enemies 
asserted that his chastity was not improved by his associa- 
tions with these miscreant beauties. The Jewish and 
Mohammedan physicians and philosophers taught him to 
sneer at the pretensions of the Church. From such ridicule 
it is but a short step to the shaking off of 
authority. At this time the Spanish Moham- 
medans had become vfidely infected with irre- 
ligion; their greatest philosophers were infidel in their 
Development 
of casuistry. 
Attitude of 
Innocent ill. 
Attitude of 
Frederick II. 
His Moham- 
medan ten- 
dencies. CH. II.J 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
67 
own infidelity. The two sons of Averroes of Cordova are 
said to have been residents at Frederick's court. Their 
father was one of the ablest men their nation ever pro- 
duced : an experienced astronomer, he had translated the 
Almagest, and, it is affirmed, was the first who actually 
saw a transit of Mercury across the sun; a voluminous 
commentator on the works of Plato and Aristotle, but a 
disbeliever in all revelation. Even of Mohammedanism he 
said, alluding to the prohibition which the Prophet had 
enjoined on the use of the flesh of swine, " That form of 
religion is destitute of every thing that can commend it to 
the approval of any understanding, unless it be that of a 
hog." In the Sicilian court, surrounded by such profane 
influences, the character of the young emperor 
was formed. Italian poetry, destined for such 
a brilliant future, here first found a voice in 
the sweet Sicilian dialect. The emperor and his 
chancellor were cultivators of the gay science, and in the 
composition of sonnets were rivals. A love of amatory 
poetry had spread from the South of France. 
With a view to the recovery of the Holy Land, Ilonorius 
III. had made Frederick marry Yolinda de Lusignan, the 
heiress of the kingdom of Jerusalem. It was not, there- 
fore, to be wondered at that Frederick's frivolities soon 
drew upon him the indignation of the gloomy Pope Gre- 
gory IX., the very first act of whose pontificate was to 
summon a new crusade. To the exhortations and com- 
mands of the aged pope the emperor lent a most 
reluctant ear, postponing, from time to time, the 
period of his departure, and dabbling in doubtful 
negotiations, through his Mohammedan friends, with the 
Sultan of Egypt. He embarked at last, but in three days 
returned. The octogenarian pope was not to be trifled 
with, and pronounced his excommunication. Frederick 
treated it with ostensible contempt, but appealed to Chris- 
tendom, accusing Rome of avaricious intentions. Her 
officials, he said, were travelling in all direc- 
tions, not to preach the Word of God, but to 
extort money. " The primitive Church, founded 
on poverty and simplicity, brought forth num- 
berless saints. The Romans are now rolling in wealth. 
He cultivates 
light litera- 
ture and 
heresy. 
Refuses to go 
on a crusade, 
and then goes. 
Presumes to 
rebuke the 
pontifical 
government. 68 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. II. 
What wonder that the walls of the Church are undermined 
to the base, and threaten utter ruin." For saying this he 
underwent a more tremendous excommunication; but his 
partisans in Rome, raising an insurrection, expelled the 
pope. And now Frederick set sail, of his own accord, on 
his crusading expedition. On reaching the Holy Land, he 
was received with joy by the knights and pilgrims; but 
the clergy held aloof from him as an excommunicated 
person. The pontiff had despatched a swift-sailing ship to 
forbid their holding intercourse with him. His 
private negotiations with the Sultan of Egypt 
now matured. The Christian camp was thronged 
with infidel delegates : some came to discuss philosophical 
questions, some were the bearers of presents. Elephants 
and a bevy of dancing-girls were courteously sent by the 
sultan to his friend, who, it is said, was not insensible to 
the witcheries of these Oriental beauties. He wore a Saracen 
dress. In his privacy he did not hesitate to say, " I came 
not here to deliver the Holy City, but to maintain my estima- 
tion among the Franks." To the sultan he appealed, " Out 
of your goodness, surrender to me Jerusalem as it is, that 
I may be able to lift up my head among the kings of Chris- 
tendom." Accordingly, the city was surren- 
dered to him. The object of his expedition 
was accomplished. But the pope was not to bo 
deceived by such collusions. He repudiated the transac- 
tions altogether, and act daily took measures to lay Jeru- 
salem and our Saviour's sepulchre under interdict, and this 
in the face of the Mohammedans. While the emperor pro- 
claimed his successes to Europe, the pope denounced them 
as coming from the union of Christ and Belial; alleging 
four accusations against Frederick: 1. That he 
had given the sword which he had received from 
the altar of St. Peter for the defence of the faith, as a 
present to the Sultan of Babylon; 2. That he had permitted 
the preaching of the Koran in the holy Temple itself; 3. 
That he had excluded the Christians of Antioch from his 
treaty ; 4. That he had bound himself, if a Christian army 
should attempt to cleanse the Temple and city from 
Mohammedan defilements, to join the Saracens. 
Frederick crowned himself at Jerusalem, unable to find 
His friend- 
ship with the 
sultan, 
who gives up 
Jerusalem to 
him. 
The pope de- 
nounces him. CH. II.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
69 
any ecclesiastic who dared to perform the ceremony, and 
departed from the Holy Land. It was time, for Rome was 
intriguing against him at home, a false report of his death 
having been industriously circulated. He forthwith pre- 
pared to enter on his conflict with the pontiff. His Saracen 
colonies at Nocera and Luceria, in Italy, could 
supply him with 30,000 Mussulman soldiers, 
with whom it was impossible for his enemies to 
tamper. He managed to draw over the general 
sentiment of Europe to his side, and publicly offered to 
convict the pope himself of negotiations with the infidels; 
but his antagonist, conveniently impressed with a sudden 
horror of shedding blood, gave way, and peace between the 
parties was made. It lasted nearly nine years. 
In this period, the intellectual greatness of Frederick, 
and the tendencies of the influences by which he was 
enveloped, were strikingly manifested. In ad- 
vance of his age, he devoted himself to the 
political improvement of Sicily. He instituted repre- 
sentative parliaments; enacted a system of wise laws; 
asserted the principle of equal rights and equal burdens, 
and the supremacy of the law over all, even the nobles and 
the Church. He provided for the toleration of all pro- 
fessions, Jewish and Mohammedan, as well as Christian; 
emancipated all the serfs of his domains; instituted cheap 
justice for the poor; forbade private war; regulated 
commerce-prophetically laying down some of those great 
principles, which only in our own time have been finally 
received as true; established markets and fairs; collected 
large libraries; caused to be translated such works as those 
of Aristotle and Ptolemy; built menageries for natural 
history ; founded in Naples a great university; patronized 
the medical college at Salernum; made provisions for the 
education of promising but indigent youths. All over 
the land splendid architectural triumphs were created. 
Under him the Italian language first rose above a patois. 
Sculpture, painting, and music were patronized. His chan- 
cellor is said to have been the author of the oldest sonnet. 
In the eye of Rome all this was an abomination. Were 
human laws to take the precedence of the law of God? 
Were the clergy to be degraded to a level with the laity ? 
Frederick 
establishes 
Saracen posts 
in Italy. 
His political 
institutions. 70 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
[ch. II. 
Were the Jew and the Mohammedan to he permitted their 
infamous rites ? Was this new-born product of the inso- 
lence of human intellect-this so-called science- to be 
brought into competition with theology, the heaven- 
descended ? Frederick and his parliaments, his 
laws and universities, his libraries, his statues, 
his pictures and sonnets, were denounced. Through all, 
the ever-watchful eye of the Church discerned the Jew 
and the Saracen, and held them up to the abhorrence of 
Europe. But Gregory was not unwilling to show what 
could be done by himself in the same direction. He caused 
a compilation of the Decretals to be issued, intrusting the 
work to one Raymond de Pennaforte, who had attained 
celebrity as a literary opponent of the Saracens. It is 
amusing to remark that even this simple work of labour 
could not be promulgated without the customary embel- 
lishments. It was given out that an angel watched over 
Pennaforte's shoulder all the time he was writing. 
Meantime an unceasing vigilance was maintained against 
the dangerous results that would necessarily ensue from 
Frederick's movements. In Rome, many heretics were 
burned ; many condemned to imprisonment for 
life. The quarrel between the pope and the 
emperor was resumed; the latter being once 
more excommunicated, and his body delivered over to 
Satan for the good of his soul. Again Frederick appealed 
to all the sovereigns of Christendom. He denounced the 
pontiff as an unworthy vicar of Christ, " who sits in his 
court like a merchant, weighing out dispensations for 
gold-himself writing and signing the bulls, perhaps 
counting the money. He has but one cause of enmity 
against me, that I refused to marry to his niece my 
natural son Enzio, now King of Sardinia." " In the 
midst of the Church sits a frantic prophet, a man of false- 
hood, a polluted priest." To this Gregory replied. The 
tenor of his answer may be gathered from ts commence- 
ment : " Out of the sea a beast is arisen, whose name is 
written all over ' Blasphemy.' " " He falsely 
asserts that I am enraged at his refusing his 
consent to the marriage of my niece with his 
natural son. He lies more impudently when he says that I 
They are 
denounced. 
Outbreak of 
his quarrel 
with the pope, 
who rouses 
Christendom 
against him. CH. II.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
71 
have pledged my faith to the Lombards." " In truth, this 
pestilent king maintains, to use his own words, that the 
world has been deceived by three impostors-Jesus Christ, 
Moses, and Mohammed; that of these two died in honour, 
and the third was hanged on a tree. Even now, he has 
asserted, distinctly and loudly, that those are fools who 
aver that God, the Omnipotent Creator of the world, was 
born of a woman." This was in allusion to the celebrated 
and mysterious book, " De Tribus Impostoribus," in the 
authorship of which Frederick was accused of having been 
concerned. 
The pontiff had touched the right chord. The begging 
friars, in all directions, added to the accusations. " He 
has spoken of the Host as a mummery; he has asked how 
many gods might be made out of a corn-field; he has 
affirmed, that, if the princes of the world would stand by 
him, he would easily make for mankind a better faith and 
a better rule of life; he has laid down the infidel maxim 
that ' God expects not a man to believe anything that can- 
not be demonstrated by reason.' " The opinion of Christ- 
endom rose against Frederick ; its sentiment of piety was 
shocked. The pontiff proceeded to depose him, 
and offered his crown to Robert of France. But 
the Mussulman troops of the emperor were too 
much for the begging friars of the pope. His Saracens 
were marching across Italy in all directions. The pontiff 
himself would have inevitably fallen into the hands of his 
mortal enemy had he not found a deliverance in death, 
a.d. 1241. Frederick had declared that he would not 
respect his sacred person, but, if victorious, -would teach 
him the absolute supremacy of the temporal power. It 
was plain that he had no intention of respecting a religion 
which he had not hesitated to denounce as " a mere 
absurdity." 
Whatever may have been the intention of Innocent IV.- 
who, after the short pontificate of Celestine IV. and an 
interval, succeeded-he was borne into the same policy by 
the irresistible force of circumstances. The deadly quarrel 
with the emperor was renewed. To escape his wrath, 
Innocent fled to France, and there in safety called the 
Council of Lyons. In a sermon, he renewed all the old 
Frederickuses 
his Saracen 
troops. 72 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. II. 
accusations-the heresy and sacrilege-the peopling of 
Italian cities with Saracens, for the purpose of overturn- 
ing the Vicar of Christ with those infidels -the friendship 
with the Sultan of Egypt-the African courtesans-the 
perjuries and blasphemies. Then was proclaimed 
the sentence of excommunication and deposition. 
The pope and the bishops inverted the torches 
they held in their hands until they went out, uttering the 
malediction, "So may he be extinguished." Again the 
emperor appealed to Europe, but this time in vain. 
Europe would not forgive him his blasphemy. Misfortunes 
crowded upon him; his friends forsook him; his favourite 
son, Enzio, was taken prisoner ; and he never smiled again 
after detecting his intimate, Pietro de Vinea, whom he 
had raised from beggary, in promising the monks that ho 
would poison him. The day had been carried by a resort 
to all means justifiable and unjustifiable, good and evil. 
For thirty years Frederick had combated the Church and 
the Guelph party, but he sunk in the conflict at last. 
When Innocent heard of the death of his foe, he might 
doubtless well think that what he had once asserted had 
at last become true : " We are no mere mortal man; we 
have the place of God upon earth." In his address to the 
clergy of Sicily he exclaimed, " Let the heavens 
rejoice and let the earth be glad ; for the light- 
ning and tempest wherewith God Almighty has so long 
menaced your heads have been changed by the death of 
this man into refreshing zephyrs and fertilizing dews." 
This is that superhuman vengeance which hesitates not 
to strike the corpse of a man. Home never forgives him 
who has told her of her impostures face to face; she never 
forgives him who has touched her goods. 
The Saracenic influences had thus found an expression 
in the South of France and in Sicily, involving many 
classes of society, from the Poor Men of Lyons to the 
Emperor of Germany; but in both places they were over- 
come by the admirable organization and unscrupulous 
vigour of the Church. She handled her weapons 
with singular dexterity, and contrived to ex- 
tract victory out of humiliation and defeat. As 
always since the days of Constantine, she had partisans in 
Excommu- 
nication of 
Frederick. 
The triumph 
at his death. 
Power of the 
Church at 
this moment. CH. II.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
73 
every city, in every village, in every family. And now it 
might have appeared that the blow she had thus delivered 
was final, and that the world, in contentment, must sub- 
mit to her will. She had again succeeded in putting her 
iron heel on the neck of knowledge, had invoked against it 
the hatred of Christendom, and reviled it as the monstrous 
but legitimate issue of the detested Mohammedanism. 
But the fate of men is by no means an indication of the 
fate of principles. The fall of the Emperor Frederick was 
not followed by the destruction of the influences 
he represented. These not only survived him, 
but were destined, in the end, to overcome the 
power which had transiently overthrown them. We are 
now entering on the history of a period which offers not 
only exterior opposition to the current doctrines, but, 
what is more ominous, interior mutiny. Notwithstanding 
the awful persecutions in the South of France-notwith- 
standing the establishment of auricular confession as a 
detective means, and the Inquisition as a weapon of 
punishment-notwithstanding the influence of the French 
king, St. Louis, canonized by the grateful Church- 
heresy, instead of being extirpated, extended itself among 
the laity, and even spread among the ecclesiastical ranks. 
St. Louis, the representative of the hierarchical 
party, gathers influence only from the circum- 
stance of his relations with the Church, of whose interests 
he was a fanatical supporter. So far as the affairs of his 
people were concerned, he can hardly be looked upon as 
anything better than a simpleton. His reliance for check- 
ing the threatened spread of heresy was a resort to 
violence-the faggot and the sword. In his opinion, "A 
man ought never to dispute with a misbeliever except 
with his sword, which he ought to drive into the heretic's 
entrails as far as he can." It was the signal glory of his 
reign that he secured for France that inestimable relic, 
the crown of thorns. This peerless memento of 
our Saviour's passion he purchased in Constanti- 
nople for an immense sum. But France was doubly and 
enviably enriched; for the Abbey of St. Denys was in 
possession of another, known to be equally authentic! 
Besides the crown, he also secured the sponge that was 
Vitality of 
Frederick's 
principles. 
St. Louis. 
His super- 
stition, 74 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. H. 
dipped in vinegar; the lance of the Roman soldier; also 
the swaddling-clothes in which the Saviour had first lain 
in the manger; the rod of Moses ; and part of the skull of 
John the Baptist. These treasures he deposited in the 
" Holy Chapel " of Paris. 
Under the papal auspices, St. Louis determined on a 
crusade; and nothing, except what we have 
already mentioned, can better show his mental 
imbecility than his disregard of all suitable arrangements 
for it. He thought that, provided the troops could bo 
made to lead a religious life, all would go well; that the 
Lord would fight his own battles, and that no provisions 
of a military or worldly kind were needed. In such a 
pious reliance on the support of God, he reached Egypt 
with his expedition in June, a.d. 1249. The ever-con- 
spicuous valour of the French troops could maintain itself 
in the battle-field, but not against pestilence and famine. 
In March of the following year, as might have been fore- 
seen, King Louis was the prisoner of the Sultan, and was 
only spared the indignity of being carried about as a 
public spectacle in the Mohammedan towns by 
a ransom, at first fixed at a million of Byzantines, 
but by the merciful Sultan voluntarily reduced one fifth. 
Still, for a time, Louis lingered in the East, apparently 
stupefied by considering how God could in this manner 
have abandoned a man who had come to his help. Never 
was there a crusade with a more shameful end. 
Notwithstanding the support of St. Louis in his own 
dominions, the intellectual revolt spread in every direction, 
and that not only in France, but throughout all 
Catholic Europe. In vain the Inquisition ex- 
erted all its terrors-and what could be more 
terrible than its form of procedure ? It sat in 
secret; no witness, no advocate was present; the accused 
was simply informed that he was charged with heresy, it 
was not said by whom. He was made to swear that he 
would tell the truth as regarded himself, and also re- 
specting other persons, whether parents, children, friends, 
strangers. If he resisted he was committed to a solitary 
dungeon, dark and poisonous; his food was diminished; 
everything was done to drive him into insanity. Then 
and crusade. 
Its total fail- 
ure. 
The Inquisi- 
tion attempts 
to arrest the 
intellectual 
revolt. ch. n.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
75 
the familiars of the Holy Office, or others in its interests, 
were by degrees to work upon him to extort confession :as 
to himself or accusations against others. But this fearful 
tribunal did not fail to draw upon itself the indignation of 
men. Its victims, condemned for heresy, were perishing 
in all directions. The usual apparatus of death, the stake 
and faggots, had become unsuited to its wholesale and re- 
morseless vengeance. The convicts were so numerous as 
to require pens made of stakes and filled with straw. It 
was thus that, before the Archbishop of Kheims and 
seventeen other prelates, one hundred and eighty- 
three heretics, together with their pastor, were 
burned alive. Such outrages against humanity cannot 
be perpetrated without bringing in the end retribution. 
In other countries the rising indignation was exasperated 
by local causes ; in England, for instance, by the continual 
intrusion of Italian ecclesiastics into the richest benefices. 
Some of them were mere boys; many were non-residents ; 
some had not so much as seen the country from which 
they drew their ample wealth. The Archbishop of York 
was excommunicated, with torches and bells, because he 
would not bestow the abundant revenues of his Church 
on persons from beyond the Alps; but for all this " he 
was blessed by the people." The archbishopric of Canter- 
bury was held, a.d. 1241, by Boniface of Savoy, to whom 
had been granted by the pope the first-fruits of all the 
benefices in his province. His rapacity was boundless. 
From all the ecclesiastics and ecclesiastical establishments 
under his control he extorted enormous sums. Some, who, 
like the Dean of St. Paul's, resisted him, were excommuni- 
cated ; some, like the aged Sub-prior of St. Bartholomew's, 
were knocked down by his own hand. Of a military turn 
-he often wore a cuirass under his robes-he joined his 
brother, the Archbishop of Lyons, who was besieging 
Turin, and wasted the revenues of his see in England 
in intrigues and petty military enterprises against his 
enemies in Italy. 
Not among the laity alone was there indignation against 
such a state of things. Mutiny broke out in the 
ranks of the Church. It was not that among 
the humbler classes the sentiment of piety had 
Burnings of 
heretics. 
Mutiny aris- 
ing in the 
Church. 76 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[CH. II. 
become diminished. The Shepherds, under the leadership 
of the Master of Hungary, passed by tens of thousands 
through France to excite the clergy to arouse for the 
rescue of good King Louis, in bondage among the Mussul- 
men. They asserted that they were commissioned by the 
Virgin, and were fed miraculously by the Master. 
Originating in Italy, the Flagellants also passed, two by 
two, through every city, scourging themselves 
for thirty-three days in memory of the years of 
our Lord. These dismal enthusiasts emulated 
each other, and were rivals of the mendicant friars in their 
hatred of the clergy. The mendicants were beginning to 
justify that hesitation which Innocent displayed when he 
was first importuned to authorize them. The papacy had 
reaped from these orders much good ; it was now to gather 
a fearful evil. They had come to be learned men instead of 
ferocious bigots. They were now, indeed, among the most 
cultivated men of their times. They had taken possession 
of many of the seats of learning. In the University of 
Paris, out of twelve chairs of theology, three only were 
occupied by the regular clergy. The mendicant friars 
had entered into the dangerous paths of heresy. 
They became involved in that fermenting leaven 
that had come from Spain, and among them 
revolt broke out. 
With an unerring instinct, Pome traced the insurrection 
to its true source. We have only to look at the measures 
taken by the popes to understand their opinion. Thus 
Innocent III., a.d. 1215, regulated, by his legate, the 
schools of Paris, permitting the study of the 
Dialectics of Aristotle, but forbidding his 
physical and metaphysical works and their com- 
mentaries. These had come through an Arabic channel. 
A rescript of Gregory XL, a.d. 1231, interdicts those on 
natural philosophy until they had been purified by the 
theologians of the Church. These regulations were con- 
firmed by Clement IV. a.d. 1265. 
The Shep- 
herds and 
Flagellants. 
The mendi- 
cant friars are 
affected. 
Rome prohi- 
bits the study 
of science. CHAPTER III. 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST-{ContinueJ). 
OVERTHROW OF THE ITALIAN SYSTEM BY THE COMBINED INTELLECTUAL 
AND MORAL ATTACK. 
Progress of Trreltgion among the mendicant Orders.-Publication of 
heretical Boohs.-The Everlasting Gospel and the Comment on the 
Apocalypse. 
Conflict between Philip the Fair and Boniface VIII.-Outrage upon 
and death of the Pope. 
The French King removes the Papacy from Bernie to Avignon.-Post- 
mortem Trial of the Pope for Atheism and Immorality.-Causes and 
Consequences of the Atheism of the Pope. 
The Templars fall into Infidelity. - Their Trial, Conviction, and 
Punishment. 
Immoralities of the Papal Court at Avignon.-Its return to Borne.-• 
. Causes of the great Schism.-Disorganization of the Italian System.- 
Decomposition of the Papacy.-Three Popes. 
The Council of Constance attempts to convert the papal Autocracy into a 
constitutional Monarchy.-It murders John Huss and Jerome of 
Prague.-Pontificate of Nicolas V.-End of the intellectual influence 
of the Itai ianrSy stem. 
About the close of the twelfth century appeared among 
the mendicant friars that ominous work, which, 
under the title of " The Everlasting Gospel," 
struck terror into the Latin hierarchy. It was affirmed 
that an angel had brought it from heaven, engraven on 
copper plates, and had given it to a priest called Cyril, who 
delivered it to the Abbot Joachim. The abbot 
had been dead about fifty years, when there 
was put forth, a.d. 1250, a true exposition of the 
tendency of his book, under the form of an 
introduction, by John of Parma, the general of the Fran- 
"The Everlast- 
ing Gospel.'' 
Introduction 
to it by the 
General of the 
Franciscans. 78 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. in. 
ciscans, as was universally suspected or alleged. Notwith- 
standing its heresy, the work displayed an enlarged and 
masterly conception of the historical progress of humanity. 
In this introduction, John of Parma pointed out that tho 
Abbot Joachim, who had not only performed a pilgrimage 
to the Holy Land, but had been reverenced as a prophet, 
received as of unimpeachable orthodoxy, and canonized, 
had accepted as his fundamental position that Roman 
Christianity had done its work, and had now come to its 
inevitable termination. He proceeded to show that there 
arc epochs or ages in the Divine government of the world ; 
that, during the Jewish dispensation, it had been under 
the immediate influence of God the Father; during tho 
Christian dispensation, it had been under that of God tho 
Son; and that the time had now arrived when it would bo 
under the influence of God the Holy Ghost; that, in tho 
coming ages, there would be no longer any need of faith, 
but that all things would be according to wisdom and 
reason. It was the ushering in of a new time. So spake, 
with needful obscurity, the Abbot Joachim, and so, more 
plainly, the General of the Franciscans in his Introduction. 
" The Everlasting Gospel" was declared by its adherents 
to have supplanted tho New Testament, as that had sup- 
planted the Old-these three books constituting a threefold 
revelation, answering to the Trinity of the Godhead. At 
once there was a cry from the whole hierarchy. The Popo, 
Alexander IV., without delay, took measures 
for the destruction of the book. Whoever kept 
or concealed a copy was excommunicated. But 
among the lower mendicants-the Spiritualists, as they 
were termed-the work was held in the most devout 
repute. With them it had taken the place of the Holy 
Scriptures. So far from being suppressed, it was followed, 
in about forty years, a.d. 1297, by the Comment on the 
Apocalypse, by John Peter Oliva, who, in Sicily, 
had accepted the three epochs or ages, and 
divided the middle one-the Christian-into 
seven stages: the age of the Apostles; that of tho 
Martyrs; that of Heresies ; that of Hermits ; that of the 
Monastic System ; that of the overthrow of Anti-Christ, 
and that of the coming Millennium. Ho agreed with his 
Attempts to 
destroy the 
book. 
The Comment 
on the Apo- 
calypse. CH. III.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
79 
predecessors in the impending abolition of Roman Chris- 
tianity, stigmatized that Church as the purple harlot, and 
with them affirmed that the pope and all his hierarchy had 
become superfluous and obsolete-" their work was done, 
their doom sealed." His zealous followers de- 
clared that the sacraments of the Church were 
now all useless, those administering them having 
no longer any jurisdiction. The burning of 
thousands of these " Fratricelli " by the Inquisition was 
altogether inadequate to suppress them. Eventually, when 
the Reformation occurred, they mingled among the 
followers of Luther. 
To the internal and doctrinal troubles thus befalling 
the Church, material and foreign ones of the most vital 
importance were soon added. The true reason of 
the difficulties into which the papacy was falling 
was now coming conspicuously into light. It 
was absolutely necessary that money should be drawn to 
Rome, and the sovereigns of the Western kingdoms, France 
and England, from which it had hitherto been largely 
obtained, were determined that it should be so no longer. 
They had equally urgent need themselves of all that could 
be extorted. In France, even by St. Louis, it was enacted 
that the papal power in the election of the clergy should 
be restrained; and, complaining of the drain of money 
from the kingdom to Rome, he applied the effectual remedy 
of prohibiting any such assessments or taxations for the 
future. 
We have now reached the pontificate of Boniface VIII., 
an epoch in the intellectual history of Europe. Under the 
title of Celestine V. a visionary hermit had been raised to 
the papacy-visionary, for Peter Morrone (such 
was his name) had long been indulged in appari- 
tions of angels and the sounds of phantom bells in the 
air. Peter was escorted from his cell to his supreme 
position by admiring crowds; but it very soon became 
apparent that the life of an anchorite is not a preparation 
for the duties of a pope. The conclave of cardinals had 
elected him, not from any impression of his suitableness, 
but because they were evenly balanced in two parties, 
neither of which would give way. They were therefore 
Spread of 
these doc- 
trines among 
ecclesiastics. 
Approaching 
difficulties of 
the Church. 
Peter Morrone 
becomes pope. 80 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch.in. 
driven to a temporary and available election. But scarcely 
had this been done when his incapacity became conspicuous 
and his removal imperative. It is said that the friends of 
Benedetto Gaetani, the ablest of the cardinals, througn a 
hole perforated in the pope's chamber wall, at midnight, in 
a hollow voice, warned him that he retained his dignity 
at the peril of his soul, and in the name of God 
commanded him to abdicate. And so, in spite 
of all importunity, he did. Uis abdication was 
considered by many pious persons as striking a death-blow 
at papal infallibility. 
It was during his pontificate that the miracle of Loretto 
occurred. The house inhabited by the Virgin 
immediately after her conception had been con- 
verted on the death of the Holy Family into a chapel, and 
St. Luke had presented to it an image, carved by his own 
hands, still known as our Lady of Loretto. Some angels 
chancing to be at Nazareth when the Saracen conquerors 
approached, fearing that the sacred relic might fall into 
their possession, took the house bodily in their hands, and, 
carrying it through the air, after several halts, finally 
deposited it at Loretto in Italy. 
So Benedetto Gaetani, whether by such wily procure- 
ments or not, became Pope Boniface VIII., A.n. 
1294. His election was probably due to King 
Charles, who held twelve electoral votes, the 
bitter personal animosity of the Colonnas having been either 
neutralized or overcome. The first care of Boniface was to 
consolidate his power and relieve himself of a rival. In tho 
opinion of many it was not possible for a pope to abdicate. 
Confinement in prison soon (a.d. 1296) settled that ques- 
tion. The soul of Celestine was seen by a monk 
ascending the skies, which opened to receive it 
into heaven; and a splendid funeral informed 
his enemies that they must now acknowledge Boniface as 
the unquestioned pope. But the princely Colonnas, the 
leaders of the Ghibelline faction in Rome, who had re- 
sisted the abdication of Celestine to the last, 
and were, therefore, mortal enemies of Boniface, 
revolted. He published a bull against them ; 
he excommunicated them. With an ominous anticipation 
Celestine V. 
terrified into 
abdication. 
The^niracle 
of Loretto. 
Boniface 
VIII. elected 
pope. 
Ascent of 
Popa Celestine 
to heaven. 
Quarrel of 
Boniface and 
the Colonnas. CH. III.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
81 
of the future-for they were familiar with the, papal 
power, and knew where to touch it to the quick-they 
appealed to a " General Council." Since supernatural 
weapons did not seem to avail, Boniface proclaimed a 
crusade against them. The issue answered his expecta- 
tions. Palestrina, one of their strongholds, which in a 
moment of weakness they had surrendered, was utterly 
devastated and sown with salt. 1 he Colonnas fled, some 
of them to France. There, in King Philip the Fair, they 
found a friend, who was destined to avenge their wrongs, 
and to inflict on the papacy a blow from which it never 
recovered. 
This was the state of affairs at the commencement of the 
quarrel between Philip and Boniface. The Crusades had 
brought all Europe under taxation to Rome, and loud 
complaints were everywhere made against the drain of 
money into Italy. Things had at last come to such a 
condition that it was not possible to continue 
the Crusades without resorting to a taxation of 
the clergy, and this was the true reason of the 
eventual lukewarmness, and even opposition to them. But 
the stream of money that had thus been passing into Italy 
had engendered habits of luxury and extravagance. Cost 
what it might, money must be had in Rome. The per- 
ennial necessity under which the kings of England and 
France found themselves-the necessity of revenue for the 
carrying out of their temporal projects-could only be 
satisfied in the game way. The wealth of those nations 
had insensibly glided into the hands of the Church. In 
England, Edward I. enforced the taxation of the 
clergy. They resisted at first, but that sovereign 
founcl an ingenious and effectual remedy. He 
directed his j edges to hear no cause in which an 
ecclesiastic was a complainant, but to try every suit brought 
against them; asserting that those who refused to share 
the burdens of the state had no right to the protection of 
its laws. They forthwith submitted. In the nature and 
efficacy of this remedy we for the first time recognize the 
agency of a class of men soon to rise to power-the lawyers. 
In France, Philip the Fair made a similar attempt. It 
was not to be supposed that Rome wouid tolerate this 
Pecuniary 
necessities 
of Rome. 
The King of 
England com- 
pels the 
clergy to pay- 
taxes. 82 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. hi. 
trespassing on what she considered her proper domain, and 
accordingly Boniface issued the bull " Clericis 
laicos" excommunicating kings who should levy 
subsidies on ecclesiastics. Hereupon Philip 
determined that, if the French clergy were not tributary 
to him, France should not be tributary to the pope, and 
issued an edict prohibiting the export of gold and silver 
from France without his license. But he did not resort to 
these extreme measures until he had tried others which 
perhaps he considered less troublesome. He had plundered 
the Jews, confiscated their property, and expelled them 
from his dominions. The Church was fairly next in order; 
and, indeed, the mendicant friars of the lower class, who, 
as we have seen, were disaffected by the publication of 
" The Everlasting Gospel," were loud in their 
denunciations of her wealth, attributing the pre- 
vailing religious demoralization to it. They 
pointed to the example of our Lord and his disciples; and 
when their antagonists replied that even He condescended 
to make use of money, the malignant fanatics maintained 
their doctrines, amid the applause of a jeering populace, 
by answering that it was not St. Peter, but Judas, who 
was intrusted with the purse, and that the pope stood in 
need of the bitter rebuke which Jesus had of old adminis- 
tered to his prototype Peter, saying, " Get thee behind me, 
Satan ; for thou savourest not of the things that be of God, 
but of the things that be of men" (Mark viii. 33). Under 
that authority they affirmed that they might stigmatize 
the great culprit without guilt. So the king ventured to 
put forth his hand and touch what the Church had, and 
she cursed him to his face. At first a literary war ensued : 
the pope published his bull, the king his reply. Already 
the policy which Philip was following, and the ability he 
was displaying, manifested that he had attached 
to himself that new power of which the King 
of England had taken advantage-a power soon 
to become the mortal enemy of the ecclesiastic-the 
lawyers. In the meantime, money must be had 
in Rome; when, by the singularly felicitous 
device of the proclamation of 'a year of jubilee, a.d. 1300, 
large sums were again brought into Italy. 
The King of 
France at- 
tempts it. 
Is abetted by 
the begging 
friars, 
and ably sus- 
tained by the 
lawyers. 
Device of the 
jubilee. CH. III.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
83 
Boniface had thus four antagonists on his hands-the 
King of France, the Colonnas, the lawyers, and 
the mendicants. By the latter, both high and 
low, he was cordially hated. Thus the higher 
English Franciscans were enraged against him because he 
refused to let them hold lands. They attempted to bribe 
him with 40,000 ducats; but he seized the money at the 
banker's, under the pretence that it had no owners, as 
the mendicants were vowed to poverty, and then denied 
the privilege. As to the lower Franciscans, heresy was 
fast spreading among them. They were not only infected 
with the doctrines of " The Everlasting Gospel," but had 
even descended into the abyss of irreligion one step more 
by placing St. Francis in the stead of our Saviour. They 
were incessantly repeating in the ears of the laity that the 
pope was Anti-Christ, " The Man of Sin." The quarrel 
between Philip and Boniface was every moment 
increasing in bitterness. The former seized and 
imprisoned a papal nuncio, who had been selected 
because he was known to be personally offensive ; 
the latter retaliated by the issue of bulls protesting against 
such an outrage, interfering between the king and his 
French clergy, and citing the latter to appear in Rome 
and take cognizance of their master's misdoings. The 
monarch was actually invited to be present and hear his 
own doom. In the lesser bull-if it be authentic-and 
the king's rejoinder, both parties seem to have lost their 
temper. This was followed by the celebrated 
bull " Ausculta Fili" at which the king's indigna- 
tion knew no bounds. He had it publicly burnt 
in Paris at the sound of a trumpet; assembled the States- 
General; and, under the advice of his lawyers, skilfully 
brought the issue to this: Does the king hold the realm 
of France of God or of the pope? Without difficulty it 
might be seen how the French clergy would be compelled 
to act: since many of them held fiefs of the king, all were 
in fear of the intrusion of Italian ecclesiastics into the rich 
benefices. France, therefore, supported her 
monarch. On his side, Boniface, in the bull 
" Unam Sanctam," asserted his power by declaring 
that it is necessary to salvation to believe that "every 
The four 
enemies of 
Boniface. 
Collision 
between the 
French king 
and the pope. 
The bu'l 
" Ausculta 
Fili." 
The bull 
" Unam 
Sanctam." 84 
THE AGE OE FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. hi. 
human "being is subject to the Pontiff of Rome. Philip, 
foreseeing the desperate nature of the approaching conflict, 
and aiming to attach his people firmly to him by putting 
himself forth as their protector against priestly tyranny, 
again skilfully appealed to their sentiments by denouncing 
the Inquisition as an atrocious barbarity, an outrage on 
human rights, violating all law, resorting to new and 
unheard-of tortures, and doing deeds at which men's minds 
revolt with horror. In the South of France this lan- 
guage was thoroughly understood. The lawyers, among 
whom William de Nogaret was conspicuous, ably 
assisted him; indeed, his whole movement ex- 
hibited the extraordinary intelligence of his advisers. It 
has been affirmed, and is, perhaps, not untrue, that Do 
Nogaret's father had been burnt by the Inquisition. Tho 
great lawyer was bent on revenge. The States-General, 
under his suggestions, entertained four propositions: 
1. That Boniface was not the true pope ; 2. That 
he was a heretic; 3. That he was a simoniac; 
4. That he was a man weighed down with crimes. 
De Nogaret, learning from the Colonnas how to touch tho 
papacy in a vital point, demanded that the whole subject 
should be referred to a " General Council" to be summoned 
by the king. A second meeting of the States-General 
was held. William do Plaisian, tho Lord of Vezenoble, 
appeared with charges against the pope. Out of a long 
list, many of which could not possibly be true, some may 
be mentioned : that Boniface neither believed in 
tho immortality nor incorruptibility of the soul, 
nor in a life to come, nor in the real presence in 
the Eucharist; that he did not observe the fasts of the 
Church-not even Lent; that he spoke of the cardinals, 
monks, and friars as hypocrites ; that the Holy Land had 
been lost through his fault; that the subsidies for its 
relief had been embezzled by him; that his holy predecessor, 
Celestine, through his inhumanity had been brought to 
death ; that he had said that fornication and other obscene 
practices are no sin ; that ho was a Sodomite, and had 
caused clerks to be murdered in his presence ; that he had 
enriched himself by simony ; that his nephew's wife had 
borne him two illegitimate sons. These, with other still 
William de 
Nogaret. 
Action of 
the States- 
General. 
Accusations 
against the 
pope. ch. in.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
85 
more revolting charges, were sworn to upon ths Holy 
Gospels. The king appealed to " a general council and to 
a legitimate pope." 
The quarrel had now become a mortal one. There was 
but one course for Boniface to take, and he did take it. 
He excommunicated the king. He deprived him of his 
throne, and anathematized his posterity to the fourth 
generation. The bull was to be suspended in the porch of 
the Cathedral of Anagni on September 8; but William de 
Nogaret and one of the Colonnas had already passed into 
Italy. They hired a troop of banditti, and on September 7 
attacked the pontiff in his palace at Anagni. The doors 
of a church which protected him were strong, but they 
yielded to fire. The brave old man, in his pontifical robes, 
with his crucifix in one hand and the keys of St. Peter in 
the other, sat down on his throne and confronted his 
assailants. His cardinals had fled through a sewer. So 
little reverence was there for God's vicar upon earth, that 
Sciarra Colonna raised his hand to kill him on the spot; 
but the blow was arrested by De Nogaret, who, with a 
bitter taunt, told him that here, in his own city, he owed 
his life to the mercy of a servant of the King of France-a 
servant whose father had been burnt by the Inquisition. 
The pontiff was spared only to be placed on a 
miserable horse, with his face to the tail, and 
led off to prison. They meant to transport him 
to France to await the general council. He was 
rescued, returned to Rome, was seized and imprisoned again. 
On the 11th of October he died. 
Thus, after a pontificate of nine eventful years, perished 
Boniface VIII. His history and his fate show to what a 
gulf Roman Christianity was approaching. His successor, 
Benedict XI., had but a brief enjoyment of power; long 
enough, however, to learn that the hatred of the King of 
France had not died with the death of Boniface, and that 
he was determined not only to pursue the departed pontiff's 
memory beyond the grave, but also to effect a radical 
change in the papacy itself. A basket of figs was presented 
to Benedict by a veiled female. She had brought 
them, she said, from the Abbess of St. Petronilla. 
In an unguarded moment the pontiff ate of them without 
His seizure 
by De No- 
garet, and his 
death. 
Poisoning of 
Benedict XI. 86 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
[ch. nr. 
the customary precaution of having them previously 
tasted. Alas! what was the state of morals in Italy ? 
A dysentery came on ; in a few days he was dead. But 
the Colonnas had already taught the King of France 
how one should work who desires to touch the popedom ; 
the event that had just occurred was the preparation for 
putting their advice into operation. The king 
came to an understanding with Bernard de Goth, 
the Archbishop of Bordeaux. Six conditions 
were arranged between them : 1. The reconcilia- 
tion between the Church and the king; 2. The absolution 
of all persons engaged in the affair of Boniface; 3. Tenths 
from the clergy for five years; 4. The condemnation of 
the memory of Boniface ; 5. The restoration of the Colonnas; 
6. A secret article; what it was time soon showed. A 
swift messenger carried intelligence to the king's partisans 
in the College of Cardinals, and Bernard became Clement 
V. " It will be long before we see the face of another 
pope in Borne!" exclaimed the Cardinal Matteo Orsini, 
with a prophetic instinct of what was coming when the 
conspiracy reached its development. His prophecy was 
only too true. Now appeared what was that sixth, that 
secret article negotiated between King Philip 
and De Goth. Clement took up his residence at 
Avignon in France. The tomb of the apostles 
was abandoned. The Eternal City had ceased to be the 
metropolis of Christianity. 
But a French prelate had not bargained with a French 
king for the most eminent dignity to which a European 
can aspire without having given an equivalent. In as 
good faith as he could to his contract, in as good faith as 
he could to his present pre-eminent position, Clement V. 
proceeded to discharge his share of the obligation. To a 
certain extent King Philip was animated by an undying 
vengeance against his enemy, whom he considered as 
having escaped out of his grasp, but he was also actuated 
by a sincere desire of accomplishing a reform in the Church 
through a radical change in its constitution. He was re- 
solved that the pontiffs should be accountable to the kings 
of France, or that France should more directly influence 
their conduct. To reconcile men to this, it was for him 
Understanding 
between the 
king and the 
Archbishop of 
Bordeaux. 
removal of 
the papacy 
to Avignon. CH. HI.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
87 
to show, with the semblance of pious reluctance, what 
was the state to which morals and faith had come in Rome. 
The trial of the dead Boniface was therefore 
entered upon, a.d. 1310. The Consistory was 
opened at Avignon, March 18. The proceedings 
occupied many months; many witnesses were examined. 
The main points attempted to be established by their 
evidence seem to have been these: " That Boniface had 
declared his belief that there was no such thing as divine 
law-what was reputed to be such was merely the inven- 
tion of men to keep the vulgar in awe by the terrors of 
eternal punishment; that it was a falsehood to assert the 
Trinity, and fatuous to believe it; that it was 
falsehood to say that a virgin had brought 
forth, for it was an impossibility; that it was 
falsehood to assert that bread is transubstantiated into 
the body of Christ; that Christianity is false, because it 
asserts a future life, of which there is no evidence save 
that of visionary people." It was in evidence that the 
pope had said, " God may do the worst with me that he 
pleases in the future life; I believe as every educated man 
does, the vulgar believe otherwise. We have to speak as 
they do, but we must believe and think with the few." It 
was sworn to by those who had heard him disputing with 
some Parisians that he had maintained " that neither the 
body nor the soul rise again." Others testified that " he 
neither believed in the resurrection nor in the sacraments 
of the Church, and had denied that carnal gratifications 
are sins." The Primicerio of St. John's at Naples, deposed 
that, when a cardinal, Boniface had said in his presence, 
" So that God gives me the good things of this life, I care 
not a bean for that to come. A man has no more a soul 
than a beast. Did you ever see any one who had risen 
from the dead ? " He took delight in deriding the blessed 
Virgin ; " for," said he, " she was no more a virgin than 
my mother." As to the presence of Christ in the Host, 
" It is nothing but paste." Three knights of Lucca testi- 
fied that when certain venerable ambassadors, whose names 
they gave, were in the presence of the pope at the time of 
the jubilee, and a chaplain happened to invoke the mercy of 
Jesus on a person recently dead, Boniface appalled all 
Post-mortem 
trial of Pope 
Boniface. 
The accusa- 
tions against 
him. 88 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. in. 
around him by exclaiming, " What a fool, to commend 
him to Christ! He could not help himself, and how can 
he be expected to help others? He was no Son of God, 
but a shrewd man and a great hypocrite." It might seem 
impossible to exceed such blasphemy: and yet the wit- 
nesses went on to testify to a conversation which he held 
with the brave old Sicilian admiral, Roger Loria. This 
devout sailor made the remark, in the pope's presence, 
that if, on a certain occasion, he had died, it was his trust 
that Christ would have had mercy on him. To this 
Boniface replied, " Christ! he was no Son of God; he was 
a man, eating and drinking like ourselves; he never 
rose from the dead; no man has ever risen. I am far 
mightier than he. I can bestow kingdoms and humble 
kings." Other witnesses deposed to having heard him 
affirm, " There is no harm in simony. There is no more 
harm in adultery than in rubbing one's hands together." 
Some testified to such immoralities and lewdness in his 
private life that the pages of a modern book cannot be 
soiled with the recital. 
In the meantime, Clement did all in his power to save 
the blackened memory of his predecessor. Every influence 
that could be brought to bear on the revengeful or politic 
king was resorted to, and at last with success. 
Perhaps Philip saw that he had fully accom- 
plished his object. He had no design to destroy 
the papacy. His aim was to revolutionize it-to 
give the kings of France a more thorough control over it; 
and, for the accomplishment of that purpose, to demonstrate 
to what a condition it had come through the present 
system. Whatever might be the decision, such evidence 
had been brought forward as, notwithstanding its contra- 
dictions and apparent inconsistencies, had made a profound 
impression on every thinking man. It was the king's 
consummate policy to let the matter remain where it was. 
Accordingly, he abandoned all farther action. The grati- 
tude of Clement was expressed in a bull exalting Philip, 
attributing his action to piety, exempting him from all 
blame, annulling past bulls prejudicial to him, revoking all 
punishments of those who had been concerned against 
Boniface except in the case of fifteen persons, on whom a 
Philip con- 
sents to ab- 
stain from the 
prosecution. CH. III.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
89 
light and nominal penance was inflicted. In November, 
a.d. 1311, the Council of Vienne met. In the following 
year three cardinals appeared before it to defend the 
orthodoxy and holy life of Tope Boniface. Two knights 
threw down their gauntlets to maintain his innocence by 
wager of battle. There was no accuser! no one took up 
the gage; and the council was at liberty quietly to dispose 
of the matter. 
How far the departed pontiff was guilty of the charges 
alleged against him was, therefore, never fairly 
ascertained. But it was a tremendous, an 
appalling fact that charges of such a character 
could be even so much as brought forward, much more that 
a succeeding pontiff had to listen to them, and attribute 
intentions of piety to the accuser. The immoralities of 
which Boniface was accused were such as in Italy did not 
excite the same indignation as among the more moral 
people beyond the Alps; the heresies were those every- 
where pervading the Church. We have already seen 
what a profound impression "The Everlasting Gospel" 
had made, and how many followers and martyrs it had. 
What was alleged against Boniface was only that he had 
taken one step more in the downward course of irreligion. 
His fault lay in this, that in an evil hour he had given 
expression, to thoughts which, considering his position, 
ought to have remained locked up in his inmost soul. As 
to the rest, if he was avaricious, and accumulated enormous 
treasures, such as it was said the banditti of the Colonnas 
seized when they outraged his person, he was no worse 
than many other popes. Clement V., his successor, died 
enormously rich; and, what was worse, did not hesitate 
to scandalize Europe by his prodigal munificence to the 
beautiful Brunisard, the Countess of Talleyrand, his lady. 
The religious condition of Boniface, though not admit- 
ting of apology, is capable of explanation. By 
the Crusades all Europe had been wrought 
up to a fanatical expectation, doomed necessarily to dis- 
appointment. From them the papacy had derived pro- 
digious advantages both in money and power. It was 
now to experience fearful evils. It had largely promised 
rewards in this life, and also in the world to come, to 
The religious 
condition of 
Pope Boniface. 
Its causes. 90 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. in. 
those who would take up the Cross; it had deliberately 
pitted Christianity against Mohammedanism, and staked 
the authenticity of each on the issue of the conflict. In 
face of the whole world it had put forth as the true 
criterion the possession of the holy places, hallowed by the 
life, the sufferings, the death, the resurrection of the 
Redeemer. Whatever the result might be, the circum- 
stances under which this had been done were such that 
there was no concealing, no dissembling. In all Europe 
there was not a family which had not been pecuniarily 
involved in the Crusades, perhaps few that had not 
furnished men. Was it at all to be wondered at that 
everywhere the people, accustomed to the logic of trial by 
battle, were terror-stricken when they saw the result ? 
Was it to be wondered at that even still more dreadful 
heresies spontaneously suggested themselves ? Was it at 
all extraordinary that, if there had been popes sincerely 
accepting that criterion, the issue should be a pope who 
was a sincere misbeliever? Was it extraordinary that 
there should be a loss of papal prestige? It was the 
papacy which had voluntarily, for its own ends, brought 
things into this evil channel, and the papacy deserved a 
just retribution of discredit and ruin. It had wrought on 
the devout temper of religious Europe for its own sinister 
purposes; it had drained the Continent of its blood, and 
perhaps of what was more highly prized-its money; it had 
established a false issue, an unwarrantable criterion, and 
now came the time for it to reap consequences of a different 
kind-intellectual revolt among the people, heresy among 
the clergy. Nor was the pope without eminent comrades 
in his sin. The Templars, whose duty it had been to pro- 
tect pilgrims on the way to Jerusalem-who 
had therefore been long and thoroughly familiar 
with the state of events in Palestine-had been treading 
in the same path as the pope. Dark rumours had begun 
to circulate throughout Europe that these, the very van- 
guard of Christianity, had not only proved traitors to their 
banner, but had actually become Mohammcdanized. On 
their expulsion from the Holy Land, at the close of the 
Crusades, they spread all over Europe, to disseminate by 
stealth their fearful heresies, and to enjoy the riches they 
Apostacy of 
the Templars. cn. in.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
91 
had acquired in. the service they had betrayed. Mon find 
a charm in having it mysteriously and secretly divulged 
to them that their long-cherished opinions are all a 
delusion. There was something fascinating in hearing 
privately, from those who could speak with authority, 
that, after all, Mohammed was not an impostor, but the 
author of a pure and noble Theism ; that Saladin was not 
a treacherous assassin, a despicable liar, but a most valiant, 
courteous, and gentle knight. In his proceedings against 
the Templars, King Philip the Fair seems to have been 
animated by a pure intention of checking the disastrous 
spread of these opinions ; yet William de Nogaret, who was 
his chief adviser on this matter as on that of Boniface, was 
not without reasons of personal hatred. It was said that 
he divided his wrath between the Templars and the pope. 
They had had some connexion with the burning of his 
father, and vengeance he was resolved to wreak upon them. 
Under colour of the charges against them, all the Templars 
in France were simultaneously arrested in the 
dawn of one day, October 13, a.d. 1307, so well 
devised were the measures. The grand master, 
Du Molay, was secured, not, however, without some 
perfidy. Now were openly brought forward the charges 
which struck Europe with consternation. Substantiation 
of them was offered by witnesses, but it was secured by 
submitting the accused to torture. The grand master, 
Du Molay, at first admitted their guilt of the crimes 
alleged. After some hesitation, the pope issued a bull, 
commanding the King of England to do what the King of 
France had already done, to arrest the Templars and seize 
their property. His declaration, that one of the order, 
a man of high birth, had confessed to himself his cri- 
minality, seems to have made a profound impression on 
the mind of the English king, and of many other persons 
until that time reluctant to believe. The Parliament and 
the University of Paris expressed themselves satisfied with 
the evidence. New examinations were held, and new con- 
victions were made. The pope issued a bull addressed to all 
Christendom, declaring how slowly, but, alas ! how certainly, 
he had been compelled to believe in the apostacy of the 
order, and commanding that everywhere proceedings should 
They are 
arrested and 
tried. 92 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
[ch. hi. 
be instituted against it. A papal commission assembled in 
Paris, August 7, a.d. 1309. The grand master was brought 
before it. He professed his belief in the Catholic faith, 
but now denied that the order was guilty of the charges 
alleged against it, as also did many of the other knights. 
Other witnesses were, however, brought forward, some of 
whom pretended to have abandoned the order on account 
of its foul acts. At the Porte St. Antoine, on many 
pleasant evenings in the following May, William de 
Nogaret revelled in the luxury of avenging the shade of 
his father. One hundred and thirteen Templars were, in 
slow succession, burnt at stakes. The remorseless 
lawyer was repaying the Church in her own 
com. Y et of this vast concourse of sufferers all died pro- 
testing their innocence; not one proved an apostate. 
Notwithstanding this most significant fact-for those who 
were ready to lay down their lives, and to meet with 
unshaken constancy the fire, were surely the bravest of 
the knights, and their dying declaration is worthy of our 
most reverent consideration-things were such that no 
other course was possible than the abolition of the order, 
and this accordingly took place. The pope himself seems to 
have been satisfied that the crimes had been perpetrated 
under the instigation or temptation of Satan ; but men of 
more enlarged views appear to have concluded that, though 
the Templars were innocent of the moral abominations 
charged against them, a familiarity with other forms of 
belief in the East had undoubtedly sapped their faith. After 
a weary imprisonment of six years, embittered by many 
hardships, the grand master, Du Molay, was brought up for 
sentence. He had been found guilty. With his dying breath, 
" before Heaven and earth, on the verge of death, when 
the least falsehood bears like an intolerable weight on the 
soul," he declared the innocence of the order and of him- 
self. The vesper-bell was sounding when Du Molay and a 
brother convict were led forth to their stakes, 
placed on an island in the Seine. King Philip 
himself was present. As the smoke and flames enveloped 
them they continued to affirm their innocence. Some 
averred that forth from the fire Du Molay's voice sounded, 
" Clement! thou wicked and false judge, I summon thee 
Found guilty 
and punished. 
Burning of 
Du Molay. CH. III.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
93 
to meet me within forty days at the bar of God." Some 
said that he also summoned the king. In the following 
year King Philip the Fair and Pope Clement the Fifth 
were dead. 
John XXII., elected after an interval of more than two 
years spent in rivalries and intrigues between the French 
and Italian cardinals, continued the residence at Avignon. 
His movements took a practical turn in the commence- 
ment of a process for the recovery of the treasures of 
Clement from the Viscount de Lomenie. This was only a 
part of the wealth of the deceased pope, but it amounted 
to a million and three quarters of florins of gold. The 
Inquisition was kept actively at work for the extermi- 
nation of the believers in " The Everlasting Gospel," and 
the remnant of the Albigenses and Waldenses. But all 
this had no other result than that which eventually 
occurred-an examination of the authenticity and right- 
fulness of the papal power. With an instinct as to the 
origin of the misbelief everywhere spreading, the pope 
published bulls against the Jews, of whom a bloody per- 
secution had arisen, and ordered that all their Taimuds 
and other blasphemous books should be burnt. 
A physician, Marsilio of Padua, published a 
work, " The Defender of Peace." It was a philo- 
sophical examination of the principles of govern- 
ment, and of the nature and limits of the sacerdotal power. 
Its democratic tendency was displayed by its demonstration 
that the exposition of the law of Christianity rests not with 
the pope nor any other priest, but with a general council; 
it rejected the papal political pretensions; asserted that no 
one can be rightfully excommunicated by a pope alone, 
and that he has no power of coercion over human thought; 
that the civil immunities of the clergy ought to be ended; 
that poverty and humility ought alone to be their cha- 
racteristics ; that society ought to provide them with a 
decent sustenance, but nothing more: their pomp, ex- 
travagance, luxury, and usurpations, especially that of 
tithes, should be abrogated; that neither Christ nor the 
Scriptures ever gave St. Peter a supremacy over the other 
apostles; that, if history is to be consulted, St. Paul, and 
not St. Peter, was bishop of Rome-indeed, it is doubtful 
Marsilio's 
work, " The 
Defender of 
Peace." 94 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. in. 
whether the latter was ever in that city, the Acts of the 
Apostles being silent on that subject. From these and 
many other such arguments he drew forty-one conclusions 
adverse to the political and ecclesiastical supremacy of the 
pope. 
It is not necessary to consider here the relations of John 
XXII. to Louis of Bavaria, nor of the antipope Nicholas; 
they belong merely to political history. But, as if to show 
how the intellectual movement was working its way, the 
pontiff himself did not escape a charge of heresy. Though 
he had so many temporal affairs on his hands, John did 
not hesitate to raise the great question of the 
" beatific vision." In his opinion, the dead, even 
the saints, do not enjoy the beatific vision of God until 
after the Judgment-day. At once there was a demand 
among the orthodox, "What! do not the apostles, John, 
Peter, nay, even the blessed Virgin, stand yet in the 
presence of God ?" The pope directed the most learned 
theologians to examine the question, himself entering 
actively into the dispute. The University of Paris was 
involved. The King of France declared that his realm 
should not be polluted with such heretical doctrines. A 
single sentence explains the practical direction of the 
dogma, so far as the interests of the Church were con- 
cerned: "If the saints stand not in the presence of God, 
of what use is their intercession ? What is the use of 
addressing prayers to them ?" The folly of the pontiff 
perhaps might be excused by his age. He was now nearly 
ninety years old. That he had not guided himself accord- 
ing to the prevailing sentiment of the lower religious 
orders, who thought that poverty is essential to salvation, 
appeared at his death, a.d. 1334. He left eighteen mil- 
lions of gold florins in specie, and seven millions in plato 
and jewels. 
His successor, Benedict XII., disposed of the question of 
the " beatific vision " It is only those saints 
who do not pass through Purgatory that imme- 
diately behold the Godhead." The pontificate of 
Benedict, which was not without many good features, hardly 
verified the expression with which he greeted the cardinals 
when they elected him, "You have chosen an ass." His 
The " beatific 
vision." 
It is explain- 
ed by Bene- 
dict XII. ch. m.] 
THE AGE CF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
95 
was a gay life. There is a tradition that to him. is due 
the origin of the proverb, " As drunk as a pope." 
In the subsequent pontificate of Clement VI., a.d. 1342, 
the court at Avignon became the most voluptuous 
in Christendom. It was crowded with knights 
and ladies, painters and other artists. It ex- 
hibited a day-dream of equipages and banquets. The 
pontiff himself delighted in female society, but, in his 
weakness, permitted his lady, the Countess of Turenne, 
to extort enormous revenues by the sale of ecclesiastical 
promotions. Petrarch, who lived at Avignon at this time, 
speaks of it as a vast brothel. His own sister had been 
seduced by the holy father, John XXII. During all these 
years the Romans had made repeated attempts to force 
back the papal court to their city. With its departure all 
their profits had gone. But the fatal policy of electing 
Frenchmen into the College of Cardinals seemed to shut 
out every hope. The unscrupulous manner in which this 
was done is illustrated by the fact that Clement made one 
of his relatives, a lad of eighteen, a cardinal. 
For a time the brief glories of Rienzi cast a 
flickering ray on Komo ; but Rienzi was only a demagogue 
-an impostor. It was the deep impression made upon 
Europe that the residence at Avignon was an abandon- 
ment of the tomb of St. Peter, that compelled Urban V. to 
return to Rome. This determination was strengthened 
by a desire to escape out of the power of the kings of 
France, and to avoid the free companies who had learned 
to extort bribes for sparing Avignon from plunder. He 
left Avignon, a.d. 1367, amid the reluctant grief of his 
cardinals, torn from that gay and dissipated city, and in 
dread of the recollections and of the populace of Rome. 
And well it might be so; for not only in Rome, but all 
over Italy, piety was held in no respect, and the discipline 
of the Church in derision. When Urban sent to Barnabas 
Visconti, who was raising trouble in Tuscany, a bull of 
excommunication by the hands of two legates, 
Barnabas actually compelled them, in his pre- 
sence, to eat the parchment on which the bull 
was written, together with the leaden seal and the silken 
string, and, telling them that he hoped it would sit as 
Voluptuous- 
ness of Avig- 
non. 
Rienzi. 
Irreverence of 
Barnabas 
Visconti. 96 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. in. 
lightly on their stomachs as it did on his, sent them back 
to their master! In a little time-it was but two years 
-absence from France became insupportable; the pope 
returned to Avignon, and there died. It was reserved for 
his successor, Gregory XI., finally to end what 
was termed, from its seventy years' duration, 
the Babylonish captivity, and restore the papacy to the 
Eternal City, a.d. 1376. 
But, though the popes had thus returned to Rome, the 
effects of King Philip's policy still continued. 
On the death of Gregory XL, the conclave, 
meeting at Rome-for the conclave must meet where the 
pope dies-elected Urban VI., under intimidation of the 
Roman populace, who were determined to retain the 
papacy in their city; but, escaping to Fondi, and repent- 
ing of what they had thus done, they proclaimed his 
election void, and substituted Clement VII. for him. They 
were actually at one time on the point of choosing the 
King of France as pope. Thus began the great schism. 
It was, in reality, a struggle between France and Italy 
for the control of the papacy. The former had enjoyed it 
for seventy years; the latter was determined to recover 
it. The schism thus rested originally on political con- 
siderations, but these were doubtless exasperated by the 
conduct of Urban, whose course was overbearing and even 
intolerable to his supporters. Nor did he amend as his posi- 
tion became more consolidated. In a.d. 1385, suspecting 
his cardinals of an intention to seize him, declare him a 
heretic, and burn him, he submitted several of them to 
torture in his own presence, while he recited his breviary. 
Escaping from Nocera, where he had been besieged, he 
caused the Bishop of Aquila to be killed on the roadside. 
Others he tied in sacks, and threw into the sea at Genoa. 
It was supposed, not without reason, that he was insane. 
If there had formerly been pecuniary difficulty in 
supporting one papal court, it, of course, became 
greater now that there were two. Such trou- 
bles, every day increasing, led at length to 
unhappy political movements. There was an absolute 
necessity for drawing money to Rome and also to Avignon. 
'The device of a jubilee was too transitory and inadequate, 
The popes re- 
turn to Rome. 
Causes of the 
great schism. 
Pecuniary ne- 
cessities of the 
rival popes. CH. III.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
97 
even though, by an improvement in the theory of that 
festival, it was expedited by thirty-three years, answering 
to our Saviour's life. At Avignon, the difficulty of 
Clement, who was of amiable and polished manners, 
turned on the French Church being obliged to support 
him; and it is not to be wondered at that the French 
clergy looked with dislike on the pontifical establishment 
among them, since it was driven by its necessities to prey 
on all their best benefices. Under such circumstances, no 
other course was possible to the rival popes and their 
successors than a thorough reorganization of the papal 
financial system-the more complete develop- 
ment of simony, indulgences, and other im- 
proper sources of emolument. In this manner Boniface 
IX. tripled the value of the annates upon the papal books. 
Usurers or brokers, intervening between the purchasers of 
benefices and the papal exchequer, were established, and 
it is said that, under the pressng difficulties of the case, 
benefices were known to have been sold, many times in 
succession, to different claimants in one week. Late 
applicants might obtain a preference for appointments on 
making a cash payment of twenty-five florins; an in- 
creased preference might be had for fifty. It became, at 
last, no unusual thing to write to kings and prelates for 
subsidies-a proof how greatly the papacy had been 
weakened by the events of the times. 
But religious Europe could not bear with such increasing 
scandals. The rival popes were incessantly 
accusing each other of falsehood and all man- 
ner of wickedness. At length the public sen- 
timent found its expression in the Council of Pisa, called 
by the cardinals on their own responsibility. This council 
summoned the two popes -Benedict XIII. and Gregory 
XII.-before it; declared the crimes and excesses imputed 
to them to be true, and deposed them both, appointing in 
their stead Alexander V. There were now, 
therefore, three popes. But, besides thus ren- 
dering the position of things worse than it was before in 
this respect, the council had taken the still more extra- 
ordinary step of overthrowing the autocracy of the pope. 
It had been compelled by the force of circumstances to 
Organization 
of simony. 
Indignation 
of religious 
Europe. 
Three popes. 98 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. hi. 
destroy the very foundation of Latin Christianity by 
assuming the position of superiority over the vicar of 
Christ. Now might be discerned by men of reflexion the 
purely human nature of the papacy. It had broken down. 
Out of the theological disputes of preceding years a poli- 
tical principle was obviously emerging; the democratic 
spirit was developing itself, and the hierarchy was in 
rebellion against its sovereign. 
Nor was this great movement limited to the clergy. 
In every direction the laity participated in it, pecuniary 
questions being in very many instances the incentive. 
Things had come to such a condition that it seemed to bo 
of little moment what might be the personal character of 
the pontiff; the necessities of the position irresistibly 
drove him to replenish the treasury by shameful means. 
Thus, on Alexander's death, Balthazar Cossa, 
an evil but an able man, who succeeded as John 
XXIII., was not only compelled to extend the existing 
simoniacal practices of the ecclesiastical brokers' offices, but 
actually to derive revenue from the licensing of prostitutes, 
gambling-houses, and usurers. In England, for ages a 
mine of wealth to Home, the tendency of things was shown 
by such facts as the remonstrance of the Commons with the 
crown on the appointment of ecclesiastics to all 
the great offices; the allegations made by the 
" Good Parliament" as to the amount of money 
drawn by Rome from the kingdom. They asserted that it 
was five times as much as the taxes levied by the king, and 
that the pope's revenue from England was greater than 
the revenue of any prince in Christendom. It was shown 
again by such facts as the passage of the statutes of 
Mortmain, Provisors, and Praemunire, and by the universal 
clamour against the mendicant orders. This dissatisfac- 
tion with the clergy was accompanied by a desire for 
knowledge. Thousands of persons crowded to the uni- 
versities both on the Continent and in England. In a 
community thus well prepared, Wiclif found no 
difficulty in disseminating his views. He had 
adopted in many particulars the doctrines of 
Berengar. He taught that the bread in the Eucharist is 
not the real body of Christ, but only its image; that the 
Balthazar Cos- 
sa made pope. 
Dissatisfac- 
tion in 
England. 
Wiclif, the 
English 
reformer. CH. III.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
99 
Roman Church has no true claim to headship over other 
churches ; that its bishop has no more authority than any 
other bishop; that it is right to deprive a delinquent 
Church of temporal possessions; that no bishop ought to 
have prisons for the punishment of those obnoxious to 
him; and that the Bible alone is a sufficient guide for a 
Christian man. His translation of the Bible 
into English was the practical carrying out of 
that assertion for the benefit of his own countrymen. All 
classes of society were becoming infected. The govern- 
ment for a season vacillated. It was said that every other 
man in England was a Lollard The Lollards were 
Wiclifites. But the Church at last persuaded the govern- 
ment to let her try her hand, and the statute " de heretico 
comburendo" was passed a.d. 1400. William Sautree, a 
priest who had turned Wiclifite, was the first 
English martyr. John Badbee, a tailor, who 
denied transubstantiation-accused of having 
said that, if it were true, there were 20,000 gods in every 
corn-field in England-next suffered in like manner at the 
stake, in presence of the Prince of Wales. Lord Cobham, 
the head of the Lollards, who had denounced the pope as 
Anti-Christ, the Son of Perdition, was imprisoned; but 
escaping, .became involved in political movements, and 
suffered at length the double penalty for heresy and 
treason, being hung on a gallows with a fire blazing at 
his feet. It is interesting to remark the social rank of 
these three early martyrs. Heresy was pervading all 
classes, from the lowest io the highest. 
The Council of Constance met a.d. 1415. It had a 
threefold object: 1. The union of the Church under one 
pope; 2. The reformation of the clergy; 3. The suppression 
of' heresy. Ps policy from the first was determined. It 
proclaimed itself supreme. It demanded the abdication of 
the pope John XXIII.; exhibited articles of 
accusation against him, some of them of such 
enormity as almost to surpass belief, and justi- 
fying the epithet that he was "a devil incar- 
nate." The suffrage of the council was changed. The 
plan of voting by nations, which reduced the Italians to a 
single vote, was introduced. These incidental facts may 
He translates 
the Bible. 
Burning cf 
English 
heretics. 
The Council 
of Constance 
deposes ths 
pope, 100 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. in. 
indicate to us that there were present men who under- 
stood thoroughly how to manage the machinery of such an 
assembly, and that the remark of 2Eneas Sylvius, after- 
ward Pope Pius II., respecting the Council of Basle was 
equally true as to that of Constance, that it was not so 
much directed by the Holy Ghost as by the passions of 
men. The influence that lawyers were now exercising in 
social affairs-their habits of arrangement, of business, 
and intrigue, is strikingly manifested in the management 
of these assemblages; their arts had passed to the clergy, 
and even in part to the people. But how vast was the 
change that had occurred in the papacy from the voluntary 
abdication of Celestine to the compulsory abdication of 
John! 
To this council, also, came John Huss, under a safe- 
conduct from the Emperor Sigismund. Scarcely, 
however, had he arrived when he was imprisoned; 
this treachery being excused from the necessity of conceding 
it to the reforming party. On June 5th, a.d. 1416, Huss 
was brought in chains before the council. It was declared 
unlawful to keep faith with a heretic. His countrymen, 
the Bohemian lords present, protested against such perfidy, 
and loudly demanded his release. Articles of accusation, 
derived from his works, were presented. He avowed 
himself ready to defend his opinions. The uproar was so 
great that the council temporarily adjourned. Two days 
afterwards the trial was resumed. It was ushered in by 
an eclipse of the sun, said to have been total at Prague. 
No one of the bloodthirsty ecclesiastics laid to heart the 
solemn monition that, after his moment of greatest darkness 
was over, the sun shone forth with recovered effulgence 
again. The emperor was present, with all the fathers. 
The first accusation entered on related to transubstantia- 
tion. On this and on succeeding occasions the emperor 
took part in the discussions, among other things observing 
that, in his opinion, the prisoner was worthy of death. 
After a lengthy inquiry into his alleged errors, a form of 
recantation was prepared for Huss. With modest firmness 
ho declined it, concluding his noble answer with 
the words, " I appeal to Christ Jesus, the one 
all powerful and all-just Judge. To him I commend my 
and murd rs 
John Hues. 
Noble con- 
duct of Huss. on. in.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
101 
cause, who will judge every man, not according to false 
witnesses and erring councils, but according to truth and 
man's desert." On July 1st the council met in full session. 
Thirty articles against Huss were read. Among other 
things, they alleged that he believed the material bread to 
be unchanged after the consecration. In his extremity the 
prisoner looked steadfastly at the traitor Sigismund, and 
solemnly exclaimed, " Freely came I here under the safe- 
conduct of the emperor." The conscience-stricken monarch 
blushed. Huss was then made to kneel down and receive 
his sentence. It condemned his writings and his body to 
the flames. 
He was then degraded and despoiled of his orders. Some 
of the bishops mocked at him; some, more merciful, 
implored him to recant. They cut his hair in the form of 
a cross, and set upon his head a high paper crown on which 
devils were painted. "We devote thy soul to the devils 
in hell." " And I commend my soul to the most merciful 
Lord Christ Jesus." He was then led forth. They passed 
by the bishop's palace, where Huss's books were burning. 
When they fastened him with a chain to his stake, the 
painted crown fell off, but the soldiers replaced it. " Let 
him and his devils be burned together." As 
the flames closed over him, he chanted psalms 
and prayed to the Eedeemer. Can that be true which 
requires for its support the murder of a true man ? 
So acted without a dissenting voice the Council of 
Constance. It feared the spread of heresy, but it did not 
fear, perhaps did not consider, that higher tribunal to 
whose inexorable verdict councils, and popes, and emperors 
must submit-posterity. It asserted itself to be under the 
inspiration of the Holy Ghost. It took profit by a shame- 
ful perfidy. It was a conclave of murderers. It stifled 
the voice of an earnest man, solemnly protesting against a 
doctrine now derided by all the intellect of Europe. The 
revolution it was compassing it inaugurated in blood, not 
alone that of John Huss, but also of Jerome of 
Prague. These martyrs were no common men. 
Poggio Bracciolini, an eye-witness, says, in a 
letter to Leonardo Aretino, speaking of the eloquence of 
Jerome, " When I consider what his choice of words was, 
lie is burnt. 
It murders, 
also, Jerome 
of Prague. 102 
THE AGE OF FATIH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. i it. 
what his elocution, what his reasoning, what his counten- 
ance, his voice, his action I must affirm, however 
much we may admire the ancients, that in such 
a cause no one could have approached nearer to the model 
of their eloquence." 
John XXIII. was compelled to abdicate. Gregory XII. 
died. Some time after, Benedict XIII. followed him. 
The council had elected Martin V., and in him found a 
master who soon put an end to its doings. It had deposed 
one pope and elected another; it had cemented the 
dominant creed with blood; it had authorized 
the dreadful doctrine that a difference in 
religious opinion justifies the breaking of plighted faith 
between man and man ; it had attempted to perpetuate its 
own power by enacting that councils should be held every 
five years; but it had not accomplished its great object- 
ecclesiastical reform. 
In a room attached to the Cathedral of Basle, with its 
roof of green and parti-coloured tiles, the modern traveller 
reads on a piece of paper this inscription : " The room of 
the council, where the famous Council of Basil 
was assembled. In this room Pope Eugene IV. 
was dethroned, and replaced by Felix V., Duc of Savoie 
and Cardinal of Kepaile. The council began 1431, and 
lasted 1448." That chamber, w'ith its floor of little red 
earthen flags and its oaken ceiling, witnessed gieat events. 
The democratic influence pervading the Church showed 
no symptoms of abatement. The fate of Huss had been 
avenged in blood and fire by the Bohemian sword. 
Eugenius IV., now pontiff, was afraid that negotiations 
would be entered upon with the Hussite chiefs. Such a 
treaty, he affirmed, would be blasphemy against God and an 
insult to the pope. He was therefore bent on the proroga- 
tion of the council, and spared no means to accomplish his 
purpose. 1 ts ostensible object was the reformation of the 
clergy ; its real intent was to convert the papal autocracy 
into a constitutional monarchy. To this end it cited the 
pope, and, on his non-appearance, declared him 
and seventeen of the cardinals in contumacy. 
He had denounced it as the Synagogue of Satan ; 
on its part, it was assuming the functions of the Senate 
His singular 
eloquence. 
What the 
council did. 
The Council 
of Basle. 
It declares 
the pope in 
contumacy. cn. III.] 
THE AGE OE FAITH IN THE WEST. 
103 
of Christendom. It had prepared a great seal, and asserted 
that, in case of the death of the pope, the election of his 
successor was vested in it. It was its firm purpose never 
again to leave that great event in the hands of a conclave 
of intriguing Italian cardinals, but to intrust it to the 
representatives of united Christendom. After a due delay 
since he was declared in contumacy, the council suspended 
the pope, and, slowly moving towards its object, elected 
Amadeus of Savoy, Felix V., his successor. It was neces- 
sary that its pope should be a rich man, for the council had 
but slender means of offering him pecuniary support. 
Amadeus had that qualification. And perhaps it was far 
from being, in the eyes of many, an inopportune circum- 
stance that he had been married and had children. We 
may discern, through the shifting scenes of the intrigues 
of the times, that the German hierarchy had come to the 
resolution that the election of the popes should be taken 
from the Italians and given to Europe; that his 
power should be restricted; that he should no 
longer be the irresponsible vicar of God upon earth; but 
the accountable chief executive officer of Christendom ; and 
that the right of marriage should be conceded to the clergy. 
These are significantly Teutonic ideas. 
We have pursued the story of these events nearly as far 
as is necessary for the purpose of this book. We 
shall not, therefore, follow the details of the new 
schism. It fell almost without interest on 
Europe. vEneas Sylvius, the ablest man of the day, in 
three words gives us the true insight into the state of 
things : " Faith is dead." On the demise of Eugenius IV., 
Nicolas V. succeeded. An understanding was had with 
those in the interest of the council. It was dissolved. 
Felix V. abdicated. The morality of the times had im- 
proved. The anti-pope was neither blinded nor murdered. 
The schism was at an end. 
Thus we have seen that the personal immoralities and 
heresy of the popes brought on the interference 
of the King of France, who not only shook the 
papal system toits basis butdestroyed its prestige 
by inflicting the most conspicuous indignity 
upon it. For seventy years Koine was disfranchised, and 
Its real inten- 
tions. 
Cause and 
close of these 
troubles. 
End of the 
intellectual 
influence of 
the papacy. 104 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. hi. 
the rivalries of France and Italy produced the great schism, 
than which nothing could be more prejudicial to the papal 
power. We have seen that, aided by the pecuniary 
difficulties of the papacy, the rising intellect of Europe 
made good its influence and absolutely deposed the pope. 
It was in vain to deny the authenticity of such a council; 
there stood the accomplished fact. At this moment there 
seemed no other prospect for the Italian system than 
utter ruin; yet, wonderful to be said, a momentary 
deliverance came from a quarter whence no man would 
have expected. The lurks were the saviours of the 
papacy. 
At this point is the true end of the Italian system-that 
system which had pressed upon Europe like a nightmare. 
The great men of the times-the statesmen, the philoso- 
phers, the merchants, the lawyers, the governing classes-• 
those whose weight of opinion is recognized by the unedu- 
cated people at last, had shaken off the incubus and opened 
their eyes. A glimmering of the true state of things was 
breaking upon the clergy. No more with the vigour it 
once possessed was the papacy again to domineer over 
human thought and be the controlling agent of European 
affairs. Convulsive struggles it might make, but they 
were only death-throes. The sovereign pontiff must now 
descend from the autocracy he had for so many ages 
possessed, and become a small potentate, tolerated by kings 
in that subordinate position only because of the remnant of 
his influence on the uneducated multitude and those of 
feeble minds CHAPTER IV. 
THE AGE GF FAITH IN THE WEST-{Concluded). 
EFFECT OF THE EASTERN OR MILITARY ATTACK.-GENERAL REVIEW OF 
THE AGE OF FAITH. 
The Fall of Constantinople-Its momentary Effect on the Italian System. 
General Review of the intellectual Condition in the Age of 
Faith.-Supernaturalism and its Logic spread all over Europe.-It 
is destroyed by the Jews and Arabians.-Its total Extinction. 
The Jewish Physicians.-Their Acquirements and Influence.-Their 
Collision with the Imposture-medicine of Europe.-Their Effect on the 
higher Classes.-Opposition to them. 
Two Impulses, the Intellectual and Moral, operating against the Medieval 
state of Things.-Downfall of the Italian System through the intellec- 
tual Impulse from the Wes/ and the moral from the North.-Action of 
the former through Astronomy.-Origin of the moral Impulse.-Their 
conjoint irresistible Effect.-Discovery of the state of Affairs in Italy. 
-The Writings of Machiavelli.-What the Church had actually done. 
Entire Movement of the Italian System determined from a consideration 
of the four Revolts against it. 
From the West I have now to return to the East, and to 
describe the pressure made by Mohammedanism 
on that side. It is illustrated by many great 
events, but, above all, by the fall of Constantinople. The 
Greek Church, so long out of sight that it is perhaps almost 
forgotten by the reader, comes for a moment before us like 
a spectre from the dead. 
A wandering tribe of Turks had found its way into 
Asia Minor, and, under its leader Ertogrul and 
his son Othman, consolidated its power and 
commenced extending its influence by possessions taken 
from the sultans of Iconium and the Byzantine empire. 
The third prince of the race instituted the Janissaries, a 
The Eastern 
pressure. 
Invasions of 
the Turks. 106 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
|_CH. iv 
remarkable military force, and commenced driving the 
Greeks out of Asia Minor. His son Soliman crossed the 
Hellespont and captured Gallipoli, thus securing a foot- 
hold in Europe, a.d. 1358. 
This accomplished, the Turkish influence began to 
extend rapidly. Thrace, Macedon, and Servia 
were subdued. Sigismund, the King of Hun- 
gary, was overthrown at the battle of Nicopolis 
by Bajazet. Southern Greece, the countries along the 
Danube, submitted, and Constantinople would have fallen 
had it not been for the unexpected irruption of Tamerlane, 
who defeated Bajazet and took him prisoner. The reign of 
Mohammed I., who succeeded, was occupied in the restora- 
tion of Turkish affairs. Under Amurath II., the possession 
if the Euxine shore was obtained, the fortifications across 
the Isthmus of Corinth were stormed, and the Pelopon- 
nesus entered. 
Mohammed II. became the Sultan of the Turks a.d. 
1451. From the moment of his accession, he turned all his 
powers to the capture of Constantinople. Its sovereigns 
had long foreseen the inevitable event, and had made 
repeated attempts to secure military aid from 
the West. They were ready to surrender their 
religious belief. On this principle, the monk 
Barlaam was despatched on an embassy to Bene- 
dict XII. to propose the reunion of the Greek and Latin 
Churches, as it was delicately termed, and to obtain, as an 
equivalent for the concession, an army of Franks. As the 
danger became more urgent, John Paheologus I. sought 
an interview with Urban V., and, having been purified 
from his heresies respecting the supremacy of the pope and 
the double procession of the Holy Ghost, was presented 
before the pontiff in the Church of St. Peter. The Greek 
monarch, after three genuflexions, was permitted to kiss 
the feet of the holy father and to lead by its bridle his 
mule. But, though they might have the will, the popes 
had lost the power, and these great submissions were pro- 
ductive of no good. Thirty years subsequently, Manuel, 
the son and successor of Pahnologus, took what might 
have seemed a more certain course. He travelled to Paris 
and to London to lay his distress before the kings of 
Extension of 
their power in 
Europe. 
The Byzan- 
tine sove- 
reigns apply 
to the West. CH. IV.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
107 
France and England; but he received only pity, not aid. 
At the Council of Constance Byzantine ambassadors ap- 
peared. It was, however, reserved for the synods of 
Fcrrara and of Florence to mature, as far as might be, the 
negotiation. The second son of John Palaeologus journeyed 
again into Italy, a.d. 1438; and while Eugenius was 
being deposed in the chamber at Basle, he was con- 
summating the union of the East and West in the Cathe- 
dral of Florence. In the pulpit of that edifice, on the 
sixth of July of that year, a Itoman cardinal 
and a Greek archbishop embraced each other 
before the people; Te Deum was chanted in 
Greek, mass was celebrated in Latin, and the Creed was 
read with the " Filioque." The successor of Constantine 
the Great had given up his religion, but he had received 
no equivalent-no aid. The state of the Church, its dis- 
orders and schisms, rendered any community of action in 
the West impossible. 
The last, the inevitable hour at length struck. Mo- 
hammed II. is said to have been a learned man, 
able to express himself in five different lan- 
guages ; skilful in mathematics, especially in their prac- 
tical application to engineering; an admirer of the fine 
arts; prodigal in his liberality to Italian painters. In 
Asia Minor, as in Spain, there was free thinking among 
the disciples of the I'rophet. It was affirmed that the 
sultan, in his moments of relaxation, was often heard to 
deride the religion of his country as an imposture. Uis 
doubts in that particular were, however, compensated 
for by his determination to carry out the intention of so 
many of his Mohammedan predecessors-the seizure of 
Constantinople. 
At this time the venerable city had so greatly declined 
that it contained only 100,000 inhabitants-out 
of them only 4970 able or willing to bear arms. 
The besieging force was more than a quarter of 
a million of men. As Mohammed pressed forward his 
works, the despairing emperor in vain looked for the long- 
promised effectual Western aid. In its extremity, the 
devoted metropolis was divided by religious feuds; and 
when a Latin priest officiated in St. Sophia, there were 
The Greek 
Church yields 
to the Latin. 
Mohammed 
II. 
The siege of 
Constanti- 
nople. 108 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. iv. 
many who exclaimed that they would rather see the 
turban of the sultan than the tiara of the pope. In 
several particulars the siege of Constantinople marked out 
the end of old ages and the beginning of new. Its walls 
were shaken by the battering rams of the past, and over- 
thrown by cannon, just then coming into general use. 
Upon a plank road, shipping was passed through the open 
country, in the darkness of a single night, a distance of 
ten miles. The works were pushed forward toward the 
walls, on the top of which the sentinels at length could 
hear the shouts of the Turks by their nocturnal fires. 
They were sounds such as Constantinople might well 
listen to. She had taught something different for many 
a long year. "God is God; there is none but God." In 
the streets an image of the Virgin was carried in solemn 
procession. Now or never she must come to the help of 
those who had done so much for her, who had made her a 
queen in heaven and a goddess upon earth. The cry of 
her worshippers was in vain. 
On May 29th, 1453, the assault was delivered. Con- 
stantine Palaeologus, the last of the Roman emperors, 
putting off his purple, that no man might recognize and 
insult his corpse when the catastrophe was over, fell, as 
became a Roman emperor, in the breach. After his 
death resistance ceased, and the victorious Turks 
poured into the town. To the Church of St. 
Sophia there rushed a promiscuous crowd of women and 
children, priests, monks, religious virgins, and-men. 
Superstitious to the last, in this supreme moment they 
expected the fulfilment of a prophecy that, when the 
Turks should have forced their way to the square before 
that church, their progress would be arrested, for an angel 
with a sword in his hand would descend from heaven and 
save the city of the Lord. The Turks burst into the 
square, but the angel never came. 
More than two thirds of the inhabitants of Constan- 
tinople were carried prisoners into the Turkish camp-the 
men for servitude, the women for a still more evil fate. 
The churches were sacked. From the dome of St. Sophia 
its glories were torn down. The divine images, for the 
sake of which Christendom had been sundered in former 
Fall of the 
city. ch. iv.j 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
109 
days, unresistingly submitted to the pious rage of the 
Mohammedans without working a single miracle, and, 
stripped of their gems and gold, were brought to their 
proper value in the vile uses of kitchens and stables. On 
that same day the Muezzin ascended the loftiest turret of 
St. Sophia, and over the City of the Trinity proclaimed 
the Oneness of God. The sultan performed his prayers 
at the great altar, directing the edifice to be purified from 
its idolatries and consecrated to the worship of God. 
Thence he repaired to the palace, and, reflecting on the 
instability of human prosperity, repeated, as he entered 
it, the Persian verse: " The spider has woven his web in 
the imperial palace ; the owl hath sung her watch song on 
the towers of Afrasiab." 
This solemn event-the fall of Constantinople-accom- 
plished, there was no need of any reconciliation of the 
Greek and Latin Churches. The sword of Mohammed had 
settled their dispute. Constantinople had submitted to the 
fate of Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Carthage. Chris- 
tendom was struck with consternation. The 
advance of the Turks in Europe was now very 
rapid. Corinth and Athens fell, and the reduc- 
tion of Greece was completed. The confines of 
Italy were approached a.d. 1461. The Mohammedan flag 
confronted that peninsula along the Adriatic coast. In 
twenty years more Italy was invaded. Otranto was taken ; 
its bishop killed at the door of his church. At this period, 
it was admitted that the Turkish infantry, cavalry, and 
artillery were the best in the world. Soliman the Magni- 
ficent took Belgrade a.d. 1520. Nine years 
afterwards the Turks besieged Vienna, but were 
repulsed. Soliman now prepared for the subjugation of 
Italy, and was only diverted from it by an accident which 
turned him upon the Venetians. It was not until the 
battle of Lepanto that the Turkish advance was fairly 
checked. Even as it was, in the complicated policy and 
intrigues of Europe its different sovereigns could not trust 
one another; their common faith had ceased to be a 
common bond: in all it had been weakened, in some 
destroyed. JEneas Sylvius, speaking of Christendom, 
says, " It is a body without a head, a republic without 
Terror of 
Christendom 
at the fall of 
Constanti- 
nople. 
Progress of 
the Turks. 110 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. IV. 
laws or magistrates. The pope or the emperor may shine 
as lofty titles, as splendid images; but they are unable to 
command, and no one is willing to obey." But, during 
this period of Turkish aggression, had not the religious 
dissensions of Christendom been decently composed, there 
was imminent danger that Europe would have been 
Mohammedanized. A bitter experience of past ages, as 
well as of the present, had taught it that the Itoman 
Church was utterly powerless against such attacks. Safety 
was to be looked for, not in any celestial aid, but in 
physical knowledge and pecuniary resources, carried out 
in the organization of armies and fleets. Had her au- 
thority been derived from the source she pretended, she 
should have found an all-sufficient protection in prayer- 
indeed, not even that should have been required. Men 
discovered at last that her Litanies and her miracles were 
equally of no use, and that she must trust, like any other 
human tyranny, to cannon and the sword. 
The Turkish aggression led to the staying of the demo- 
cratic outbreak in the bosom of the Church-the 
abstaining for a season from any farther sapping 
of the papal autocracy. It was necessary that 
ecclesiastical disputes, if they could not be ended, should, 
at all events, be kept for a time in abeyance, and so 
indeed they were, until the pent-up dissensions burst forth 
in " the Reformation." And thus, as we have related, by 
Mohammedan knowledge in the West, papal Christianity 
was well-nigh brought to ruin ; thus, by a strange paradox, 
the Mohammedan sword in the East gave it for a little 
longer a renewed lease of political power, though never 
again of life. 
To Nicolas V., a learned and able pope, the catastrophe 
of Constantinople was the death-blow. He had been the 
intimate friend of Cosmo deMedici, and from 
him had imbibed a taste for letters and art, but, 
like his patron, he had no love for liberty. It was thus 
through commerce that the papacy first learned to turn to 
art. The ensuing development of Europe was really based 
on the commerce of upper Italy, and. not upon the Church. 
The statesmen of Florence were the inventors of the 
balance of power. A lover of literature, Nicolas was the 
Effect of the 
Turkish in- 
vasion. 
Nicolas V. a 
patron of art. CH. IV.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
111 
founder of the V atican Library. He clearly perceived the 
only course in which the Roman system could be directed ; 
that it was unfit for, and, indeed, incompatible with 
science, but might be brought into unison with art. Its 
influence upon the reason was gone, but the senses yet 
remained for it. In continuing his policy, the 
succeeding popes acted with wisdom. They 
gratified the genius of their institutions, of their country, 
and their age. In the abundant leisure of monasteries, the 
monks had found occupation in the illumination of manu- 
scripts. From the execution of miniatures they gradually 
rose to an undertaking of greater works. In that manner 
painting had originated in Italy in the twelfth century. 
Sculpture, at first merged in architecture, had extricated 
herself from that bondage in the fourteenth. The mendi- 
cant orders, acquiring wealth, became munificent patrons. 
From caligraphic illustrations to the grand works of 
Michael Angelo and Raffaelle is a prodigious advance, yet 
it took but a short time to accomplish it. 
I have now completed the history of the European Age 
of Faith as far as is necessary for the purposes of this 
book. It embraces a period of more than a 
thousand years, counting from the reign of Con- 
stantine. It remains to consider the intellectual pecu- 
liarity that marks the whole period-to review briefly the 
agents that exerted an influence upon it and conducted it 
to its close. 
Philosophically, the most remarkable peculiarity is the 
employment of a false logic, a total misconcep- 
tion of the nature of evidence. It is illustrated 
by miracle-proofs, trial by battle, ordeal tests, 
and a universal belief in supernatural agency 
even for objectless purposes. On the principles of this 
logic, if the authenticity of a thing or the proof of a state- 
ment be required, it is supposed to be furnished by an 
astounding illustration of something else. If the character 
of a princess is assailed, she offers a champion; he proves 
victorious, and therefore she was not frail. If a The character 
national assembly, after a long discussion, can- of its lo8ic- 
not decide " whether children should inherit the property 
of their father during the lifetime of their grandfather," 
Gradual rise 
of the fine arts. 
Review of the 
Age of Faith. 
Philosophical 
peculiarities 
of the Age of 
Faith. 112 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
[ch. iv. 
an equal number of equal combatants is chosen for each 
side; they fight; the champions of the children prevail, 
and therefore the law is fixed in their favour. A relic of 
some martyr is bought at a great price; no one seeks to 
criticize the channel through which it has come, but every 
one asks, Can it work a miracle? A vast institution 
demands the implicit obedience of all men. It justifies its 
claim, not by the history of the past, but by promises and 
threats' of the future. A decrepit crone is suspected of 
witchcraft. She is stripped naked and thrown into the 
nearest pond: if she sinks, she is innocent; if she swims, 
she is in commerce with the Devil. In all such cases the 
intrinsic peculiarity of the logic is obvious enough; it 
shows a complete misconception of the nature of evidence. 
Yet this ratiocination governed Europe for a thousand 
years, giving birth to those marvellous and 
supernatural explanations of physical pheno- 
mena and events upon which we now look back 
with unfeigned surprise, half disbelieving that it was 
possible for our ancestors to have credited such things. 
Against this preposterous logic the Mohammedans and 
Jews struck the first blows. We have already 
heard what Algazzali the Arabian says respect- 
ing the enchanter who would prove that three 
are more than ten by changing a stick into a 
serpent. The circumstances under which the Jewish 
physicians acted we shall consider presently. 
It will not be useless to devote a little space to this 
belief in the supernatural. It offers an opportunity of 
showing how false notions may become universal, embody 
themselves in law and practical life, and wonderful to 
be said, how they may, without anything being done to 
destroy them, vanish from sight of themselves, like night- 
spectres before the day. At present we only encounter 
them among the lowest peasant grades, or among those 
who have been purposely kept in the most abject state of 
ignorance. Less than a century ago the clergy of Spain 
wished to have the Opera prohibited, because that ungodly 
entertainment had given rise to a want of rain; but now, 
in a country so intellectually backward as that-a witch 
was burnt there so lately as a.d. 1781-such an attempt 
Its adoption 
of superna- 
turalism. 
The Jews and 
Saracens de- 
stroy super- 
naturalism. CH. IV.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
113 
would call up sly wit, ana make the rabble ot Madrid, 
suspect that the archbishop was smarting under the 
rivalry of the prima donna, and that he was furbishing up 
the rusty ecclesiastical enginery to sustain his cause. 
In the day of their power the ecclesiastical profession 
were the supporters of this delusion. They 
found it suitable to their interests, and, by dint 
of at first persuading others to believe, they at 
last, by habit, came to believe in it themselves. 
The Mohammedans and Jews were the first to assail it 
philosophically and by sarcasm, but its final ruin was 
brought about by the action of the two other professions, 
the legal and the medical. The lawyers, whose advent to 
power is seen in the history of Philip the Fair, and whose 
rise from that time was very rapid, were obliged to 
introduce the true methods of evidence; the physicians, 
from their pursuits, were perpetually led to the material 
explanation of natural phenomena in contradistinction to 
the mystical. It is to the honour of both these professions 
that they never sought for a perpetuation of power by 
schemes of vast organization, never attempted to delude 
mankind by stupendous impostures, never compelled them 
to desist from the expression of their thoughts, and even 
from thinking, by alliances with civil power. Far from 
being the determined antagonists of human knowledge, 
they uniformly fostered it, and, in its trials, defended it. 
The lawyers were hated because they replaced super- 
natural logic by philosophical logic; the physicians, be- 
cause they broke down the profitable but mendacious 
system of miracle-cures. 
Yet the Church is not without excuse. In all her varied 
history it was impossible to disentangle her 
from the principles which at the beginning had 
entered into her political organization. For good or evil, 
right or wrong, her necessity required that she should 
put herself forth as the possessor of all knowledge within 
the reach of human intellect-the infallible arbitress of 
every question that should arise among men. Doubtless 
it was a splendid imposture, capable for a time of yielding 
great results, but sooner or later certain to be unmasked. 
Early discovering the antagonism of science, which could 
Respective in- 
fluence of the 
clergy, the 
lawyers, and 
physicians. 
Position of 
the Church. 114 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[CH. IV 
not fail, m due season, to subject her pretensions to in- 
vestigation, she lent herself to a systematic delusion of 
the illiterate, and thereby tried to put off that fatal day 
when creeds engendered in the darkness would have to be 
examined in the light, enforcing her attempt with an un- 
sparing, often with a bloody hand. It was for this reason 
that, when the inevitable time of trial came, no intellectual 
defence could be made in her behalf, and hence 
there only remained a recourse to physical and 
political compulsion. But such a compulsion, 
under such circumstances, is not only a testimony 
to the intrinsic weakness of that for which it is invoked, it 
is also a token that they who resort to it have lost all faith 
in any inherent power of the system they are supporting, 
and that, in truth, it is fast coming to an end. 
The reader will remark, from the incidents connected 
with supernatural delusions now to be related, 
that they follow a law of continuous variation, the 
particular embodiment they assumed changing 
with the condition of the human mind at each epoch under 
examination. For ages they are implicitly believed in by 
all classes; then, to a few, but the number perpetually 
increasing, they become an idle story of bare-faced impos- 
ture. At last humanity wakens from its delusion-its 
dream. The final rej'ection of the whole, in spite of the 
wonderful amount of testimony which for ages had accu- 
mulated, occurs spontaneously the moment that pyschical 
development has reached a certain point. There can be 
no more striking illustration of the definite advancement 
of the human mind. The boy who is terror-stricken in a 
dark room insensibly dismisses his idle fears as he grows 
up to be a man. 
Clemens Romanns and Anastasius Sinaita, speaking of 
Simon Magus, say that he could make himself 
invisible; that he formed a man out of air; that 
he could pass bodily through mountains without 
being obstructed thereby; that he could fly and sit unharmed 
in flames; that he constructed animated statues and self- 
moving furniture, and not only changed his countenance 
into the similitude of many other men, but that his whole 
body could be transformed into the shape of a goat, a sheep, 
She could not 
extricate her- 
sdf from her 
false position. 
Successive or- 
der in super- 
natural ideas. 
Oriental 
magicians- 
Simon Magus. CH. IV.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
115 
a snake; that, as he walked m the street, he cast many 
shadows in different directions; that he could make trees 
suddenly spring up in desert places; and, on one occa- 
sion, compelled an enchanted sickle to go into a field and 
reap twice as much in one day as if it had been used by a 
man. Of Apollonius of Tyana we are told that, after an 
unbroken silence of five years, he comprehended the lan- 
guages of all animals and all men ; that, under 
circumstances very picturesquely related, he 
detected the genius of a plague at Ephesus, and dragged 
him, self-convicted, before the people; that, at the wedding- 
dinner of Menippus, he caused all the dishes and viands to 
vanish, thereby compelling the bride to acknowledge that 
she was a vampire, intending to eat the flesh and lap the 
blood of her husband in the night; that he exhibited the 
prodigy of being in many places at the same time; raised 
a young woman from the dead; and, finally, weary of the 
world, ascended bodily into heaven. 
As Arabian influence spread, ideas of Oriental aspect 
appear. There are peris who live on perfumes, 
and divs who are poisoned by them ; enchanted 
palaces; moving statues; veiled prophets, like 
Mokanna; brazen flying horses; charmed arrows ; derviscs 
who can project their soul into the body of a dead animal, 
giving it temporary life; enchanted rings, to make the wearer 
invisible, or give him two different bodies at the same time; 
ghouls who live in cemeteries, and at night eat the flesh of 
dead men. As the European counterpart of these Perso- 
Arabic ideas, there are fairies, and their dancing by moon- 
light, their tampering with children, and imposing 
changelings on horror-stricken mothers. Every one be- 
lieves that rain and wind may be purchased of 
wizards, and that fair weather may be obtained 
and storms abated by prayer. Whoever attains 
to wealth or eminence does so by a compact with 
Satan, signed with blood. The head of the Church, 
Sylvester II., makes a brazen head, which speaks to him 
prophetically. He finds underground treasures in a subter- 
ranean magic palace beneath a mountain. The protestator 
of the Greek emperor is accused of a conspiracy against his 
master's life bv makino* invisible men. Ttoberf GmsfefA 
Greek thau- 
uiaturgists. 
Introduction 
of an Arabian 
element. 
Introduction 
of European 
sorcery and 
witchcraft. 116 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
[ch. iv. 
the Bishop of Lincoln, makes another speaking head. 
Nay, more, Albertus Magnus constructs a complete brazen 
man, so cunningly contrived as to serve him for a domestic. 
This was at the time that Thomas Aquinas was living with 
him. The household trouble arising from the excessive 
garrulity of this simulacrum grew so intolerable-for it 
was incessantly making mischief among the other inmates 
-that Thomas, unable to bear it any longer, took a 
hammer and broke the troublesome android to pieces. 
This reverend father, known among his contem- 
poraries as the " seraphic doctor," was not 
without experience in the mysterious craft. 
Annoyed by the frequent passing of horses near his 
dwelling, he constructed a magical horse of brass, and buried 
it in the road. From that moment no animal could be made 
to pass his door. Among brazen heads of great celebrity 
is that of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungy. This oracle 
announced, " Time is; time was; time is passedperhaps 
it was some kind of clock. The alchemist Peter d'Apono 
had seven spirits in glass bottles. He had entrapped them 
by baiting with distilled dew, and imprisoned them safely 
by dexterously putting in the corks. He is the same who 
possessed a secret which it is greatly to be regretted that he 
did not divulge for the benefit of chemists who have come 
after him, that, whatever money he paid, within the space 
of one hour's time came • back of itself again into his 
pocket. That was better than even the philosopher's 
stone. 
These supernatural notions were at different times modi 
tied by two intrusive elements, the first being the 
Perso-Arabic just alluded to, the second derived 
from the north of Europe. This element was 
witchcraft; for, though long before, among Hebrews, Greeks, 
and Romans, decrepit women were known as witches- 
as the Thessalian crone who raised a corpse from the dead 
for Sextus by lashing it with a snake-it was not until a 
later period that this element was fairly developed. A bull 
of Pope Innocent VIII., published a.d. 1484, 
says, " It has come to our ears that numbers of 
both sexes do not avoid to have intercourse with 
the infernal fiends, and that by their sorceries they afflict 
These ideas 
infect all 
classes. 
Modifications 
of super- 
naturalism. 
The persecu- 
tions for 
witchcraft. CH. IV.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
117 
both man and beast. They blight the marriage-bed; destroy 
the births of women and the increase of cattle; they blast 
the corn on the ground, the grapes in the vineyard, the 
fruits of the trees, and the grass and herbs of the field." 
At this time, therefore, the head of the Church had not 
relinquished a belief in these delusions. The consequences 
of the punishment he ordained were very dreadful. In the 
valleys of the Alps many hundred aged women were com- 
mitted to the flames under an accusation of denying Christ, 
dishonouring the crucifix, and solemnizing a devil's sabbath 
in company with the fiend. Such persecutions, begun by 
papal authority, continued among illiterate zealots till late 
times, and, as is well known, were practised even in 
America. Very masculine minds fell into these delusions. 
Thus Luther, in his work on the abuses attendant on private 
masses, says that he had conferences with the Devil on 
that subject, passing many bitter nights and much restless 
and wearisome repose; that once, in particular, Satan came 
to him in the dead of the night, when he was just awakened 
out of sleep. " The Devil," says Luther, " knows well enough 
how to construct his arguments, and to urge them 
with the skill of a master. He delivers himself 
with a grave and yet with a shrill voice. Nor does he use 
circumlocutions and beat about the bush, but excels in 
forcible statements and quick rejoinders. I no longer 
wonder that the persons whom he assails in this way are 
occasionally found dead in their beds. He is able to 
compress and throttle, and more than once he has so 
assaulted me and driven my soul into a corner that I have 
felt as if the next moment it must leave my body. I am 
of opinion that Gesner and OEcolampadius came in that 
manner to their deaths. The Devil's manner of opening a 
debate is pleasant enough, but he soon urges things so 
peremptorily that the respondent in a short time knows not 
how to acquit himself." 
Social eminence is no preservative from social delusion. 
When it was affirmed that Agnes Sampson, 
with two hundred other Scotch witches, had 
sailed in sieves from Leith to North Berwick 
church to hold a banquet with the Devil, James I. had the 
torture applied to the wretched woman, and took pleasure 
Experiences 
of Luther. 
English wiz- 
ards-Scotch 
witches. 118 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. iv. 
in putting appropriate questions to her after the raeking 
had been duly prolonged. It then came out that the two 
hundred crones had baptized and drowned a black cat, 
thereby raising a dreadful storm in which the ship that 
carried the king narrowly escaped being wrecked. Upon 
this Agnes was condemned to the flames. She died pro- 
testing her innocence, and piteously calling on Jesus to 
have mercy on her, for Christian men would not. On the 
accession of James to the English throne he procured an 
act of Parliament against any one convicted of witchcraft, 
sorcery, or enchantment, or having commerce with the 
Devil. Under this monstrous statute many persons 
suffered. At this time England was intellectually in a 
very backward state. The statute remained until 1736 
unrepealed. The French preceded the English 
in putting a stop to these atrocities; for 
Louis XIV., a.d. 1672, by an order in council, 
forbade the tribunals from inflicting penalty in accusations 
of sorcery. 
Can the reader of the preceding paragraphs here pause 
without demanding of himself the value of human testi- 
mony ? All these delusions, which occupied the minds 
of our forefathers, and from which not even the powerful 
and learned were free, have totally passed away. 
The moonlight has now no fairies; the solitude 
no genius; the darkness no ghost, no goblin. 
There is no necromancer who can raise the dead 
from their graves-no one who has sold his soul to the 
Devil and signed the contract with h:s blood-no angry 
apparition to rebuke the crone who has disquieted him. 
Divination, agromancy, pyromancy, hydromancy, cheiro- 
mancy, augury, interpreting of dreams, oracles, sorcery, 
astrology, have all gone. It is 350 years since the last 
sepulchral lamp was found, and that was near Rome. 
There are no gorgons, hydras, chimaeras ; no familiars ; no 
incubus or succubus. The housewives of Holland no 
longer bring forth sooterkins by sitting over lighted 
chauffers. No longer do captains buy of Lapland witches 
favourable winds ; no longer do our churches resound with 
prayers against the baleful influences of comets, though 
there still linger in some of our noble old rituals forms of 
French and 
English legal 
proceedings. 
The total dis- 
appearance 
of these delu- 
sions. CH. IV.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
119 
supplication for dry weather and rain, useless but not 
unpleasing reminiscences of the past. The apothecary no 
longer says prayers over the mortar in which he is pound- 
ing to impart a divine afflatus to his drugs. Who is there 
now that pays fees to a relic or goes to a saint-shrine to be 
cured ? These delusions have vanished with the night to 
which they appertained, yet they were the delusions of 
fifteen hundred years. In their support might be produced 
a greater mass of human testimony than probably could be 
brought to bear on any other matter of belief in the entire 
history of man; and yet, in the nineteenth century, we 
have come to the conclusion that the whole, from the 
beginning to the end, was a deception. Let 
him, therefore, who is disposed to balance the 
testimony of past ages against the dictates of his 
own reason ponder on this strange history; let him who 
relies on the authority of human evidence in the guidance 
of his opinions now settle with himself what that evidence 
is worth. 
But, though in one sense this history is humiliating to 
the philosopher, in another it is full of interest. Superna- 
turalism, both in the individual and in society, 
appertains to a definite period of life. It is 
shaken off as men and nations approach maturity. 
The child and the youth people solitude and 
darkness with unrealities. The adult does not so much 
convince himself of their fictitious nature by reasoning on 
the results of his experience-he grows out of them, as we 
see that society has done. Nevertheless, bis emancipation 
is quickened if he is among those who instruct his curiosity 
and deride his fears. It was in this manner that the 
decline of supernaturalism in the West was very much 
accelerated by Jewish physicians. They, more than the 
lawyers, were concerned in the ending of these delusions. 
These apparitions, as is the nature of their kind, vanished 
as soon as the crowing of the Tlfisculapian cock announced 
that the intellectual day of Europe was on the 
point of breaking. The Jews held in their 
hands much of the trade of the world; they 
were in perpetual movement and commercial 
intercommunication. Locomotion-for such is always it; 
Value of 
human 
testimony. 
Supernatural- 
ism apper- 
tains to a 
period of life. 
Influence of 
the Jews on 
supernatural- 
ism. 120 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
[ch. iv. 
result-tended to make them intellectual. The perse- 
cutions under which they had long suffered bound their 
distant communities together. The Spanish Jews knew 
very well what was going on among their co-religionists 
beyond the Euphrates. As Cabanis says, " They were our 
factors and bankers before we knew how to read; they 
were also our first physicians." To this it may be added 
that they were, for centuries, the only men in Europe who 
saw the course of human affairs from the most general 
point of view. 
The Hellenizing Jewish physicians inoculated the Arabs 
with learning on their first meeting with them in Alex- 
andria, obtaining a private and personal influence with 
many of khalifs, and from that central point of power 
giving an intellectual character to the entire Saracenic 
movement. We have already seen that in this they were 
gi eatly favoured by the approximation of their unitarianism 
to that of the Mohammedans. The intellectual activity 
of the Asiatic and African Jews soon communicated an 
impulse to those of Europe. The Hebrew doctor was 
viewed by the vulgar with wonder, fear, and hatred; no 
crime could be imputed to him too incredible. Thus 
Zedckias, the physician to Charles the Bald, was asserted 
to have devoured at one meal, in the presence of the court, 
a waggon-load of hay, together with its horses and driver 
The titles of some of the works that appeared among them 
deserve mention, as displaying a strong contrast with the 
mystical designations in vogue. Thus Isaac 
Ben Solciman, an Egyptian, wrote " On Fevers," 
" On Medicine," " On Food and Remedies," " On 
the Pulse," " On Philosophy," " On Melancholy," " An 
Introduction to Logic." The simplicity of these titles 
displays an intellectual clearness and a precision of thought 
which have ever been shown by the Israelites. They are 
in themselves sufficient to convince us of the strong 
common sense which these men were silently infusing into 
the literature of Western Europe in ages of concealment 
and mystification. Roger Bacon, at a much later time, 
gave to one of his works the title of " The Green Lion 
to another, " The Treatise of Three Words." 
Since it was by the power and patronage of the Saracens 
Writings of 
Jewish phy- 
sicians. CH. IV J 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
121 
that the J ewish physicians were acting, it is not surprising 
that the language used in many of their compositions was 
Arabic. Translations were, however, commonly made 
into Hebrew, and, at a subsequent period, into Latin. 
Through the ninth century the Asiatic colleges maintained 
their previous celebrity in certain branches of knowledge. 
Thus the Jew Shabtai Donolo was obliged to go to Bagdad 
to complete his studies in astronomy. As Arabian in- 
fluence extended itself into Sicily and Italy, Jewish 
intelligence accompanied it, and schools were 
founded at Tarentum, Salerno, Bari, and other 
places. Here the Arab and Jew Orientalists first amalga- 
mated with a truly European element-the Greek-as is 
shown by the circumstance that in the college at Salerno 
instruction was given through the medium of all three 
languages. At one time, Pontus taught in Greek, 
Abdallah in Arabic, and Elisha in Hebrew. A similar 
influence of the Arab and Jew combined founded the 
University of Montpellier. 
After the foundation of medical colleges, the progress 
of medicine among the Jews was very rapid. 
Judged by our standard, in some respects it was 
peculiar. Thus, they looked upon the practice of 
surgery as altogether mechanical, and therefore ignoble. 
A long list of eminent names might be extracted from the 
tenth and eleventh centuries. In it we should find 
Haroun of Cordova, Jehuda of Fez, Amram of Toledo. 
Already it was apparent that the Saracenic movement 
would aid in developing the intelligence of barbarian 
Western Europe through Hebrew physicians, in spite cl 
opposition encountered from theological ideas imported 
from Constantinople and Home. Mohammedanism had 
all along been the patron of physical science ; paganizing 
Christianity not only repudiated it, but exhibited towards 
it sentiments of contemptuous disdain and hatred. Hence 
physicians were viewed by the Church with dislike, and 
regarded as atheists by the people, who held firmly to the 
lessons they had been taught that cures must bo wrought 
by relics of martyrs and bones of saints, by imposture- 
prayers»and intercessions, and that each region medlcine- 
of the body was under some spiritual charge-the first 
Foundation of 
colleges. 
Medical stu- 
dies among 
the Jews. 122 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
fen. iv. 
joint of the right thumb being in the care of God the 
Father, the second under that of the blessed Virgin, and 
so on of other parts. For each disease there was a saint. 
A man with sore eyes must invoke St. Clara, but if it were 
an inflammation elsewhere he must turn to St. Anthony. 
An ague would demand the assistance of St. Pernel. For 
the propitiating of these celestial beings it was necessary 
that fees should be paid, and thus the practice of impos- 
ture-medicine became a great source of profit. 
In all this there was no other intention than that of 
extracting money from the illiterate. With men of educa- 
tion and position it was different. Bishops, princes, kings, 
and popes had each in private his Hebrew doctor, though 
all understood that he was a contraband luxury, in many 
countries pointedly and absolutely prohibited by the law. 
In the eleventh century nearly all the physicians in Europe 
were Jews. This was due to two different causes: the 
Church would tolerate no interference with her spiritual 
methods of treating disease, which formed one of her most 
productive sources of gain; and the study of 
medicine had been formally introduced into the 
rabbinical schools. The monk was prohibited a 
pursuit which gave to the rabbi an honourable emolument. 
From the older institutions offshoots in quick succession 
appeared, particularly in France. Thus the school at 
Narbonne was under the presidency of Doctor Rabbi Abou. 
There was also a flourishing school at Arles. In these 
institutions instruction was given through the medium of 
Hebrew and Arabic, the Greek element present at Salerno 
being here wanting. In the French schools, to the former 
languages Latin and Provencal were, in the course of 
time, added. The versatility of acquirement among the 
physicians, who were taking the lead in this intellectual 
movement, is illustrated both by the Spanish and French 
Jews. Some, like Djanah, a native of Cordova, acquired 
reputation in grammar, criticism, astronomy; others in 
poetry or theology. 
If thus the social condition of the rabbis, who drew no 
income from their religious duties, induced them to 
combine the practice of medicine with their pursuits, 
great facilities had arisen for mental culture through the 
The rabbis 
cultivate 
medicine CH. IV.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
123 
establishment oi so many schools. Henceforth the Jewish 
physician is recognised as combining with his 
professional skill a profound knowledge of theo- 
logy, mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, music, law. 
In a singular manner he stands aloof in the barbarian 
societies among whom he lives, looking down like a philo- 
sopher upon their idolatries, permitting, or even excusing 
them, like a statesman. Of those who thus adorned the 
eleventh century was Rabbi Solomon Ben Isaac, better 
known under the abbreviation Raschi-called by his coun- 
trymen the Prince of Commentators. He was equally 
at home in writing commentaries on the Talmud, or in 
giving instructions for great surgical operations, as the 
Caesarean section. He was the greatest French physician 
of his age. Spain during the same century, produced a 
worthy competitor to him, Ebn Zohr, physician 
to the court of Seville. His writings were in 
Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, and both in prose and 
verse. He composed a treatise on the cure of 
diseases, and two on fevers. In singular contrast with 
the superstitious notions of the times, he possessed a 
correct view of the morbific nature of marsh miasm. He 
was followed by Ben Ezra, a Jew of Toledo, who was at 
once a physician, philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, 
critic, poet. He travelled all over Europe and Asia, being 
held in captivity for some time in India. Among his 
medical writings was a work on theoretical and practical 
medicine, entitled " Book of Proofs." Through the wars 
arising in Spain between the Mohammedans and Chris- 
tians, many learned Jews were driven into France, im- 
parting to that country, by their presence, a new intellec- 
tual impulse. Of such were Aben Tybbon, who gave to 
his own profession a pharmaceutical tendency by insisting 
on the study of botany and art of preparing drugs. Ben 
Kimchi, a Narbonnese physician and grammarian, wrote 
commentaries on the Bible, sacred and moral poems, a 
Hebrew grammar. Notwithstanding the opposition of 
the ecclesiastics, William, the Lord of Montpellier, passed 
an edict authorizing all persons, without exception, to 
profess medicine in the university of his city. This 
was specially meant for the relief of the Jews, though 
and other 
sciences. 
Writings of 
the Spanish- 
Jewish 
physicians. 124 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. iv 
expressed in a general way. Spain, though, she had thus 
lost many of her learned men, still continued to produce 
others of which she had reason to be proud. 
Moussa Ben Maimon, known all over Europe as 
Maimonides, was recognized by his countrymen as " the 
Doctor, the Great Sage, the Glory of the West, the Light 
of the East, second only to Moses." He is often designated 
by the four initals R. M. B. M., that is Rabbi Moses Ben 
Maimon, or briefly Rambam. His biography presents some 
points of interest. He was born at Cordova a.d. 1135, 
and, while yet young, wrote commentaries on the Taimuds 
both of Babylon and Jerusalem, and also a work on the 
Calendar ; but, embracing Mohammedanism, he emigrated 
to Egypt, and there became physician to the celebrated 
Sultan Saladin. Among his works are medical aphorisms, 
derived from former Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Arabic 
sources; an abridgment of Galen; and of his original 
treatises, which were very numerous, may be mentioned 
those " On Hemorrhoids," " On Poisons and Antidotes," 
" On Asthma," " On the Preservation of Health,"-the 
latter being written for the benefit of the son of Saladin- 
" On the Bites of Venomous Animals''-written by order 
of the sultan-"On Natural History." His " Moreh 
Nevochim," or " Teacher of the Perplexed," was an 
attempt to reconcile the doctrines of the Old Testament 
with reason. In addition to these, ho had a book on 
Idolatry, and one on Christ. Besides Maimonides, the 
sultan had another physician, Ebn Djani, the author of a 
work on the medical topography of the city of Alexandria. 
From the biographies of these learned men of the twelfth 
century it would seem that their religious creed hung 
lightly upon them. Not unfrequently they became con- 
verted to Mohammedanism. 
It might be tedious if I should record the names and 
writings of the learned European Jews of the 
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, a period more 
prolific of these great men than even the preceding ages. 
But I cannot pass these later centuries without mentioning 
the Alphonsine Tables, calculated for Alphonso, the King 
of Castile, by Mascha, his Hebrew physician. The irre- 
ligious tendency of the times is illustrated by the well- 
Maimonides. 
Later Jewish 
physicians. CH. IV. J 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
125 
known sarcasm uttered by that Spanish monarch respecting 
the imperfect construction of the heavens, according to 
the Ptolemaic hypothesis. For long, however, the Jews 
had been dabbling in free-thinking speculations. Thus 
Aben Tybbon, above-mentioned, anticipating that branch 
of science which has drawn upon itself, in later years, so 
much opprobrium, wrote a work containing a discussion 
of the causes which prevent the waters of the sea from 
encroaching on the land. Abba Mari, a Marseillese Jew, 
translated the Almagest of Ptolemy and the Commentary 
of Averroes upon it. The school of Salerno was still 
sending forth its doctors. In Pome, Jewish physicians 
were very > numerous, the popes themselves employing 
them. Boniface VIII. had for his medical adviser Babbi 
Isaac. At this period Spain and France were full of 
learned Jews ; and perhaps partly by their exerting upon 
the higher classes with whom they came in contact too 
much influence, for the physician of a Christian prince 
was very often the rival of his confessor, and partly 
because the practice of medicine, as they pursued it, inter- 
fered with the gains of the Church, the clergy took alarm, 
and caused to be re-enacted or enforced the ancient laws. 
The Council of Beziers, a.d. 1246, and the Council of Alby, 
a.d. 1254, prohibited all Christians from resorting to the 
services of an Israelitish physician. It would appear that 
these enactments had either fallen into desuetude or had 
failed to be enforced. < The faculty of Paris, awakening at 
last to the danger of the case, caused, a.d. 1301, a decree 
to be published prohibiting either man or woman of the 
religion of Moses from practising medicine upon any 
person of the Catholic religion. A similar course was also 
taken in Spain. At this time the Jews were confessedly 
at the head of French medicine. It was the appointment 
of one of their persuasion, Profatius, as regent of the 
faculty of Montpellier a.d. 1300, which drew upon them 
the wrath of the faculty of Paris. This learned man was 
a skilful astronomer ; he composed tables of the moon; of 
the longitudes of many Asiatic and African towns; he 
determined the obliquity of the ecliptic, his result being 
honourably alluded to by Copernicus. The animosity of 
the French ecclesiastics against the Jewish physicians at 126 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
[ch. iv. 
last led to the banishment of all the Jews from France, 
A.D. 1306. "It was," say the historians of this 
event, " a most revolting spectacle to see so many 
learned men, who had adorned and benefited 
France, proscribed, wanderers without a country 
or an asylum. Some of them expired of grief 
upon the road. Abba Mari gives in his work heart-rend- 
ing details of the expulsion of the Jews from Montpellier, 
at the head of whom were the professors and doctors of 
the faculty." 
But, though thus driven into exile, these strangers had 
accomplished their destiny. They had silently 
deposited in France their ideas. They had 
sapped the credulity of the higher classes in 
Europe, and taught them to turn away from the super- 
natural. A clear recognition of their agency in this 
matter fastened upon them the watchful eye of Inquisition, 
and made them the victims of its tyranny. 
And so it might well be. Out of the Spanish peninsula 
there had come across the Pyrenees an intellectual in- 
fluence, which reached the populace under the form of a 
fresh and pleasing literature, and the better classes by 
novel but unorthodox ideas. To a very great extent the 
Jews had been its carriers. The result was the overthrow 
of supernaturalism. We shall hardly accept the affirma- 
tion of good Catholics that fairies disappeared on account of 
the Reformation, unable to bear the morose sectarianism 
with which it was accompanied, or the still more material 
explanation of the rustics that it was through 
the introduction of tobacco. However that may 
be, no longer is Robin Goodfellow the compeller 
of household duties-no longer do bad elves sit by the 
dying embers of the hearth-stone at night, in the shape of 
shrivelled frogs, after the family have gone to bed. For a 
long time there have been no miracles in Europe. Even 
Rome, the workshop of those artifices, has ceased to be the 
seat of that trade. 
From human institutions of any kind, a great principle, 
firmly inwrought and inwoven at the beginning, can never 
bo removed. It will show itself whenever occasion per- 
mits. The animosity between the Byzantine ecclesiastical 
The Univer- 
sity of Paris 
causes the ex- 
pulsion of the 
Jews from 
France. 
Result that 
they had ac- 
complished. 
Destruction 
of fairies by 
tobacco. CH. IV.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
127 
system and all true wisdom was inextinguishable, though 
it was utterly foreign to Christianity. It was 
fastened by imperial violence on the nations, 
and made its appearance, with unabated force, 
at intervals of ages. The same evil instinct which tore 
Hypatia piecemeal in the church at Alexandria brought 
Galileo into the custody of the familiars of the holy office 
at Rome. The necessary consequence of this upholding 
ignorance by force was the emergence of ideas successively 
more and more depraved. Whoever will ingenuously 
compare the religious state of Italy in the fourteenth 
century with its state in the fourth-that is, the recent 
Italian with the old Roman-will find that 
among the illiterate classes nothing whatever 
had been accomplished. There were no elevated thoughts 
of holy things. From practical devotion God had alto- 
gether disappeared; the Saviour had been supplanted by 
the blessed Virgin; and she herself-such was the in- 
creasing degradation-had been abandoned for the ignoble 
worship of apotheosized men, who, under the designation 
of saints, had engrossed all the votaries. There had been 
a rapid descent to the last degree of more than African 
abasement in bleeding statues and winking pictures. 
In Europe there had been incorporated old forms of 
worship and old festivals with Christian ones; the local 
gods and goddesses had been replaced by saints; for 
deification canonization had been substituted. There had 
been produced a civilization, the character of 
which was i ts extraordinary intolerance. A man 
could not be suspected of doubting the popular belief 
without risk to his goods, his body, or his life. As a 
necessary consequence, there could be no great lawgivers, 
no philosophers, no poets. Society was pervaded by a 
systematic hypocrisy. This tyranny over others some- 
times led to strange results. It caused the Jews to dis- 
cover the art of making wealth invisible by bills of 
exchange and other such like means, so that money might 
be imperceptibly but instantaneously moved. 
Thus, after the dying out of Greek science, there fol- 
lowed, among the new populations, an intellectual immo- 
bility, which soon became the centre of a vast number of 
Causes of the 
ecclesiastical 
opposition. 
Degraded 
state of Italy. 
Rise of a new 
social system. 128 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. IV. 
growing interests quickly and firmly crystallizing round 
it. For them it was essential that there should 
be no change-no advance. In the midst of 
jarrings and conflicts between those interests, 
that condition was steadfastly maintained, as if through 
instinct, by them all. It mattered not how antiquated 
were the forms insisted on, nor how far they outraged 
common sense. New life was given to decaying illusions, 
and, in return, strength was gathered from them. Isis, 
with the moon beneath her feet, was planted, 
under a new name, on the Bosphorus and the 
Tiber. African theology, African ecclesiastical 
machinery, and African monasticism were made objects of 
reverence to unsuspecting Europe. Juvenal says that the 
Roman painters of his day lived on the goddess Isis. The 
Italian painters of a later day lived on her modernized 
form. 
In such a condition of things the literary state could be 
no other than barren. Political combinations 
had not only prescribed an intellectual terminus, 
but had even laid down a rail upon which 
mental excursions were to be made, and from which there 
was no departing; or, if a turn-out was permitted, it was 
managed by a tonsured man. For centuries together, if 
we exclude theological writings, there was absolutely no 
literature worth the name. Life seems to have been spent 
in the pursuit of mere physical enjoyment, and that 
enjoyment of a very low kind. When in the South of 
France and Sicily literature began to dawn, it is not to be 
overlooked how much of it was of an amatory kind; and 
love is the strongest of the passions. The first aspect of 
Western literature was animal, not intellectual. A taste 
for learning excited, there reappeared in the schools the 
old treatises written a thousand years before- 
the Elements of Euclid, the Geography of 
Ptolemy. Long after the Reformation there was an intel- 
lectual imbecility which might well excite our mirth, if it 
were not the index of a stage through which the human 
mind must pass. Often enough we see it interestingly in 
the interweaving of the new with the old ideas. If we 
take up a work on metallurgy, it commences with Tubal 
Influence of 
that new 
system, 
and degrada- 
tion by Afri- 
can ideas. 
No literature 
in the Age of 
Faith. 
Its critical 
innocence. CH. IV.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
129 
Cain; if on music, with Jubal. The history of each 
country is traced back to the sons of Noah, or at least to 
the fugitives from the siege of Troy. An admiration for 
classical authors may perhaps be excused. It exhibited 
itself amusingly in the eccentricity of interlarding com- 
positions of every kind with Greek and Latin quotations. 
This was an age of literary innocence, when no legend 
was too stupendous for credulity; when there was no one 
who had ever suspected that Tully, as they delighted to 
call him, was not a great philosopher, and Virgil not a 
great poet. 
Of those ponderous, those massive folios on ecclesiastical 
affairs, at once the product and representatives 
of the time, but little needs here to be said. 
They boasted themselves as the supreme effort of human 
intellect; they laid claim to an enduring authority; to 
many they had a weight little less than the oracles of 
God. But if their-intrinsic value is to bo measured by 
their pretensions, and their pretensions judged of by their 
present use, what is it that must be said? Long ago 
their term was reached, long ago they became obsolete. 
They have no reader. Such must be the issue of any 
literature springing from an immovable, an unexpanding 
basis, the offspring of thought that has been held in sub- 
jugation by political formulas, or of intellectual energies 
that have been cramped. 
The Roman ecclesiastical system, like the Byzantine, 
had been irrevocably committed in an opposition 
to intellectual development. It professed to 
cultivate the morals, but it crushed the mind. 
Yet, in the course of events, this state of things was to 
come to an end through the working of other principles 
equally enduring and more powerful. They constitute 
what we may speak of under the title of the Arabian 
element. On preceding pages it has been shown that, 
when the Saracens conquered Egypt, they came under the 
influence of the Nestorians and Hellenizing Jews, acquir- 
ing from them a love of philosophy, which soon manifested 
itself in full energy from the banks of the Euphrates to 
those of Guadalquivir. The hammer of Charles Martel 
might strike down the ranks of the Saracens on the field of 
Disuse of pa- 
tristic works. 
Spread of 
science in 
France. 130 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. iv. 
Tours, but there was something intangible, something in- 
destructible accompanying them, which the Frank chivalry 
could not confront. To the Church there was an evil 
omen. It has been well remarked that in the Provencal 
poetry there are noble bursts of crusading religious senti- 
ment, but they are incorporated with a sovereign contempt 
for the clergy. 
The biography of any of the physicians or alchemists of 
the thirteenth century would serve the purpose of illus- 
trating the watchfulness of the Church, the unsound 
condition of the universities, the indirect patronage ex- 
tended to heretics by eminent men, and the manner in 
which the rival powers, ecclesiasticism and philosophy, 
were preparing for their final conflict. As an example of 
the kind, I may present briefly that of Arnold de Villa 
Nova, born about a.d. 1250. He enjoyed a great 
reputation for his knowledge of medicine and 
alchemy. For some years he was physician to 
the King of Aragon. Under an accusation of 
defective orthodoxy he lost his position at court, his 
punishment being rendered more effective by excom- 
munication. Hoping to find in Paris more liberality than 
he had met with in Spain, he fled to that city, but was 
pursued by an adverse ecclesiastical influence with a 
charge of having sold his soul to the Devil, and of having 
changed a plate of copper into gold. In Montpellier, to 
which he was obliged to retire, he found a more congenial 
intellectual atmosphere, and was for long one of the regents 
of the faculty of medicine. In succession, he subsequently 
resided in Florence, Naples, Palermo, patronized and hon- 
oured by the Emperor Frederick II.-at that time engaged 
in the attempt to unite Italy into one kingdom and give it 
a single language-on account of his extraordinary reputa- 
tion as a physician. Even the pope, Clement V., notwith- 
standing the unfortunate attitude in which Arnold stood 
toward the Church, besought a visit from him in hopes of 
relief from the stone. On his voyage for the purpose of 
performing the necessary operation, Arnold suffered ship- 
wreck and was drowned. His body was interred at Genoa. 
The pope issued an encyclic letter, entreating those who 
owed him obedience to reveal whore Arnold's Treatise on 
Illustration 
from the bio- 
graphy of 
Arnold. CH. IV.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
131 
the Practice of Medicine might be found, it having been 
lost or concealed. It appears that the chief offences com- 
mitted by Arnold against the Church were that he had 
predicted that the world would come to an end a.d. 1335 ; 
that he had said the bulls of the pope were only the work 
of a man, and that the practice of charity is better than 
prayer, or even than the mass. If he was the author of 
the celebrated book "De Tribus Impostoribus," as was 
suspected by some, it is not remarkable that he was so 
closely watched and disciplined. Like many of his con- 
temporaries, he mingled a great deal of mysticism with 
his work, recommending, during his alchemical operations, 
the recitation of psalms, to give force to the materials 
employed. Among other such things, he describes a seal, 
decorated with scriptural phrases, of excellent use in 
preserving one from sudden death. It appears, however, 
to have failed of its effect on the night when Arnold's ship 
was drifting on an Italian lee-shore, and he had most need 
of it. 
The two antagonistic principles-ecclesiastical and in- 
tellectual-were thus brought in presence of 
each other. On other occasions they had already 
been in partial collision, as at the iconoclastic 
dispute which originated in the accusations of 
the Mohammedans, and ended in the tearing of Christendom 
asunder. 
Again there was a collision, a few centuries later, when 
the Spanish Moors and Jews began to influence 
the higher European classes. Among the bish- 
ops, sovereigns, and even popes thus affected, 
there were many men of elevated views, who 
saw distinctly the position of Europe, and understood 
thoroughly the difficulties of the Church. It had already 
become obvious to them that it would be impossible to 
restrain the impulse arising from the vigorous movements 
of the Saracens, and that it was absolutely necessary so 
to order things that the actual condition of faith in 
Europe might be accommodated to or even harmonized 
with these philosophical conceptions, which it was quite 
clear would, soon or late, pervade the whole Continent. 
This, as we have seen, is the explanation of the introduction 
Two impulses 
-intellectual 
and moral- 
In operation. 
Struggle of eo- 
clesiasticism 
against the 
intellectual 
principle. 132 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[CH. IV. 
of Scholasticism from the Arabian schools, and its accom- 
modation to the Christian code, on which authority looked 
with so much favour at first. But hardly had this attempt 
been entered upon before it became manifest that the risks 
to be incurred through the remedy itself were as great as 
the anticipated dangers. There was then no other course 
than for the Church to retrace her steps, ostensibly main- 
taining her consistency by permitting scholastic literature, 
though declining scholastic theology. She thus allured 
the active intellect, arising in all directions in the uni- 
versities, to fruitless and visionary pursuits. This policy, 
therefore, threw her back upon a system of repression ; it 
was the only course possible; yet there can be no doubt 
that it was entered upon with reluctance. We do in- 
justice to the great men who guided ecclesiastical policy 
in those times when we represent them as recklessly com- 
mitting themselves to measures at once violent and inde- 
fensible. They did make the attempt to insti- 
tute an opposite policy; it proved not only 
a failure, but mischievous. They were then 
driven to check the spread of knowledge- 
driven by the necessities of their position. The fault was 
none of theirs; it dated back to the time of Constantine 
the Great; and the impossibility of either correcting or 
neutralizing it is only an example, as has been said, of the 
manner in which a general principle, once introduced, 
will overbear the best exertions of those attempting to 
struggle against it. We can appreciate the false position 
into which those statesmen were thrown when we compare 
their personal with their public relations. Often the most 
eminent persons lived in intimacy and friendship with 
Jewish physicians, who, in the eye of the law, were 
enemies of society; often those who were foremost in tho 
cultivation of knowledge-who, indeed, suffered excom- 
munication for its sake-maintained amicable relations of 
a private kind with those who in public were the leaders 
of their persecutors. The systems were in antagonism, not 
the men. Arnold de Villa Nova, though excommunicated, 
was the physician of one pope; Roger Bacon, though 
harshly imprisoned, was the friend and correspondent of 
another. These incidents are not to bo mistaken for that 
The difficulty 
was in the 
system, not in 
the men. CH. IV.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
133 
compassion which the truly great are ever ready to show 
to erring genius. They are examples of what we often 
see in our own day, when men engaged in the movements 
of a great political party loyally carry out its declared 
principles to their consequences, though individually they 
may find in those consequences many things to which 
they could mentally object. Their private objection they 
thus yield for the sake of what appears to them, in a 
general way, a practical good. 
Such was the state of affairs when the Arab element, 
having pervaded France and Italy, made its formal intel- 
lectual attack. It might almost have been foreseen in 
what manner that attack would bo made, and the shape it 
would be likely to assume. Of the sciences, astronomy 
was the oldest and most advanced. Its beginning dates 
earlier than the historic period, and both in 
India and in Egypt it had long reached correct- 
ness, so far as its genera] principles were con- 
cerned. The Saracens had been assiduous 
cultivators of it in both its branches, observation and 
mathematical investigation. Upon one point, the figure 
and relations of the earth, it is evident that not the 
slightest doubt existed among them. Nay, it must be 
added that no learned European ecclesiastic or statesman 
could deny the demonstrated truths. Nevertheless, it so 
fell out that upon this very point the conflict broke out. 
In India the Brahmans had passed through the same 
trial-for different nations walk through similar paths-■ 
with a certain plausible success, by satisfying the popular 
clamour that there was, in reality, nothing inconsistent 
between the astronomical doctrine of the globular form and 
movement of the earth, and the mythological dogma that 
it rests upon a succession of animals, the lowest of which 
is a tortoise. But the strong common sense of Western 
Europe was not to be deluded in any such idle way. It 
is not difficult to see the point of contact, the point of 
pressure with the Church. The abstract question gave 
her no concern; it was the consequences that might 
possibly follow. The memorable battle was fought upon 
the question thus sharply defined : Is the earth a moving 
globe, a small body in the midst of suns and countless 
The intellec- 
tual impulse 
makes its at- 
tack through 
astronomy, 134 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. iv. 
myriads of worlds, or is it the central and greatest object 
in the universe, flat, and canopied over with a blue dome, 
motionless while all is in movement around it? The 
dispute thus definitely put, its issue was such as must 
always attend a controversy in which he who is de- 
fending is at once lukewarm and conscious of his own 
weakness. Never can moral interests, however 
pure, stand against intellect enforcing truth. 
On this ill-omened question the Church ventured her 
battle and lost it. 
Though this great conflict is embodied in the history of 
Galileo, who has become its historical representative, the 
prime moving cause must not be misunderstood. 
From the Pyrenees had passed forth an influence 
which had infected all the learned men of Western Europe. 
Its tendency was altogether unfavourable to the Church. 
Moreover, the illiterate classes had been touched, but in a 
different way. To the first action the designation of the 
intellectual impulse may be given; to the latter, the 
moral. It is to be especially observed that in their direc- 
tions these impulses conspired. We have seen how, 
through the Saracens and Jews conjointly, the intellectual 
impulse came into play. The moral impulse 
originated in a different manner, being due 
partly to the Crusades and partly to the state of 
things in Pome. On these causes it is therefore needful 
for us to reflect. 
First, of the Crusades. There had been wrenched from 
Christendom its fairest and most glorious portions. Spain, 
the north of Africa, Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, were gone. 
The Mohammedans had been repeatedly under the walls 
of Constantinople; its fall was only a question of time. 
They had been in the streets of Rome. They had marched 
across Italy in every direction. But perhaps the geogra- 
phical losses, appalling as they were, did not appear so 
painful as the capture of the holy places; the 
birth-place of our Redeemer ; the scene of His 
sufferings ; the Mount of Olives; the Sea of Galilee; the 
Garden of Gethsemane ; Calvary; the Sepulchre. Too often 
in their day of strength, while there were Roman legions at 
their back, had the bishops taunted Paganism with tho 
and the Church 
is defeated. 
The moral 
impulse. 
Origin of the 
moral im- 
pulse. 
Loss of the 
holy places. CH. IV.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
135 
weakness of its divinities, who could not defend themselves, 
their temples, or their sacred places. That logic was re- 
taliated now. To many a sincere heart must many an 
ominous reflexion have occurred. In Western Europe there 
was a strong common sense which quickly caught the true 
position of things-a common sense that could, neither be 
blinded nor hoodwinked. The astuteness of the Italian poli- 
ticians was insufficient to conceal altogether the great fact, 
though it might succeed in dissembling its real significance 
for a time. The Europe of that day was very different from 
the Europe of ours. It was in its Age of Faith. Recently 
converted, as all recent converts do, it made its belief a 
living rule of action. In our times there is not upon that 
continent a nation which, in its practical relations with 
others, carries out to their consequences its ostensible, its 
avowed articles of belief. Catholics, Protestants, Moham- 
medans, they of the Greek communion, indiscriminately 
consort together under the expediences of the passing 
hour. Statesmanship has long been dissevered from re- 
ligion-a fact most portentous for future times. But it 
was not so in the Middle Ages. Men then believed their 
form of faith with the same clearness, the same intensity 
with which they believed their own existence or the 
actual presence of things upon which they cast their eyes. 
The doctrines of the Church were to them no mere incon- 
sequential affair, but an absolute, an actual reality, a living 
and a fearful thing. It would have passed their comprehen- 
sion if they could have been assured that a day would come 
when Christian Europe, by a breath, could remove from 
the holy places the scandal of an infidel intruder, but, 
upon the whole, would consider it not worth her while to 
do so. How differently they acted. When, by the preach- 
ing of Peter the Hermit and his collaborators, who had 
received a signal from Rome, a knowledge had come to 
their ears of the reproach that had befallen Jerusalem and 
the sufferings of the pilgrims, their plain but straight- 
forward common sense taught them at once what was the 
right remedy to apply, and forthwith they did apply it, 
and Christendom, precipitated headlong upon 
the Holy Land, was brought face to face with 
Mohammedanism. But what a scene awaited the zealous, 
Effect of the 
Crusades. 136 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. iv. 
the religious barbarians-for such they truly were-when 
Constantinople, with its matchless splendours, came in 
view ! What a scene when they had passed into Asia 
Minor, that garden of the world, presenting city after 
city, with palaces and edifices, the pride of twenty cen- 
turies ! How unexpected the character of those Saracens, 
whom they had been taught, by those who had incited 
them to their enterprise, to regard as no better 
than bloodthirsty fiends, but whom they found 
valiant, merciful, just! When Richard the 
Lion-hearted, King of England, lay in his tent consumed 
by a fever, there came into the camp camels laden with 
snow, sent by his enemy, the Sultan Saladin, to assuage his 
disease, the homage of one brave soldier to another. But 
when Richard was returning to England, it was by a 
Christian prince that he was treacherously seized and 
secretly confined. This was doubtless only one of many 
such incidents which had often before occurred. Even 
down to the meanest camp-follower, every one must have 
recognized the difference between what they had antici- 
pated and what they had found. They had seen un- 
daunted courage, chivalrous bearing, intellectual culture 
far higher than their own. They had been in lands filled 
with the prodigies of human skill. They did not melt 
down into the populations to whom they returned without 
imparting to them a profound impression destined to make 
itself felt in the course of time. 
But, secondly, as to the state of things in Rome. The 
movement into which all Europe had been thrown by these 
wars brought to light the true condition of 
things in Italy as respects morality. Locomo- 
tion in a population is followed by intellectual 
development. The old stationary condition of 
things in Europe was closed by the Crusades. National 
movement gave rise to better observation, better in- 
formation, and could not but be followed by national 
reflexion. And though we are obliged to speak of the 
European population as being in one sense in a barbarous 
state, it was a moral population, earnestly believing the 
truth of every doctrine it had been taught, and sincerely 
expecting that those doctrines would be carried to their 
Change of 
opinion in the 
Crusaders. 
They dis- 
cover the im- 
moralities of 
Italy. CH. IV.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IK THE WEST. 
137 
practical application, and. that religious profession must, 
as a matter of course, be illustrated by religious life. The 
Bomans themselves were an exception to this. They had 
lived, too long behind, the scenes. Indeed, it may be said 
that all the Italian peninsula had emancipated itself from 
that delusion, as likewise certain classes in France, who 
had become familiar with the state of things during the 
residence Of the popes at Avignon. It has been the 
destiny of Southern France to pass, on a small scale, 
under the same influence, and to exhibit the same results 
as were appointed for all Europe at last. 
And now, what was it that awakening Europe found to 
be the state of things in Italy? I avert my eyes from 
looking again at the biography of the popes; it would be 
only to renew a scene of sin and shame. Nor can I, 
without injustice to truth, speak of the social condition of 
the inhabitants of that peninsula without relating facts 
which would compel my reader to turn over the page with 
a blush. I prefer to look at the maxims of political life 
which had been followed for many centuries, and which 
were first divulged by one of the greatest men that Italy 
has produced, in a work-a.d. 1513-truly characterized 
as a literary prodigy. Certainly nothing can surpass in 
atrocity the maxims therein laid down. 
Machiavelli, in that work, tells us that there are three 
degrees of capacity among men. That one 
understands things by his own natural powers ; 
another, when they are explained to him; a 
third, not at all. In dealing with these different 
classes different methods must be used. The last class, 
which is by far the most numerous, is so simple and weak 
that it is very easy to dupe those who belong to it. If 
they cease to believe of their own accord they ought to be 
constrained by force, in the application of which, though 
there may be considerable difficulties at first, yet, these once 
overcome by a sufficient unscrupulousness-veneration, 
security, tranquillity, and happiness will follow. That, if 
a prince is constrained to make his choice, it is better for 
him to be feared than loved; lie should remember that all 
men are ungrateful, fickle, timid, dissembling, and self- 
interested ; that love depends on them, but fear depends 
The principles 
of Italian 
statesman- 
ship-Ma- 
chiavelli. 138 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. IV. 
on him, and hence it is best to prefer the latter, which is 
always in his own hands. The great aim of statesmanship 
should be permanence, which is worth everything else, 
being far more valuable than freedom. That, if a man 
wants to ruin a republic, his proper course is to set it on 
bold undertakings, which it is sure to mismanage; that 
men, being naturally wicked, incline to good only when 
they are compelled; they think a great deal more of the 
present than the past, and never seek change so long as 
they are made comfortable. 
He recommends a ruler to bear in mind that, while the 
lower class of men may desert him, the superior will not 
only desert, but conspire. If such cannot with certainty 
be made trustworthy friends, it is very clearly necessary to 
put it out of their power to be enemies. Thus it may bo 
observed that the frequent insurrections in Spain, Gaul, 
and Greece against the Romans were entirely due to the 
petty chiefs inhabiting those countries; but that, after 
these had been put to death, everything went on very well. 
Up to a certain point, it should be the grand maxim of a 
wise government to content the people and to manage the 
nobles; but that, since hatred is just as easily incurred by 
good actions as by bad ones, there will occasionally arise 
the necessity of being wicked in order to maintain power, 
and, in such a case, there should be no hesitation; for, 
though it is useful to persevere in the path of rectitude 
while there is no inconvenience, we should deviate from it 
at once if circumstances so advise. A prudent prince 
ought not keep his word to his own injury; he ought to 
bear in mind that one who always endeavours to act as 
duty dictates necessarily insures his own destruction; 
that new obligations never extinguish the memory of 
former injuries in the minds of the superior order of men; 
that liberality, in the end, generally insures more enemies 
than friends; that it is the nature of mankind to becomo 
as much attached to one by the benefits they render as by 
Ihe favours they receive; that, where the question is as to 
the taking of life or the confiscation of property, it is 
useful to remember that men forget the death of their 
relatives, but not the loss of' their patrimony; that, if 
cruelties should becomo expedient, they should be com- CH. IV. J 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
139 
mitted thoroughly and but once-it is very impolitic to 
resort to them a second time; that there are three ways 
of deciding any contest-by fraud, by force, or by law, 
and a wise man will make the most suitable choice; that 
there are also three ways of maintaining control in newly- 
conquered states that have once been free-by ruining 
them, by inhabiting them, or by permitting them to keep 
their own laws and to pay tribute. Of these the first will 
often be found the best, as we may see from the history of 
the Romans, who were experienced judges of such cases. 
That, as respects the family of a rival but conquered 
sovereign, the greatest pains should be taken to extinguish 
it completely; for history proves, what many fabulous 
traditions relate, that dangerous political consequences 
have originated in the escape of some obscure or insig- 
nificant member; that men of the highest order, who are, 
therefore, of sound judgment-who seek for actual social 
truths for their guidance rather than visionary models 
which never existed-will conform to the decisions of 
reason, and never be influenced by feelings of sentiment, 
unless it is apparent that some collateral advantage will 
arise from the temporary exhibition thereof; and that 
they will put a just estimate on the delusions in which 
the vulgar indulge, casting aside the so-called interven- 
tions of Divine Providence, which are, in reality, nothing 
more than the concatenation of certain circumstances 
following the ordinary law of cause and effect, but which, 
by interfering with the action of each other, have assumed 
a direction which the judgment of the wisest could not 
have foreseen. 
Europe has visited with its maledictions the great 
political writer by whom these atrocious maxims have 
been recommended, forgetting that his offence consists not 
in inventing, but in divulging them. His works thus 
offer the purest example we possess of physical statesman- 
ship. They are altogether impassive. He views the 
management of a state precisely as he might do the 
construction of a machine, recommending that such a 
wheel or such a lever should be introduced, his only 
inquiry being whether it will accomplish his intention. 
As to any happiness or misery it may work, he gives 140 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[cn. iv. 
himself no concern, unless, indeed, they evidently ought to 
enter into the calculation. Jie had suffered the rack him- 
self under a charge of conspiracy, and borne it without 
flinching. But, before Machiavelli wrote, his principles 
had all been carried into practice; indeed, it would not be 
difficult to give abundant examples in proof of the asser- 
tion that they had been for ages regarded in 1 taly as rules 
of conduct. 
Such was the morality which Europe detected as exist- 
ing in Italy, carried out with inconceivable wickedness in 
public and private life; and thus the two causes we have 
been considering-contact with the Saracens in Syria and 
a knowledge of the real state of things in Rome-con- 
spired together to produce what may be designated as the 
moral impulse, which, in its turn, conspired with the 
intellectual. Their association foreboded evil 
to ecclesiastical authority, thus taken at great 
disadvantage. Though, from its very birthday, 
that authority had been in absolute opposition 
to the intellectual movement, it might, doubtless, for a 
much longer time have successfully maintained its conflict 
therewith had the conditions remained unchanged. Up 
to this time its chief strength reposed upon its moral 
relations. It could point, and did point the attention of 
those whose mental culture enabled them to understand 
the true position of affairs, to Europe brought out of 
barbarism, and beginning a course of glorious civilization, 
That achievement was claimed by the Church. If it were 
true that she had thus brought it to pass, it had been 
altogether wrought by the agency of her moral power, 
intellectual influence in no manner aiding therein, but 
being uniformly, from the time of Constantine the Great 
to that of the Reformation, instinctively repulsed. When, 
now, the moral power suffered so great a shock, and was 
not only ready to go over to, but had actually allied itself 
with the intellectual, there was great danger to ecclesias- 
tical authority. And hence jve need not be surprised that 
an impression began to prevail among the clear-thinking 
men of the time that the real functions of that authority 
were completed in producing the partially-civilized con- 
dition to which Europe had attained, the course of events 
Conjoined 
effect of the 
intellectual 
and moral 
impulses. CH. IV. J 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
141 
tending evidently to an elimination of that authority as 
an active element in the approaching European system. 
To such the Church might emphatically address herself, 
pointing out the signal and brilliant results to 
which she had given rise, and displaying the ma- 
nifest evils which must inevitably ensue if her re- 
lations, as then existing, should be touched. For it,must 
have been plain that the first effect arising from the 
coalition of the intellectual with the moral element would 
be an assertion of the right of private judgment in the 
individual - a condition utterly inconsistent with the 
dominating influence of authority. It was actually upon 
that very principle that the battle of the Reformation was 
eventually fought. She might point out-for it needed 
no prophetic inspiration- that, if once this principle was 
yielded, there could be no other issue in Christendom than 
a total decomposition; that though, for a little while, the 
separation might be limited to a few great 
confessions, these, under the very influence of 
the principle that had brought themselves into existence, 
must, in their turn, undergo disintegration, and the end 
of it be a complete anarchy of sects. In one sense it may 
be said that it was in wisdom that the Church took her 
stand upon this point, determining to make it her base of 
resistance; unwisely in another, for it was evident that 
she had already lost the initiative of action, and that her 
very resistance would constitute the first stage in the 
process of decomposition. 
Europe had made a vast step during its Age of Faith. 
Spontaneously it had grown through its youth; 
and the Italians, who had furnished it with 
many of its ideas, had furnished it also with 
many of its forms of life. In that respect justice has still to 
be done them. When Rome broke away from her con- 
nexions with Constantinople, a cloud of more than Cim- 
merian darkness overshadowed Europe. It was occupied 
by wandering savages. Six hundred years organized it 
into families, neighbourhoods, cities. Those centuries 
found it full of bondmen; they left it without a slave. 
They found it a scene of violence, rapine, lust; they left 
it the abode of God-fearing men. Where there had been 
The excuses 
of ecclesias- 
ticism. 
Her feeble 
resistance. 
Contempor- 
aneous changes 
in Europe. 142 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
fell. IV. 
trackless forests, there were innumerable steeples glittering 
in the sun; where there had been bloody chieftains, 
drinking out of their enemies' skulls, there were grave 
ecclesiastics, fathoming the depths of free-will, predesti- 
nation, election. Investing the clergy with a mysterious 
superiority, the Church asserted the equality of the laity 
from the king to the beggar before God. It disregarded 
wealth and birth, and opened a career for all. Its in- 
fluence over the family and domestic relations was felt 
through all classes. It fixed paternity by a previous 
ceremony ; it enforced the rule that a wife passes into the 
family of her husband, and hence it followed that legiti- 
mate children belong to the father, illegitimate to the 
mother. It compelled women to domestic life, shut them 
out from the priesthood, and tried to exclude them from 
government. In a worldly sense, the mistake that Romo 
committed was this : she attempted to maintain an intel- 
lectual immobility in the midst of an advancing social state. 
She saw not that society could no more be stopped in its 
career through her mere assertion that it could not and 
should not move, than that the earth could be checked in its 
revolution merely because she protested that it was at rest. 
She tried, first by persuasion and then by force, to arrest 
the onward movement, but she was overborne, notwith- 
standing her frantic resistance, by the impetuous current. 
Very different would it have been had the Italian states- 
men boldly put themselves in the van of progress, and, 
instead of asserting an immutability and infallibility, 
changed their dogmas and maxims as the progress of 
events required. Europe need not have waited for Arabs 
and Jews. 
In describing these various facts, I have endeavoured to 
point out impressively how the Church, so full of vigour 
at first, contained within itself the seeds of inevitable 
decay. From the period when it came into collision with 
the intellectual and moral elements, the origin of which 
we have traced, and which conspired together for its 
overthrow, it exhibited a gradual decline; first 
losing its influence upon nations, and ceasing to 
be in them a principle of public action; next, 
witnessing the alienation of the higher and educated 
Ja>ss of ■power 
Tn Church or- 
ganizations. CH. IV. I 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
143 
classes, the process descending downward through the 
social scale, therein retracing the steps of its advance. 
When ecclesiasticism became so weak as to be unable to 
regulate international affairs, and was supplanted by 
diplomacy, in the castle the physician was more than a 
rival for the confessor, in the town the mayor was a 
greater man than the abbot. There remained a lingering 
influence over individuals, who had not yet risen above a 
belief that it could control their state after death. This 
decline of its ancient influence should be a cause of 
rejoicing to all intelligent men, for an ecclesiastical or- 
ganization allying itself to political power can never now 
be a source of any good. In America we have seen the 
bond that held the Church and State together abruptly 
snapped. It is therefore well that, since the close of the 
Age of Faith, things have been coming back 
with an accelerated pace, to the state in which 
they were in the early Christian times, before 
the founder of Constantinople beguiled the 
devotional spirit to his personal and family benefit-to 
the state in which they were before ambitious men sought 
political advancement and wealth by organizing hypocrisy 
-when maxims of morality, charity, benevolence, were 
rules of life for individual man--when the monitions of 
conscience were obeyed without the suggestions of an 
outward, often an interested and artful prompter-when 
the individual lived not under the sleepless gaze, the 
crushing hand of a great overwhelming hierarchical or- 
ganization, surrounding him on all sides, doing his think- 
ing for him, directing him in his acts, making him a mere 
automaton, but in simplicity, humility, and truthfulness 
guiding himself according to the light given him, and 
discharging the duties of this troublesome and transitory 
life " as ever in his great Taskmaster's eye." 
For the progressive degradations exhibited by the Roman 
Church during the Age of Faith, something may be offered 
as at once an explanation and an excuse. Machiavelli 
relates, in his " History of Florence "-a work which, if 
inferior in philosophical penetration to his " Prince," is of 
the most singular merit as a literary composition-that 
Osporco, a Roman, having become pope, exchanged his 
Return of 
things to the 
ancient Chris- 
tian times. 144 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
ion. IV. 
•unseemly name for the more classical one Sergins, and that 
his successors have ever since observed the prac- 
tice of assuming a new name. This incident 
profoundly illustrates the psychical progress of 
that Church. During the fifteen centuries that 
we have had under consideration-counting from a little 
before the Christian era-the population of Italy had been 
constantly changing. The old Roman ethnical element 
had become eliminated partly through the republican and 
imperial wars, and partly through the slave system. The 
degenerated half-breeds, of whom the Peninsula was full 
through repeated northern immigrations, degenerated, as 
time went on, still more and more. After that blood 
admixture had for the most part ceased, it took along time 
for the base ethnical element which was its product to come 
into physiological correspondence with the country, for 
the adaptation of man to a new climate is a slow, a secular 
change. 
But blood-degeneration implies thought-degeneration. 
It is nothing more than might be expected that, in this 
mongrel race, customs, and language, and even names 
should change-that rivers, and towns, and men should 
receive new appellations. As the great statesman to whom 
I have referred observes, Caesar and Pompey had disap- 
peared ; John, Matthew, and Peter had come in their stead. 
Barbarized, names are the outward and visible signs of 
barbarized ideas. Those early bishops of Rome whose 
dignified acts have commanded our respect, were men of 
Roman blood, and animated with sentiments that were 
truly Latin ; but the succeeding pontiffs, whose lives were 
so infamous and thoughts so base, were engendered of half- 
breeds. Nor was it until the Italian population had re-es- 
tablished itself in a physiological relation with the country 
-not until it had passed through the earlier stages of 
national life-that manly thoughts and true conceptions 
could be regained. 
Ideas and dogmas that would not have been tolerated for 
an instant in the old, pure, homogeneous Roman race, 
found acceptance in this adulterated, festering mass. This 
was the true cause of the increasing debasement of Latin 
Christianity. Whoever will take the trouble of construct- 
Connexion of 
religious ideas 
in Italy with 
its ethnical 
state. CH. IV.] 
THE AGS OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
145 
ing a chart of the religious conceptions as they successively 
struggled into light, will see how close was their 
connexion with the physiological state of the 
Italian ethnical element at the moment. It is a 
sad and humiliating succession. Mariolatry; the 
invocation of saints; the supreme value of virginity; the 
working of miracles by relics; the satisfaction of moral 
crimes by gifts of money or goods to the clergy; the 
worship of images; Purgatory; the sale of benefices; 
transubstantiation, or the making of God by the priest; 
the materialization of God-that He has eyes, feet, hands, 
toes; the virtue of pilgrimages; vicarious religion, the 
sinner paying the priest to pray for him; the corporeality 
of spirits; the forbidding of the Bible to the laity; the 
descent to shrine-worship and fetichism ; the doctrine that 
man can do more than his duty, and hence have a claim 
upon God; the sale by the priests of indulgences in sin 
for money. 
But there is another, a very different aspect under which 
we must regard this Church. Enveloped as it was with 
the many evils of the times, the truly Christian principle 
which was at its basis perpetually vindicated its power, 
giving rise to numberless blessings in spite of the de- 
gradation and wickedness of man. As I have elsewhere 
(Physiology, Book II., Chap. VIII.) remarked, " The civil 
law exerted an exterior power in human relations ; Chris- 
tianity produced an interior and moral change. 
The idea of an ultimate accountability for per- 
sonal deeds, of which the old Europeans had an 
indistinct perception, became intense and pre- 
cise. The sentiment of universal charity was exemplified 
not only in individual acts, the remembrance of which 
soon passes away, but in the more permanent institution 
of establishments for the relief of affliction, the spread of 
knowledge, the propagation of truth. Of the great 
ecclesiastics, many had risen from the humblest ranks of 
society, and these men, true to their democratic instincts, 
were often found to be the inflexible supporters of right 
against might. Eventually coming to be the depositaries 
of the knowledge that then existed, they opposed intellect 
to brute force, in many instances successfully, and by the 
Vol. IL-7 
Successive 
steps in the 
religious 
decline. 
Statement of 
what the 
Church had 
actually done. 146 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. iv. 
example of the organization of the Church, which was 
essentially republican, they showed how representative 
systems may be introduced into the state. Nor was it over 
communities and nations that the Church displayed her 
chief power. Never in the world before was there such a 
system. From her central seat at Rome, her all-seeing eye, 
like that of Providence itself, could equally take in a 
hemisphere at a glance, or examine the private life of any 
individual. Her boundless influences enveloped kings in 
their palaces, and relieved the beggar at the monastery 
gate. In all Europe there was not a man too obscure, too 
insignificant, or too desolate for her. Surrounded by her 
solemnities, every one received his name at her altar ; her 
bells chimed at his marriage, her knell tolled at his 
funeral. She extorted from him the secrets of his life at 
her confessionals, and punished his faults by her penances. 
In his hour of sickness and trouble her servants sought him 
out, teaching him, by her exquisite litanies and prayers, to 
place his reliance on God, or strengthening him for the 
trials of life by the example of the holy and just. Her 
prayers had an efficacy to give repose to the souls of his 
dead. When, even to his friends, his lifeless body had 
become an offence, in the name of God she received it into 
her consecrated ground, and under her shadow he rested till 
the great reckoning-day. From little better than a slave 
she raised his wife to be his equal, and, forbidding him to 
have more than one, met her recompense for those noble 
deeds in a firm friend at every fireside. Discountenancing 
all impure love, she put round that fireside the children of 
one mother, and made that mother little less than sacred 
in their eyes. In ages of lawlessness and rapine, among 
people but a step above savages, she vindicated the invio- 
lability of her precincts against the hand of power, and 
made her temples a refuge and sanctuary for the despairing 
and oppressed. Truly she was the shadow of a great rock 
in many a weary land!" 
This being the point which I consider the end of the 
Italian system as a living force in European progress, 
its subsequent operation being directed to the senses and 
not to the understanding, it will not be amiss if for a CH. IV.] 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
147 
moment we extend our view to later times and to circum- 
stances beyond the strict compass of this book, 
endeavouring thus to ascertain the condition 
of the Church, especially as to many devout 
persons it may doubtless appear that she has lost none of 
her power. 
On four occasions there have been revolts against the 
Italian Church system : 1st, in the thirteenth centurv. the 
Albigensian ; 2nd, in the fourteenth, the 
Wiclifite; 3rd, in the sixteenth, the Reforma- 
tion ; 4th, in the eighteenth, at the French 
Revolution. On each of these occasions ecclesiastical 
authority has exerted whatever offensive or defensive power 
it possessed. Its action is a true indication of its condition 
at the time. Astronomers can determine the orbit of a 
comet or other celestial meteor by three observations of its 
position as seen from the earth, and taken at intervals apart. 
1st. Of the Albigensian revolt. We have ascertained 
that the origin of this is distinctly traceable 
to the Mohammedan influence of Spain, through 
the schools of Cordova and Granada, pervading Languedoc 
and Provence. Had these agencies produced only the 
gay scenes of chivalry and courtesy as their material 
results, and, as their intellectual, war-ballads, satires, 
and amorous songs, they had been excused; but, along 
with such elegant frivolities, there was something of a 
more serious kind. A popular proverb will often betray 
national belief, and there was a proverb in Provence, 
" Viler than a priest." The offensive sectaries also quoted, 
for the edification of the monks, certain texts, to the effect 
that, " if a man will not work neither let him eat." The 
event, in the hands of Simon de Montfort, taught them that 
there is such a thing as wresting Scripture to one's own 
destruction. 
How did the Church deal with this Albigensian heresy ? 
As those do who have an absolutely overwhelming power. 
She did not crush it-that would have been too indulgent; 
she absolutely annihilated it. Awake to what must necessa- 
rily ensue from the imperceptible spread of such opinions, 
she remorselessly consumed its birth-place with fire and 
sword; and, fearful that some fugitives might have escaped 
Analysis of 
the career of 
the Church. 
Four revolts 
against the 
Italian 
system. 
The Albigen- 
sian revolt. 148 
THE AGE OF FAITH IX THE WEST. 
[CH. IV. 
her vigilant eye, or that heresy might go wherever a bale 
of goods might be conveyed, she organized the Inquisition 
with its troops of familiars and spies. Six hundred years 
have elapsed since these events, and the south of France 
has never recovered from the blow. 
That was a persecution worthy of a sovereign-a perse- 
cution conducted on sound Italian principles of policy-to 
consider clearly the end to be attained, and adopt the 
proper means without any kind of concern as to their 
nature. But it was a persecution that implied the posses- 
sion of unlimited and irresponsible power. 
2nd. Of the revolt of Wiclif. We have also considered the 
state of affairs which aroused the resistance of 
Wiclif. It is manifested by legal enactments 
early in the fourteenth century, such as that ecclesiastics 
shall not go armed, nor join themselves with thieves, nor 
frequent taverns, nor chambers of strumpets, nor visit nuns, 
nor play at dice, nor keep concubines-by the Parliamen- 
tary bill of 1376, setting forth that the tax paid in England 
to the pope for ecclesiastical dignities is fourfold as much 
as that coming to the king from the whole realm; that 
alien clergy, who have never seen nor care to see their 
flocks, convey away the treasure of the country-by the 
homely preaching of John Ball, that all men are equal in 
the sight of God. Wiclif's opposition was not only directed 
against corruptions of discipline in the Church, but equally 
against doctrinal errors. His dogma that " God bindeth 
not men to believe any thing they cannot understand " 
is a distinct embodiment of the rights of reason, and the 
noble purpose he carried into execution of translating the 
Bible from the Vulgate shows in what direction he intended 
the application of that doctrine to be made. Through the 
influence of the queen of Richard the Second, who was 
a native of that country, his doctrines found an echo in 
Bohemia-Huss not only earnestly adopting his theological 
views, but also joining in his resistance to the despotism of 
fhe court of Pome and his exposures of the corruptions of 
the clergy. The political point of this revolt in England 
occurs in the refusal of Edward III., at the instigation of 
Wiclif, to do homage to the pope; the religious, in tho 
translation of the Bible. 
The revolt of 
Wiclif. CH. IV. J 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
149 
Though, a bull was sent to London requiring the arch- 
heretic to be seized and put in irons, Wiclif died in his 
bed, and his bones rested quietly in the grave for forty-four 
years. Ecclesiastical vengeance burned them at last, and 
scattered them to the winds. 
There was no remissness in the ecclesiastical authority, 
but there were victories won by the blind hero, John 
Zisca. After the death of that great soldier-whose body 
was left by the road-side to the wolves and crows, and his 
skin dried and made into a drum-in vain was all that 
perfidy could suggest and all that brutality could execute 
resorted to-in vain the sword and fire were passed over 
Bohemia, and the last effort of impotent vengeance tried in 
England-the heretics could not be exterminated nor the 
detested translation of the Bible destroyed. 
3rd. Of the revolt of Luther. As we shall have, in a 
subsequent chapter, to consider the causes that 
led to the Reformation, it is not necessary to 
anticipate them in any detail here. The necessities of the 
Roman treasury, which suggested the doctrine of superero- 
gation and the sale of indulgences as a ready means of 
relief, merely brought on a crisis which otherwise could not 
have been long postponed, the real point at issue being 
the right of interpretation of the Scriptures by private 
judgment. 
The Church did not restrict her resistance to the use 
of ecclesiastical weapons-those of a carnal kind she also 
employed. Yet we look in vain for the concentrated energy 
with which she annihilated the Albigenses, or the atrocious 
policy with which the Hussites were met. The times no 
longer permitted those things. But the struggle was 
maintained with unflinching constancy through the disasters 
and successes of one hundred and thirty years. Then came 
the peace of Westphalia, and the result of the contest was 
ascertained. The Church had lost the whole of northern 
Europe. 
4th. Of the revolt of the philosophers. Besides the 
actual loss of the nations who openly fell away 
to Protestantism, a serious detriment was soon 
found to have befallen those still remaining 
nominally faithful to the Church. The fact of secession 
The revolt of 
Luther. 
The revolt of 
the philoso- 
phers. 150 
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST. 
[ch. iv. 
or adherence depending, m a monarchy, on the personal 
caprice or policy of the sovereign, is by no means a true 
index of the opinions or relations of the subjects; and thus 
it happened that in several countries in which there was an 
outward appearance of agreement with the Church because 
of the attitude of the government, there was, in reality, 
a total disruption, so far as the educated and thinking 
classes were concerned. This was especially the case in 
France. 
When the voyage of circumnavigation of the globe by 
Magellan had for ever settled all such questions as those 
of the figure of the earth and the existence of the anti- 
podes, the principles upon which the contest was composed 
between the conflicting parties are obvious from the most 
superficial perusal of the history of physics. Free thought 
was extorted for science, and, as its equivalent, an un- 
molested state for theology. It was an armed truce. 
It was not through either of the parties to that conflict 
that new troubles arose, but through the action of a class 
fast rising into importance-literary men. From the 
beginning to the middle of the last century these philoso- 
phers became more and more audacious in their attacks. 
Unlike the scientific, whose theological action was by 
implication rather than in a direct way, these boldly 
assaulted the intellectual basis of faith. The opportune 
occurrence of the American Revolution, by bringing forward 
in a prominent manner social evils and political methods 
for their cure, gave a practical application to the movement 
in Europe, and the Church was found unable to offer any 
kind of resistance. 
From these observations of the state of the Church at 
four different epochs' of her career we are able to 
determine her movement. There is a time of 
abounding strength, a time of feebleness, a time 
of ruinous loss, a time of utter exhaustion. What a dif- 
ference between the eleventh and the eighteenth centuries! 
It is the noontide and evening of a day of empire. 
Summary of 
the Italian 
system. CHAPTER V. 
APPROACH OF THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
IT IS PRECEDED BY MARITIME DISCOVERY. 
Consideration of the definite Epochs of Social Life. 
Experimental Philosophy emerging in the Age of Faith. 
The Age of Beason ushered in by Maritime Discovery and the rise of 
European Criticism. 
Maritime Discovery.-The three great Voyages. 
Columbus discovers America.-De Gama doubles the Cape and reaches 
India.-Magellan circumnavigates the Earth.-The Material and 
intellectual Results of each of these Voyages. 
Digression on the Social Condition of America.-In isolated human 
Societies the process of Thought and of Civilization is always the 
same.-Man passes through a determinate srwcession of Ideas and 
embodies them in determinate Institutions.-The state of Mexico and 
Peru proves the influence of Law in the development of Man. 
I have arrived at the last division of my work, the period 
in national life answering to maturity in individual. The 
objects to be considered differ altogether from those which 
have hitherto occupied our attention. We have 
now to find human authority promoting intellec- 
tual advancement, and accepting as its maxim 
that the lot of man will be ameliorated, and his power and 
dignity increased, in proportion as he is able to comprehend 
the mechanism of the world, the action of natural laws, and 
to apply physical forces to his use. 
The date at which this transition in European life was 
made will doubtless be differently given accord- 
ing as the investigator changes his point of 
view. In truth, there is not in national life 
any real epoch, because there is nothing in reality abrupt. 
Peculiarities 
of the Age of 
Beason. 
Natural 
periods merge 
into one 
another. 152 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. v. 
Events, however great or sudden, are consequences of pre- 
parations long ago made. In this there is a perfect parity 
between the course of national and that of individual life. 
In the individual, one state merges by imperceptible degrees 
into another, each in its beginning and end being altogether 
indistinct. No one can tell at what moment he ceased to 
be a child and became a boy-at what moment he ceased to 
be a youth and became a man. Each condition, examined 
at a suitable interval, exhibits characteristics perfectly 
distinctive, but, at their common point of contact, the two 
so overlap and blend that, like the intermingling of shadow 
and light, the beginning of one and end of the other may 
be very variously estimated. 
In individual life, since no precise natural epoch exists, 
society has found it expedient to establish an 
artificial one, as, for example, the twenty-first 
year. The exigencies of history may be satisfied by 
similar fictions. A classical critic would probably bo 
justified in selecting for his purpose the foundation of 
Constantinople as the epoch of the commencement of tho 
Age of Faith, and its capture by the Turks as the close. 
It must be admitted that a very large number of historical 
events stand in harmony with that arrangement. A 
political writer would perhaps be disposed to 
postpone the date of the latter epoch to that of 
the treaty of Westphalia, for from that time 
theological elements ceased to have a recognized force, 
Protestant, Catholic, Mohammedan, consorting promis- 
cuously together in alliance or at war, according as 
temporary necessities might indicate. Besides these other 
artificial epochs might be assigned, each doubtless having 
advantages to recommend it to notice. But, after all, 
the chief peculiarity is obvious enough. It is the gradual 
decline of a system that had been in activity for many 
ages, and its gradual replacement by another. 
i\s with the Age of Beason in Greece, so with the Age 
of Beason in Europe, there is a prelude marked 
by the gradual emergence of a sound philosophy; 
a true logic displaces the supernatural; experiment 
supersedes speculation. It is very interesting to trace 
the feeble beginnings of modern science in alchemy and 
Artificial 
epochs. 
Origin and 
end of the Age 
of Faith. 
Prelude to the 
Age of Reason. ch. v.J 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
153 
natural magic in. countries where no one could understand 
the writings of Alhazen or the Arabian philosophers. 
Out of many names of those who took part in this move- 
ment that might be mentioned there are some that deserve 
recollection. 
Albertus Magnus was born a.d. 1193. It was said of 
him that " he was great in magic, greater in philosophy, 
greatest in theology." By religious profession 
lie was a Dominican. Declining the tempta- 
tions of ecclesiastical preferment, he voluntarily 
resigned his bishopric, that he might lead in privacy a 
purer life. As was not uncommon in those days, he was 
accused of illicit commerce with Satan, and many idle 
stories were told of the miracles he wrought. At a great 
banquet on a winter's day, he produced all the beauties of 
spring-trees in full foliage, flowers in perfume, meadows 
covered with grass; but, at a word, the phantom pageant 
was dissolved, and succeeded by appropriate wastes of 
snow. This was an exaggeration of an entertainment he 
gave, January 6th, 1259, in the hot-house of the convent 
garden. lie interested himself in the functions of plants, 
was well acquainted with what is called the sleep of 
flowers, studied their opening and closing. He under- 
stood that the sap is diminished in volume by evaporation 
from the leaves. He was the first to use the word 
" affinity " in its modern acceptation. His chemical 
studies present us with some interesting details. lie 
knew that the whitening of copper by arsenic is not a 
transmutation, but only the production of an alloy, since 
the arsenic can be expelled by heat. He speaks of potash 
as an alkali; describes several acetates ; and alludes to 
the blackening of the skin with nitrate of silver. 
Contemporary with him was Roger Bacon, born a.d. 
1214. His native country has never yet done 
him justice, though his contemporaries truly 
spoke of him as " the Admirable Doctor." The great 
friar of the thirteenth century has been eclipsed by an 
unworthy namesake. His claims on posterity are enforced 
by his sufferings and ten years' imprisonment for the 
cause of truth. 
His history, so far as is known, may be briefly told. 
Albertus 
Magnus, the 
Dominican. 
Roger Bacon, 
discoveiies of. 154 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. v. 
lie was born, at Ilchester, in Somersetshire, and studied 
at the University of Oxford. Thence he went to tho 
University of Paris, where he took the degree of doctor of 
theology. He was familiar with Latin, Greek, Hebrew, 
and Arabic. Of mathematics he truly says that " it is 
the first of all the sciences; indeed, it precedes all others, 
and disposes us to them." In advance of his age, he 
denied the authority of Aristotle, and tells us that we 
must substitute that of experiment for it. Of his 
astronomical acquirements we need no better proof than 
his recommendation to Pope Clement IV. to rectify the 
Calendar in the manner actually done subsequently. If 
to him be rightly attributed the invention of spectacles, 
the human race is his debtor. He described the true 
theory of telescopes and microscopes, saying that lenses 
may be ground and arranged in such a way as to render 
it possible to read the smallest letters at incredible 
distances, and to count grains of sand and dust, because 
of the magnitude of the angle under which we may 
perceive such objects. He foresaw the greatest of all 
inventions in practical astronomy-the application of 
optical means to instruments for the measurement of 
angles. He proposed the propulsion of ships through tho 
water and of carriages upon roads by merely mechanical 
means. He speculated upon the possibility of making a 
flying-machine. Admitting the truth of alchemy, ho 
advised the experimenter to find out the method by which 
Nature makes metals and then to imitate it. He knew 
that there are different kinds of air, and tells us that 
there is one which will extinguish flame. These aro 
very clear views for an age which mistook the gases for 
leather-eared ghosts. He warned us to be cautious how 
we conclude that we have accomplished the transmutation 
of metals, quaintly observing that the distance between 
whitened copper and pure silver is very great. He 
showed that air is necessary for the support of fire, and 
was the author of the well-known experiment illustrating 
that fact by putting a lighted lamp under a bell-jar and 
observing its extinction. 
There is no little significance in the expression of 
Friar Bacon that the ignorant mind cannot sustain tho CH. V.] 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
155 
truth. He was accused of magical practices and of a 
commerce with Satan, though, during the life of 
Clement IV., who was his friend, he escaped 
without public penalties. This pope had written 
to him a request that he would furnish him an account of 
his various inventions. In compliance therewith, Bacon 
sent him the " Opus Majus " and other works, together 
with several mathematical instruments which he had 
made with his own hands. But, under the pontificate of 
Nicolas III., the accusation of magic, astrology, and sell- 
ing himself to the Devil was again pressed, one point 
being that he had proposed to construct astronomical 
tables for the purpose of predicting future events. Ap- 
prehending the worst, he tried to defend himself by his 
work " De Nullitate Magiae." " Because these things are 
beyond your comprehension, you call them the works of 
the Devil; your theologians and canonists abhor them as 
the productions of magic, regarding them as unworthy of 
a Christian." But it was in vain. His writings were con- 
demned as containing dangerous and suspected novelties, 
and he was committed to prison. There he remained for 
ten years, until, broken in health, he was released from 
punishment by the intercession of some powerful and 
commiserating personages. He died at the age of seventy- 
eight. On his death-bed he uttered the melancholy com- 
plaint, " I repent now that I have given myself so much 
trouble for the love of science." If there be found in his 
works sentiments that are more agreeable to the age in 
which he lived than to ours, let us recollect what he says 
in his third letter to Pope Clement: " It is on account of 
the ignorance of those with whom I have had to deal that 
I have not been able to accomplish more." 
A number of less conspicuous though not unknown 
names succeed to Bacon. There is Raymond 
Lully, who was said to have been shut up in the 
Tower of London and compelled to make gold 
for Edward II.; Guidon de Mon tan or, the 
inventor of the philosopher's balm ; Clopinel, the author of 
the " Romance of the Rose Richard the Englishman, who 
makes the sensible remark that he who does not join theory 
to practice is like an ass eating hay and not reflecting 
Is persecuted 
and.im- 
prisoned. 
Minor alche- 
mists of Eng- 
land, France, 
and German}'. 156 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. v. 
on what he is doing; Master Ortholan, who describes 
very prettily the making of nitric acid, and approaches to 
the preparation of absolute alcohol under the title of the 
quintessence of wine; Bernard de Treves, who obtained 
much reputation for the love-philters he prepared for 
Charles V. of France, theii' efficacy having been ascer- 
tained by experiments made on servant-girls; Bartholo- 
mew, the Englishman who first described the method of 
crystallizing and purifying sugar; Eck de Sulzbach, who 
teaches how metallic crystallizations, *su ch as the tree of 
Diana, a beautiful silvery vegetation, may be produced. 
He proved experimentally that metals, when they oxidize, 
increase in weight; and. says that in the month of 
November, a.d. 1489, he found that six pounds of an 
amalgam of silver heated for eight days augmented in 
weight three pounds. The number is, of course, erroneous, 
but his explanation is very surprising. " This augmenta- 
tion of weight comes from this, that a spirit is united 
with the metal; and what proves it is that this artificial 
cinnabar, submitted to distillation, disengages that spirit." 
He was within a hair's-breadth of anticipating Priestley 
and Lavoisier by three hundred years. 
The alchemists of the sixteenth century not only 
occupied themselves with experiment; some of 
them, as Augurelli, aspired to poetry. He un- 
dertook to describe in Latin verses the art of 
making gold. His book, entitled " Chrysopceia," was 
dedicated to Leo X., a fact which shows the existence of 
a greater public liberality of sentiment than heretofore. 
It is said that the author expected the Holy Father to 
make him a handsome recompense, but the good-natured 
pope merely sent him a large empty sack, saying that ho 
who knew how to make gold so admirably only needed 
a purse to put it in. 
The celebrated work of Basil Valentine, entitled 
" Currus triumphalis Antimonii," introduced 
the metal antimony into the practice of medicine. 
The attention of this author was first directed 
to the therapeutical relations of the metal by 
observing that some swine, to which a portion of it had 
been given, grew fat with surprising rapidity. There 
Augurelli, the 
poetical alche- 
mist. 
Basil 
Valentine 
introduces 
antimony. cir. v.] 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
157 
were certain monks in his vicinity who, during the season 
of Lent, had reduced themselves to the last degree of 
attenuation by fasting and other mortifications of the flesh. 
On these Basil was induced to try the powers of the metal. 
To his surprise, instead of recovering their flesh and fat- 
ness, they were all killed; hence the name popularly 
given to the metal, antimoine, because it does not agree 
with the constitution of a monk. Up to this time it had 
passed under the name of stibium. With a result not very 
different was the application of antimony in the composi- 
tion of printer's type-metal. Administered internally or 
thus mechanically used, this metal proved equally noxious 
to ecclesiastics. 
It is scarcely necessary to continue the relation of these 
scientific trifles. Enough has been said to illus- 
trate the quickly-spreading taste for experi- 
mental inquiry. I now hasten to the description oi more 
important things. 
In the limited space of this book I must treat these 
subjects, not as they should be dealt with 
philosophically, but in the manner that cir- 
cumstances permit. Even with this imperfec- 
tion, their description spontaneously assumes an almost 
dramatic form, the facts offering themselves to all reflect- 
ing men with an air of surpassing dignity. On one hand 
it is connected with topics the most sublime, on the other 
it descends to incidents the most familiar and useful; on 
one hand it elevates our minds to the relations of suns 
and myriads of worlds, on the other it falls to the every- 
day acts of our domestic and individual life; on one 
hand it turns our thoughts to a vista of ages so infinite 
that the vanishing point is in eternity, on the other it 
magnifies into importance the transitory occupation of a 
passing hour. Knowing how great are the requirements 
for the right treatment of such topics, I might shrink 
from this portion of my book with a conviction of in- 
capacity. I enter upon it with hesitation, trusting rather 
to the considerate indulgence of the reader than to any 
worthiness in the execution of the work. 
In the history of the philosophical life of Greece, wo 
have seen (Chapter II.) how important were the influences 
The new 
epoch. 
Difficulty of 
treating it 
scientifically. 158 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. v. 
of maritime discovery and the rise of criticism. Con- 
jointly they closed the Greek Age of Faith. In the life 
of Europe, at the point we have now reached, they came 
into action again. As on this occasion the circumstances 
connected with them are numerous and important, I shall 
consider them separately in this and the follow- 
ing chapter. And, first, of maritime enter- 
prise, which was the harbinger of the Age of 
Reason in Europe. It gave rise to three great voyages- 
the discovery of America, the doubling of the Cape, and 
the circumnavigation of the earth. 
At the time of which we are speaking, the commerce of 
the Mediterranean was chiefly in two directions. 
The ports of the Black Sea furnished suitable 
depots for produce brought down the Tanais and 
other rivers, and for a large portion of the India trade 
that had come across the Caspian. The seat of this com- 
merce was Genoa. 
The other direction was the south-east. The shortest 
course to India was along the Euphrates and the Persian 
Gulf, but the Red and Arabian seas offered a cheaper and 
safer route. In the ports of Syria and Egypt were there- 
fore found the larger part of the commodities of India. 
This trade centred in Venice. A vast development had 
been given to it through the Crusades, the Venetians 
probably finding in the transport service of the Holy 
Wars as great a source of profit as in the India trade. 
Toward the latter part of the fourteenth century it 
became apparent that the commercial rivalry 
between Venice and Genoa would terminate to 
the disadvantage of the latter. The irrup- 
tion of the Tartars and invasion of the Turks had com- 
pletely dislocated her Asiatic lines of trade. In the 
wars between the two republics ' Genoa had suffered 
severely. Partly for this reason, and partly through the 
advantageous treaties that Venice had made with the 
sultans, giving her the privilege of consulates at Alexan- 
dria and Damascus, this republic had at last attained a 
supremacy over all competitors. The Genoese establish- 
ments on the Black Sea had become worthless. 
Approach of 
the Age of 
Reason. 
State of Medi- 
terranean 
trade. 
Rivalry of 
Genoa and 
Venice. CH. V.J 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
159 
With ruin before them, and unwilling to yield their 
Eastern connexions, the merchants of Genoa had tried 
to retrieve their affairs by war; her practical sailors saw 
that she might be re-established in another way. There 
were among them some who were well ac- 
quainted with the globular form of the earth, 
and with what had been done by the Moham- 
medan astronomers for determining its circumference by 
the measurement of a degree on the shore of the Red Sea. 
These men originated the attempt to reach India by sail- 
ing to the west. 
By two parties-the merchants and the clergy-their 
suggestions were received with little favour. 
The former gave no encouragement, perhaps be- 
cause such schemes were unsuited to their existing arrange- 
ments ; the latter disliked them because of their suspected 
irreligious nature. The globular form had been con- 
demned by such fathers as Lactantius and Augustine. In 
the Patristic Geography the earth is a flat surface bor- 
dered by the waters of the sea, on the yielding support 
of which rests the crystalline dome of the sky. These 
doctrines were for the most part supported by passages 
from the Holy Scriptures, perversely wrested from their 
proper meaning. Thus Cosmas Indicopleustes, whose 
Patristic Geography had been an authority for nearly 
eight hundred years, triumphantly disposed of the spheri- 
city of the earth by demanding of its advocates how in 
the day of judgment, men on the other side of a globe 
could see the Lord descending through the air! 
Among the Genoese sailors seeking the welfare of 
their city was one destined for immortality-Christopher 
Columbus. 
His father was a wool-comber, yet not a man of the 
common sort. He procured for his son a know- 
ledge of arithmetic, drawing, painting; and 
Columbus is said to have written a singularly beautiful 
hand. For a short time he was at the University of 
Pavia, but he went to sea when he was only fourteen. 
After being engaged in the Syrian trade for many years, 
he had made several voyages to Guinea, occupying his 
time when not at sea in the construction of charts for sale. 
Attempt to 
reach India by 
the west. 
Opposition to 
this scheme. 
Columbus, 
early life of. 160 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. v. 
thereby supporting not only himself, but also his aged 
father, and finding means for the education of his brothers. 
Under these circumstances he had obtained a competent 
knowledge of geography, and, though the state of public 
opinion at the time did not permit such doctrines to be 
openly avowed, he believed that the sea is everywhere 
navigable, that the earth is round and not flat, that there 
are antipodes, that the torrid zone is habitable, and that 
there is a proportionate distribution of land in the 
northern and southern hemispheres. Adopting the Pa- 
tristic logic when it suited his purpose, he reasoned 
that since the earth is made for man, it is not 
likely that its surface is too largely covered with 
water, and that, if there are lands, they must 
be inhabited, since the command was renewed at the Flood 
that man should replenish the earth. He asked, " Is it 
likely that the sun shines upon nothing, and that the 
nightly watches of the stars are wasted on trackless seas 
and desert lands ? " But to this reasoning he added 
facts that were more substantial. One Martin Vincent, 
who had sailed many miles to the west of the Azores, 
related to him that he had found, floating on the sea, a 
piece of timber evidently carved without iron. Another 
sailor, Pedro Correa, his brother-in-law, had met with 
enormous canes. On the coast of Flores the sea had cast 
up two dead men with large faces, of a strange aspect. 
Columbus appears to have formed his theory that the 
East Indies could be reached by sailing to the west about 
a.d. 1474. He was at that time in correspondence with 
Toscanelli, the Florentine astronomer, who held the same 
doctrine, and who sent him a map or chart constructed 
on the travels of Marco Polo. He offered his services first 
to his native city, then to Portugal, then to Spain, and, 
through his brother, to England; his chief inducement in 
each instance being that the riches of India might be 
thus secured. In Lisbon he had married. While he Jay 
sick near Belem an unknown voice whispered to him in 
a dream, " God will cause thy name to be wonderfully 
resounded through the earth, and will give thee the keys 
of the gates of the ocean, which are closed with strong 
chains ! " The death of his wife appears to have broken 
His argument 
for lands to 
the west. CH. V.] 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
161 
the last link which held him to Portugal, where he had 
been since 1470. One evening, in the autumn of 1485, a 
man of majestic presence, pale, care-worn, and, though 
in the meridian of life, with silver hair, leading a little 
boy by the hand, asked alms at the gate of the Franciscan 
convent near Palos-not for himself, but only a little 
bread and water for his child. This was that Columbus 
destined to give to Europe a new world. 
In extreme poverty, he was making his way to the 
Spanish court. After many wearisome delays 
his suit was referred to a council at Salamanca, 
before which, however, his doctrines were con- 
futed from the Pentateuch, the Psalms, the 
Prophecies, the Gospels, the Epistles, and the writings of 
the fathers-St. Chrysostom, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, 
St. Gregory, St. Basil, St. Ambrose. Moreover, they were 
demonstrably inconsistent with reason; since, if even he 
should depart from Spain, " the rotundity of the earth 
would present a kind of mountain up which it was im- 
possible for him to sail, even with the fairest windand 
so he could never get back. The Grand Cardinal of Spain 
had also indicated their irreligious nature, and Columbus 
began to fear that, instead of receiving aid as a discoverer, 
he should fall into trouble as a heretic. How- 
ever, after many years of mortification and pro- 
crastination, he at length prevailed with Queen 
Isabella ; and on April 17,1492, in the field before Granada, 
then just wrenched from the Mohammedans by the arms of 
Ferdinand and Isabella, he received his commission. With 
a nobleness of purpose, he desired no reward unless ho 
should succeed; but, in that case, stipulated that he should 
have the title of Admiral and Viceroy, and that his per- 
quisite should be one tenth of all he should discover-con- 
ditions which show what mannei' of man this great sailor 
was. He had bound himself to contribute one-eighth to 
the expenses of the expedition: this he accomplished 
through the Pinzons of Palos, an old and wealthy sea- 
faring family. These arrangements once rati- 
fied, he lost not a moment in completing the 
preparations for his expedition. The royal authority 
enabled him to take-forcibly, if necessary-both ships 
Is confuted 
by the 
Council of 
Salamanca. 
Queen Isabel- 
la adopts his 
views. 
The expedi- 
tion prepared. 162 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. v. 
and men. But even with, that advantage he would 
hardly have succeeded if the Pinzons had not joined 
heartily with him, personally sharing in the dangers of 
the voyage. 
The sun, hy journeying to the west, rises on India at 
last. On Friday, August 3, 1492, the weary 
struggles and heart-sickness of eighteen years 
of supplication were over, and, as the day was 
breaking, Columbus sailed with three little ships from Palos, 
carrying with him charts constructed on the basis of that 
which Toscanelli had formerly sent, and also a letter to 
the Grand Khan of Tartary. On the 9th he saw the 
Canaries, being detained among them three weeks by the 
provisioning and repairing of his ships. He left them on 
September 6th, escaping the pursuit of some caravels sent 
out by the Portuguese government to intercept him. He 
now steered due west. Nothing of interest occurred until 
nightfall on September 13th, when he remarked with sur- 
prise that the needle, which the day before had pointed 
due north, was varying half a point to the west, the effect 
becoming more and more marked as the expedition advanced. 
He was now beyond the track of any former navigator, 
and with no sure guide but the stars; the heaven was 
everywhere, and everywhere the sea. On Sunday, 16th, 
he encountered many floating weeds, and picked up what 
was mistaken for a live grasshopper. For some days the 
weeds increased in quantity, and. retarded the sailing of 
the ships. On the 19th two pelicans flew on board. Thus 
far he had had an easterly wind ; but on September 20th 
it changed to south-west, and many little birds, " such as 
those that sing in orchards," were seen. His men now 
became mutinous, and reproached the king and queen for 
trusting to " this bold Italian, who wanted to make a great 
lord of himself at the price of their lives." 
On September 25th Pinzon reported to him that he 
thought he saw land; but it proved to be only clouds. 
With great difficulty he kept down his ?nutinous crew. 
On October 2nd he observed the seaweeds drifting from 
east to west. Pinzon, in the Pinta, having seen a flight of 
parrots going to the south-west, the course was altered on 
October 7th, and he steered after them west-south-west; he 
The voyage 
across the 
Atlantic. CH. V.J 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
163 
had hitherto been on the parallel 26° N. On the evening 
of October 11th the signs of land had become so unmis- 
takable that, after vesper hymn to the Virgin, he made an 
address of congratulation to his crew, and commended 
watchfulness to them. His course was now due west. A 
little before midnight, Columbus, on the fore- 
castle of his ship, saw a moving light at a dis- 
tance ; and two hours after a signal-gun was fired from 
the Pinta. A sailor, Rodrigo de Triana, had descried land. 
The ships were laid to. As soon as day dawned they made 
it out to be a verdant island. There were naked Indians 
upon the beach watching their movements. At sunrise, 
October 12, 1492, the boats were manned and armed, and 
Columbus was the first European to set foot on the new 
world. 
The chief events of the voyage of Columbus were, 1st. 
The discovery of the line of no magnetic varia- 
tion, which, as we shall see, eventually led to the 
circumnavigation of the earth. 2nd. The navigability of 
the sea to the remote west, the weeds not offering any 
insuperable obstruction. When the ships left Palos it was 
universally believed that the final border or verge of the 
earth is where the western sky rests upon the sea, and the 
air and clouds, fogs and water, are commingled. Indeed, 
that boundary could not actually be attained ; for, long 
before it was possible to reach it, the sea was laden with 
inextricable weeds, through which a ship could not pass. 
This legend was perhaps derived from the stories of adven- 
turous sailors, who had been driven by stress of weather 
towards the Sargasso Sea, and seen an island of weeds many 
hundreds of square miles in extent-green meadows float- 
ing in the ocean. 3rd. As to the new continent, Columbus 
never knew the nature of his own discovery. He died in 
the belief that it was actually some part of Asia, and 
Americus Vespucius entertained the same misconception. 
Their immediate successors supposed that Mexico was the 
Quinsay, in China, of Marco Polo. For this reason I do 
not think that the severe remark that the " name of America 
is a monument of human injustice " is altogether merited. 
Had the true state of things been known, doubtless the 
event would have been different. The name of America 
Discovery of 
America. 
Events of the 
voyage. 164 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. v. 
first occurs in an edition of Ptolemy's Geography, on a map 
by Ilylacomylus. 
Two other incidents of no little interest followed this 
successful voyage : the first was the destruction 
of Patristic Geography; the second the conse- 
quence of the flight of Pinzon's parrots. Though, 
as we now know, the conclusion that India had been reached 
was not warranted by the facts, it was on all sides admitted 
that the old doctrine was overthrown, and that the admiral 
had reached Asia by sailing to the west. This necessarily 
implied the globular form of the earth. As to the second, 
never was an augury more momentous than that flight of 
parrots. It has been well said that this event determined 
the distribution of Latin and German Christianity in the 
New World. 
The discovery of America by Leif, the son of Eric the 
Ped, a.d. 1000, cannot diminish the claims of 
Columbus. The wandering Scandinavians had 
reached the shores of America first in the vicinity 
of Nantucket, and had given the name of V inland to the 
region extending from beyond Boston to the south of New 
York. But the memory of these voyages seems totally to 
have passed away, or the lands were confounded with 
Greenland, to which Nicolas V. had appointed a bishop 
a.d. 1448. Had these traditions been known to or respected 
by Columbus, he would undoubtedly have steered his ships 
more to the north. 
Immediately on the return of Columbus, March 15,1493, 
the King and Queen of Spain despatched an am- 
bassador to Pope Alexander VI. for the purpose 
of insuring their rights to the new territories, 
on the same principle that Martin V. had already given to 
the King of Portugal possession of all lands he might dis- 
cover between Capo Bojador and the East Indies, with 
plenary indulgence for the souls of those who perished in 
the conquest. The pontifical action was essentially based 
on the principle that pagans and infidels have no lawful 
property in their lands and goods, but that the children of 
God may rightfully take them away. The bull that was 
issued bears date May, 1493. Its principle is, that all 
countries under the sun are subject of right to papal dis. 
End of 
Patristic 
Geography. 
Previous 
Scandinavian 
discovery. 
The papal 
grant to 
Spain. cn. v j 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
165 
posal. It gives to Spam, m the fulness of apostolic power, 
all lands west and south of a line drawn from the Arctic 
to the Antarctic pole, one hundred leagues west of the 
Azores. The donation includes, by the authority of 
Almighty God, whatever there is toward India, but saves 
the existing rights of any Christian princes. It forbids, 
under pain of excommunication, any one trading in that 
direction, threatening the indignation of Almighty God 
and his holy apostles Peter and Paul. It directs the bar- 
barous nations to be subdued, and no pains to be spared 
for reducing the Indians to Christianity. 
This suggestion of the line of no magnetic variation was 
due to Columbus, who fell into the error of sup- 
posing it to be immovable. The infallibility 
of the pontiff not extending to matters of science, 
he committed the same mistake. In a few years it was 
discovered that the line of no variation was slowly moving 
to the east. It coincided with the meridian of London in 
16G2. 
The obstacles that Patristic Geography had thrown in 
the way of maritime adventure were thus finally removed, 
but Patristic Ethnology led to a fearful tragedy. 
With a critical innocence that seems to have 
overlooked physical impossibilities and social difficulties, 
it had been the practice to refer the peopling of nations 
to legendary heroes or to the patriarchs of Scripture. The 
French were descended from Francus, the son of Hector; 
the Britons from Brutus, the son of zEneas; the genealogy 
of the Saxon kings could be given up to Adam ; but it may 
excite our mirthful surprise that the conscientious Spanish 
chronicles could rise no higher than to Tubal, the grandson 
of Noah. The divisions of the Old World, Asia, Africa, 
and Europe, were assigned to the three sons of Noah-Shem, 
Ham, and Japheth; and the parentage of those continents 
was given to those patriarchs respectively. In this manner 
all mankind were brought into a family relationship, all 
equally the descendants of Adam, equally participators in 
his sin and fall. As long as it was supposed that the lands 
of Columbus were a part of Asia there was no difficulty; 
but when the true position and relations of the American 
continent were discovered, that it was separated from Asia 
The magnetic 
line of no va- 
riation. 
Patristic eth- 
nical ideas. 166 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[CH. v. 
by a waste of waters of many thousand miles, how did the 
matter stand with the new-comers thus suddenly 
obtruded on the scene ? The voice of the fathers 
was altogether against the possibility of their 
Adamic descent. St. Augustine had denied the globular 
form and the existence of Antipodes; for it was impossible 
that there should be people on what was thus vainly 
asserted to be the other side of the earth, since none such 
are mentioned in the Scriptures. The lust for gold was 
only too ready to find its justification in the obvious con- 
clusion; and the Spaniards, with appalling atrocity, pro- 
ceeded to act toward these unfortunates as though they 
did not belong to the human race. Already their lands 
and goods had been taken from them by apostolic authority. 
Their persons were next seized, under the text that the 
heathen are given as an inheritance, and the uttermost 
parts of the earth for a possession. It was one 
unspeakable outrage, one unutterable ruin, with- 
out discrimination of age or sex. Those who died not 
under the lash in a tropical sun died in the darkness of tho 
mine. From sequestered sand-banks, where the red flam- 
ingo fishes in the grey of the morning; from fever-stricken 
mangrove thickets, and the gloom of impenetrable forests; 
from hiding-places in the clefts of rocks, and the solitude 
of invisible caves; from the eternal snows of the Andes, 
where there was no witness but the all-seeing Sun, there 
went up to God a cry of human despair. By millions upon 
millions, whole races and nations were remorselessly cut 
off. The Bishop of Chiapa affirms that more than fifteen 
millions were exterminated in his time! From Mexico 
and Peru a civilization that might have instructed Europe 
was crushed out. Is it for nothing that Spain 
has been made a hideous skeleton among living 
nations, a warning spectacle to the world ? Had not her 
punishment overtaken her, men would have surely said, 
" There is no retribution, there is no God ! " It has been 
her evil destiny to ruin two civilizations, Oriental and 
Occidental, and to be ruined thereby herself. With cir- 
cumstances of dreadful barbarity she expelled the Moors, 
who had become children of her soil by as long a residence 
as the Normans have had in England from William the 
Denial that 
the Indians 
are men. 
The American 
tragedy. 
The crime of 
Spain. CH. V.j 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
167 
Conqueror to our time. In America she destroyed races 
more civilized than herself. Expulsion and emigration 
have deprived her of her best blood, her great cities have 
sunk into insignificance, and towns that once had more 
than a million of inhabitants can now only show a few 
scanty thousands. 
The discovery of America agitated Europe to its deepest 
foundations. All classes of men were affected. The popu- 
lace at once went wild with a lust of gold and a love of 
adventure. Well might Pomponius Laetus, under process 
for his philosophical opinions in Rome, shed tears of joy 
when tidings of the great event reached him ; well might 
Leo X., a few years later, sit up till far in the night 
reading to his sister and his cardinals the " Oceanica" of 
Anghiera. 
If Columbus failed in his attempt to reach India by 
sailing to the west, Vasco de Gama succeeded by 
sailing to the south. He doubled the Cape of 
Good Hope, and retraced the track of the ships 
of Pharaoh Necho, which had accomplished the 
same undertaking two thousand years previously. The 
Portuguese had been for long engaged in an examination 
of the coast of Africa under the bull of Martin V., which 
recognised the possibility of reaching India by passing 
round that continent. It is an amusing instance of 
making scientific discoveries by contract, that King 
Alphonso made a bargain with Ferdinand Gomez, of 
Lisbon, for the exploration of the African coast, the 
stipulation being that he should discover not less than 
three hundred miles every year, and that the starting- 
point should be Sierra Leone. 
We have seen that a belief in the immobility of the line 
of no magnetic variation had led Pope Alexander 
VI. to establish a perpetual boundary between 
the Spanish and Portuguese possessions and fields 
of adventure. That line he considered to be the natural 
boundary between the eastern and western hemispheres. 
An accurate determination of longitude was therefore a 
national as well as a nautical question. Columbus had 
relied on astronomical methods; Gilbert at a subsequent 
Vasco de 
Gama. 
African coast- 
ing voyages. 
Papal confines 
of Spain and 
Portugal. 168 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. v. 
period proposed to determine it by magnetical observations. 
The variation itself could not be accounted for on the doc- 
trine vulgarly received, that magnetism is an effluvium 
issuing forth from the root of the tail of the Little Bear, 
but was scientifically, though erroneously, explained by 
Gilbert's hypothesis that earthy substance is attractive- 
that a needle approaching a continent will incline toward 
it; and hence that in the midst of the Atlantic, being 
equally disturbed by Europe and America, it will point 
evenly between both. 
Pedro de Covilho had sent word to King John II., from 
Cairo, by two Jews, Rabbi Abraham and Rabbi Joseph, 
that there was a south cape of Africa which 
could be doubled. They brought with them an 
Arabic map of the African coast. This was 
about the time that Bartholomew Diaz had reached the 
Cape in two little pinnaces of fifty tons apiece. He sailed 
August, I486, and returned December, 1487, with an 
account of his discovery. Covilho had learned from the 
Arabian mariners, who were perfectly familiar with the 
east coast, that they had frequently been at the south of 
Africa, and that there was no difficulty in passing round 
the continent that way. 
A voyage to the south is even more full of portents than 
one to the west. The accustomed heavens seem to sink away, 
and new stars are nightly approached. Vasco 
de Gama set sail July 9, 1497, with three ships 
and 160 men, having with him the Arab map. 
King John had employed his Jewish physicians, Roderigo 
and Joseph, to devise what help they could from the stars. 
They applied the astrolabe to marine use, and constructed 
tables. These were the same doctors who had told him 
that Columbus would certainly succeed in reaching India, 
and advised him to send out a secret expedition in anticipa- 
tion, which was actually done, though it failed through 
want of resolution in its captain. Encountering the usual 
difficulties, tempestuous weather, and a mutinous crew, 
who conspired to put him to death, De Gama succeeded, 
November 20, in doubling the Cape. On March 1st he met 
seven small Arab vessels, and was surprised to find that 
they used the compass, quadrants, sea-charts, and " had 
News that 
Africa might 
be doubkd. 
De Gama's 
successful 
voyage. CH. V.] 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
169 
divers maritime mysteries not short of the Portugals." 
With joy he soon after recovered sight of the He reaches 
northern stars, so long unseen. He now bore lndia- 
away to the north-east, and on May 19, 1498, reached 
Calicut, on the Malabar coast. 
The consequences of this voyage were to the last degree 
important. The commercial arrangements of 
Europe were completely dislocated; Venice was 
deprived of her mercantile supremacy; the 
hatred of Genoa was gratified; prosperity left the Italian 
towns; Egypt, hitherto supposed to possess a pre-eminent 
advantage as offering the best avenue to India, suddenly 
lost her position ; the commercial monopolies so long in 
the hands of the European Jews were broken down. The 
discovery of America and passage of the Cape were the 
first steps of that prodigious maritime development soon 
exhibited by Western Europe. And since commercial 
prosperity is forthwith followed by the production of men 
and concentration of wealth, and moreover implies an 
energetic intellectual condition, it appeared before long 
that the three centres of population, of wealth, of intellect 
were shifting westwardly. The front of Europe was 
suddenly changed; the British islands, hitherto in a 
sequestered and eccentric position, were all at once put 
in the van of the new movement. 
Commercial rivalry had thus passed from Venice and 
Genoa to Spain and Portugal. The circumnavigation of the 
earth originated in a dispute between these kingdoms re- 
specting the Molucca Islands, from which nutmegs, cloves, 
and mace were obtained. Ferdinand Magellan 
had been in the service of the King of Portugal; 
but an application he had made for an increase of 
half a ducat a month in his stipend having been 
refused, he passed into the service of the King of Spain 
along with one Buy Falero, a friend of his, who, among the 
vulgar, bore the reputation of a conjurer or magician, but 
who really possessed considerable astronomical attain- 
ments, devoting himself to the discovery of improved means 
for finding the place of a ship at sea. Magellan persuaded 
the Spanish government that the Spice Islands could 
A commercial 
revolution 
the result. 
Ferdinand 
Magellan 
enters the 
Spanish 
service. 170 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. v. 
be reached by sailing to the west, the Portuguese having 
previously reached them by sailing to the east, and, if this 
were accomplished, Spain would have as good a title to 
them, under the bull of Alexander VI., as Portugal. 
Five ships, carrying 237 men, were accordingly 
equipped, and on August 10, 1519, Magellan 
sailed from Seville. The Trinitie was the 
admiral's ship, but the San Vittoria was destined for 
immortality. He struck boldly for the south-west, not 
crossing the trough of the Atlantic as Columbus had done, 
but passing down the length of it, his aim being to find 
some cleft or passage in the American Continent through 
which he might sail into the Great South Sea. For 
seventy days he was becalmed under the line. He then 
lost sight of the north star, but courageously held on 
toward the " pole antartike." He nearly foundered in a 
storm, "which did not abate till the three fires called 
St. Helen, St. Nicholas, and St. Clare appeared playing in 
the rigging of the ships." In a new land, to which ho 
gave the name of Patagoni, he found giants " of good 
corporature " clad in skins; one of them, a very pleasant 
and tractable giant, was terrified at his own visage in a 
looking-glass. Among the sailors, alarmed at the distance 
they had come, mutiny broke out, requiring the most un- 
flinching resolution in the commander for its suppression. 
In spite of his watchfulness, one ship deserted him and 
stole back to Spain. His perseverance and 
resolution were at last rewarded by the dis- 
covery of the strait named by him San Vittoria, 
in affectionate honour of his ship, but which, with a 
worthy sentiment, other sailors soon changed to "the 
Strait of Magellan." On November 28, 1520, after a year 
and a quarter of struggling, he issued forth 
from its western portals and entered the Great 
South Sea, shedding tears of joy, as Pigafetti, an eye- 
witness, relates, when he recognized its infinite expanse 
-tears of stem joy that it had pleased God to bring 
him at length where he might grapple with its un- 
known dangers. Admiring its illimitable but placid 
surface, and exulting in the meditation of its secret perils 
soon to be tried, he courteously imposed on it the name it 
His great 
voyage 
commenced. 
He penetrates 
the American 
continent. 
Beaches the 
Pacific Ocean. CH. V.] 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
171 
is for ever to bear, " the Pacific Ocean." While baffling 
for an entry into it, he observed with surprise that in the 
month of October the nights are only four hours long, 
and "considered, in this his navigation, that the pole 
antartike hath no notable star like the pole artike, but 
that there be two clouds of little stars somewhat dark 
in the middest, also a cross of fine clear stars, but that 
here the needle becomes so sluggish that it needs must 
be moved with a bit of loadstone before it will rightly 
point." 
And now the great sailor, having burst through the 
barrier of the American continent, steered for 
the north-west, attempting to regain the equator. 
For three months and twenty days he sailed on the Pacific, 
and never saw inhabited land. He was compelled by 
famine to strip off the pieces of skin and leather wherewith 
his rigging was here and there bound, to soak them in the 
sea ancl then soften them with warm water, so as to make 
a wretched food; to eat the sweepings of the ship and 
other loathsome matter; to drink water that had become 
putrid by keeping; and yet he resolutely held on his 
course, though his men were dying daily. As is quaintly 
observed, " their gums grew over their teeth, and so they 
could not eat." He estimated that he sailed over this 
unfathomable sea not less than 12,000 miles. 
In the whole history of human undertakings there is 
nothing that exceeds, if indeed there is anything that 
equals, this voyage of Magellan's. That of Columbus 
dwindles away in comparison. It is a display of super- 
human courage, superhuman perseverance-a display of 
resolution not to be diverted from its purpose by any 
motive or any suffering, but inflexibly persisting to its 
end. Well might his despairing sailors come to the con- 
clusion that they had entered on a trackless waste of waters, 
endless before them and hopeless in a return. " But, 
though the Church hath evermore from Holy Writ affirmed 
that the earth should be a wide-spread plain bordered by 
the waters, yet he comforted himself when he considered 
that in the eclipses of the moon the shadow cast of the 
earth is round; and as is the shadow, such, in like manner, 
is the substance." It was a stout heart-a heart of triple 
The Pacific 
Ocean crossed. 172 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. v. 
brass-which could thus, against such authority, extract 
unyielding faith from a shadow. 
This unparalleled resolution met its reward at last. 
Magellan reached a group of islands north of the equator 
-the Ladrones. In a few days more he became aware 
that his labours had been successful; he met 
with adventurers from Sumatra. But, though 
he had thus grandly accomplished his object, it 
was not given to him to complete the circumnavigation of 
the globe. At an island called Zebu, or Mutan, he was 
killed, either, as has been variously related, in a mutiny 
of his men, or-as they declared-in a conflict with the 
savages, or insidiously by poison. " The general," they 
said, " was a very brave man, and received his death- 
wound in his front; nor would the savages yield up his 
body for any ransom." Through treason and revenge it 
is not unlikely that he fell, for he was a stern man; no 
one but a very stern man could have accomplished so 
daring a deed. Hardly was he gone when his crew 
learned that they were actually in the vicinity of the 
Moluccas, and that the object of their voyage was accom- 
plished. On the morning of November 8, 1521, having 
been at sea two years and three months, as the sun was 
rising they entered Tidore, the chief port of the Spice 
Islands. The King of Tidore swore upon the Koran 
alliance to the King of Spain. 
I need-not allude to the wonderful objects - destined 
soon to become common to voyagers in the Indian 
Archipelago-that greeted their eyes: elephants in trap- 
pings ; vases, and vessels of porcelain; birds of Paradise, 
" that fly not, but be blown by the windexhaustless 
stores of the coveted spices, nutmegs, mace, cloves. And 
now they prepared to bring the news of their success 
back to Spain. Magellan's lieutenant, Sebastian d'Elcano, 
directed his course for the Cape of Good Hope, again 
encountering the most fearful hardships. Out of his 
slender crew he lost twenty-one men. He doubled the 
Cape at last; and on September 7, 1522, in the 
port of St. Lucar, near Seville, under his orders, 
the good ship San Vittoria came safely to an 
anchor. She had accomplished the greatest achievement 
Succeeds in 
his attempt, 
and dies. 
Circumnavi- 
gation of the 
earth. cn. v.] 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
173 
in the history of the human race. She had circumnavigated 
the earth. 
Magellan thus lost his life in his enterprise, and yet he 
made an enviable exchange. Doubly immortal, and 
thrice happy ! for he impressed his name indelibly on the 
earth and the sky, on the strait that connects the two great 
oceans, and on those clouds of starry worlds seen in the 
southern heavens. He also imposed a designation on the 
largest portion of the surface of the globe. His 
lieutenant, Sebastian d'Elcano, received such 
honours as kings can give Of all armorial 
bearings ever granted for the accomplishment of a great 
and daring deed, his were the proudest and noblest-the 
globe of the earth belted with the inscription, " Primus 
circumdedisti me!" 
If the circumnavigation of the earth by Magellan did 
not lead to such splendid material results as the discovery 
of America and the doubling of the Cape, its moral effects 
were far more important. Columbus had been 
opposed in obtaining means for his expedition 
because it was suspected to be of an irreligious 
nature. Unfortunately, the Church, satisfying instincts 
impressed upon her as far back as the time of Constantine, 
had asserted herself to be the final arbitress in all philoso- 
phical questions, and especially in this of the figure of the 
earth had committed herself against its being globular. 
Infallibility can never correct itself-indeed, it can never 
be wrong. Home never retracts anything; and, no matter 
what the consequences, never recedes. It was thus that a 
theological dogma-infallibility-came to be mixed up with 
a geographical problem, and that problem liable at any 
moment to receive a decisive solution. So long as it rested 
in a speculative position, or could be hedged round with 
mystification, the real state of the case might be concealed 
from all except the more intelligent class of men; but after 
the circumnavigation had actually been accomplished, and 
was known to every one, there was, of course, nothing 
more to be said. It had now become altogether useless to 
bring forward the authority of Lactantius, of St. Augustine, 
or of other fathers, that the globular form is impious and 
heretical. Henceforth the fact was strong enough to over- 
Elcano, the 
lieutenant of 
Magellan. 
Results of the 
circumnavi- 
gation. 174 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. v. 
power all authority, an exercise of which could have no 
other result than to injure itself. It remained only to 
permit the dispute to pass into oblivion; but even this 
could not occur without those who were observant being 
impressed with the fact that physical science was begin- 
ning to display a fearful advantage over Patristicism, and 
presenting unmistakable tokens that ere long she wrould 
destroy her ancient antagonist. 
In the midst of these immortal works it is hardly worth 
while to speak of minor things. Two centuries had 
wrought a mighty change in the geographical ideas of 
'Western Europe. The travels of Marco Polo, 
a.d. 1295, had first given some glimmering of 
the remote East, the interest in which was 
doubtless enhanced by the irruption of the Moguls. Sir 
John Mandeville had spent many years in the interior of 
Asia before the middle of the next century. Conti had 
travelled in Persia and India between 1419 and 1444. 
Cadamosto, a Venetian, in 1455 had explored the west 
coast of Africa. Sebastian Cabot had re-discovered New- 
foundland, and, persisting in the attempt to find a north- 
■west passage to China, had forced his way into the ice to 
67° 30' N. By 1525 the American coast-line had been 
determined from Terra del Fuego to Labrador. New 
Guinea and part of Australia had been discovered. The 
fleet of Cabral, attempting to double the Cape of Good 
Hope in 1500, was driven to Brazil. A ship was sent 
back to Portugal with the news. Hence, had not Colum- 
bus sailed when he did, the discovery of America could not 
have been long postponed. Balboa saw the Great South 
Sea September 25th, 1513. "Wading up to his knees in the 
water, with his sword in one hand and the Spanish flag 
in the other, he claimed that vast ocean for Castile. 
Nothing could now prevent the geography of the earth 
from being completed. 
I cannot close these descriptions of maritime adventure 
without observing that they are given from the 
European point of view. The Western nations 
have complacently supposed that whatever was 
unknown to them was therefore altogether un- 
known. We have seen that the Arabs were practically and 
Minor 
voyages and 
travels. 
Participation 
of other 
nations in 
these events. CH. V.] 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
175 
perfectly familiar with the fact that Africa might he 
circumnavigated; the East Indian geography was tho- 
roughly understood by the Buddhist priesthood, who had, 
on an extensive scale, carried forward their propagandism 
for twenty-five hundred years in those regions. But 
doubtless the most perfect geographical knowledge existed 
among the Jews, those cosmopolite traders who conducted 
mercantile transactions from the Azores to the interior of 
China, from the Baltic to the coast of Mozambique. It 
was actually through them that the existence of the Cape 
of Good Hope was first made known in Europe. Five 
hundred years before Columbus, the Scandinavian ad- 
venturers had discovered America, but so low was the 
state of intelligence in Europe that the very memory of 
these voyages had been altogether lost. The circumnavi- 
gation of the earth is, however, strictly the achievement of 
the West. I have been led to make the remarks in this 
paragraph, since they apply again on another occasion- 
the introduction of what is called the Baconian philosophy, 
the principles of which were not only understood, but 
carried into practice in the East eighteen hundred years 
before Bacon was born. 
It is scarcely necessary that I should offer any excuse for 
devoting a few pages to a digression on the state of affairs 
in Mexico and Peru. Nothing illustrates more strikingly 
the doctrine which it is the object of this book to teach. 
The social condition of America at its discoverv demon- 
strates that similar ideas and similar usages 
make their appearance spontaneously in the 
progress of civilization of different countries, 
showing how little they depend on accident, 
how closely they are connected with the organization, and, 
therefore, with the necessities of man. From important 
ideas and great institutions down to the most trifling 
incidents of domestic life, so striking is the parallel 
between the American aborigines and Europeans that 
with difficulty do we divest ourselves of the impression 
that there must have been some intercommunication. 
Each was, however, pursuing an isolated and spontaneous 
progress; and yet how closely does the picture of life in 
Progress of 
man in the 
New World 
the same as 
in the Old. 176 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. v. 
the New World answer to that in the Old. The monarch 
of Mexico lived in barbaric pomp, wore a golden 
crown resplendent with gems; was aided in 
his duties by a privy council; the great lords held 
their lands of him by the obligation of military service. 
In him resided the legislative power, yet he was subject to 
the laws of the realm. The judges held their office inde- 
pendently of him, and were not liable to removal by him. 
The laws were reduced to writing, which, though only a 
system of hieroglyphics, served its purpose so well that 
the Spaniards were obliged to admit its validity in their 
courts, and to found a professorship for perpetuating a 
knowledge of it. Marriage was regarded as an important 
social engagement. Divorces were granted with difficulty. 
Slavery was recognized in the case of prisoners of war, 
debtors, and criminals, but no man could be born a slave 
in Mexico. No distinction of castes was permitted. 
The government mandates and public intelligence were 
transmitted by a well-organized postal service of couriers 
able to make two hundred miles a day. The profession of 
arms was the recognized avocation of the nobility; the 
military establishments, whether in active service in the 
field, or as garrisons in large towns, being supported by 
taxation on produce or manufactures. The armies were 
divided into corps of 10,000, and these again into regiments 
of 400. Standards and banners were used; the troops 
executed their evolutions to military music, and were 
provided with hospitals, army surgeons, and a medical 
staff. ' In the human hives of Europe, Asia, and America, 
the bees were marshalled in the same way, and were 
instinctively building their combs alike. 
The religious state is a reflexion of that of Europe and 
Asia. The worship was an imposing ceremonial. 
The common people had a mythology of many 
gods, but the higher classes were strictly Uni- 
tarian, acknowledging one almighty, invisible 
Creator. Of the popular deities, the god of war was 
the chief. Ue was born of a virgin, and conceived by 
mysterious conception of a ball of bright-coloured feathers 
floating on the air. The priests administered a rite of 
baptism to infants for the purpose of washing away their 
Mexico, its 
political 
system. 
Its religion, 
priesthood, 
and ceremo- 
nies. CH. V.] 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
177 
sms. and taught that there are rewards and punishments in 
a life to come-a paradise for the good, a hell of darkness for 
the wicked. The hierarchy descended by due degrees 
from the chief priests, who were almost equal to the 
sovereign in authority, down to the humble ecclesiastical 
servitors. Marriage was permitted to the clergy. They 
had monastic institutions, the inmates praying thrice a 
day and once at night. They practised ablutions, vigils, 
penance by flagellation or pricking with aloe thorns. 
They compelled the people to auricular confession, required 
of them penance, gave absolution. Their ecclesiastical 
system had reached a strength which was never attained 
in Europe, since absolution by the priest for civil offences 
was an acquittal in the eye of the law. It was the re- 
ceived doctrine that men do not sin of their own free will, 
but because they are impelled thereto by planetary in- 
fluences. With sedulous zeal, the clergy engrossed the duty 
of public education, thereby keeping society in their grasp. 
Their writing was on cotton cloth or skins, or 
on papyrus made of the aloe. At the conquest 
immense collections of this kind of literature were in ex- 
istence, but the first Archbishop of Mexico burnt, as was 
affirmed, a mountain of such manuscripts in the market- 
place, stigmatizing them as magic scrolls. About the same 
time, and under similar circumstances, Cardinal Ximenes 
burnt a vast number of Arabic manuscripts in Granada. 
The condition of astronomy in Mexico is illustrated as it 
is in Egypt by the calendar. The year was of 
eighteen months, each month of twenty days, 
five complementary ones being added to make 
up the three hundred and sixty-five. The month 
had four weeks, the week five days; the last day, instead 
of being for religious purposes, was market day. To 
provide for the six additional hours of the year, they 
intercalated twelve and a half days every fifty-two years. 
At the conquest the Mexican calendar was in a better 
condition than the Spanish. As in some other countries, 
the clergy had for ecclesiastical purposes a lunar division 
of time. The day had sixteen hours, commencing at 
sunrise. They had sun-dials for determining the hour, and 
also instruments for the solstices and equinoxes. They 
Its literary 
condition. 
Divisions of 
time: the 
week, month, 
year. • 178 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. v. 
had ascertained the globular form of the earth and the 
obliquity of the ecliptic. The close of the fifty-second 
year was celebrated with grand religious ceremonials; all 
the fires were suffered to go out, and new ones kindled by 
the friction of sticks. Their agriculture was 
superior to that of Europe; there was nothing 
in the Old World to compare with the mena- 
geries and botanical gardens of Huaxtepec, Chapultepec, 
Istapalapan, and Tezcuco. They practised with no incon- 
siderable skill the more delicate mechanical arts, such 
as those of the jeweller and enameller. From the aloe 
they obtained pins and needles, thread, cord, paper, food, 
and an intoxicating drink. They made earthenware, 
knew how to lacquer wood, employed cochineal as a scarlet 
dye. They were skilful weavers of fine cloth, and 
excelled in the production of feather-work, their gorgeous 
humming-birds furnishing material for that purpose. In 
metallurgy they were behind the Old World, not having 
the use of iron ; but, as the Old World had formerly done, 
they employed bronze in its stead. They knew how to 
move immense masses of rock; their great calendar stone, 
of porphyry, weighed more than fifty tons, and was 
brought a distance of many miles. Their trade was 
carried on, not in shops, but by markets or fairs held on 
the fifth day. They employed a currency of gold dust, 
pieces of tin, and bags of cacao. In their domestic 
economy, though polygamy was permitted, it was in 
practice confined to the wealthy. The women did not work 
abroad, but occupied themselves in spinning, embroidering, 
feather-work, music. Ablution was resorted to both befoi e 
$nd aftei' meals; perfumes were used at the toilet. The 
Mexicans gave to Europe tobacco, snuff, the turkey, choco- 
late, cochineal. Like us, they had in their 
entertainments solid dishes, with suitable condi- 
ments, gravies, sauces, and desserts of pastries, confec- 
tions, fruits, both fresh and preserved. They had chafing- 
dishes of silver or gold. Like us, they knew the use of 
intoxicating drinks; like us, they not unfrequently took 
them to excess; like us, they heightened their festivities 
with dancing and music. They had theatrical and panto- 
mimic shows. At Tezcuco there was a council of music, 
Private life, 
mechanical 
arts, trade. 
Luxury of the 
higher classes. CH. V.] 
THE AGE OF REASON IX EUROPE. 
179 
which, moreover, exercised a censorship on philosophical 
works, as those of astronomy and history. In that city 
North American civilization reached its height. The 
king's palace was a wonderful work of art. It was said 
that 200,000 men were employed in its construction. Its 
harem was adorned with magnificent tapestries of feather- 
work ; in its garden were fountains, cascades, baths, 
statues, alabasters, cedar groves, forests, and a wilderness 
of flowers. In conspicuous retirement in one part of the 
city was a temple, with a dome of polished black marble, 
studded with stars of gold, in imitation of the sky. It was 
dedicated to the omnipotent, invisible God. In this no 
sacrifices were offered, but only sweet-scented flowers and 
gums. The prevailing religious feeling is ex- 
pressed by the sentiments of one of the kings, 
many of whom had prided themselves in their 
poetical skill: " Let us," he says, " aspire to that 
heaven where all is eternal, and where corruption never 
comes." He taught his children not to confide in idols, 
but only to conform to the outward worship of them in 
deference to public opinion. 
To the preceding description of the social condition of 
Mexico I shall add a similar brief account of 
that of Peru, for the conclusions to be drawn 
from a comparison of the spontaneous process of 
civilization in these two countries with the process in 
Europe is of importance to the attainment of a just 
idea of the development of mankind. The most competent 
authorities declare that the Mexicans and Peruvians were 
ignorant of each other's existence. 
In one particular especially is the position of Peru in-* 
teresting. It presents an analogy to Upper 
Egypt, that cradle of the civilization of the Old 
"World, in this, that its sandy coast is a rainless 
district. This sandy-coast region is about sixty miles in 
width, hemmed in on the east by grand mountain ranges, 
which diminish in size on approaching the Isthmus of 
Panama; the entire length of the Peruvian empire having 
been nearly 2,400 miles, it reached from the north of the 
equator to what is now known as Chili. In breadth it 
varied at different points. The east wind, which has 
Their mono- 
theism and 
philosophical 
sentiments. 
Peru-un- 
known to 
Mexico. 
Its geographi- 
cal peculiari- 
ties. 180 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. v 
crossed the Atlantic, and is therefore charged with humi- 
dity, being forced by the elevation of the South American 
continent, and especially by the range of the Andes, 
upward, is compelled to surrender most of its moisture, 
which finds its way back to the Atlantic in those pro- 
digious rivers that make the country east of the Andes 
the best watered region of the world; but as 
soon as that wind has crossed the mountain 
ridge and descends on the western slope, it 
becomes a dry and rainless wind, and hence the district 
intervening to the Pacific has but a few insignificant 
streams. The sides of this great mountain range 
might seem altogether unadapted to the pursuit 
of agriculture, but the state of Peruvian civilization is at 
once demonstrated when it is said that'these mountain slopes 
had become a garden, immense terraces having been con- 
structed wherever required, and irrigation on a grander 
scale than that of Egypt carried on by gigantic canals and 
aqueducts. Advantage was taken of the different mean 
annual temperatures at different altitudes to pursue the 
cultivation of various products, for difference in height 
topographically answers to difference in latitude geogra- 
phically, and thus, in a narrow space, the Peruvians had 
every variety of temperature, from that corresponding to 
the hottest portions of Southern Europe to that of Lapland. 
In the mountains of Peru, as has been graphically said, 
man sees " all the stars of the heavens and all the families 
of plants." On plateaus at a great elevation above the sea 
there were villages and even cities. Thus the plain upon 
which Quito stands, under the equator, is nearly ten 
thousand feet high. So great was their industry that the 
Peruvians had gardens and orchards above the clouds, and 
on ranges still higher flocks of lamas, in regions bordering 
on the limit of perpetual snow. 
Through the entire length of the empire two great 
military roads were built, one on the plateau, 
the other on the shore. The former, for nearly 
two thousand miles, crossed sierras covered with 
snow, was thrown over ravines, or went through tunnels in 
the rocks; it scaled the more difficult precipices by means of 
stairways. Where it was possible, it was carried over the 
A rainless 
country like 
Egypt. 
Its system of 
agriculture. 
Its great roads 
and engineer- 
ing, CH. V.] 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
181 
mountain clefts by filling them with masonry, or, where 
that could not be done, suspension bridges were used, the 
cables being made of osiers or maguey fibres. Some of 
these cables are said to have been as thick as a man, and 
two hundred feet long. Where such bridges could not bo 
thrown across, and a stream flowed in the bottom of the 
mountain valley, the passage was made by ferry-boats or 
rafts. As to the road itself, it was about twenty feet in 
width, faced with flags covered with bitumen, and had 
mile-stones. Our admiration at this splendid engineering 
is enhanced when we remember that it was accomplished 
without iron and gunpowder. The shore road was built 
on an embankment, with a clay parapet on each side, and 
shade-trees. Where circumstances called for it, piles were 
used. Every five miles there was a. post-house. 
The public couriers, as in Mexico, could make, 
if necessary, two hundred miles a day. Of these roads 
Humboldt says that they were among the most useful and 
most stupendous executed by the hand of man. The 
reader need scarcely be told that there were no such 
triumphs of skill in Spain. 'From the circumstance that 
there were no swift animals, as the horse or dromedary, 
the width of these roads was sufficient, since they were 
necessarily used for foot passage alone. 
In Cuzco, the metropolis, was the imperial residence of 
the Inca and the Temple of the Sun. It contained edifices 
which excited the amazement of the Spanish ad- 
venturers themselves-streets, squares, bridges, 
fortresses surrounded by turreted walls, subter- 
ranean galleries by which the garrison could reach impor- 
tant parts of the town. Indeed, the great roads we.have 
spoken of might be regarded as portions of an immense 
system of military works spread all over the country, and 
having their centre at Cuzco. 
The imperial dignity was hereditary, descending from 
father to son. As in Egypt, the monarch not 
unfrequently had his sisters for wives. His 
diadem consisted of a scarlet tasseled fringe 
round his brow, adorned with two feathers. He wore 
earrings of great weight. His dress of lama-wool was 
dyed scarlet, inwoven with gold and studded with gems. 
and expresses 
by couriers. 
Cuzco-the 
military- 
centre. 
The Inca-the 
Lord of the 
Empire. 182 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. v. 
Whoever approached him bore a light burden on the 
shoulder as a badge of servitude, and was barefoot. The 
Inca was not only the representative of the temporal, but 
also of the spiritual power, lie was more than supreme 
pontiff, for he was a descendant of the Sun, the god of the 
nation. lie made laws, imposed taxes, raised armies, ap- 
pointed or removed judges at his pleasure. He travelled 
in a sedan ornamented with gold and emeralds; the roads 
were swept before him, strewn with flowers, and perfumed. 
His palace at Yucay was described by the 
Spaniards as a fairy scene. It was filled with 
works ot Indian art; images of animals and plants deco- 
rated the niches of its walls; it had an endless labyrinth 
of gorgeous chambers, and hero and there shady crypts for 
quiet retirement. Its baths were great golden bowls. It 
was embosomed in artificial forests. The imperial ladies 
and concubines spent their time in beautifully furnished 
chambers, or in gardens, with cascades and fountains, 
grottoes and bowers. It was in what few countries can 
boast of, a temperate.region in the torrid zone. 
The Peruvian religion ostensibly consisted of a worship 
of the Sun, but the higher classes had already 
become emancipated from such a material asso- 
ciation, and recognized the existence of one 
almighty, invisible God. They expected the 
resurrection of the body and the continuance of the soul in 
a future life. It was their belief that in the world to 
come our occupations will resemble those we have followed 
here. Like the Egyptians, who had arrived at similar 
ideas, the Peruvians practised embalming, the mummies 
of their Incas being placed in the Temple of the Sun at 
Cuzco, the kings on the right, the queens on the left, clad 
in their robes of state, and with their hands crossed on 
their bosoms, seated in golden chairs, waiting for the day 
when the soul will return to reanimate the body. The 
mummies of distinguished personages were buried in a 
sitting posture under tumuli of earth. To the Supreme 
Being but one temple was dedicated. It was in a sacred 
valley, to which pilgrimages were made. In the Peruvian 
mythology, heaven was above the sky, hell in the interior 
of the earth-it was the realm of an evil spirit called Cupay. 
The national 
palace. 
Religion of 
Peru, its es- 
tablishments 
and cere- 
monial. cn. v.] 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
183 
The general resemblance of these to Egyptian doctrines may 
forcibly impress upon us that they are ideas with which the 
human mind necessarily occupies itself in its process of 
intellectual development. As in all other countries, the 
educated classes were greatly in advance of the common 
people, who wrere only just emerging from fetichism, and 
engrossed in the follies of idolatry and man-worship. 
Nevertheless, the government found it expedient to counte- 
nance the vulgar delusion ; indeed, the political system was 
actually founded upon it. But the Peruvians were in ad- 
vance of the Europeans in this respect, that they practised 
no persecutions upon those who had become mentally 
emancipated. Besides the sun, the visible god, other celes- 
tial bodies were worshipped in a subordinate way. It was 
supposed that there were spirits in the wind, lightning, 
thunder; genii in the mountains, rivers, springs, and 
grottoes. In the great Temple of the Sun at Cuzco an 
image of that deity was placed so as to receive the rays 'of 
the luminary at his rising; a like artifice had been practised 
in the Serapion at Alexandria. There was also :a sanctuary 
dedicated to the Sun in the island of Titicaca, and, it is 
said, between three and four hundred temples of a subordi- 
nate kind in Cuzco. To the great temple were attached 
not fewer than four thousand priests and fifteen hundred 
vestal virgins, the latter being intrusted with the care of the 
sacred fire, and from them the most beautiful were chosen 
to pass into the Inca's seraglio. The popular faith had a 
ritual and a splendid ceremonial, the great national festival 
being at the summer solstice. The rays of the ,sun were 
then collected by a concave mirror, and fire rekindled 
thereby, or by the friction of wood. 
As to their social system, polygamy was permitted, but 
practically it was confined to the higher classes. 
Social subordination was thoroughly understood. 
The Inca Tupac Yupanqui says, " Knowledge 
was never intended for the people, but only for 
those of generous blood." The nobility were of two orders, 
the polygamic descendants of the Incas, who were the 
main support of the state, and the adopted nobles of 
nations that have been conquered. As to the people, 
nowhere else in the whole world was such an extraordinary 
Social system 
-the no- 
bility, the 
people. 184 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. v. 
policy of supervision practised. They were divided into 
groups of ten, fifty, one hundred, five hundred, one thou- 
sand, ten thousand, and over the last an Inca noble was 
placed. Through this system a rigid centralization was 
insured, the Inca being the pivot upon which all the national 
affairs turned. It was an absolutism worthy of the admira- 
tion of many existing European nations. The 
entire territory was divided into three parts ; one 
belonged to the Sun, one to the Inca, one to the people. As 
a matter of form, the subdivision was annually made; in 
practice, however, as perhaps must always be the result of 
such agrarianism, the allotments were continually renewed. 
All the land was cultivated by the people, and in the 
following order: first, that of the Sun, then that of the 
destitute and infirm, then that of the people, and, lastly, 
that of the Inca. The Sun and the Inca owned all the 
sheep, which were sheared and their wool distributed to 
the people, or cotton furnished in its stead. The Inca's 
officers saw that it was all woven, and that no one was 
idle. An annual survey of the country, its farming and 
mineral products, was made, the inventory being trans- 
mitted to the government. A register was kept of births 
and deaths; periodically a general census was taken. 
The Inca, at once emperor and pope, was enabled, in 
that double capacity, to exert a rigorous patriarchal rule 
over his people, who were treated like mere children-not 
suffered to be oppressed, but compelled to be occupied; for, 
with a worldly wisdom which no other nation presents, 
labour was here acknowledged not only as a means, but 
also as an end. In Teru a man -could not improve his 
social state; by these refinements of legislation he was 
brought into an absolutely stationary condition. He 
could become neither richer nor poorer; but it was the 
boast of the system that every one lived exempt from 
social suffering-that all enjoyed competence. 
The army consisted of 200,000 men. 'Their weapons 
were bows, lances, slings, battle-axes, swords; 
their means of defence, shields, bucklers, hel- 
mets, and coats of quilted cotton. Each regi- 
men c had its own banner, but the imperial standard, the 
national emblem, was a rainbow, the offspring of the Sun. 
Organization 
of labour. 
Military sys- 
tem; warlike 
resources. CH. V.] 
THE AGE OF REASOxV IN EUROPE. 
185 
The swords and many of the domestic implements were of 
bronze; the arrows were tipped with quartz or bone, or 
points of gold and silver. A strict discipline was main- 
tained on marching, granaries and depots being established 
at suitable distances on the roads. With a policy inflex- 
ibly persisted in, the gods of conquered countries were 
transported to Cuzco, and the vanquished compelled to 
worship the Sun; their children were obliged to learn 
the Peruvian language, the government providing them 
teachers for that purpose. As an incitement, this know- 
ledge was absolutely required as a condition for public 
office. To amalgamate the conquered districts thoroughly, 
their inhabitants were taken away by ten thousand, trans 
ported to distant parts of the empire, not, as in the Old 
World, to be worked to death as slaves, but to be made into 
Peruvians ; an equal number of natives were sent in their 
stead, to whom, as a recompense for their removal, extra- 
ordinary privileges were given. It was the immemorial 
policy of the empire to maintain profound tranquillity in 
the interior and perpetual war on the frontiers. 
The philosophical advancement of the Peruvians was 
much retarded by their imperfect method of 
writing-a method greatly inferior to that of 
Egypt. A cord of coloured threads, called 
quipus, was only indifferently suited to the purposes of 
enumeration, and by no means equal to hieroglyphics as 
a method of expressing general facts. But it was their 
only system. Notwithstanding this drawback, they had a 
literature consisting of poetry, dramatic compositions, and 
the like. Then' scientific attainments were inferior to the 
Mexican. Their year was divided into months, their 
months into weeks. They had gnomons to indicate the 
solstices. One, in the form of an obelisk, in the centre of 
a circle, on which was marked an east and west line, 
indicated the equinox. These gnomons were destroyed by 
the Spaniards in the belief that they were for idolatrous 
purposes, for on the national festivals it was customary to 
decorate them with leaves and flowers. As the national 
religion consisted in the worship of the Sun, it was not 
without reason that Quito was regarded as a holy place, 
from its position upon the equator. 
Peruvian lite- 
rature-the 
quipus. 186 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. v. 
In their extraordinary provisions for agriculture, the 
national pursuit, the skill of the Peruvians is 
well seen. A rapid elevation from the sea-level 
to the heights of the mountains gave them, in a 
small compass, every variety of climate, and they availed 
themselves of it. They terraced the mountain sides, 
filling the terraces with rich earth. They excavated pits 
in the sand, surrounded them with adobe walls, and filled 
them with manured soil. On the low level they cultivated 
bananas and cassava; on the terraces above, maize and 
quinoa; still higher, tobacco; and above that the potato. 
From a comparatively limited surface, they raised great 
crops by judiciously using manures, employing for that 
purpose fish, and especially guano. Their example has led 
to the use of the latter substance for a like purpose in our 
own times in Europe. The whole civilized world has 
followed them in the cultivation of the potato. The 
Peruvian bark is one of the most invaluable remedies. 
Large tracts of North America would be almost unin- 
habitable without the use of its active alkaloid quinine, 
which actually, in no insignificant manner, reduces the 
percentage mortality throughout the United States. 
Indispensably necessary to their agricultural system 
were their great water-works. In Spain there was nothing 
worthy of being compared with them. The 
aqueduct of Condesuya was nearly 500 miles 
long. Its engineers had overcome difficulties 
in a manner that might well strike modern times with 
admiration. Its water was distributed as prescribed by 
law; there were officers to see to its proper use. From these 
great water-works and from their roads it may be judged 
that the architectural skill of the Peruvians was far from 
insignificant. They constructed' edifices of porphyry, 
granite, brick; but their buildings were for the most part 
low, and suitable to an earthquake country. 
I have dwelt at some length on the domestic history of 
Mexico and Teru because it is intimately con- 
nected with one of the philosophical principles 
which it is the object of this book to teach, viz., 
that human progress takes place under an un - 
varying law, and therefore in a definite way. The trivial 
Agriculture 
carried to 
perfection. 
The great 
aqueduct of 
Condesuya. 
The stages of 
human de- 
velopment 
always the 
same. CH. V.] 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
187 
incidents mentioned in the preceding paragraphs may 
perhaps have seemed .insignificant or wearisome, but it is 
their very commonness, their very familiarity, that gives 
them, when rightly considered, a surprising interest. There 
is nothing in these minute details but what we find to be 
perfectly natural from the European point of view. They 
might be, for that matter, instead of reminiscences of the 
spontaneous evolution of a people shut out from the rest of 
the world by impassable oceans, a relation of the progress 
of some European or Asiatic nation. The man of America 
advanced in his course of civilization as did the man of the 
Old World, devising the same institutions, guided by the 
same intentions, constrained by the same desires. From 
the great features of his social system down to the little 
details of his domestic life, there is a sameness with what 
was done in Asia, Africa, Europe. But similar results 
imply a similar cause. What, then, is there possessed in 
common by the Chinese, the Hindoo, the Egyptian, the 
European, the American? Surely not climate, nor equal 
necessities, nor equal opportunity. Simply nothing but 
this-corporeal organization ! As automatons constructed 
in the same way will do the same things, so, in organic 
forms, sameness of structure will give rise to identity of 
function and similarity of acts. The same common sense 
guides men all over the world. Common sense is a 
function of common organization. All natural history is 
full of illustrations. It may be offensive to our pride, but 
it is none the less true, that in his social progress, the free- 
will of which man so boasts himself in his individual 
capacity disappears as an active influence, and the domina 
tion of general and inflexible laws becomes manifest. The 
free-will of the individual is supplanted by instinct and 
automatism in the race. To each individual bee 
the career is open; he may taste of this flower 
and avoid that^ he may be industrious in the 
garden, or idle away his time in the air; but 
the history of one hive is the history of another hive; 
there will be a predestined organization-the queen, the 
drones, the workers. In the midst of a thousand unfore- 
seen, uncalculated, variable acts, a definite result, with 
unerring certainty, emerges; the combs are built in a 
pre-ordained way, and filled with honey at last. From 
Analogy .be- 
tween socie- 
ties of men 
and societies 
of animals. 188 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. v. 
bees, and wasps, and ants, and birds-from all that low 
animal life on which he looks with such supercilious 
contempt, man is destined one day to learn what in truth 
he really is. 
For a second reason, also, I have dwelt on these details. 
The enormous crime of Spain in destroying this 
civilization has never yet been appreciated in 
Europe. After an attentive consideration of the 
facts of the case, I agree in the conclusion of Carli, that at 
the time of the conquest the moral man in Peru was 
superior to the European, and I will add, the intellectual 
man also. Was there in Spain, or even in all Europe, a 
political system carried out into the practical details of 
actual life, and expressed in great public works, as its 
outward visible and enduring sign, which could at all 
compare with that of Peru ? Its only competitor was the 
Italian system, but that for long had been actively used to 
repress the intellectual advancement of man. In vain the 
Spaniards excuse their atrocities on the plea 
that a nation like the Mexican, which permitted 
cannibalism, should not be regarded as having 
emerged from the barbarous state, and that one which, 
like Peru, sacrificed human hecatombs at the funeral 
solemnities of great men, must have been savage. Let it 
be remembered that there is no civilized nation whose 
popular practices do not lag behind its intelligence; let it 
be remembered that in this respect Spain herself also was 
guilty. In America, human sacrifice was part of a reli- 
gious solemnity, unstained by passion. The auto da fe of 
Europe was a dreadful cruelty; not an offering to heaven, 
but a gratification of spite, hatred, fear, vengeance-the 
most malignant passions of earth. There was no spectacle 
on the American continent at which a just man might so 
deeply blush for his race as that presented in Western 
Europe when the heretic from whom confession had been 
wrung by torture passed to his stake in a sleeveless 
garment, with flames of fire and effigies of an abominable 
import depicted upon it. Let it be remembered 
that by the Inquisition, from 1481 to 1808, 
340,000 persons had been punished, and of these 
nearly 32,000 burnt. Let what was done in the south 
of France be remembered. Let it be also remembered 
The crime of 
Spain in 
America. 
The Spaniard 
and the 
American. 
European and 
American hu- 
man sacrifices. 2U. V.] 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
189 
that, considering the worthlessness of the body of man, 
and that, at the best, it is at last food for the worm- 
considering the infinite value of his immortal soul, for the 
redemption of which the agony and death of the Son of 
God were not too great a price to pay-indignities offered 
to the body are less wicked than indignities offered to the 
soul. It would be well for him who comes forward as an 
accuser of Mexico and Peru in their sin to dispose of the 
fact that at that period the entire authority of Europe was 
directed to the perversion, and even total repression of 
thought-to an enslaving of the mind, and making that 
noblest creation of Heaven a worthless machine. To taste 
of human flesh is less criminal in the eye of God than to 
stifle human thought. 
Lastly, there is another point to which I will with 
brevity allude. It has been widely asserted 
that Mexican and Peruvian civilization was 
altogether a recent affair, dating at most only 
two or three centuries before the conquest. It would be 
just as well to say that there was no civilization in India 
before the time of the Macedonian invasion because there 
exist no historic documents in that country anterior to that 
event. The Mexicans and Peruvians were not heroes of a 
romance to whom wonderful events were of common occur- 
rence, whose lives were regulated by laws not applying to 
the rest of the human race, who could produce results in 
a day for which elsewhere a thousand years are required. 
They were men and women like ourselves, slowly and 
painfully, and with many failures, working out their 
civilization. The summary manner in which they have 
been disposed of reminds us of the amusing way in which 
the popular chronology deals with the hoary annals of 
Egypt and China. Putting aside the imperfect methods 
of recording events practised by the autochthons of the 
Western world, he who estimates rightly the slowness 
with which man passes forward in his process of civiliza- 
tion, and collates therewith the prodigious works of art 
left by those two nations-an enduring evidence of the 
point to which they had attained - will find himself 
constrained to cast aside such idle assertions as altogether 
unworthy of confutation, or even of attention. 
Antiquity of 
American 
civilization. CHAPTER VI. 
APPROACH OF THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
IT IS PRECEDED BY THE RISE OF CRITICISM. 
Restoration of Greek Literature and Philosophy in Italy.-Development 
of Modern Languages and Rise of Criticism.-Imminent Danyer to 
Latin Ideas. 
Invention of Printing.-It revolutionizes the Communication of Know- 
ledge, especially acts on Public Worship, and renders the Pulpit of 
second try importance. 
The Reformation.-Theory of Supererogation and Use of Indulgences. 
-The Right of Individual Judgment asserted.-Political History of 
the Origin, Culmination, and Check of the Reformation.-Its Effects 
in Italy. 
Causes of the Arrest of the Reformation.-Internal Causes in Protes- 
tantism.-External in the Policy of Rome.-The Counter-Reformation. 
-Inquisition.-Jesuits.-Secession of the great Critics.-Culmination 
of the Reformation in America.-Emergence of Individual Liberty of 
Thought. 
Ix estimating the influences of literature on the approach 
of the Age of Reason in Europe, the chief inci- 
dents to be considered are the disuse of Latin as 
a learned language, the formation of modern tongues from 
the vulgar dialects, the invention of printing, the decline 
of the power of the pulpit, and its displacement by that of 
the press. These, joined to the moral and intellectual 
influences at that time predominating, led to the great 
movement known as the Reformation. 
As if to mark out to the world the real cause of its 
intellectual degradarion, the regeneration of Italy 
commenced with the exile of the popes to Avig- 
non. During their absence, so rapid was the 
progress that it had become altogether impossible to make 
The rise of 
criticism. 
Epoch of the 
intellectual 
movement. CH. VI.] 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
191 
any successful resistance, or to restore the old condition of 
things on their return to Rome. The moment that the 
leaden cloud which they had kept suspended over the 
country was withdrawn, the light from heaven shot in, 
and the ready peninsula became instinct with life. 
The unity of the Church, and, therefore, its power, 
required the use of Latin as a sacred language. 
Through this Rome had stood in an attitude 
strictly European, and was enabled to maintain 
a general international relation. It gave her far more 
power than her asserted celestial authority,' and, much as 
she claims to have done, she is open to condemnation that, 
with such a signal advantage in her hands, never again to 
be enjoyed by any successor, she did not accomplish much 
more. Had not the sovereign pontiffs been so completely 
occupied with maintaining their emoluments and tem- 
poralities in Italy, they might have made the whole 
Continent advance like one man. Their officials could 
pass without difficulty into every nation, and communicate 
without embarrassment with each other, from Ireland to 
Bohemia, from Italy to Scotland. The possession of a 
common tongue gave them the administration of inter- 
national affairs with intelligent allies everywhere speaking 
the same language. 
Not, therefore, without cause was the hatred manifested 
by Rome to the restoration of Greek and intro- 
duction of Hebrew, and the alarm with which 
she perceived the modern languages forming out 
of the vulgar dialects. The prevalence of Latin 
was the condition of her power, its deterioration the measure 
of her decay, its disuse the signal of her limitation to a little 
principality in Italy. In fact, the development of Euro- 
pean languages was the instrument of her overthrow. 
They formed an effectual communication between the men- 
dicant friars and the illiterate populace, and there was not 
one of them that did not display in its earliest productions 
a sovereign contempt for her. We have seen how it was 
with the poetry of Languedoc. 
The rise of the many-tongued European literature was 
therefore co-incident with the decline of papal Christi- 
anity. European literature was impossible under the 
Use of Latin 
as a sacred 
language. 
Causes of the 
dislike of 
Rome to the 
Greek, 192 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. vi. 
Catholic rule. A grand, and solemn, and imposing reli- 
gious unity enforced the literary unity which is 
implied in the use of a single language. No 
more can a living thought be embodied in a dead 
language than activity be imparted to a corpse. That 
principle of stability which Italy hoped to give 
to Europe essentially rested on the compulsory 
use of a dead tongue The first token of intel- 
lectual emancipation was the movement of the great Italian 
poets, led by Dante, who often, not without irreverence, 
broke the spell. Unity in religion implies unity through a 
sacred language, and hence the non-existence of particular 
national literatures. 
Even after Rome had suffered her great discomfiture on 
the scientific question respecting the motion of 
the earth, the conquering party was not unwil- 
ling to veil its thoughts in the Latin tongue, 
partly because it thereby insured a more numerous class of 
intelligent readers, and partly because ecclesiastical autho- 
rity was now disposed to overlook what must otherwise be 
treated as offensive, since to write in Latin was obviously 
a pledge of abstaining from an appeal to the vulgar. The 
effect of the introduction of modern languages was to 
diminish intercommunication among the learned. 
The movement of human affairs, for so many years silent 
and imperceptible, was at length coming to a 
crisis. An appeal to the emotions and moral 
sentiments at the basis of the system, the history 
of which has occupied us so long, had been fully made, and 
found ineffectual. It was now the time for a like appeal 
to the understanding. Each age of life has its own logic. 
The logic of the senses is in due season succeeded by that 
of the intellect. Of faith there are two kinds, one of 
acquiescence, one of conviction; and a time inevitably 
arrives when emotional faith is supplanted by intellectual. 
As if to prove that the impending crisis was not the 
offspring of human intentions, and not ^occasioned by any 
one man, though that man might be the sove- 
reign pontiff, Nicolas V. found in his patronage 
of letters and art a rival and friend in Cosmo de' 
Medici. An instructive incident shows how great a change 
and danger 
from modern 
languages. 
Public disad- 
vantages of a 
sacred tongue. 
Effect of 
modern lan- 
guages. 
A pproach 
of a crisis in 
Europe. 
Cosmo de' 
Medici. Flo- 
rence. CH. VI.] 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
193 
had taken place in the sentiments of the higher classes: 
Cosmo, the richest of Italians, who had lavished his wealth 
on palaces, churches, hospitals, libraries, was comforted on 
his death-bed, not, as in former days would have been the 
case, by ministers of religion, but by Marsilius Ficinus, the 
Platonist, who set before him the arguments for a future 
life, and consoled his passing spirit with the examples and 
precepts of Greek philosophy, teaching him thereby to 
exchange faith for hope, forgetting that too often hopes 
are only the day-dreams of men, not less unsubstantial and 
vain than their kindred of the night, Ficinus had perhaps 
come to the conviction that philosophy is only a higher 
stage of theology, the philosopher a very enlightened 
theologian. lie was the representative of Platonism, 
which for so many centuries had been hidden 
from the sight of men in Eastern monasteries 
since its overthrow in Alexandria, and which 
was now emerging into existence in the favouring atmo- 
sphere of Italy. His school looked back with delight, and 
even with devotion, to the illustrious pagan times, com- 
memorating by a symposium on November 13th the birth- 
day of Plato. The Academy of Athens was revived in the 
Medicean gardens of Florence. Not that Ficinus is to be 
regarded as a servile follower of the great philosopher. 
He alloyed the doctrines of Plato with others 
derived from a more sinister source-the theory 
of the Mohammedan Averroes, of which it was 
an essential condition that there is a soul of humanity, 
through their relations with which individual souls are 
capable of forming universal ideas, for such, Averroes 
asserted, is the necessary consequence of the emanation 
theory. 
Under such auspices, and at this critical moment, oc- 
curred the revival of Greek literature in Italy. 
It had been neglected for more than seven 
hundred years. In the solitary instances of 
individuals to whom here and there a knowledge of that 
language was imputed, there seem satisfactory reasons 
for supposing that their requirements amounted to little 
more than the ability of translating some " petty patristic 
treatise." The first elimmerines of this revival appear in 
Reappearance 
of Platonism 
in Italy. 
Doctrines of 
Marsilius 
Ficinus. 
Revival of 
Greek learn- 
ing in Italy. 194 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE 
[ch. vi. 
the thirteenth century; they are somewhat more distinct 
in the fourteenth. The capture of Constantinople by the 
Latin Crusaders had done little more than diffuse a few 
manuscripts and works of art along with the more highly 
prized monkish relics in the West. It was the Turkish 
pressure, which all reflecting Greeks foresaw could have no 
other result than the fall of the Byzantine power, that 
induced some persons of literary tastes to seek a livelihood 
and safety in Italy. 
In the time of Petrarch, 1304-1374, the improvement 
did not amount to much. That illustrious poet 
says that there were not more than ten persons 
in Italy who could appreciate Homer. Both 
Petrarch and Boccacio spared no pains to acquaint them- 
selves with the lost tongue. The latter had succeeded in 
obtaining for Leontius Pilatus, the Calabrian, a Greek pro- 
fessorship at Florence. He describes this Greek teacher as 
clad in the mantle of a philosopher, his countenance hideous, 
his face overshadowed with black hair, his beard long and 
uncombed, his deportment rustic, his temper gloomy and 
inconstant, but his mind wras stored with the treasures of 
learning. Leontius left Italy in disgust, but, returning 
again, was struck dead by lightning in a storm while tied 
to the mast of the ship. The author from whom I am 
quoting significantly adds that Petrarch laments his fate, 
but nervously asks whether " some copy of Euripides or 
Sophocles might not be recovered from the mariners." 
The restoration of Greek to Italy may be dated a.d. 
1395, at which time Chrysoloras commenced teaching it. 
A few years after Aurispa brought into Italy two hundred 
and thirty-eight Greek manuscripts; among them were 
Plato and Pindar. The first endeavour was to translate 
such manuscripts into Latin. To a considerable extent, 
the religious scruples against Greek literature were giving 
way; the study found a patron in the pope himself, 
Eugenius IV. As the intention of the Turks to seize 
Constantinople became more obvious, the emigration of 
learned Greeks into Italy became more frequent. And 
yet, with the exception of Petrarch, and he was scarcely 
an exception, not one of the Italian scholars was an 
ecclesiastic. 
Gradual pro- 
gress of the 
Restoration. CH. VI.] 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
195 
Lorenzo de' Medici, the grandson of Cosmo, used every 
exertion to increase the rising taste, generously 
permitting his manuscripts to be copied. Nor 
was it alone to literature that he extended his 
patronage. In his beautiful villa at Fiesole the 
philosophy of the old times was revived; his botanic garden 
at Careggi was filled with Oriental exotics. From 1470 to 
1492, the year of his death, his happy influence continued. 
He lived to witness the ancient Platonism overcoming the 
Platonism of Alexandria, and the pure doctrine of Aristotle 
expelling the base Aristotelian doctrine of the schools. 
Th 3 last half of the fifteenth century revealed to Western 
Europe two worlds, a new one and an old; the 
former by the voyage of Columbus, the latter by 
the capture of Constantinople; -one destined to re- 
volutionize the industrial, the other the religious 
condition. Greek literature, forced into Italy by the 
Turkish arms, worked wonders; for Latin Europe found 
with amazement that the ancient half of Christendom 
knew nothing whatever of the doctrine or of the saints of 
the West. Now was divulged the secret reason of that 
bitter hatred displayed by the Catholic clergy to Grecian 
learning. It had sometimes been supposed that the ilL 
concealed dislike they had so often shown to the writings 
of Aristotle was because of the Arab dress in which his 
Saracen commentators had presented him; now it appeared 
that there was something more important, more 
profound. It was a terror of the Greek itself. 
Very soon the direction toward which things 
must inevitably tend became manifest; the modern lan- 
guages, fast developing, were making Latin an obsolete 
tongue, and political events were giving it a rival-Greek 
-capable of asserting over it a supremacy; and not a 
solitary rival, for to Greek it was clear that Hebrew would 
toon be added, bringing with it the charms of a hoary anti- 
quity and the sinister learning of the Jew. With a quick, 
a jealous suspicion, the ecclesiastic soon learned to detect 
a heretic from his knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, just as 
is done in our day from a knowledge of physical science. 
The authority of the Vulgate, that corner-stone of the 
Italian system, was, in the expectation of Pome, inevitably 
Lorenzo-de' 
Medici, his 
villas, gar- 
dens, and 
philosophy. 
Effects in- 
stantly pro- 
duced by the 
Greek lan- 
guage. 
Causes of the 
prevailing dis- 
like of Greek. 196 
THE AGE OE REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. vi. 
certain to be depreciated; and, in truth, judging from the 
honours of which that great translation was soon despoiled 
by the incoming of Greek and Hebrew, it was declared, not 
with more emphasis than truth, yet not, perhaps, without 
irreverence, that there was a second crucifixion between 
two thieves. Long after the times of which we are 
speaking, the University of Paris resisted the introduction 
of Greek into its course of studies, not because of any 
dislike to letters, but because of its anticipated obnoxious 
bearing on Latin theology. 
We can scarcely look in any direction without observing 
instances of the wonderful change taking place 
in the opinions of men. To that disposition to 
lean on a privileged mediating order, once the 
striking characteristic of all classes of the laity in Europe, 
there had succeeded a sentiment of self-reliance. Of this 
perhaps no better proof can be furnished than the popu- 
larity of the work reputed to have been written by Thomas 
a Kempis, and entitled " The Imitation of Christ." It is 
said to have had probably more readers than any other 
book except the Bible. Its great celebrity is a proof how 
profoundly ecclesiastical influence had been affected, for its 
essential intention was to enable the pious to cultivate 
their devotional feeling without the intervention of the 
clergy. Such a work, if written in the present day, 
would have found an apt and popular title in " Every Man 
his own Priest." There is no reason for supposing that the 
condition to which man had at that time been brought, as 
the general result of Italian Christianity, was one of 
intense selfishness, as has been asserted; the celebrity of 
this book was rather dependent on a profound distrust 
everywhere felt in the clergy, both as regards morals and 
intellect. And why should we be surprised that such 
should be the case with the laity, when in all directions 
the clergy themselves were giving proof that they could 
not trust their own strength? They could not conceal 
their dread at the incoming of Greek; they could not 
speak without horror of the influence of Hebrew; they 
were loud in their protestations against the study of pagan 
philosophy, and held up to the derision and condemnation 
of the world science denounced by them as profane. They 
Tendency of 
" The Imita- 
tion of Christ." CH. VI.] 
THE AGE OF EEASON IN EUROPE. 
197 
foresaw that that fictitious unity of which they had boasted 
was drawing to an end; that men would become 
acquainted with the existence and history of 
churches more ancient, and, therefore, more 
venerable than the Roman, and, like it, asserting an 
authenticity upon unimpeachable proofs. But once let 
sects with such an impressive prestige be introduced to 
the knowledge of the West, once let the appearance of 
inviolate unity be taken from the Latin Church, and 
nothing could prevent a spontaneous decomposition forth- 
with occurring in it. It must break up into sects, which, 
in their turn, must break up, in process of time, into 
smaller and smaller divisions, and, through this means, 
the European must emerge at last into individual liberty 
of thought. The compelling hand of ecclesiastical tyranny 
must be removed, and universal toleration ensue. Nor 
were such anticipations mere idle suspicions, for such was 
the course that events actually took. Scarcely had the 
Reformation occurred when sectarian subdivisions made 
their appearance, and in modern times we see that an 
anarchy of sects is the inevitable harbinger of individual 
liberty of thought. 
As we have just said, it was impossible to look in any 
direction on the latter half of the fifteenth century without 
recognizing the wonderful change. It had be- 
come obviously useless any longer to assert an 
immobility of humanity when men were standing 
face to face with the new forms into which it had been 
transposed. New ideas had driven out old ones. Natural 
phenomena could not again be likened to human acts, nor 
the necessities of man regarded as determining the move- 
ments of the universe. A better appreciation of the nature 
of evidence was arising, perhaps in part through the in- 
fluence of the lawyers, but in part through a commencing 
taste for criticism. We see it in such facts as the denial that 
a miracle can be taken as the proof of anything else than 
the special circumstances with which it is connected; we 
see it in the assertion that the martyrdom of men in support 
of a dogma, so far from proving its truth, proves rather its 
doubtfulness, no geometer having ever thought it worth 
his while to die in order to establish any mathematical 
Danger to the 
unity of the 
Church. 
Higher re- 
quirements in 
evidence. 198 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. vi 
proposition, truth needing no such sacrifices, which are 
actually unserviceable and useless to it, since it is able 
spontaneously to force its own way. In Italy, 
where the popular pecuniary interests were 
obviously identical with those of the Church, a 
dismal disbelief was silently engendering. 
And now occurred an event the results of which it is 
impossible to exaggerate. 
About A.n. 1440 the art of printing seems to have been 
invented in Europe. It is not material to our 
purpose to inquire into the particulars of its 
history, whether we should attribute it to Coster 
of Haarlaem or Gutenberg of Mentz, or whether, in reality, 
it was introduced by the Venetians from China, where it had 
been practised for nearly two thousand years. In Venice a 
decree was issued in 1441 in relation to printing, which 
would seem to imply that it had been known there for some 
years. Coster is supposed to have printed the " Speculum 
Humanaa Salvationis" about 1440, and Gutenberg and 
Faust the Mentz Bible without date, 1455. The art reached 
perfection at once; their Bible is still admired for its beauti- 
ful typography. Among the earliest specimens of printing 
extant is an exhortation to take up arms against the Turks, 
1454; there are also two letters of indulgence of Nicolas V. 
of the same date. In the beginning each page was engraved 
on a block of wood, but soon movable types were introduced. 
Impressions of the former kind pass under the name of 
block books ; at first they were sold as manuscripts. Two 
of Faust's workmen commenced printing in Italy, but not 
until 1465; they there published an edition of " Lactan- 
tius," one of "Cicero de Officiis," and one of "Augustine 
de Civitate Dei." The art was carried to France 1469, and 
in a few years was generally practised in all the large Euro- 
pean towns. The printers were their own booksellers; 
the number of copies in each edition usually 
about three hundred. Folios were succeeded by 
quartos, and in 1501 duodecimos were intro- 
duced. Very soon the price of books was reduced by four 
fifths, and existing interests required regulations not only 
respecting the cost, but also respecting the contents. 
Thus the University of Paris established a tariff for their 
Disbelief set- 
ting in in 
Italy. 
Invention of 
printing: its 
early history. 
Early books 
and book- 
sellers. OH. VI.] 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
199 
sale, and also exercised a supervision m behalf of the 
Church and* the State. From the outset it was clear that 
printing would inevitably influence the intellectual move- 
ment synchronously occurring. 
Some authors have endeavoured to estimate the intellec- 
tual condition of different countries in Europe 
at the close of the fifteenth century by the 
literary activity they displayed in the preparation 
and printing of editions of books. Though it is 
plain that such estimates can hardly be rigorously correct, 
since to print a book not only implies literary capacity, 
but also the connexions of business and trade, and hence 
works are more likely to be issued in places where there is 
a mercantile activity, yet such estimates are perhaps the 
most exact that we can now obtain; they also lead us to 
some very interesting and unexpected results of singular 
value in their connexion with that important epoch. 
Thus it appears that in all Europe, between 1470 and 
1500, more than ten thousand editions of books and 
pamphlets were printed, and of them a majority in Italy, 
demonstrating that Italy was in the van of the intellec- 
tual movement. Out of this large number, in Venice 
there had been printed 2,835; Milan, 625; Bologna, 298; 
Rome, 925; Paris, 751; Cologne, 530; Nuremberg, 382; 
Leipsic, 351 ; Bale, 320; Strasburg, 526; Augsburg, 256; 
Louvain, 116; Mentz, 134; Deventer, 169; London, 130; 
Oxford, 7; St. Alban's, 4. 
Venice, therefore, took the lead. England was in a very 
backward state. This conclusion is confirmed 
by many other circumstances, which justify the 
statement that Italy was as far advanced in- 
tellectually in 1400 as England in 1500. Paris exhibits a 
superiority sixfold over London, and in the next ten years 
the disproportion becomes even more remarkable, for in 
Paris four hundred and thirty editions were printed, in 
London only twenty-six. The light of learning became 
enfeebled by distance from its Italian focus. As late as 
1550, a complete century after the establishment of the 
art, but seven works had been printed in Scotland, and 
among them not a single classic. It is an amusing proof 
how local tastes were consulted in the character of the books 
Measure of 
the contem- 
poraneous 
mental state 
of nations. 
Italy coirpar- 
ed with the 
rest of Europe. 200 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[cn. vi. 
thus put forth, that the first work issued in Spain, 1474, 
was on the " Conception of the Virgin." 
The invention of printing operated in two modes alto- 
gether distinct; first, in the multiplying and 
cheapening of books, secondly, in substituting 
reading for pulpit instruction. 
First, as to the multiplication and cheapening of books 
-there is no reason to suppose that the sup- 
ply had ever been inadequate. As, under the 
Ptolemies, book manufacture was carried forward in the 
Museum at Alexandria to an extent which fully satisfied 
demands, so in all the great abbeys there was an apart- 
ment-the Scriptorium-for the copying and making of 
books. Such a sedentary occupation could not but be 
agreeable to persons of a contemplative or quiet habit of 
life. But Greece, Rome, Egypt-indeed, all the ancient 
governments except that of China, were founded upon 
elements among which did not appear that all-important 
one of modern times, a reading class. Information passed 
from mouth to mouth, not from eye to eye. With a 
limited demand, the compensation to the copier was suffi- 
cient, and the cost to the purchaser moderate. It is 
altogether a mistake to suppose that the methods and 
advantages of printing were unknown. Modifications of 
that art were used wherever occasion called for them. We 
do not need the Roman stamps to satisfy us of that fact 
every Babylonian brick and signet ring is an illustration. 
Printing processes of various kinds were well enough 
known. The real difficulty was the want of paper. 
That substance was first made in Europe by the 
Spanish Moors from the fine flax of Valentia 
and Murcia. Cotton paper, sold as charta Dainascena, had 
been previously made at Damascus, and several different 
varieties had long been manufactured in China. 
Had there been more readers, paper would have been 
more abundantly produced, and there would have been 
more copiers -nay, even there would have been printers. 
An increased demand would have been answered by an 
increased supply. As soon as such a demand arose in 
Europe the press was introduced, as it had been thousands 
of years before in China. 
Effect of 
printing on 
literature and 
the Church. 
Cheapening 
of books. 
The want of 
paper. Da- 
mascus paper. CH. VI.] 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
201 
So far as the public is concerned, printing has been an 
unmixed advantage; not so, however, in its bearing on 
authors. The longevity of books is greatly 
impaired, a melancholy conclusion to an am- 
bitious intellect. The duration of many ancient 
books which have escaped the chances of time is to be 
hoped for no more. In this shortening of their term the 
excessive multiplication of works greatly assists. A rapid 
succession soon makes those of distinction obsolete, and 
then consigns Them to oblivion. No author can now 
expect immortality. His utmost hope is only this, that 
his book may live a little longer than himself. 
But it was with printing as with other affairs of the 
market-an increased demand gave origin to an 
increased supply, which, in its turn reacting, 
increased the demand. Cheap books bred readers. When 
the monks, abandoning their useless and lazy life of saying 
their prayers a dozen times a day, turned to the copying 
and illustrating of manuscripts, a mental elevation of the 
whole order was the result; there were more monks who 
could read. And so, on the greater scale, as books through 
the press became more abundant, there were more persons 
to whom they became a necessity. 
But, secondly, as to the change which ensued in the 
mode of communicating information-a change 
felt instantly in the ecclesiastical, and, at a later 
period, in the political world. The whole 
system of public worship had been founded on 
the condition of a non-reading people; hence the reading of 
prayers and the sermon. Whoever will attentively com- 
pare the thirteenth with the nineteenth century cannot 
fail to see how essential oral instruction was in the former, 
how subordinate in the latter. The invention 
of the printing-press gave an instant, a formid- 
able rival to the pulpit. It made possible that 
which had been impossible before in Christian Europe-• 
direct communication between the government and the 
people without any religious intermedium, and was the 
first step in that important change subsequently carried 
out in America, the separation of Church and state. 
Though in this particular the effect was desirable, in 
Longevity of 
books curtail- 
ed. 
Multiplica- 
tion of books. 
The mode of 
communi- 
cating know- 
ledgechanges. 
Injury to 
pulpit in- 
struction. 202 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. vf. 
another its advantages are doubtful, for the Church ad- 
hered to her ancient method when it had lost very much 
of its real force, and this even at the risk of falling into a 
lifeless and impassive condition. 
And yet we must not undervalue the power onco 
exercised on a non-reading community by oral 
and scenic teachings. What could better instruct 
it than a formal congregating of neighbourhoods 
together each Sabbath-day to listen in silence 
and without questioning? Tn those great churches, the 
architectural grandeur of which is still the admiration of 
our material age, nothing was wanting to impress the 
worshipper. The vast pile, with its turrets or spire 
pointing to heaven; its steep inclining roof; its walls, 
with niches and statues; its echoing belfry; its windows 
of exquisite hues and of every form, lancet, or wheel, or 
rose, through which stole in the many-coloured light; its 
chapels, with their pictured walls; its rows of slender, 
clustering columns, and arches tier upon tier; its many 
tapering pendants; the priest emerging from his scenic 
retreat; his chalice and forbidden wine; the covering 
paten, the cibory, and the pix. Amid clouds of incense 
from smoking censers, the blaze of lamps, and tapers, and 
branching candlesticks, the tinkling of silver bells, the 
play of jewelled vessels and gorgeous dresses of violet, 
green, and gold, banners and crosses were borne aloft 
through lines of kneeling worshippers in processional 
services along the aisles. The chanting of litanies and 
psalms gave a foretaste of the melodies of heaven, and the 
voices of the choristers and sounds of the organ now 
thundered forth glory to God in the highest, now 
whispered to the broken in spirit peace. 
If such were the influences in the cathedral, not less 
were those that gathered round the little village 
church. To the peasant it was endeared by 
the most touching incidents of his life. At 
its font his parents had given him his name; at its altar 
he had plighted his matrimonial vows; beneath the little 
grass mounds in its yard there awaited the resurrection 
those who had been untimely taken away. Connected 
thus with the profoundest and holiest sentiments of 
Influence of 
church ser- 
vices on the 
people. 
influence of 
village 
churches. CH. VI.] 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
203 
humanity, the pulpit was for instruction a sole and suffi- 
cient means. Nothing like it had existed in paganism. The 
irregular, ill-timed, occasional eloquence-of the Greek repub- 
lican orators cannot for an instant be set in comparison 
with such a steady and enduring systematic institution. 
In a temporal as well as in a spiritual sense, the public 
authorities appreciated its power. Queen Elizabeth was 
not the only sovereign who knew how to thunder through 
a thousand pulpits. 
For a length of time, as might have been expected, con- 
sidering its power and favouring adventitious 
circumstances, the pulpit maintained itself suc- 
cessfully against the press. Nevertheless, its 
eventual subordination was none the less sure. If there 
are disadvantages in the method of acquiring knowledge 
by reading, there are also signal advantages; for, though 
upon the printed page the silent letters are mute and 
unsustained by any scenic help, yet often-a wonderful 
contradiction-they pour forth emphatic eloquence, that 
can make the heart leap with emotion, or kindle on the 
cheek the blush of shame. The might of persuasiveness 
does not always lie in articulate speech. The strong are 
often the silent. God never speaks. 
There is another condition which gives to reading a 
great advantage over listening. In the affairs 
of life, how wide is the difference between 
having a. thing done for us and doing it ourselves! In 
the latter case, how great is the interest awakened, how 
much more thorough the examination, how much more 
perfect the acquaintance. To listen implies merely a 
passive frame of mind ; to read, an active. But the latter 
is more noble. 
From these and other such considerations, it might have 
been foreseen that the printing-press would at 
last deprive the pulpit of its supremacy, making 
it become ineffective, or reducing it to an ancillary aid. 
It must have been clear that the time would arrive when, 
though adorned by the eloquence of great and good men, 
the sermon would lose its power for moving popular 
masses or directing public thought. 
Upon temporal as well as ecclesiastical authority, the 
The pulpit 
yields to the 
press. 
Listening and 
reading. 
Decline of pul- 
pit influence. 204 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. vi. 
influence of this great change was also felt. During 
the Turkish war of 1563 newspapers first made 
their appearance in Venice. They were in 
manuscript. The " Gazette de France " commenced in 
1631. There seems to be doubt as to the authenticity of 
the early English papers reputed to have been published 
during the excitement of the Spanish Armada, and of 
which copies remain in the British Museum. It was not 
until the civil wars that, under the names of Mercuries, 
Intelligences, etc., newspapers fairly established themselves 
in England. 
What I have said respecting the influence of the press 
upon religious life applies substantially to civil 
1 ife also. Oratory has sunk into a secondary posi- 
tion, being every day more and more thoroughly 
supplanted by journalism. No matter how ex- 
cellent it may be in its sphere of action, it is essentially 
limited, and altogether incompetent to the influencing of 
masses of men in the manner which our modern social 
system requires. Without a newspaper, what would bo 
the worth of the most eloquent parliamentary attempts? 
It is that which really makes them instruments of power, 
and gives to them political force, which takes them out of 
a little circle of cultivated auditors, and throws them 
broadcast over nations. 
Such was the literary condition of Western Europe, 
such the new power that had been found in the 
press. These were but initiatory to the great 
drama now commencing. We have already seen that 
synchronously with this intellectual there was a moral 
impulse coming into play. The two were in harmony. 
At the time now occupying our attention there was a 
possibility for the moral impulse to act under several 
different forms. The special mode in which it came into 
effect was determined by the pecuniary necessities of 
Italy. It very soon, however, assumed larger proportions, 
and became what is known to us as the Reformation. The 
movement against Rome that had been abandoned for a 
century was now recommenced. 
The variation of human thought proceeds in a continuous 
manner, new ideas springing out of old ones either as 
Newspapers; 
their origin. 
Decline of 
power in par- 
liamentary 
eloquence. 
Dawn of the 
Reformation. CH. VI.] 
THE AGE OF REASOX IX EUROPE. 
205 
corrections or developments, but never spontaneously ori- 
ginating. "With them, as with organic forms, 
each requires a germ, a seed. The intellectual 
phase of humanity observed at any moment is 
therefore an embodiment of many different things. It 
is connected with the past, is in unison with the present, 
and contains the embryo of the future. 
Human opinions must hence, of absolute necessity, un- 
dergo transformation. What has been received by one 
generation as undoubted, to a subsequent one becomes so 
conspicuously fallacious as to excite the wonder of those 
who do not distinctly appreciate the law of psychical ad- 
vance that it could ever have been received, as true. 
These phases of transformation are not only related in a 
chronological way, so as to be obvious when we examine 
the ideas of society at epochs of a few years or of cen- 
turies apart-they exist also contemporaneously in differ- 
ent nations or in different social grades of the same nation, 
according as the class of persons considered has made a 
greater or less intellectual progress. 
Notwithstanding the assertion of Home, the essential 
ideas of the Italian system had undergone 
unavoidable modifications. An illiterate people, 
easily imposed upon, had accepted as true the asseveration 
that there had been no change even from the apostolic 
times. But the time had now come when that fiction 
could no longer be maintained, the divergence no longer 
concealed. In the new state of things, it was impossible 
that dogmas in absolute opposition to reason, such as that 
of transubstantiation, could any longer hold their ground. 
The scholastic theology and scholastic philosophy, though 
supported by the universities, had become obsolete. With 
the revival, of pure Latinity and the introduction of Greek, 
the foundations of a more correct criticism were laid. An 
age of erudition was unavoidable, in which whatever could 
not establish its claims against a searching examination 
must necessarily be overthrown. 
We are thus brought to the great movement known as 
the Reformation. The term is usually applied 
in reference to the Protestant nations, and 
therefore is not sufficiently comprehensive, for 
Variation of 
human 
thought. 
Variations in 
Italian ideas. 
The Reformat 
t on: its his- 
tory 206 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. vi. 
all Europe was in truth involved. A clear understanding 
of its origin, its process, its effects, is perhaps best obtained 
by an examination of the condition of the northern and 
southern nations, and the issue of the event in each 
respectively. 
Germany had always been sincere, and therefore always 
devout. Of her disposition she had given many 
proofs from the time when the Emperor Otho 
descended into Italy, his expedition having 
been, as was said, an armed procession of 
ecclesiastics resolved to abate the scandals of the Church. 
The Councils of Constance and Basle may be looked upon 
as an embodiment of the same sentiment. The resolu- 
tion to limit the papal authority and to put a superior 
over the pope arose from a profound conviction of the 
necessity of such a measure. Those councils were pre- 
cursors of the coming Reformation. In other countries 
events had long been tending in the same direction: in 
Sicily and Italy by the acts of Frederick II.; in France 
through those of Philip the Fair. The educated had been 
estranged by the Saracens and Jews; the enthusiastic by 
such works as the Everlasting Gospel; the devout had 
been shocked by the tale of the Templars and the detected 
immoralities in Rome; the patriotic had been alienated 
by the assumptions of the papal court and its incessant 
intermeddling in political affairs; the inferior, unreflect- 
ing orders were in all directions exasperated by its im- 
portunate, unceasing exactions of money. In England, 
for instance, though less advanced intellectually than the 
southern nations, the commencement of the Reformation 
is perhaps justly referred as far back as the reign of 
Edward III., who, under the suggestion of Wiclif, refused 
to do homage to the pope, but a series of weaker princes 
succeeding, it was not until Henry VII. that the move- 
ment could be continued. In that country the immediately 
exciting causes were no doubt of a material kind, such 
as the alleged avarice and impurity of the clergy, the 
immense amount of money taken from the realm, the 
intrusion of foreign ecclesiastics. In the South of France 
and in Italy, where the intellectual condition was much 
more advanced, the movement was correspondingly of a 
The prepara- 
tory state of 
Germany, 
France, Eng- 
land. CH. Vl.] 
THE AGE OF BEASON IN EUROPE. 
207 
more intellectual kind. Io this difference between the 
north and the south must be referred not only the striking 
geographical distribution of belief which was soon apparent, 
but also the speedy and abrupt limitation of the Reforma- 
tion, restrictedly so called. 
In recent ages, under her financial pressure, Rome had 
asserted that the infinite merits of our Saviour, 
together with the good works of supererogation 
of many holy men, constituted, as it were, a 
fund from which might be discharged penalties of sins 
of every kind, for the dead as well as the living, and 
therefore available for those who had passed into 
Purgatory, as well as for us who remain. This fund, 
committed to the care of St. Peter and his successors, mav 
be disbursed, under the form of indulgences, by 
sale for money. A traffic in indulgences was 
thus carried on to a great, extent through the medium of 
the monks, who received a commission upon the profits. 
Of course, it is plain that the religious conception of such 
a transaction is liable to adverse criticism-the bartering 
for money so holy a thing as the merit of our Redeemer. 
This was, however, only the ostensible explanation, which 
it was judged necessary to present to sincerely pious 
communities; behind it there lay the real reason, which 
was essentially of a political kind. It was absolutely 
necessary that papal Rome should control a revenue far 
beyond that arising in a strictly legitimate way. As all 
the world had been drained of money by the senate and 
Caesars for the support of republican or imperial power, 
so too there was a need of a like supply for the use of 
the pontiffs. The collection of funds had often given rise 
to contentions between the ecclesiastical and temporal 
authorities, and in some of the more sturdy countries had 
been resolutely resisted. To collect a direct tax is often 
a troublesome affair; but such is human nature-a man 
from whom it might be difficult to extort the payment of 
an impost lawfully laid, will often cheerfully find means 
to purchase for himself indulgence for sin. In such a 
semi-barbarian but yet religious population as that with 
which the Church was dealing, it was quite clear that 
this manner of presenting things possessed singular 
The theory of 
supereroga- 
tion. 
and nature of 
indulgences. 208 
THE AGE OF BEASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. vi. 
advantages, an obvious equivalent being given for the 
money received. The indulgence implied not only a 
release from celestial, but also, in many cases, from civil 
penalties. It was an absolute guarantee from hell. 
It is said that the attention of Martin Luther, formerly 
an Augustinian monk, was first attracted to this 
subject by the traffic having been conferred on 
the Dominicans instead of upon his own order at the time 
when Leo X. was raising funds by this means for building 
St. Peter's at Rome, a.d. 1517. That was probably only 
an insinuation of Luther's adversaries, and is very far 
from being borne out by his subsequent conduct. His 
first public movement was the putting forth of ninety- 
five theses against the practice. He posted them on the 
door of the cathedral of Wittenberg, and enforced them 
in his sermons, though at this time he professed obedience 
to the papal authority. With a rapidity probably un- 
expected by him, his acts excited public attention so 
strongly, that, though the pope was at first disposed to 
regard the whole affair as a mere monkish squabble for 
gains, it soon became obvious, from the manner in which 
the commotion was spreading, that something must be 
done to check it. The pope therefore summoned Luther 
to Rome to answer for himself; but through the influence 
of certain great personages, and receiving a submissive 
letter from the accused, he, on reconsideration, referred 
the matter to Cardinal Cajetan, his legate in Germany. 
The cardinal, on looking into the affair, ordered Luther 
to retract; and now came into prominence the mental 
qualities of this great man. Luther, with respectful 
firmness, refused; but remembering John Huss, and 
fearing that the imperial safe-conduct which had been 
given to him would be insufficient for his protection, he 
secretly returned to Wittenberg, having first, however, 
solemnly appealed from the pope, ill informed at the 
time, to the pope when he should have been better 
instructed. Thereupon he was condemned as a heretic. 
Undismayed, he continued to defend his opinions : but, 
finding himself in imminent danger, he fell upon the 
suggestion which, since the days of Philip the Fair, had 
been recognized as the true method of dealing with the 
Martin Lu- 
ther. CH. VI.] 
THE AGE OE REASON IN EUROPE. 
209 
papacy, and appealed to a general council as the true 
representative' of the Church, and therefore superior to 
the pope, who is not infallible any more than St. Peter 
himself had been. To this denial of papal authority he 
soon added a dissent from the doctrines of purgatory, 
auricular confession, absolution. It was now that the 
grand idea which had hitherto silently lain at 
the bottom of the whole movement emerged 
into prominence-the right of individual judg- 
ment-under the dogma that it is not papal 
authority which should be the guide of life, but the Bible, 
and that the Bible is to be interpreted by private judg- 
ment. Thus far it had been received that the Bible 
derives its authenticity and authority from the Church; 
now it was asserted that the Church derives her authen- 
ticity and authority from the Bible. At this moment there 
was but one course for the Italian court to take with the 
audacious offender, for this new doctrine of the right of 
exercising private judgment in matters of faith was 
dangerous to the last extreme, and not to be tolerated for 
a moment. Luther was therefore ordered to recant, and to 
burn his own works, under penalty, if disobe- 
dient, of being excommunicated, and delivered 
over unto Satan. The bull thus issued directed 
all secular princes to seize his person and punish his 
crimes. 
Put Luther was not to be intimidated; nay, more, he 
retaliated. He denounced the pope, as Frederick 
and the Fratricelli had formerly done, as the 
Man of Sin, the Anti-Christ. Iio called upon 
all Christian princes to shake off his tyranny. In presence 
of a great concourse of applauding spectators, he committed 
the volumes of the canon law and the bull of excommunica- 
tion to the flames. The pope now issued another bull 
expelling him from the Church. This was in January, 
1521. This separation opened to Luther an unrestrained 
career. He forthwith proceeded to an examination of the 
Italian system of theology and policy, in which he was 
joined by many talented men who participated in his 
views. The Emperor Charles V. found it necessary to use 
all his influence to check the spreading Reformation But 
The right of 
individual 
judgment 
asserted. 
Excommu- 
nication of 
Luther. 
He resists, and 
publicly 
burns the bull, 210 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[CH. VI. 
it was already too late, for Luther had obtained the firm 
support of many personages of influence, and his doctrines 
were finding defenders among some of the ablest men in 
Europe. 
An imperial diet was therefore held at Worms, be- 
fore which Luther, being summoned, appeared. But 
nothing could induce him to retract his opinions. An 
edict was published putting him under the ban of the 
empire; but the Elector of Saxony concealed him in the 
castle of Wartburg. While he was in this re- 
tirement his doctrines were rapidly extending, 
the Augustinians of Wittenberg not hesitating to change 
the usages of the Church, abolishing private masses, and 
giving the cup as well as the bread to the laity. 
While Germany was agitated to her centre, a like 
revolt against Italian supremacy broke out in 
Switzerland. It too commenced on the question 
of indulgences, and found a leader in Zuinglius. 
Even at this early period the inevitable course of events 
was beginning to be plainly displayed in sectarian de- 
composition ; for, while the German and Swiss Reformers 
agreed in their relation toward the papal authority, they 
differed widely from each other on some important 
doctrinal points, more especially as to the nature of the 
Eucharist. The Germans supposed that the body and 
blood of Christ are actually present in the bread and 
wine in some mysterious way; the Swiss believed that 
those substances are only emblems or symbols. Both 
totally rejected the Italian doctrine of transubstantiation. 
The old ideas of Berengar were therefore again fermenting 
among men. An attempt was made, under the auspices 
of the Landgrave of Hesse, to compose the dissension in a 
conference at Marburg; but it was found, after a long 
disputation, that neither party would give up its views, 
and they therefore separated, as it was said, in Christian 
charity, but not in brotherhood. 
At the first Diet of Spires, held in 152G, it was tried to 
procure the execution of the sentence passed upon Luther, 
but the party of the Reformation proved to be too strong 
for the Catholics. At a second diet, held at the same 
place three years subsequently, it was resolved that no 
and the revolt 
spreads. 
The Swiss 
Reformation. 
Zuinglius. CH. VI.] 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
211 
change should be made in the established religion before 
the action of a general council, which had been recom- 
mended by both diets, should be known. On this occa- 
sion the Catholic interest preponderated sufficiently to 
procure a revocation of the power which had been conceded 
to the princes of the empire of managing for a time the 
ecclesiastical matters of their own dominions. 
Against this action several of the princes and 
cities protested, this being the origin of the 
designation Protestants subsequently given to the Re- 
formers. At a diet held the following year at Augsburg, 
a statement, composed by Luther and Melanchthon, of the 
doctrines of the Reformers was presented ; it also treated 
to some extent of the errors and superstitions of the 
Catholics. This is what is known as the Confession of 
Augsburg. The diet however not only rejected 
it, but condemned most of its doctrines. The 
Protestants, therefore, in an assembly at Smal- 
calde, contracted a treaty for their common defence, and 
this may be looked upon as the epoch of organization of 
the Reformation. This league did not include the 
Reformers of Switzerland, who could not conscientiously 
adopt the Confession of Augsburg, which was its essential 
basis. The Sacramentarians, as they were called, became 
thus politically divided from the Lutherans. Moreover, 
in Switzerland the process of decomposition went on, 
Calvin establishing a new sect, characterized by the 
manner in which it insisted on the Augustinian doctrines 
of predestination and election, by the abolition of all 
festivals, and the discontinuance of Church ceremonies. 
At a later period the followers of Zuinglius and Calvin 
coalesced. 
The political combinations which had thus occurred as 
Protestantism rapidly acquired temporal power 
gave rise, as might have been anticipated, to 
wars. The peace of Augsburg, 1555, furnished 
the Reformers the substantial advantages they 
sought-freedom from Italian ecclesiastical authority, the 
right of all Germans to judge for themselves in matters 
of religion, equality in civil privileges for them and the 
Catholics. A second time, sixty-four years subsequently, 
The Protest- 
ants; origin 
of the name. 
Organization 
of the Refor- 
mation. 
Its culmina- 
tion. Peace 
of West- 
phalia. 212 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. vi. 
war broke out-the Thirty Years War-and finally the 
dispute was composed by the treaty of Westphalia. This 
may be regarded as the culmination of the Reformation. 
Peace was made in spite of all the intrigues and opposition 
of Rome. 
The doctrines of the Reformation were adopted with sin- 
gular avidity throughout the north of Europe, 
and established themselves for a time in France 
and in Italy. Even as early as 1558 a report of the 
Venetian ambassador estimates the Catholics of the 
German empire at only one-tenth of the population. For 
twenty years not a student of the University of Vienna 
had become a priest. 
Such was the Reformation among the German nations. 
It is not possible, however, to comprehend correctly that 
great movement without understanding the 
course of events in Italy, for that peninsula 
was involved, though in a very different way. In its 
intellectual condition it was far in advance of the rest of 
Europe, as is proved by such facts as those to which we 
have alluded respecting the printing of books. Between 
it and the nations of which we have been speaking there 
was also a wide difference in material interests. What 
was extorted from them was enjoyed by it. The mental 
and material condition of Italy soon set a limit to the 
progress of the Reformation. 
The Italians had long looked upon the transalpine 
nations with contempt. On the principle that 
the intellectually strong may lawfully prey on 
the intellectually weak, they had systematically drained 
them of their wealth. As we exchange with savages 
beads, and looking-glasses, and nails, for gold, they had 
driven a profitable barter with the valiant but illiterate 
barbarians, exchanging possessions in heaven for the 
wealth of the earth, and selling for money immunities or 
indulgences for sin. But in another respect they had 
looked upon them with dread-they had felt the edge of 
the French and German sword. The educated classes, 
though seeking the widest liberty of thought for them- 
selves, were not disposed to more than a very select 
propagandise! of opinions, which plainly could only be 
Extent of the 
movement. 
The revolt in 
Italy. 
Posit'on of 
the Italians. CH. vi.] 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
213 
detrimental to the pecuniary interests of their country. 
Their faith had long ago ceased to be that of conviction ; 
it had become a mere outward patriotic acquiescence. 
Even those who were willing enough to indulge them- 
selves in the utmost latitude of personal free-thinking 
never made an objection when some indiscreet zealot of 
their own kind was compelled by ecclesiastical pressure to 
flee beyond the Alps. No part of Europe was so full of 
irreligion as Italy. It amounted to a philosophical infi- 
delity among the higher classes; to Arianism among the 
middle and less instructed; to an .utter carelessness, not 
even giving itself the trouble of disbelief, among 
the low. The universities and learned academies 
were hotbeds of heresy; thus the University of Padua 
was accused of having been for long a focus of atheism, 
and again and again learned zucademies, as those of Modena 
and Venice, had been suppressed for heresy. 
The device of the Academy of the Lyncei 
indicated only too plainly the spirit of these 
institutions ; it was a lynx, with its eyes turned upward 
to heaven, tearing the triple-headed Cerberus with its 
claws. Nor was this alarming condition restricted to 
Italy; France had long participated in it. From the 
University of Paris, that watch-tower of the Church, the 
alarm had often been sounded; now it was against men, 
now against books. Once, under its suggestions, the read- 
ing of the physics and metaphysics of Aristotle had been 
prohibited, and works of philosophy interdicted until they 
should have been corrected by the theologians of the 
Church. The physical heresies of Galileo, the pantheism 
of Csesalpinus had friendly counterparts in France. Even 
the head of the Church, Leo X., at the beginning of the 
Keformation, could not escape obloquy, and stories were 
circulated touching his elevation to the pontificate at once 
prejudicial to his morals and to his belief. 
In such an ominous condition, the necessity of carrying 
out the policy to which Italy had so long been 
committed perpetually forced the papal Govern- 
ment to acts against which the instructed judgment 
of it own officials revolted. It was a continual struggle 
between their duty and their disposition. Why should 
State of their 
universities. 
Stat" of the 
learned aca- 
demics. 
False position 
of the papacy. 214 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. vi. 
thdy have thought it expedient to suppress the Koran 
when it was printed in Venice, 1530 ? why, when Paul IV., 
1559, promulgated the Index Expurgatorius of pro- 
hibited books, was it found necessary that not less than 
forty-eight editions of the Bible should be included in it, 
sixty-one printers put under the ban, and all their publica- 
tions forbidden, at first the interdict being against all 
prohibited books, and, on this being found insufficient, even 
those that had not been permitted being prohibited ? Why 
was it that Galileo was dealt with so considerately and 
yet so malignantly ? It was plain that toleration, either 
of men or books, was altogether irreconcilable with the 
principles of the Holy See, and that under its stern 
exigencies the former must be disposed of, and the lattei 
suppressed or burnt, no matter what personal inclinations 
or favouring sentiments might be in the way. If any 
faltering took place in the carrying out of this determina- 
tion, the control of Rome over the human mind would be 
put into the most imminent jeopardy. 
So stood affairs in Italy at the beginning and during 
the active period of the Reformation, the ancient system 
inexorably pressing upon the leading men, and 
impelling them to acts against which their 
better judgment revolted. They were bound 
down to the interests of their country, those interests being 
interwoven with conditions which they could no longer 
intellectually accept. For men of this class the German 
and Swiss reformations did not go far enough. They 
affirmed that things were left just as inconsistent, with 
reason, just as indefensible as before. Doubtless they con- 
sidered that the paring away of the worship of saints, 
of absolution for money, penances, indulgences, freedom 
from papal taxation, the repudiation of intrusive foreign 
ecclesiastics, was all to the detriment of the pecuniary 
interests of Italy. They affirmed that the doctrines put 
forth by the Reformers made good their ground, not 
through the force of reason, but through appeals to the 
ignorant, and even to women; not through an improved 
and soundcr'criticism, but, as it was declared, through the 
inward light of the Spirit; that nothing had been done to 
alleviate the ancient intolerant dogmatism, the forcible 
Check of the 
Reformation 
in Italy. CH. VI.] 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
215 
suppression of freedom of thought. Leo X., it is well 
known, at first altogether mistook the nature of 
the Reformation. He was a man of refined 
tastes and pleasure, delighting in sumptuous feasts, and 
too often scandalizing the devout by his indecent con- 
versation and licentious conduct. He gloried in being the 
patron of the learned, devoting all his attention to the 
progress of literature and the fine arts, a connoisseur in 
antiques. The amenities of the life of an accomplished 
gentleman were not to be disturbed. He little dreamt that 
in the coarse German monk there was an antagonist worthy 
of the papacy. The gay Italians looked upon Luther 
with ineffable contempt, as introducing ideas even more 
absurd than those he was trying to displace, and, what 
was perhaps a still greater offence, upholding his bad 
doctrines in worse Latin. They affected to believe that 
they discerned a taint of insanity in the Reformer's 
account of his conflicts with the Devil, yet were willing 
to concede that there was a method in his madness, since 
he was bent on having a wife. In their opinion, the result 
of the German movement must be exceedingly detrimental 
to learning, and necessarily lead to the production of very 
vulgar results, exciting among the common people a revo- 
lutionary and destructive spirit. Nor was this personal 
distaste for Luther altogether undeserved. The caricatures 
which that great man permitted himself to put forth are 
too indelicate to be described to a modern reader. They 
would be worthy of our disgust and indignation did we 
not find some palliation in the coarseness of the com- 
munities and times in which he lived. Leo awoke to his 
blunder when it was too late, and found that he had been 
superciliously sneering at what he should have combated 
with all his might. 
It is now more than three centuries since the Reforma- 
tion commenced, and we are able, with some 
degree of accuracy, to ascertain its influence. 
Founded as it was on the right of private 
interpretation of the Scriptures, it introduced a better 
rule of life, and made a great advance towards intellectual 
liberty. It compelled men to be more moral, and per- 
mitted them to be more learned. For the traditions of 
T eo X.; his 
character. 
Check of the 
Reformation 
in Europe. 216 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. VI. 
superstition it substituted the dictates of common sense; 
it put an end to the disgraceful miracles that for so many 
ages had been the scandal of Europe. The assertion of 
the Italians that it was a great injury to letters is untrue. 
Though not to be regarded in any respect as a learned 
man, Luther approved of the study of Greek and Hebrew, 
recognized by all parties to be dangerous to the Latin 
system. And even if the accusation be admitted that he 
approved of their cultivation, not from any love of them, 
but from hatred to it, the world was equally a gainer. 
Toward the close of his life it seemed as if there was no 
other prospect for papal power than total ruin : yet at this 
day, out of three hundred millions of Christians, more 
than half owe allegiance to Koine. Almost as if by en- 
chantment the Reformation suddenly ceased to advance. 
Rome was not only able to check its spread, but even to 
gain back a portion of what she had lost. The 
cause of this, which may seem at first an extra- 
ordinary result, is not to be attributed to any 
supernatural influence, as some have supposed. When 
natural causes suffice, it is needless to look for super- 
natural. 
Though there might be sovereigns who, like Henry 
VIII., had personal reasons for discontent with the Italian 
court; though there were some who sought to usurp the 
power and prerogatives of the popes; though there might 
be nobles who, as the Prince of Wales's tutor wrote to Sir 
W. Paget, were " importunate wolves, as are able to de- 
vour chantries, cathedral churches, universities, and a thou- 
sand times as muchsome who desired the plunder of 
establishments endowed by the piety of ages, and who 
therefore lent all their influence in behalf of this great 
revolution; there was among such and above such that 
small but all-important body of men who see 
human affairs from the most general point of 
view. To these, whatever might be the nation 
to which they happened to belong, it was 
perfectly evident that the decomposition of faith which 
had set in, if permitted to go on unchecked, could not 
possibly end in any other way than in producing an anarchy 
of sects. In their opinion, the German Reformation did 
Its causes 
were not 
supernatural. 
Influence of 
statesmen 
and philo- 
sophers. CH. VI.] 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
217 
not go far enough. It still practically left untouched the 
dependency of the Church upon the State. In the southern 
nations of the Continent it had merely irritated the great 
European ulcer, whereas what was required was the com- 
plete amputation of the rotten mass. In their judgment 
it was better to leave things as they were until a thorough 
eradication could be accomplished, and this, at the time, 
was obviously impossible. Not understanding, perhaps, 
how much human affairs are developed according to law, 
and how little by the volition of individuals, they liberally 
conceded that Catholicism had been the civilizing agency 
of Europe, and had become inwoven with the social fabric 
for good or for evil. It could not now be withdrawn 
without pulling the whole texture to pieces. Moreover, 
the curtain of papal authority, which at one time enveloped 
all Europe in its ample folds, had, in the course of these 
late events, been contracted and stretched across Iho 
Continent, dividing the northern and southern nations 
from each other. The people of the south saw on its em- 
broidered surface nothing but forms of usefulness and 
beauty, they on the north a confusion of meaningless 
threads. But the few who considered it as a whole, and 
understood tho relations of both sides, knew well enough 
that the one is the necessary incident of the other, and that 
it is quite as useless to seek for explanations as to justify 
appearances. To them it was perfectly clear that the 
tranquillity and happiness of Christendom were best sub- 
served by giving no encouragement to opinions which had 
already occasioned so much trouble, and which seemed to 
contain in their very constitution principles of social 
d i sor gan ization. 
A reason for the sudden loss of expansive force in the 
Beformation is found in its own intrinsic nature. 
The principle of decomposition which it repre- 
sented, and with which it was inextricably 
entangled, necessarily implied oppugnancy. For 
a short season the attention of Protestantism was altogether 
directed to the papal authority from which it had so 
recently separated itself; but, with its growing strength 
and ascertained independence, that object ceased to occupy 
it, becoming, as it were, more distant and more obscure. 
Influence of 
the nature of 
the Reforma- 
tion. 218 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. vi. 
Upon the subordinate divisions which were springing 
from it, or which were of collateral descent from the 
original Catholic stock, the whole view of each denomi- 
nation was concentrated. The bitterness once directed 
against the papacy lost none of its intensity when pointed 
at rivals or enemies nearer home. Nor was it alone 
dissensions among the greater sects, oppositions such as 
those between the Church of England and the Church of 
Scotland, whose discords were founded on points admitted 
by all to be great and essential; the same principle ran 
down through all the modes of sectarian combination as 
they emerged into life, producing among those of equal 
power struggles, and in the strong toward the 
weak persecution. Very soon the process of de- 
composition had advanced to such an extent that 
minor sects came into existence on very unessential points. 
Yet even among these little bodies there was just as much 
acrimony, just as much hatred as among the great. These 
differences were carried into the affairs of civil life, each 
sect forming a society within itself, and abstaining, as 
far as might be, from associations with its rivals. Of such 
a state of things the necessary result was weakness, and, 
had there been no other reason, this in itself would have 
been quite sufficient in the end to deprive Protestantism 
of its aggressive power. An army divided against itself 
is in no condition to make warfare against a watchful and 
vigorous enemy. 
But this was not all. It was in the nature of Pro- 
testantism from its outset that it was not con- 
structive. Unlike its great antagonist, it 
contained no fundamental principle that could 
combine distant communities and foreign countries 
together. It originated in dissent, and was embodied by 
separation. It could not possess a concentrated power, 
nor recognize one apostolic man who might compress its 
disputes, harmonize its powers, wield it as a mass. For 
the attainment of his aims the Protestant had only wishes, 
the Catholic had a will. The Church of England, of 
Scotland, or of any other Protestant nation, undoubtedly 
did discharge its duty excellently well for the community 
in which it was placed, but, at the most, it was only a 
Effect of 
sectarian dis- 
nutes. 
Want of con- 
centrated 
poiver. CH. VI.] 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
219 
purely local institution, altogether insignificant in com- 
parison with that great old Church, hoary and venerable 
with age, which had seen every government and every 
institution in Europe come into existence, many of them 
at its bidding, which had extirpated paganism from the 
Boman empire, compelled the Caesars to obey its mandates, 
precipitated the whole white race upon the Holy Land- 
that great old Church, once the more than imperial 
sovereign of Christendom, and of which the most respect- 
able national Church was only a fragment of a fragment. 
Very different wras it with Catholicism. It possessed 
an organization which concentrated in the hand 
of one man irresistible power, and included all 
the southern countries of Europe not Mohammedan. It 
could enforce its policy by the armies and fleets of obedient 
kings. It is not surprising, when this state of things is 
considered, that the spread of the Reformation was limited 
to its first fervour-that the men who saw its origin saw 
also its culmination. It is not to be wondered at that, 
with the political weakening arising from a tendency to 
subdivision and disintegration on one side, and the pre- 
paring of a complete and effective organization against 
the danger that was threatening on the other, the issue 
should have turned out as it did. 
Rome, awaking at last to her danger, met the Reforma- 
tion with four weapons-a counter-reformation, 
an increased vigour in the Inquisition, the 
institution of the Jesuits, and a greater em- 
bellishment of worship. The disposition of the 
northern nations was to a simplification of worship, that 
of the south to adorn it with whatever could captivate 
the senses. Ranke asserts that the composition of the 
mass of Marcellus by Palestrina, 1560, had a wonderful 
effect in the revival of religion ; there can be no doubt that 
it constituted an epoch in devotion. But of all 
these, the first and best was a moral change 
which she instantly imposed upon herself. Henceforth it 
was her intention that in the chair of St. Peter should 
never again be seen atheists, poisoners, thieves, murderers, 
blasphemers, adulterers, but men, who, if they were some- 
times found, as must be the case, considering the infirmities 
Condition of 
Catholicism. 
The means of 
resistance 
resorted to by 
Rome. 
A counter- 
reformation. 220 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. vl 
of humanity, incompetent to deal with the great trials 
which often befell them, were yet of such personal purity, 
holiness of life, and uprightness of intention as to command 
profound respect. Those scandals that hitherto had every- 
where disgraced her began to disappear, a true reforma- 
tion, but not a schism, occurring through all ecclesiastical 
grades. Had Protestantism produced no other result than 
this, it would have been an unspeakable blessing to the 
world. 
By another very different means the Italian power 
sought to insure its domination-by an increased 
activity of the Inquisition. It is difficult to 
understand how men of capacity could have 
justified this iniquitous institution. Certainly it could 
not have been upon any principles of Christian morality, 
nor even upon those of high statesmanship. For the 
Inquisition to accomplish its purpose, it must needs be as 
all-seeing as Providence, as inexorable as the grave; not 
inflicting punishments which the sufferer could remember, 
but remorselessly killing outright; not troubling itself to 
ascertain the merits of a case and giving the accused the 
benefit of a doubt, but regarding suspicion and certainty 
as the same thing. If worked with the unscrupulous, 
impassive resolution of Machiavellianism, this great en- 
gine for the coercion of the human mind could be made 
to accomplish its purpose. It thoroughly extinguished 
Protestantism in Spain and Italy, and in those countries 
maintained a barrier against the progressive reason of 
man. 
But the most effective weapon to which the papacy 
resorted was the institution of the order of the 
Jesuits. This was established by a bull of Paul 
HI., 1540, the rules being that the general, 
chosen for life, should be obeyed as God; that they should 
vow poverty, chastity, obedience, and go wherever they 
were commanded ; their obedience was to the pope, not to 
the Church-a most politic distinction, for thereby an 
unmistakable responsibility was secured. They had no 
regular hours of prayer; their duties were preaching, the 
direction of consciences, education. By the Jesuits Pome 
penetrated into the remotest corners of the earth, esta- 
The Inquisi- 
tion brought 
into activity. 
The Jesuits 
are esta- 
blished. CH. VI.] 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
221 
blished links of communication with her children who 
remained true to her in the heart of Protestant countries, 
and, with a far-seeing policy for the future, silently en- 
grossed the education of the young. At the confessional 
she extorted from women the hidden secrets of their lives 
and those of their families, took the lead in devotion 
wherever there were pious men, and was equally 
foremost in the world of fashion and dissipation. 
There was no guise under which the Jesuit 
might not be found-a barefoot beggar, clothed in rags; 
a learned professor, lecturing gratuitously to scientific 
audiences; a man of the world, living in profusion and 
princely extravagance; there have been Jesuits the 
wearers of crowns. There were no places into which they 
did not find their way: a visitor to one of the loyal old 
families of England could never be sure but that there 
was a Jesuit hidden in the garret or secreted behind the 
wainscot of the bedroom. They were the advisers of the 
leading men of the age, sat in the cabinets of kings, and 
were their confessors. They boasted that they were the 
link between religious opinion and literature. With im- 
plicit and unquestioning obedience to his superior, like 
a good soldier, it was the paramount duty of the Jesuit to 
obey his orders, whatever those orders might be. It was 
for him to go, at the summons of a moment, with his life 
in his hand, to the very centre of pagan or of reformed and 
revolted countries, where his presence was death by law, 
and execute the mission intrusted to him. If he succeeded, 
it was well; if he should fall, it was also well. To him 
all things were proper for the sake of the Church. It was 
his business to consider how the affair he had in hand was 
to be most surely accomplished-to resort to justifiable 
means if they should appear sufficient, if not, to unjustifi- 
able ; to the spiritual weapon, but also to be prepared with 
the carnal; to sacrifice candour if the occasion should 
require, if necessary even truth, remembering that the 
end justifies the means, if that end is the good of the 
Church. 
While some religious orders were founded on retirement, 
and aimed at personal improvement by solitude, the 
Jesuits were instructed to mix in the affairs of men, and 
Their influ- 
ence all over 
the world. 222 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. VI. 
gather experience in the ways of worldly wisdom. And 
since it is the infirmity of humanity, whatever maybe the 
vigour of its first intentions, too often to weary in well- 
doing, provision was made to re-enforce the zeal of those 
becoming lukewarm to admonish the delinquent, by 
making each a spy on all the others, under oath to reveal 
everything to his superior. In that manner a control was 
exercised over the brotherhood in all parts of the world. 
In Europe they had, in a very short time, stealthily but 
largely engrossed public education ; had mixed themselves 
up with every public affair ; were at the bottom of every 
intrigue, making their power felt through the control they 
exerted over sovereigns, ministers of state, and great court 
ladies, influencing the last through the spiritual means 
of the confessional, or by the more natural but equally 
effectual entanglements of requited love. Already they 
had recognized the agency of commerce in promoting and 
diffusing religious belief, and hence simultaneously became 
great missionaries and great merchants. With the Indies, 
East and West, they carried forward extensive commercial 
undertakings, and had depots in various parts of Europe. 
In these operations they were necessarily absolved from 
their vows of poverty, and became immensely rich. In 
South America they obtained a footing in Paraguay, and 
commenced their noble attempt at the civilization of the 
Indians, bringing them into communities, teaching them 
social usages, agricultural arts, and the benefits arising to 
themselves and the community from labour. They gave 
them a military organization, subdivided according to the 
European system, into the customary arms-infantry, 
cavalry, artillery; they supplied them with munitions of 
war. It was their hope that from this basis they should 
be able to spread the rule of the Church over America, as 
had been done in preceding ages over Europe. 
An intolerable apprehension of their invisible presence 
and unscrupulous agency made all Europe put 
them down at last. The amenities of exquisite 
courteousness, the artifices of infinite dissimula- 
tion, cannot for ever deceive. Men found, by bitter ex- 
perience, that within the silken glove there was an iron 
hand. From their general in Home, who was absolute 
Causes of 
their suppres- 
sion. CH. VI.] 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
223 
commander of their persons and unchallengeable adminis- 
trator of their prodigious wealth, down to the humblest 
missionary who was wearing away his life among the 
Andes, or on the banks of the Hoang-ho, or in the solitary 
prairies of Missouri, or under the blazing sun of Abyssinia 
-whether he was confessing the butterfly ladies of Paris, 
whispering devilish suggestions into the ear of the King 
of Spain, consoling the dying peasant in an Irish cabin, 
arguing with mandarins in the palace of the Emperor of 
China, stealing away the hearts of the rising generation 
in the lower schools and academies, extorting the admira- 
tion of learned societies by the profundity of his philosophy 
and the brilliancy of his scientific discoveries-whether 
he was to be seen in the exchanges and marts of the great 
capitals, supervising commercial operations on a scale 
which up to that time had been attempted by none but 
the Jews-whether he was held in an English jail as a 
suspected vagabond, or sitting on the throne of France- 
whether he appeared as a great landed proprietor, the owner 
of countless leagues in the remote parts of India or South 
America, or whether he was mixing with crowds in the 
streets of London, and insinuating in Protestant cars the 
rights of subjects to oppose and even depose their monarchs, 
or in the villages of Castile and Leon, preaching before 
Catholic peasants the paramount duty of a good Christian 
implicitly to obey the mandates of his king-wherever the 
Jesuit was, or whatever he was doing, men universally felt 
that the thing he had in hand was only auxiliary to some 
higher, some hidden design. This stealth, and silence, and 
power became at last so intolerable that the Jesuits were 
banished from France, Spain, Portugal, and other Catholic 
countries. But such was their vitality that, though the 
order was abolished by a papal bull in 1773, they have 
been again restored. 
Though it is sometimes said that Rome in this manner, 
by her admirable combinations and irresistible 
movement, succeeded at last in checking the 
Reformation, a full consideration of the state of 
affairs would lead us to receive that assertion 
with very considerable restriction. She came out of the 
conflict much less powerful than she had entered it. If 
Effects of 
change of 
opinion 
among the 
learned. 224 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[ch. vi. 
we attribute to her policy all that it can justly claim, we 
must also attribute to causes over which she had no kind 
of control their rightful influence. The Reformation had 
been, to no small extent, due to the rise of criticism, which 
still continued its development, and w'as still fruitful of 
results. Latin had fallen from its high estate; the modern 
languages were in all directions expanding and improving ; 
the printing-press was not only giving Greek learning to 
the world, but countless translations and commentaries. 
The doctrine successfully established by Luther and his 
colleagues-the right of private interpretation and judg- 
ment-was the practical carrying out of the organic law 
of criticism to the highest affairs with "which man can be 
concerned-affairs of religion. The Reformation itself, 
philosophically considered, really meant the casting off 
of authority, the installation of individual inquiry and 
personal opinion. If criticism, thus standing upon the 
basis of the Holy Scriptures, had not hesitated to apply 
itself to an examination of public faith, and, as the con- 
sequence thereof, had laid down new rules for 
morality and the guidance of life, it was not to 
be expected that it would hesitate to deal with 
minor things-that it would spare the philo- 
sophy, the policy, the literature of antiquity. And so, 
indeed, it went on, comparing classical authors with 
classical authors, the fathers with the fathers, often the 
same writer with himself. Contradictions were pointed 
out, errors exposed, weakness detected, and new views 
offered of almost everything within the range of literature. 
From this burning ordeal one book alone came out un- 
scathed. It was the Bible. It spontaneously 
vindicated for itself what Wiclif in the former 
times, and Luther more lately, had claimed for it. And not 
only did it hold its ground, but it truly became incalcu- 
lably more powerful than ever it had been before. The 
press multiplied it in every language without end, until 
there was scarcely a cottage in reformed Europe that did 
not possess a copy. 
But if criticism was thus the stimulating principle that 
had given life to the Reformation, it had no little to do 
with its pause; and this is the influence over which Rome 
Effects of 
criticism on 
religion and 
literature. 
The Bible. CH. vi.J 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
225 
had no kind of control, and to which I have made allusion. 
The phases through which the Reformation passed were 
dependent on the coincident advances of learning. First 
it relied on the Scriptures, which were to the last its surest 
support; then it included the Fathers. But, from a more 
intimate study of the latter, many erudite Pro- 
testants were gradually brought back to the 
ancient fold. Among such may be mentioned 
Erasmus, who by degrees became alienated from 
the Reformers, and subsequently Grotius, the publication 
of whose treatise, " De jure belli et pacis," 1625, really 
constituted an epoch in the political system of Europe. 
This great man had gradually become averse to the Refor- 
mation, believing that, all things considered, it had done 
more harm than good; he had concluded that it was better 
to throw differences into oblivion for the sake of peace, 
and to enforce silence on one's own opinions, rather than 
to expect that the Church should be compelled to ac- 
commodate herself to them. If such men as Erasmus, 
Casaubon, and Grotius had been brought to this dilemma 
by their profound philosophical meditations, their conclu- 
sion was confirmed among the less reflecting by the 
unhappy intolerance of the new as well as the old Church 
Men asked what was the difference between the 
vindictiveness with which Rome dealt with 
Antonio de Dominis, at once an ecclesiastic and 
a natural philosopher, who, having gone over to Pro- 
testantism and then seceded, imprudently visited Rome, 
was there arrested, and dying, his body was dug up and 
burnt, and the rigour of Calvin, who seized Servetus, the 
author of the " Christianismi Restitutio," and in part the 
discoverer of the circulation of the blood, when he happened 
to pass through Geneva, and committed him to the flames. 
Criticism had thus, in its earlier stage, produced well- 
marked results. As it developed it lost none of 
its power. It had enthroned patristic theology; 
now it wrenched from its hand the sceptre. In the works 
of Daille it showed that the fathers are of no kind of use - 
they are too contradictory of one another; even Jeremy 
Taylor speaks of their authority and reputation as clean 
gone for ever. In a few years they had sunk into desue- 
Decline of the 
value of 
patristic 
learning. 
Moral effects 
of persecu- 
tions. 
End of pa- 
tristicism. 226 
THE AGE OF BEASON IN EUROPE. 
[CH. VI. 
tude, a neglect shared by many classical authors, whose 
opinions were now only quoted with a respectful smile. 
The admiration for antiquity was diminishing under the 
effect of searching examination. Books were beginning to 
appear, turning the old historians into ridicule for their 
credulity. The death of Servetus was not with- 
out advantage to the world. There was not a 
pious or thoughtful man in all reformed Europe 
who was not shocked when the circumstances under which 
that unhappy physician had been brought to the stake at 
Geneva by John Calvin were made known. Foi' two hours 
he was roasted in the flames of a slow fire, begging for the 
love of God that they would put on more wood, or do 
something to end his torture. Men asked, with amaze- 
ment and indignation, if the atrocities of the Inquisition 
were again to be revived. On all sides they began to 
inquire how far it is lawful to inflict the punishment of 
death for difference of opinion. It opened their eyes to the 
fact that, after all they had done, the state of civilization 
in which they were living was still characterized by its 
intolerance. In 1540 the Venetian ambassador at the 
court of Charles V. reported to his government that in 
Holland and Friesland more than thirty thousand persons 
had suffered death at the hands of justice for Anabaptist 
errors. From such an unpromising state of things tolera- 
tion could only emerge with difficulty. It was the offspring, 
not of charity, but of the checked animosities of ever- 
multiplying sects, and the detected impossibility of their 
coercing one another. 
The history of the Reformation does not close, as 
many European authors have imagined, in a 
balanced and final distribution of the north and 
south between the Protestant and the Catholic. 
The predestined issue of sectarian differences and 
dissensions is individual liberty of thought. So Ion gas there 
was one vast, overshadowing, intolerant corporation, every 
man must bring his understanding to its measure, and 
think only as it instructed him to do. As soon as dissent- 
ing confessions gathered sufficient military power to main- 
tain their right of existence-as soon as from them, in turn, 
incessant offshoots were put forth, toleration became not 
'I he burning 
of Servetus 
by Calvin. 
The Reforma- 
tion con- 
tinued in 
America. CH. VI.] 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
227 
only possible, but inevitable, and that is perhaps as far as 
the movement has at this time advanced in Europe. But 
Macaulay and others who have treated of the Reformation 
have taken too limited a view of it, supposing that this 
was its point of arrest. It made another enormous stride 
when, at the American Revolution, the State 
and the Church were solemnly and openly dis- 
severed from one another. Now might the vatici- 
nations of the prophets of evil expect to find credit; a great 
people had irrevocably broken off its politics from its 
theology, and it might surely have been expected that the 
unbridled interests, and instincts, and passions of men 
would have dragged everthing into the abyss of anarchy. 
Yet what do we, who are living nearly a century after 
that time, find the event to be? Sectarian decomposition, 
passing forward to its last extreme, is the process by 
which individual mental liberty is engendered and main- 
tained. A grand and imposing religious unity implies 
tyranny to the individual; the increasing emergence of 
sects gives him increasing latitude of thought-with 
their utmost multiplication he gains his utmost liberty. 
In this respect, unity and liberty are in opposition; as the 
one diminishes, the other increases. The Reformation 
broke down unity; it gave liberty to masses 
of men grouped together in sufficient numbers 
to insure their position; it is now invisibly, 
but irresistibly making steps, never to be stayed until 
there is an absolute mental emancipation for man. 
Great revolutions are not often accomplished without 
much suffering and many crimes. It might have been 
supposed before the event, perhaps it is supposed by many 
who are not privileged to live among the last results, that 
this decomposition of religious faith must be to the detri- 
ment of personal and practical piety. Yet America, in 
which, of all countries, the Reformation at the 
present moment has farthest advanced, should 
offer to thoughtful men much encouragement. Its cities 
are filled with churches built by voluntary gifts; its clergy 
are voluntarily sustained, and are, in all directions, en- 
gaged in enterprises of piety, education, mercy. What a 
difference between their private life and that of ecclesiastics 
Separation of 
Church and 
State. 
Emergence 
of liberty of 
thought. 
The American 
clergy. 228 
THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE. 
[CH. VI. 
before the Reformation! Not, as in the old times, does 
the layman look upon them as the cormorants and curse 
of society; they are his faithful advisers, his honoured 
friends, under whose suggestion and supervision are in- 
stituted educational establishments, colleges, hospitals, 
whatever can be of benefit to men in this life, or secure 
for them happiness in the life to come. CHATTER VII. 
DIGRESSION ON THE CONDITION OF ENGLAND AT THE 
END OF THE AGE OF FAITH. 
BESULTS PBODUCED BY THE AGE OF FAITH. 
Condition of England at the Suppression of the Monasteries. 
Condition of England at the close of the seventeenth Century.-Locomo- 
tion, Literature, Libraries.-Social and private Life of the Laity and 
Clergy.-Brutality in the Administration of Law.-Profligacy of 
literature.-The Theatre, its three Phases.-Miracle, Moral, and 
Real Plays. 
Estimate of the Advance made in the Age of Faith.-Comparison with 
that already made in the Age of Reason. 
Arrived at the commencement of the Age of Beason, we 
might profitably examine the social condition of those 
countries destined to become conspicuous in the new order 
of things. I have not space to present such an Results of tha 
examination as extensively as it deserves, and Age of Faith, 
must limit my remarks to that nation which, of all others, 
is most interesting to the English or American reader- 
that England which we picture to ourselves as foremost in 
civilization, her universities datingback for many centuries; 
her charters and laws, on which individual, and therefore 
social, liberty rests, spoken of as the ancient privileges of 
the realm; her people a clear-headed race, lovers and stout 
defenders of freedom. During by far the greater part of 
the past period she had been Catholic, but she 
had also been Reformed-ever, as she will always 
be, religious. A correct estimate of her national 
and individual life will point out to us all that 
had been done in the Age of Faith. From her condition 
we may gather what is the progress made by man when 
The social 
condition 
produced in 
England. 230 
AGE OF FAITH IN ENGLAND. 
[ch. vn. 
guided by such theological ideas as those which had been 
her rule of life. 
The following paragraphs convey an instructive lesson. 
They dissipate some romantic errors; they are a verdict 
on a political system from its practical results. What a 
contrast with the prodigious advancement made within 
a few years when the Age of Beason had set in ! How 
strikingly are we reminded of the inconsequential, the 
fruitless actions of youth, and the deliberate, the durable 
undertakings of manhood! 
For many of the facts 1 have now to mention the reader 
will find authorities in the works of Lord Macaulay and 
Mr. Froude on English history. My own reading in other 
directions satisfies me that the picture here offered 
represents the actual condition of things. 
At the time of the suppression of the monasteries in 
England the influences which had been in opera- 
tion for so many centuries had come to an end. 
Had they endured a thousand years longer they 
could have accomplished nothing more. The con- 
dition of human life shows what their uses and what their 
failures had been. There were forests extending over 
great districts; fens forty or fifty miles in length, reeking 
with miasm and fever, though round the walls of the 
abbeys there might be beautiful gardens, green lawns, 
shady walks, and many murmuring streams. In trackless 
woods where men should have been, herds of deer were 
straying; the sandy hills were alive with conies, the downs 
with flocks of bustards. The peasant's cabin was made of 
reeds or sticks plastered over with mud. His fire was 
chimneyless-often it was made of peat. In the objects 
and manner of his existence he was but a step above tbo 
industrious beaver who was building his dam in the 
adjacent stream. There were highwaymen on the roads, 
pirates on the rivers, vermin in abundance in the clothing 
and beds. The common food was peas, vetches, fern 
roots, and even the bark of trees. There was no commerce 
to put off famine. Man was altogether at the mercy of 
the seasons. The population, sparse as it was, was per- 
petually thinned by pestilence and want. Nor was the 
state of the townsman better than that of the rustic; his 
Condition at 
the suppres- 
sion of the 
monasteries. CH. VII.] 
AGE OF JA1TH IN ENGLAND. 
231 
bed was a bag of straw, with a hard round log for his 
pillow. If he was in easy circumstances, his clothing was 
of leather, if poor, a wisp of straw wrapped round his 
limbs kept off the cold. It was a melancholy social condi- 
tion when nothing intervened between reed cabins in the 
fen, the miserable wigwams of villages, and the conspicuous 
walls of the castle and monastery. Well might they who 
lived in those times bewail the lot of the ague-stricken 
peasant, and point, not without indignation, to the troops 
of pilgrims, mendicants, pardoners, and ecclesiastics of 
every grade who hung round the Church, to the nightly 
wassail and rioting drunkenness in the castle-hall, secure 
in its moats, its battlements, and its warders. The local 
pivots round which society revolved were the red-handed 
baron, familiar with scenes of outrage and deeds of blood, 
and the abbot, indulging in the extreme of luxury, magni- 
ficent in dress, exulting in his ambling palfrey, his hawk, 
his hounds. Bural life had but little improved since the 
time of Caesar; in its physical aspect it was altogether 
neglected. As to the mechanic, how was it possible that 
he could exist where there were no windows made of glass, 
not even of oiled paper, no workshop warmed by a fire. 
For the poor there was no physician, for the dying the 
monk and his crucifix. The aim was to smooth the 
sufferer's passage to the next world, not to save him 
for this. Sanitary provisions there were none except 
the paternoster and the ave. In the cities the pestilence 
walked unstayed, its triumphs numbered by the sounds of 
the death-crier in the streets or the knell for the soul that 
was passing away. 
Our estimate of the influence of the system under which 
men were thus living as a regulator of their passions may 
at this point derive much exactness from incidents such 
as those offered by the history of syphilis and the usages 
of war. For this purpose we may for a moment glance at 
the Continent. 
The attention of all Europe was suddenly arrested bv a 
disease which broke out soon after the discovery 
of America. It raged with particular violence 
in the French army commanded by Charles 
VIII. at the siege of Naples, a.d. 1495, and spread almost 
Moral state 
indicated by 
the spread of 
syphilis, 232 
AGE OF FAITH IN ENGLAND. 
[CH. VII. 
like an epidemic. It was syphilis. Though there have 
been medical authors who supposed that it was only an 
exacerbation of a malady known from antiquity, that 
opinion cannot be maintained after the learned researches 
of Astruc. That it was something recognized at the time 
as altogether new seems to be demonstrated by the accusa- 
tions of different nations against each other of having 
given origin to it. Very soon, however, the truth ap- 
peared. It had been brought by the sailors of Columbus 
from the West Indies. Its true character, and the 
conditions of its propagation, were fully established by 
Fernel. 
Now, giving full weight to the fact that the virulence 
of a disease may be greatest at its first invasion, but 
remembering that there is nothing in the history of 
syphilis that would lead us to suppose it ever was, or 
indeed could be infectious, but only contagious, or com- 
municated by direct contact from person to person; 
remembering also the special circumstances under which, 
in this disease, that contagion is imparted, the rapidity of 
its spread all over Europe is a significant illustration of 
the fearful immorality of the times. If contemporary 
authors are to be trusted, there was not a class, married, 
or unmarried, clergy or laity, from the holy father, 
Leo X., to the beggar by the wayside, free from it. It 
swept over Europe, not as Asiatic cholera has done, 
running along the great lines of trade, and leaving exten- 
sive tracts untouched, settling upon and devastating great 
cities here and there, while others had an immunity. 
The march of syphilis was equable, unbroken, universal, 
making good its ground from its point of appearance in 
the south-west, steadily and swiftly taking possession of 
the entire Continent, and offering an open manifestation 
and measure of the secret wickedness of society. 
If thus the sins man practises in privacy became 
suddenly and accidentally exposed, that exposure showing 
how weak is the control that any system can exercise 
over human passions, we are brought to the same 
melancholy conclusion when we turn to those 
crimes that may be perpetrated in the face of 
day. The usages of war in the civil contests of the 
and by the 
usages of war CH. VII.] 
AGE OF FAITH IN ENGLAND. 
233 
fifteenth, century, or in the religious conflicts of the six- 
teenth and seventeenth, are perfectly appalling; the 
annals of those evil days are full of wanton and objectless 
barbarities, refusal of quarter, murder in cold blood, 
killing of peasants. Invading armies burnt and destroyed 
everything in their way; the taking of plunder and 
ransom of prisoners were recognized sources of wealth. 
Prosperous countries were made "a sea of fire;" the 
horrible atrocities of the Spaniards in America were 
rivalled by those practised in Europe ; deliberate directions 
were given to make whole tracts " a desert." Attempts 
had been made to introduce some amelioration into war- 
fare again and again, either by forbidding hostilities at 
certain times, as was the object of the " truces of God," 
repeatedly enforced by ecclesiastical authority, or by esta- 
blishing between the combatants themselves courtesies 
which are at once the chief grace and glory of chivalry; 
but, to judge by the result as offered, even so late as the 
eighteenth century, those attempts must be regarded as 
having proved altogether abortive. 
England, at the close of the Age of Faith, had for long 
been a chief pecuniary tributary to Italy, the 
source from which large revenues had been 
drawn, the fruitful field in which herds of 
Italian ecclesiastics had been pastured. A wonderful 
change was impending. At the beginning of the six- 
teenth century the island was far more backward in- 
tellectually and politically than is commonly supposed. 
Its population hardly reached five millions, and was 
stationaiy at that point, not so much because of the 
effects of civil and foreign war as merely through the 
operation of ordinary economical causes. There was no 
reason to call more men into existence. It was regarded 
as good statesmanship to maintain the population at a 
constant standard. The municipal policy corresponded to 
the national; it was not so much advanced as that con- 
temporaneously existing in Peru. Swarms of idle eccle- 
siastics had set such a pernicious example 
that the indisposition among common people to 
work had become quite a formidable difficulty. 
In every village there were stocks for the punishment of 
Backward 
condition of 
England. 
Apparent 
decline of her 
prosperity. 234 
AGE OF FAITH IN ENGLAND. 
[ch. VII. 
" valiant beggars," as they were termed. By the act of 
1531, vagrants "whole and mighty in body" caught 
begging for the first time might be whipped at the cart- 
tail ; the second time their ears were to be slit; by the 
act of 1536, if caught the third time they were to be 
put to death. In all directions large towns were falling 
into decay, a misfortune popularly attributed to the 
laziness of the lower orders, but in reality due to causes 
of a very different kind. Hitherto land had been the 
representative of authority and the source of power. 
Society had been organized upon that imperfect basis; a 
descending scale of landed proprietors had been established, 
and in that system every man had a place assigned to him, 
just as in Peru, though less perfectly. It was a system of 
organized labour, the possession of land being a trust, not 
a property. But now commerce was beginning to disturb 
the foundations on which all these arrangements had been 
sustained, and to compel a new distribution of population ; 
trading companies were being established ; men were un- 
settled by the rumours or realities of immense fortunes 
rapidly gained in foreign adventure. Maritime enterprise 
was thus not only dislocating society, but even destroying 
its spirit, substituting self-interest for loyalty. A nation 
so illiterate that many of its peers in Parliament could 
neither read nor write, was hardly able to trace the 
troubles befalling it to their proper source; with one 
it is imputed voice it imputed them to the bad example and 
to the clergy, shortcomings of the clergy. Long before Henry 
VIII., England was ready for the suppression of the 
monasteries. She regarded them as the very hot-beds of 
her evils. There were incessant complaints against the 
clergy for their scandalous lusts, for personal impurities 
such as in modern times we do not allude to, for their 
holding livings in plurality, for their extortion of exor- 
bitant profits, and neglect in the discharge of 
their duty. In public opinion, to so great an 
extent had these immoralities gone that it was 
openly asserted that there were one hundred 
thousand women in England made dissolute by the 
clergy. It was well known that brothels were kept in 
London for their use. It was affirmed that the con- 
Causes of 
irritation of 
the laity 
against the 
clergy. CH. VII.] 
AGE OF FAITH IN ENGLAND. 
235 
fessional was shamefully abused, and, through it, advan- 
tage taken of females; that the vilest crime in an 
ecclesiastic might be commuted for money, six shillings 
and eightpence being sufficient in the case of mortal sin. 
Besides these general causes of complaint, there were 
some which, though of a minor, were not of a less irrita- 
ting kind; such for instance, as the mortuary, soul-shot, 
or corpse present, a claim for the last dress worn by 
persons brought to a priest for burial, or some exaggerated 
commutation thereof. 
That such was the demoralized condition of the English 
Church, and such its iniquitous relations to the people, we 
have the most unimpeachable evidence, under circumstances 
of an imposing and solemn character. The 
House of Commons brought an accusation 
against the clergy before the king. "When 
Parliament met a.d. 1529, that House, as its 
very first act, declared to the sovereign that sedition and 
heresy were pervading the land, and that it had become 
absolutely necessary to apply a corrective. It affirmed 
that the troubles into which the realm had fallen were 
attributable to the clergy; that the chief foundation, 
occasion, and cause thereof was the parallel jurisdiction of 
the Church and State; that the incompatible legislative 
authority of convocation lay at the bottom of the mischief. 
Among other specific points it alleged the following :- 
That the houses of convocation made laws without the 
royal assent, and without the consent or even the knowledge 
of the people; that such laws were never published in the 
English language, and that, nevertheless, men were daily 
punished under them without ever having had an oppor- 
tunity to eschew the penalties; that the demoralization 
extended from the Archbishop of Canterbury down to the 
lowest priest, that dignitary having tampered with the 
despatch of justice in his Court of Arches; that parsons, 
vicars, priests, and curates were in the habit of denying 
the administration of the sacraments save upon the pay- 
ment of money; that poor men were harrassed without 
any legal cause in the spiritual courts for the mere 
purpose of extortion, and exorbitant fees were exacted 
from them; that the probate of wills was denied except 
Accusation 
against the 
clergy by the 
House of 
Commons. 236 
AGE OF FAITH IN EXGLAND. 
[ch. vii. 
on the gratification of the appetite of prelates and ordi- 
naries for money; that the high ecclesiastics extorted 
large sums for the induction of persons into benefices, and 
that they did daily confer benefices on " young folk," their 
nephews and relatives, being minors, for the purpose of 
detaining the fruits and profits in their own hands; that 
the bishops illegally imprisoned, sometimes for a year or 
more, persons in their jails, without informing them of 
the cause of their imprisonment or the name of their 
accuser ; that simple, unlearned men, and even " well- 
witted " ones, were entrapped by subtle questions into 
heresy in the ecclesiastical courts, and punishment pro- 
cured against them. 
These are serious charges ; they imply that the Church 
had degenerated into a contrivance for the extortion of 
money. The House of Commons petitioned the king to 
make such laws as should furnish a remedy. The king 
submitted the petition to the bishops, and required of them 
an answer. 
In that answer the ecclesiastical manner of thought is 
very striking. The bishops insist that the laws 
of the realm shall give way to the canon law, or, 
if incompatible, shall be altered so as to suit it; 
they identify attacks on themselves with those 
on the doctrine of the Church, a time-honoured and well- 
tried device; they affirm that they have no kind of 
enmity against the laymen, " their ghostly children," but 
only against the pestilent poison of heresy-; that their 
authority for making laws is grounded on the Scriptures, 
to which the laws of the realm must be made to conform ; 
that they cannot conscientiously permit the king's consent 
to the laws, since that would be to put him in the stead of 
God, under whose inspiration they are made; that, as to 
troubling poor men, it is the Holy Ghost who inspireth 
them to acts tending to the wealth of his elect folk, that, 
if any ecclesiastic hath offended in this respect, though 
" in multis offendimus omnes," as St. James hath it, let 
him bear his own fault, and let not the whole Church bo 
blamed; that the Protestants, their antagonists, are lewd, 
idle fellows, who have embraced the abominable opinions 
recently sprung up in Germany; that there are many 
Reply of the 
bishops to 
that accusa- 
tion. CH. VII.] 
AGE OF FAITH IN ENGLAND. 
237 
advantages in commuting Church, penances and censures 
for money; that tithes are a divine institution, and that 
debts of money owing to God may be recovered after ono 
hundred or seven hundred years of non-payment, since 
God can never lose his rights thereto ; that, however, it is 
not well to collect a tithe twice over; that priests may 
lawfully engage in secular occupations of a certain kind; 
that the punishments inflicted on the laymen have been 
for the health of their souls, and that, generally, the 
saints may claim powers to which common men are not 
entitled. 
.A fierce struggle between the Commons and the bishops 
ensued; but the House was firm, and passed 
several bills, and among them the Clergy Dis- 
cipline Act. The effect was to cut down eccle- 
siastical incomes, probate and legacy duties 
were defined, mortuaries were curtailed, extortionate fees 
for burial terminated, clergymen were forbidden to engage 
in farming, tanning, brewing, or to buy merchandise for 
the purpose of selling it again. It was made unlawful 
any longer to hold eight or nine benefices, or to purchase 
dispensations for not doing duty. They were compelled 
to reside in the parishes for the care of which they were 
paid, under penalty of £10 a month; and it was made a 
high penal offence to obtain dispensations from any of the 
provisions of this Act from Rome. 
Nothing could be more significant of the position of the 
parties than the high-toned, the conservative moderation 
of these Acts. The bishops did not yield, how- 
ever, without a struggle. In all directions from 
the pulpits arose a cry of " atheism," " lack of 
faith," " heresy." But the House resolutely stood to its 
ground. Still more, it sent its speaker to the king with a 
complaint against the Bishop of Rochester, who had dared 
to stigmatize it as "infidel." The bishop was compelled 
to equivocate and apologize. 
The English nation and their king were thus together 
in the suppression of the monasteries ; they were 
together in the enforcing of ecclesiastical reforms. 
It was nothing but this harmony which so 
quickly brought the clergy to reason, and induced them, 
The House 
passes the 
Clergy Disci- 
pline Act. 
The Church 
is compelled 
to submit. 
The king is 
sustained by 
his people. 238 
AGE OF FAITH IN ENGLAND. 
[ch. vii. 
m 1532, to anticipate both Parliament and the people in 
actually offering to separate themselves from Rome. In 
ihe next year the king had destroyed the vast power which 
in so many centuries had gathered round ecclesiastical in- 
stitutions, and had forced the clergy into a fitting sub- 
ordination. Henceforth there was no prospect that they 
would monopolize all the influential and lucrative places 
in the realm; henceforth, year by year, with many 
vicissitudes and changes, their power continued to decline. 
Their special pursuit, theology, was separated more and 
more perfectly from politics. In the House of Lords, of 
which they had once constituted one-half, they became a 
mere shadow. 
Henry VIII. cannot, therefore, be properly considered as 
the author of the downfall of ecclesiasticism in England, 
though he was the instrument by which it was ostensibly 
accomplished. The derisive insinuation that the Gospel 
light had flashed upon him from Anna Boleyn's eyes was 
far from expressing all the truth. The nullity of papal 
disciplines, excommunications, interdicts, pe- 
nances, proved that the old tone of thought was 
utterly decayed. This oblivion of old emotions, 
this obsoleteness of old things, was by no means confined 
to England. On the Continent the attacks of Erasmus on 
the monks were everywhere received with applause. I n 
1527 one printer issued an edition of 24,000 copies of the 
Colloquies of Erasmus, and actually sold them all. Ho 
understood the signs of the times. 
From this digression on parties and policy in England, 
let us again return to special details, descending for that 
purpose to the close of the seventeenth century. 
For a long time London had been the most 
populous capital in Europe ; yet it was dirty, 
ill built, without sanitary provisions. The 
deaths were one in twenty-three each year; now, in a 
much more crowded population, they are not one in forty. 
Much of the country was still heath, swamp, warren. 
Almost within sight of the city was a tract twenty-five 
miles round nearly in a state of nature; there 
were but three houses in it. Wild animals 
roamed here and there. It is incidentally mentioned that 
Religious feel- 
ing of the na- 
tion changed. 
State of Eng- 
land at the 
close of the 
seventeenth 
century. 
Wild state of 
the country. cir. vn.J 
AGE OF FAITH IN ENGLAND. 
239 
Queen Anne, on a journey to Portsmouth, saw a herd of 
five hundred red deer. With such small animals as the 
marten and badger, found everywhere, there was still seen 
occasionally the wild bull. 
Nothing more strikingly shows the social condition than 
the provisions for locomotion. In the rainy sea- 
sons the roads were all but impassable, justify- 
ing the epithet often applied to them of being 
in a horrible state. Through such gullies, half filled with 
mud, carriages were dragged, often by oxen, or, when 
horses were used, it was as much a matter of necessity as in 
the city a matter of display to drive half a dozen of them. 
If the country was open the track of the road was easily 
mistaken. It was no uncommon thing for persons to lose 
their way, and have to spend the night out in the air. 
Between places of considerable importance the roads were 
sometimes very little known, and such was the difficulty 
for wheeled carriages that a principal mode of transport 
was by pack-horses, of which passengers took advantage, 
stowing themselves away between the packs. We shall 
probably not dissent from their complaint that this method 
of travelling was hot in summer and cold in winter. The 
usual charge for freight was fifteen pence per ton per mile. 
Toward the close of the century what were termed " flying 
coaches " were established; they could move at the rate of 
from thirty to fifty miles in a day. Many persons thought 
the risk so great that it was a tempting of Providence to 
go in them. The mail-bag was carried on horse- 
back at about five miles an hour. A penny-post 
had been established in the city, but with much 
difficulty, for many long-headed men, who knew very well 
what they were saying, had denounced it as an insidious 
" popish contrivance." 
Only a few years before the period under consideration 
Parliament had resolved that "all pictures in the royal 
collection which contained representations of Jesus or the 
Virgin Mother should be burnt; Greek statues were de- 
livered over to Puritan stone-masons to be made 
decent." A little earlier, Lewis Muggleton had 
given himself out as the last and greatest of the 
prophets, having power to save or damn whom he pleased. 
Locomotion: 
the roads and 
carriages. 
The mails; 
penny-post 
disliked. 
Lewis Mug- 
gleton; his 
doctrines. 240 
AGE OF FAITH IN ENGLAND. 
[ch. VI I. 
It had "been revealed to him that God is only six feet 
high, and the sun only four miles off. The country beyond 
the Trent was still in a state of barbarism, and near the 
sources of the Tyne there were people scarcely less savage 
than American Indians, their " half-naked women chanting 
a wild measure, while the men, with brandished dirks, 
danced a war-dance." 
At the beginning of the eighteenth century there were 
thirty-four counties without a printer. The 
only press in England north of the Trent was 
at York. As to private libraries, there were 
none deserving the name. " An esquire passed for a great 
scholar if ' Hudibras,' ' Baker's Chronicle,' ' Tarleton's J ests,' 
and the ' Seven Champions of Christendom ' lay in his hall- 
window." It might be expected that the women were 
ignorant enough when very few men knew how to write 
correctly or even intelligibly, and it had become unneces- 
sary for clergymen to read the Scriptures in the original 
tongues. 
Social discipline was very far from being of that kind 
which we call moral. The master whipped his 
apprentice, the pedagogue his scholar, the 
husband his wife. Public punishments partook 
of the general brutality. It was a day for the rabble when 
a culprit was set in the pillory to be pelted with brickbats, 
rotten eggs, and dead cats ; when women were fastened by 
the legs in the stocks at the market-place, or a pilferer 
flogged through the town at the cart-tail, a clamour not 
unfrequently arising unless the lash were laid on hard 
enough " to make him howl." In punishments of higher 
offenders these whippings were perfectly horrible; thus 
Titus Oates, after standing twice in the pillory, was 
whipped, and, after an interval of two days, whipped 
again. A virtuoso in these matters gives us the incredible 
information that he counted as many as seventeen hundred 
stripes administered. So far from the community being 
shocked at such an exhibition, they appeared to agree in 
the sentiment that, " since his face could not be made to 
blush, it was well enough to try what could be done with 
his back." Such a hardening of heart was in no little 
degree promoted by the atrocious punishments of state 
Printing- 
presses and 
private li- 
braries. 
Social dis- 
cipline; its 
b irbanty. CH. VII.] 
AGE OF FAITH IN ENGLAND. 
241 
offenders: thus, after the decapitation of Montrose and 
Argyle, their heads decorated the top of the Tol booth; 
and. gentlemen, after the rising of Monmouth, were ad- 
monished to be careful of their ways, by hanging in chains 
to their park gate the corpse of a rebel to rot in the air. 
To a debased public life private life corresponded. 
The houses of the rural population were huts 
covered with straw-thatch; their inmates, if 
able to procure fresh meat once a week, were 
considered to be in prosperous circumstances. 
One-half of the families in England could hardly do that. 
Children six years old were not unfrequently set to labour. 
The lord of the manor spent his time in rustic pursuits; 
was not an unwilling associate of pedlars and drovers; 
knew how to ring a pig or shoe a horse; his wife and 
daughters " stitched and spun, brewed gooseberry wine, 
cured marigolds, and made the crust for the venison 
pasty." Hospitality was displayed in immoderate eating, 
and drinking of beer, the guest not being considered as 
having done justice to the occasion unless he had gone 
under the table. The dining-room was uncarpeted; but 
then it was tinted with a decoction of "soot and small 
beer." The chairs were rush-bottomed. In London the 
houses were mostly of wood and plaster, the streets filthy 
beyond expression. After nightfall a passenger went at 
his peril, for chamber windows were opened and slop-pails 
unceremoniously emptied down. There were no lamps in 
the streets until Master Ileming established his public 
lanterns. As a necessary consequence, there were plenty 
of shoplifters, highwaymen, and burglars. 
As to the moral condition, it is fearfully expressed in 
the statement that men not unfrequently were willing to 
sacri fice their country for their religion. Hardly 
any personage died who was not popularly 
suspected to have been made away with by 
poison, an indication of the morality generally supposed 
to prevail among the higher classes. If such was the 
state of society in its serious aspect, it was no better in its 
lighter. We can scarcely credit the impurity and im- 
modesty of the theatrical exhibitions. What is said about 
them would be beyond belief if we did not remember that 
Private life 
in different 
classes of 
society. 
General im- 
morality and 
brutality. 242 
AGE OF FAITH IN ENGLAND. 
[ch. Vil. 
they were the amusements of a community whose ideas of 
female modesty and female sentiment were altogether 
different from ours. Indecent jests were put into the 
mouths of lively actresses, ancl the dancing was not 
altogether of a kind to meet our approval. The rural 
clergy could do but little to withstand this flood of im- 
morality. Their social position for the last hundred years 
had been rapidly declining; for, though the Church pos- 
sessed among her dignitaries great writers and great 
preachers, her lower orders, partly through the 
political troubles that had befallen the state, 
but chiefly in consequence of sectarian bitterness, 
had been reduced to a truly menial condition. 
It was the business of the rich man's chaplain to add 
dignity to the dinner-table by saying grace " in full 
canonicals," but he was also intended to be a butt for the 
mirth of the company. " The young Levite," such was 
the phrase then in use, " might fill himself with the corned 
beef and the carrots, but as soon as the tarts and cheese- 
cakes made their appearance he quitted his seat, and stood 
aloof till he was summoned to return thanks for the 
repast," the daintiest part of which he had not tasted. If 
need arose, he could curry a horse, "carry a parcel ten 
miles, " or " cast up the farrier's bill." The " wages " of a 
parish priest were at starvation-point. The social degrada- 
tion of the ecclesiastic is well illustrated by an order of 
Queen Elizabeth, that no clergyman should presume to 
marry a servant-girl without the consent of her master or 
mistress. 
The clergy, however, had not fallen into this condition 
without in a measure deserving it. Their time had been 
too much occupied in persecuting Puritans and other 
sectaries, with whom they would have gladly dealt in 
the same manner as they had dealt with the Jewrs, who, 
from the thirteenth century till Cromwell, were altogether 
interdicted from public worship. The University of 
Oxford had ordered the political works of 
Buchanan, Milton, and Baxter to be publicly 
burnt in the court of the schools. The immortal 
vagabond, Bunyan, had been committed to jail 
for preaching the way of salvation to the common people, 
Degraded 
condition of 
the lower 
clergy. 
Burning of 
books and 
persecution of 
preachers. CH. VII.J 
AGE OF FAITH IX ENGLAND. 
243 
and had remained there twelve years, the stout old man 
refusing to give his promise not to offend in that manner 
again. The great doctrine inculcated from the pulpit was 
submission to temporal power. Men were taught that 
rebellion is a sin not less deadly than witchcraft. On a 
community thirsting after the waters of life were still 
inflicted wearisome sermons respecting "the wearing of 
surplices, position at the Eucharist, or the sign of the cross 
at baptism," things that were a stench in the 
nostrils of the lank-haired Puritan, who, with his 
hands clasped on his bosom, his face corrugated 
with religious astringency, the whites of his eyes turned 
upward to heaven, rocking himself alternately on his 
heels and the tips of his toes, delivered, in a savoury prayer 
uttered through his nose, all such abominations of the 
Babylonish harlot to the Devil, whose affairs they were. 
In administering the law, whether in relation to 
political or religious offences, there was an 
incredible atrocity. In London, the crazy old 
bridge over the Thames was decorated with 
grinning and mouldering heads of criminals, under an idea 
that these ghastly spectacles would fortify the common 
people in their resolves to act according to law. The 
toleration of the times may be understood from a law 
enacted by the Scotch Parliament, May 8, 1685, that 
whoever preached or heard in a conventicle should bo 
punished with death and the confiscation of his goods. 
That such an infamous spirit did not content itself with 
mere dead-letter laws there is too much practical evidence 
to permit any one to doubt. A silly labouring man, who 
had taken it into his head that he could not conscientiously 
attend the Episcopal worship, was seized by a troop of 
soldiers, " rapidly examined, convicted of non-conformity, 
and sentenced to death in the presence of his wife, who led 
one little child by the hand, and it was easy to see was 
about to give birth to another. He was shot before her 
face, the widow crying out in her agony, ' Well, sir, well, 
the day of reckoning will come.' " Shrieking Scotch 
Covenanters were submitted to torture by crushing their 
knees flat in the boot; women were tied to stakes on the 
sea-sands and drowned by the slowly advancing tide 
The Puritan's 
hatred of or- 
thodoxy. 
Brutal admi- 
nistration of 
the law. 244 
AGE OF FAITH IN ENGLAND. 
[ch. VII. 
because they would not attend Episcopal worship, or 
branded on their cheeks and then shipped to America; 
gallant but wounded soldiers were hung in Scotland for 
fear they should die before they could be got to England. 
In the troubles connected with Monmouth's -rising, in one 
county alone, Somersetshire, two hundred and thirty-three 
persons were hanged, drawn and quartered, to say nothing 
of military executions, for the soldiers amused themselves 
by hanging a culprit for each toast they drank, and making 
the drums and fifes play, as they said, to his dancing. It 
is needless to recall such incidents as the ferocity of Kirk's 
lambs, for such was the name popularly given to the soldiers 
of that colonel, in allusion to the Paschal lamb they bore 
on their flag : or the story of Tom Boilman, so nicknamed 
from having been compelled by those veterans to seethe the 
remains of his quartered friends in melted pitch. Women, 
for such idle words as women are always using, were 
sentenced to be whipped at the cart's tail through every 
market town in Dorset; a lad named Tutching was 
condemned to be flogged once a fortnight for seven years. 
Eight hundred and forty-one human .beings judicially 
condemned to transportation to the West India islands, 
and suffering all the horrible pains of a slave-ship in the 
middle passage, " were never suffered to go on deckin 
the holds below," all was darkness, stench, lamentation, 
disease, and death." One fifth of them were thrown 
overboard to the sharks before they reached their destina- 
tion, and the rest obliged to be fattened before they could 
be offered in the market to the Jamaica planters. The 
court ladies, and even the Queen of England herself, were 
so utterly forgetful of womanly mercy and common hu- 
manity as to join in this infernal traffic. That princess 
requested that a hundred of the convicts should be given 
to her. " The profit which she cleared on the cargo, after 
making a large allowance for those who died of hunger and 
fever during the passage, cannot be estimated at less than a 
thousand guineas." 
It remains to add a few words respecting the state of 
literature. This, at the end of the seven- 
teenth century, had become indescribably 
profligate, and, since the art of reading was by no means 
Profligate condi- 
tion of literature. CH. VII.] 
AGE OF FAITH IN ENGLAND. 
245 
generally cultivated, the most ready method of literary 
communication was through theatrical representation. It 
was for that reason that play-writing was the best means 
of literary remuneration, if we except the profit derived 
from the practice which, to some extent, survives, though 
its disgraceful motive has ceased, of dedicating books to 
rich men for the sake of the fee they would give. It is 
said that books have actually been printed in consideration 
of the profits of the dedication. Especially in the com- 
position of plays was it judged expedient to minister to 
the depraved public taste by indecent expressions, or 
allusions broad and sly. The playwright was at the 
mercy of an audience who were critical on that point, and 
in a position, if he should not come up to the required 
standard, to damn him and his work in an instant. From 
these remarks must be excepted the writings of Milton, 
which are nowhere stained by such a blemish. And yet 
posterity will perhaps with truth assert that 
Paradise Lost" has wrought more intellectual 
evil than even its base contemporaries, since it has 
familiarized educated minds with images which, though 
in one sense sublime, in another are most unworthy, and 
has taught the public a dreadful materialization of the 
great and invisible God. A Manichean composition in 
reality, it was mistaken for a Christian poem. 
The progress of English literature not only offers 
striking proofs of the manner in which it was 
affected by theatrical representations, but also 
furnishes an interesting illustration of that necessary 
course through which intellectual development must pass. 
It is difficult for us, who live in a reading community, to 
comprehend the influence once exercised by the pulpit and 
the stage in the instruction of a non-reading people. 
As late as the sixteenth century they were the only 
means of mental access to the public, and we should find, 
if we were to enter on a detailed examination of either one 
or the other, that they furnish a vivid reflexion of the 
popular intellectual condition. Leaving to others such 
interesting researches into the comparative anatomy of the 
English pulpit, I may, for a moment, direct attention to 
theatrical exhibitions. 
Milton's "Para- 
dise Lost." 
The English 
theatre. 246 
AGE OF FAITH IN ENGLAND. 
[cit. vn. 
There are three obvious phases through which the 
its successive drama has passed, corresponding to as many 
phases. phases in the process of intellectual development. 
These are respectively the miracle play, corresponding to 
the stage of childhood; the moral, corresponding to that 
of youth; the real, corresponding to that of manhood. In 
them respectively the supernatural, the theological, the 
positive predominates. The first went out of fashion soon 
after the middle of the fifteenth century, the second con- 
tinued for about one hundred and fifty years, the third 
still remains. By the miracle play is understood a re- 
presentation of Scripture incidents, enacted, however, 
without any regard to the probabilities of time, place, or 
action; such subjects as the Creation, the fall of man, tho 
Deluge, being considered as suitable, and in these scenes, 
without any concern for chronology, other personages, as 
the Pope or Mohammed, being introduced, or the V irgin 
Mary wearing a French hood, or Virgil worshipping the 
Saviour. Our forefathers were not at all critical historians; 
they indulged without stint in a highly pleasing credulity. 
They found no difficulty in admitting that Mohammed 
was originally a cardinal, who turned heretic out of spite 
because he was not elected Pope ; that, since the taking of 
the true cross by the Turks, all Christian children have 
twenty-two instead of thirty-two teeth, as was the case 
before that event; and that men have one rib less 
than women, answering to that taken from Adam. The 
moral play personifies virtues, vices, passions, goodness, 
courage, honesty, love. The real play introduces human 
actors, with a plot free from the supernatural, and pro- 
bability is outraged as little as possible. Its excellence 
consists in tho perfect manner in which it delineates 
human character and action. 
The miracle play was originally introduced by the 
Church, the first dramas of the kind, it is said, 
having been composed by Gregory Nazianzen. 
They were brought from Constantinople by the 
Crusaders; the Byzantines were always infatuated with 
theatrical shows. The parts of these plays were often 
enacted by ecclesiastics, and not unfrequently the repre- 
sentations took place at the abbey gate. So highly did 
Miracle plays, 
their cha- 
racter. CH. VII. J 
AGE OF FAITH IX ENGLAND. 
247 
the Italian authorities prize the influence of these exhibi- 
tions on the vulgar, that the pope granted a thousand 
days of pardon to any person who should submit to the 
pleasant penance of attending them. All the arguments 
that had been used in behalf of picture-worship were ap- 
plicable to these plays; even the Passion, Resurrection, 
and Ascension were represented. Over illiterate minds a 
coarse but congenial influence was obtained; a recollec- 
tion, though not an understanding of sacred things. In 
the play of "the Fall of Lucifer," that personage was 
introduced, according to the vulgar acceptation, with 
horns, and tail, and cloven hoof; his beard, however, was 
red, our forefathers having apparently indulged in a 
singular antipathy against hail' of that colour. There 
still remain accounts of the expenses incurred on some of 
these occasions, the coarse quaintness of which is not only 
amusing, but also shows the debased ideas of the times. 
For instance, in " Mysteries," enacted at Coventry, are 
such entries as " paid for a pair of gloves for God; " 
" paid for gilding God's coat; " " dyvers necessaries for 
the trimmynge of the Father of Heaven." In the play of 
the " Shepherds " there is provision for green cheese and 
Halton ale, a suitable recruitment after their long journey 
to the birthplace of our Saviour. " Payd to the players 
for rehearsal: imprimis, to God, iis. viiid.; to Pilate his 
wife, iis.; item, for keeping fyer at hell's mouth, iiid." 
A strict attention to chronology is not exacted; Herod 
swears by Mohammed, and promises one of his councillors 
to make him pope. Noah's wife, who, it appears, was a 
termagant, swears by the Virgin Mary that she will not 
go into the ark, and, indeed, is only constrained so to do 
by a sound cudgelling administered by the patriarch, the 
rustic justice of the audience being particularly directed 
to the point that such a flogging should not be given with 
a stick thicker than her husband's thumb. The sentiment 
of modesty seems not to have been very exacting, since in 
the play of " the Fall of Man " Adam and Eve appear 
entirely naked; one of the chief incidents is the adjust- 
ment of the fig-leaves. Many such circumstances might 
be related, impressing us perhaps with an idea of the 
obscenity and profanity of the times. But this would 248 
AGE OF FAITH IN ENGLAND. 
[ch. vn. 
scarcely be a just conclusion. As the social state improved, 
we begin to find objections raised by the more thoughtful 
ecclesiastics, who refused to lend the holy vestments for 
such purposes, and at last succeeded in excluding these 
exhibitions from consecrated places. After dwindling 
down by degrees, these plays lingered in the booths at 
fairs or on market-days, the Church having resigned them 
to the guilds of different trades, and these, in the end, 
giving them up to the mountebank. And so they died. 
Their history is the outward and visible sign of a popular 
intellectual condition in process of passing away. 
The mystery and miracle plays were succeeded by the 
moral play. It has been thought by some, who 
have studied the history of the English theatre, 
that these plays were the result of the Reforma- 
tion, with the activity of which movement their popularity 
was coincident. But perhaps the reader who is impressed 
with the principle of that definite order of social advance- 
ment so frequently referred to in this book, will agree 
with me that this relation of cause and effect can hardly 
be sustained, and that devotional exercises and popular 
recreations are in common affected by antecedent condi- 
tions. Of the moral play, a very characteristic example 
still remains under the title of "Everyman." It often 
delineates personification and allegory with very consider- 
able power. This short phase of our theatrical career 
deserves a far closer attention than it has hitherto obtained, 
for it has left an indelible impression on our literature. I 
think that it is to this, in its declining days, that we are 
indebted for much of the machinery of Bunyan's " Pilgrim's 
Progress." Whoever will compare that work with such 
plays as "Everyman" and "Lusty Juventus," cannot fail 
to be struck with their resemblances. Such personages as 
"Good Council," "Abominable Living," " Hypocrasie," in 
the play, are of the same family as those in the Progress. 
The stout Protestantism of both is at once edifying and 
amusing. An utter contempt for " holy stocks and holy 
stones, holy clouts and holy bones," as the play has it, 
animates them all. And it can hardly be doubted that 
the immortal tinker, in the carnal days when he played at 
tipcat and romped with the girls on the village green at 
Moral plays 
their cha- 
racter. CH. VH.] 
AGE OF FAITH IX EXGLAND. 
249 
Elstow, indulged himself in the edification of witnessing 
these dramatic representations. 
As to the passage from this dramatic phase to the real, 
in which the character and actions of man are 
portrayed, to the exclusion or with the subordina- 
tion of the supernatural, it is only necessary to allude with 
brevity-indeed, it is only necessary to recall one name, and 
that one name is Shakespeare. He stands, in his relations 
to English literature, in the same position that the great 
Greek sculptors stood with respect to ancient art, embody- 
ing conceptions of humanity in its various attributes with 
indescribable skill, and with an exquisite agreement to 
nature. 
Not without significance is it that we find mystery in 
the pulpit and mystery on the stage. They ap- 
pertain to social infancy. Such dramas as those 
I have alluded to, and many others that, if spa^e had 
permitted, might have been quoted, were in unison with 
the times. The abbeys were boasting of such treasures as 
the French hood of the Virgin, "her smock e or shifte," 
the manger in which Christ was laid, the spear which 
pierced his side, the crown of thorns. The transition 
from this to the following stage is not without its political 
attendants, the prohibition of interludes containing any- 
thing against the Church of Rome, the royal proclamation 
against preaching out of one's own brain, the appearance 
of the Puritan upon the national stage, an increasing 
acerbity of habit and sanctimoniousness of demeanour. 
With peculiar facility we may, therefore, through an 
examination of the state of the drama, determine national 
mental condition. The same may be done by a like ex- 
amination of the state of the pulpit. Whoever will take 
the trouble to compare the results cannot fail to observe 
how remarkably they correspond. 
Such was the state of the literature of amusement; as 
to political literature, even at the close of the period we 
are considering, it could not be expected to flourish after 
the judges had. declared that no man could pub- 
lish political news except he had been duly 
authorized by the crown. Newspapers were, 
however, beginning to be periodically issued, and, if occasion 
Real plays. 
Shakespeare. 
The pulpit 
and the stage. 
Newspapers 
and coffee- 
houses. 250 
AGE OF FAITH IN ENGLAND. 
[ch. vii. 
called for it, broadsides, as they were termed were added. 
In addition, newsletters were written by enterprising in- 
dividuals in the metropolis, and sent to rich persons who 
subscribed for them; they then circulated from family to 
family, and doubtless enjoyed a privilege which has not 
descended to their printed contemporary, the newspaper, 
of never becoming stale. Their authors compiled them 
from materials picked up in the gossip of the coffee-houses. 
The coffee-houses, in a non-reading community, were quite 
an important political as well as social institution. They 
were of every kind, prelatical, popish, Puritan, scientific, 
literary, Whig, Tory. Whatever a man's notions might 
be, he could find in London, in a double sense, a coffee- 
house to his taste. In towns of considerable importance 
the literary demand was insignificant; thus it is said that 
the father of Dr. Johnson, the lexicographer, peddled 
books from town to town, and was accustomed to 
open a stall in Birmingham on market-days, and it is 
added that this supply of literature was equal to the 
demand. 
The liberty of the press has been of slow growth. 
Scarcely had printing been invented when it 
was found necessary everywhere to place it 
under some restraint, as was, for instance, done 
by Rome in her "Index Expurgatorius " of prohibited books, 
and the putting of printers who had offended under the 
ban; the action of the University of Paris, alluded to 
in this volume, p. 198, was essentially of the same kind. 
In England, at first, the press was subjected to the common 
law; the crown judges themselves determined the offence, 
and could punish the offender with fine, imprisonment, or 
even death. Within the last century this power of determi- 
nation has been taken from them, and a jury must decide, 
not only on the fact, but also on the character of the pub- 
lication, whether libellous, seditious, or otherwise 
offensive. The press thus came to be a reflector 
of public opinion, casting light back upon the public; yet 
as with other reflectors, a portion of the illuminating power 
is lost. The restraints under which it is laid are due, not 
si much to the fear that liberty will degenerate into 
license, for public opinion would soon correct that; they 
Liberty of the 
press slowly 
secured. 
Its present 
condition. ch. vn.J 
AGE OF FAITH IN ENGLAND. 
251 
are rather connected with the necessities of the social 
state. 
Whoever will-examine the condition of England at suc- 
cessive periods during her passage through the 
Age of Faith will see how slow was her pro- 
gress, and will, perhaps,,be surprised to find at 
its close how small was her advance. The ideas 
that had served her for so many centuries as a guide had 
rather obstructed than facilitated her way. But whoever 
will consider what she has done since she fairly entered 
on her Age of Beason will remark a wonderful contrast. 
There has not been a progress in physical conditions only 
-a securing of better food, better clothing, better shelter, 
swifter locomotion, the procurement of individual happi- 
ness, an extension of the term of life. '1'here has been a 
great moral advancement. Such atrocities as those men- 
tioned in the foregoing paragraphs are now impossible, 
and so unlike our own manners that doubtless we read of 
them at first with incredulity, and with difficulty ai'e 
brought to believe that these are the things our ancestors 
did. What a difference between the dilatoriness of the 
past, its objectless exertions, its unsatisfactory end, and 
the energy, and well-directed intentions of the present 
age, which have already yielded results like the prodigies 
of romance. 
Contrast 
between pro- 
gress in the 
ages of Faith 
and Reason. CHAPTER VIII. 
REJECTION OF AUTHORITY AND TRADITION, AND ADOPTION OF SCIENTIFIC 
TRUTH.-DISCOVERY OF THE TRUE POSITION OF THE EARTH IN THE 
UNIVERSE. 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
Ecclesiastical Attempt to enforce the Geocentric Doctrine that the 
Earth is the Centre of the Universe, and the most important Body 
in it. 
The Heliocentric Doctrine that the Sun is the Centre of the Solar 
System, and the Earth a small Planet, comes gradually into 
Prominence. 
Struggle between the Ecclesiastical and Astronomical Parties.-Activity 
of the Inquisition.-Burning of Bruno.-Imprisonment of Galileo. 
Invention of the Telescope.-Complete Overthrow of the Ecclesiastical 
Idea.-Rise of Physical Astronomy.-Newton.-Rapid and resistless 
Development of all Branches of Natural Philosophy. 
Final Establishment of the Doctrine that the Universe is under the Do- 
minion of mathematical, and, therefore, necessary Laws. 
Progress of Man from the Anthropocentric Ideas to the Discovery of his 
true Position and Insignificance in the Universe. 
The Age of Reason in Europe was ushered in by an astro- 
nomical controversy. 
Is the earth the greatest and most noble body in the 
universe, around which, as an immovable centre, 
the sun, and the various planets, and stars re- 
volve, ministering by their light and other qualities to the 
wants and pleasures of man, or is it an insignificant orb- 
a mere point-submissively revolving, among a crowd of 
compeers and superiors, around a central sun? The 
former of these views was authoritatively asserted by the 
Church ; the latter, timidly suggested by a few thoughtful 
and religious men at first, in the end gathered strength 
and carried the day. 
An astronom- 
ical problem. ch. vm.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
253 
Behind this physical question-a mere scientific problem 
-lay something of the utmost importance-the 
position of man in the universe. The conflict 
broke out upon an ostensible issue, but every one saw 
what was the real point in the dispute. 
In the history of the Age of Beason in Europe, which is 
to fill the remaining pages of this book, I am 
constrained to commence with this astronomical 
controversy, and have therefore been led by 
that circumstance to complete the survey of the entire 
period from the same, that is, the scientific point of view. 
Many different modes of treating it spontaneously present 
themselves ; but so vast are the subjects to be brought 
under consideration, so numerous their connexions, and 
so limited the space at my disposal, that I must give the 
preference to one which, with sufficient copiousness, offers 
also precision. Whoever will examine the progress of 
European intellectual advancement thus far manifested 
will find that it has concerned itself with three great 
questions: 1. The ascertainment of the position of the 
earth in the universe; 2. The history of the earth in 
time; 3. The position of man among living beings. Under 
this last is ranged all that he has done in scientific discovery, 
and all those inventions which are the characteristics of 
the present industrial age. 
What am I? Where am I? we may imagine to have 
been the first exclamations of the first man awakening to 
conscious existence. Here, in our Age of Beason, we have 
been dealing with the same thoughts. They are the 
same which, as we have seen, occupied Greek intellectual 
life. 
When Halley's comet appeared in 1456, it was described 
by those who saw it as an object of " unheard- 
of magnitude; " its tail, which shook down 
"diseases, pestilence, and war" upon earth, reached over 
a third part of the heavens. It was considered as con- 
nected with the progress of Mohammed II., who had just 
then taken Constantinople. It struck terror into all people. 
Erom his seat, invisible to it, in Italy, the sovereign 
pontiff, Calixtus III., issued his ecclesiastical fulmina- 
tions; but the comet in the heavens, like the sultan on 
Its important 
consequences. 
Treatment 
of the Age 
of Reason. 
Roman astro- 
nomical ideas. 254 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[cn. viii. 
the earth, pursued its course undeterred. In vain were 
all the bells in Europe ordered to be rung to scare it 
away; in vain was it anathematized; in vain were prayers 
put up in all directions to stop it. True to its time, it 
punctually returns from the abysses of space, uninfluenced 
by anything save agencies of a material kind. A signal 
lesson for the meditations of every religious man. 
Among the clergy there were, however, some who had 
more correct cosmic ideas than those of Calixtus. 
A century before Copernicus, Cardinal de Cusa 
had partially adopted the heliocentric theory, 
as taught in the old times by Philolaus, Pytha- 
goras, and Archimedes. He ascribed to the earth a globular 
form, rotation on its axis, and a movement in space; he 
believed that it moves round the sun, and both together 
round the pole of the universe. 
By geocentric theory is meant that doctrine which 
asserts the earth to be the immovable centre of 
the universe; by heliocentric theory that which 
demonstrates the sun to be the centre of our 
planetary system, implying, as a necessary influence, that 
the earth is a very small and subordinate body revolving- 
round the sun. 
I have already, in sufficient detail, described how the 
Homan Church had been constrained by her position to 
uphold the geocentric doctrine. She had come 
to regard it as absolutely essential to her system, 
the intellectual basis of which she held would 
be sapped if this doctrine should be undermined. 
Hence it was that such an alarm was shown at the asser- 
tion of the globular form of the earth, and hence the sur- 
passing importance of the successful voyage of Magellan's 
ship. That indisputable demonstration of the globular 
figure was ever a solid support to the scientific party in 
the portentous approaching conflict. 
Preparations had been silently making for a scientific 
revolution in various directions. The five 
memoirs of Cardinal Alliacus " On the Con- 
cordance of Astronomy with Theology," show 
the turn that thought was taking. His "Imago 
Mundi" was published in 1460, and is said to have been a 
More correct 
ideas among 
some of the 
clergy. 
The geocentric 
and heliocen- 
tric theories. 
The geocen- 
tric doctrine 
adopted by 
the Church. 
Preparations 
for the helio- 
centric doc- 
trine. CH. VIII.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
255 
favourite work with Columbus. In the very Cathedral 
of Florence, Toscanelli had constructed his celebrated 
gnomon, 1468, a sun-ray, auspicious omen ! being admitted 
through a plate of brass in the lantern of the cupola. 
John Muller, better known as Regiomontanus, had pub- 
lished an abridgment of Ptolemy's "Almagest," 1520. 
Euclid had been printed with diagrams on copper as long- 
before as 1482, and again in Venice twenty-three years 
subsequently. The Optics of Vitello had been published 
1533. Fernel, physician to Henry II. of France, had even 
ventured so far, supported by Magellan's voyage, as to 
measure, 1527, the size of the earth, his method being to 
observe the height of the pole at Paris, then to proceed 
northward until its elevation was increased exactly one 
degree, and to ascertain the distance between the stations 
by the number of revolutions of his carriage wheel. He 
concluded that it is 24,480 Italian miles round the globe. 
The last attempt of the kind had been that of the Khalif 
Almaimon seven hundred years previously on the shore of 
the Red Sea, and with nearly the same result. The 
mathematical sciences were undergoing rapid advance- 
ment. Rhaaticus had published his trigonometrical tables; 
Cardan, Tartaglia, Scipio Ferreo, and Stefel were greatly 
improving algebra. 
The first formal assertion of the heliocentric theory was 
made in a timid manner, strikingly illustrative of the ex- 
pected opposition. It was by Copernicus, a 
Prussian, speaking of the revolutions of the 
heavenly bodies; the year was about 1536. In his pre- 
face, addressed to Pope Paul III., whether written by 
himself, or, as some have affirmed, for him by Andreas 
Osiander, he complains of the imperfections of the existing 
system, states that he has sought among ancient writers 
for a better way, and so had learned the heliocentric 
doctrine. " Then I too began to meditate on the motion 
of the earth, and, though it appeared an absurd opinion, 
yet, since I knew that in previous times others had been 
allowed the privilege of feigning what circles they chose 
in order to explain the phenomena, I conceived that I 
might take the liberty of trying whether, on the supposi- 
tion of the earth's motion, it was possible to find better 
Opernicus, 
the works of. 256 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. viii. 
explanations than the ancient ones of the revolutions of 
the celestial orbs." 
" Having, then, assumed the motions of the earth, 
which are hereafter explained, by laborious and long 
observation I at length found that, if the motions of the 
other planets be compared with the revolution of the earth, 
not only their phenomena follow from the suppositions, but 
also that the several orbs and the whole system are so 
connected in order and magnitude that no one point can be 
transposed without disturbing the rest, and introducing 
confusion into the whole universe." 
The apologetic air with which he thus introduces his 
doctrine is again remarked in his statement that 
he had kept his book for thirty-six years, and 
only now published it at the entreaty of Cardinal Schom- 
berg. The cardinal had begged of him a manuscript copy. 
" Though I know that the thoughts of a philosopher do 
not depend on the judgment of the many, his study 
being to seek out truth in all things as far as is permitted 
by God to human reason, yet, when I considered how 
absurd my doctrine would appear, I long hesitated whether 
I should publish my book, or whether it were not better to 
follow the example of the Pythagoreans and others, who 
delivered their doctrine only by tradition and to friends." 
He concludes : " If there be vain babblers who, 
knowing nothing of mathematics, yet assume 
the right of judging on account of some place 
of Scripture perversely wrested to their purpose, and who 
blame and attack my undertaking, 1 heed them not, and 
look upon their judgments as rash and contemptible." 
Copernicus clearly recognized not only the relative 
position of the earth, but also her relative magnitude. He 
says the magnitude of the world is so great that the 
distance of the earth from the sun has no apparent magni- 
tude when compared with the sphere of the fixed stars. 
To the earth Copernicus attributed a triple motion-a 
daily rotation on her axis, an annual motion 
round the sun. a motion of declination of the 
axis. The latter seemed to be necessary to 
account for the constant direction of the pole; 
but as this was soon found to be a misconception, the 
Introduction 
of his system. 
He fears being 
accused of 
heresy. 
Early correc- 
tion of the 
Copernican 
theory. CH. VIII.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
257 
theory was relieved of it. With this correction, the doc- 
trine of Copernicus presents a clear and great advance, 
though in the state in which he offered it he was obliged 
to retain the mechanism of epicycles and eccentrics, because 
he considered the planetary motions to be circular. It was 
the notion that, since the circle is the most simple of all 
geometrical forms, it must therefore be the most natural, 
which led to this imperfection. His work was published 
in 1543. He died a few days after he had seen a copy. 
Against the opposition it had to encounter, the helio- 
centric theory made its way slowly at first. Among those 
who did adopt it were some whose connexion served 
rather to retard its progress, because of the ultraism 
of their views, or the doubtfulness of their 
social position. Such was Bruno, who con- 
tributed largely to its introduction into England, and 
who was the author of a work on the Plurality of 
Worlds, and of the conception that every star is a sun, 
having opaque planets revolving round it-a conception 
to which the Copernican system suggestively leads. Bruno 
was born seven years after the death of Copernicus. Ho 
became a Dominican, but, like so many other thoughtful 
men of the times, was led into heresy on the doctrine 
of transubstantiation. Not concealing his opinions, he 
was persecuted, fled, and led a vagabond life in foreign 
countries, testifying that wherever he went he found 
scepticism under the polish of hypocrisy, and that he 
fought not against the belief of men, but against their 
pretended belief. For teaching the rotation of 
the earth he had to flee to Switzerland, and 
thence to England, where, at Oxford, he gave 
lectures on cosmology. Driven from England, France, 
and Germany in succession, he ventured in his extremity 
to return to Italy, and was arrested in Venice, where he 
was kept in prison in the Piombi for six years without 
books, or paper, or friends. Meantime the Inquisition 
demanded him as having written heretical works. He was 
therefore surrendered to Rome, and, after a farther im- 
prisonment of two years, tried, excommunicated, and 
delivered over to the secular authorities, to be punished 
" as mercifully as possible, and without the shedding of his 
Giordano 
Bruno of Nola. 
He teaches 
the heliocen- 
tric theory, 258 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[cn. vin. 
blood," the abominable formula for burning a man alive, 
lie had collected all the observations that had been made 
respecting the new star in Cassiopeia, 1572; he had taught 
that space is infinite, and that it is filled with self-luminous 
and opaque worlds, many of them inhabited-this being 
his capital offence. He believed that the world is ani- 
mated by an intelligent soul, the cause of forms but not 
of matter; that it lives in all things, even such as seem 
not to live; that every thing is ready to become organized ; 
that matter is the mother of forms and then their grave ; 
that matter and the soul of the world together constitute 
God. His ideas were therefore pantheistic, " Est JDeus in 
nobis." In his " Cena de le Cenere " he insists that the 
Scripture was not intended to teach science, but morals 
only. The severity with which he was treated was pro- 
voked by his asseverations that he was struggling with an 
orthodoxy that had neither morality nor belief. This was 
the aim of his work entitled " The triumphant Beast." 
lie was burnt at Rome, February 16, 1600. 
With both a present and prophetic truth, he 
nobly responded, when the atrocious sentence 
was passed upon him, " Perhaps it is with greater fear 
that ye pass this sentence upon me than I receive it." 
His tormentors jocosely observed, as the flames shut him 
out for ever from view, that he had gone to the imaginary 
worlds he had so wickedly feigned. 
This vigorous but spasmodic determination of the Church 
to defend herself was not without effect. It enabled her 
to hold fast the timid, the time-servers, the superficial. 
Among such may be mentioned Lord Bacon, 
who never received the Copernican system. 
With the audacity of ignorance, he presumed to criticize 
what he did not understand, and, with a superb conceit, 
disparaged the great Copernicus. lie says, " In 
the system of Copernicus there are many and 
grave difficulties; for the threefold motion with 
which he encumbers the earth is a serious inconvenience, 
and the separation of the sun from the planets, with which 
he has so many affections in common, is likewise a harsh 
step; and the introduction of so many immovable bodies 
in nature, as when he makes the sun and stars immovable, 
and is burnt 
alive as a 
heretic. 
Lord Bacon. 
Rejects the 
Copernican 
doctrine. ch. vm.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
259 
the bodies which are peculiarly lucid and radiant, and his 
making the moon adhere to the earth in a sort of epicycle, 
and some other things which he assumes, are proceedings 
which mark a man who thinks nothing of introducing 
fictions of any kind into nature, provided his calculations 
turn out well." The more closely we examine the writings 
of Lord Bacon, the more unworthy does he seem to have 
been of the great reputation which has been awarded to 
him. The popular delusion to which he owes so much 
originated at a time when the history of science was un- 
known. They who first brought him into notice knew 
nothing of the old school of Alexandria. This boasted 
founder of a new philosophy could not comprehend, and 
would not accept, the greatest of all scientific doctrines 
when it was plainly set before his eyes. 
It has been represented that the invention of the true 
method of physical science was an amusement of Bacon's 
hours of relaxation from the more laborious studies of law 
and duties of a court. His chief admirers have been 
persons of a literary turn, who have an idea that scientific 
discoveries are accomplished by a mechanico-mental opera 
tion. Bacon never produced any great practical 
result himself, no great physicist has ever made 
any use of his method. He has had the same 
to do with the development of modern science 
that the inventor of the orrery has had to do with the 
discovery of the mechanism of the world. Of all the 
important physical discoveries, there is not one which 
shows that its author made it by the Baconian instrument. 
Newton never seems to have been aware that he was 
under any obligation to Bacon. Archimedes, and the 
Alexandrians, and the Arabians, and Leonardo da Vinci 
did very well before he was born ; the discovery of America 
by Columbus and the circumnavigation by Magellan can 
hardly be attributed to him, yet they were the consequences 
of a truly philosophical reasoning. But the investigation 
of nature is an affair of genius, not of rules. No man can 
invent an organon for writing tragedies and Epic poems. 
Bacon's system is, in it own terms, an idol of the theatre. 
It would scarcely guide a man to a solution of the riddle of 
zElia Lmlia Crispis, or to that of the charade of Sir Hilary. 
The practical 
uselessness 
of his philo- 
sophy. 260 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. VIII, 
Few scientific pretenders have made more mistakes than 
Uis scientific Lord Bacon. He rejected the Copernican system, 
errors. and SpOkc insolently of its great author; he 
undertook to ciiticise adversely Gilbert's treatise "Be 
Magnetohe was occupied in the condemnation of any 
investigation of final causes, while Harvey was deducing 
the circulation of the blood from Aquapendente's discovery 
of the valves in the veins; ho was doubtful whether 
instruments were of any advantage, while Galileo was 
investigating the heavens with the telescope. Ignorant 
himself of every branch of mathematics, he presumed that 
they were useless in science, but a few years before Newton 
achieved by their aid his immortal discoveries. It is time 
that the sacred name of philosophy should be severed from 
its long connexion with that of one who was a pretender 
in science, a time-serving politician, an insidious lawyer, a 
corrupt judge, a treacherous friend, a bad man. 
But others were not so obtuse as Bacon. Gilbert, one of 
the best of the early English experimentalists, 
an excellent writer on magnetism, adopted the 
views of Copernicus. Milton, in " Paradise Lost," 
set forth in language such as he only could use the objections 
to the Ptolemaic, and the probabilities of the Copernican 
system. Some of the more liberal ecclesiastics gave their 
adhesion. Bishop Wilkins not only presented it in a very 
popular way, but also made some sensible suggestions 
explanatory of the supposed contradictions of the new 
theory to the Holy Scriptures. It was, however, among 
geometricians, as Napier, Briggs, Horrox, that it met with 
its best support. On the continent the doctrine was daily 
making converts, and nightly gathering strength from the 
accordance of the tables of the motions of the heavenly 
bodies calculated upon its principles with actual obser- 
vation. 
It is by no means uninteresting to notice the different 
classes of men among whom this great theory was steadily 
winning its way. Experimental philosophers, Bepublican 
poets, Episcopal clergymen, Scotch lords, West of England 
schoolmasters, Italian physicists, Polish pedants, pains- 
taking Germans, each from his own special point of view, 
was gradually receiving the light, and doubtless, from 
Adoption of 
the Coperni- 
can doctrine. CH. VIII.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
261 
such varied influence, the doctrine would have vindicated 
its supremacy at last, though it might have taken a long 
time. On a sudden, however, there occurred a fortunate 
event, which led forthwith to that result by a 
new train of evidence, bringing the matter, 
under the most brilliant circumstances, clearly to the 
apprehension of every one. This great and fortunate 
event was the invention of the telescope. 
It is needless to enter on any examination of the author- 
ship of this invention. It is enough for our purpose to 
know that Lippershey, a Dutchman, had made one toward 
the close of 1608, and that Galileo, hearing of the mditotw- 
circumstance, but without knowing the particu- 
lars of the construction, in April or May of the ftfllowing 
year invented a form of it for himself. Not content with 
admiring how close and large it made terrestrial objects, 
he employed it for examining the heavens. On turning 
it to the moon, he found that she has mountains casting 
shadows, and valleys like those of the earth. 
The discovery of innumerable fixed stars-not 
fewer than forty were counted by him in the 
well-known group of the Pleiades-up to that time unseen 
by man, was felt at once to offer an insuperable argument 
against the opinion that these bodies were created only to 
illuminate the night; indeed, it maybe said that this was 
a death-blow to the time-honoured doctrine of the human 
destiny of the universe. Already Galileo began to en- 
counter vulgar indignation, which accused him loudly of 
impiety. On January 7th, 1610, he discovered three of 
Jupiter's satellites, and a few days later the fourth. To 
these he gave the designation of the Medicean stars, and 
in his "Sidereal Messenger" published an account of the 
facts he had thus far observed. As it was perceived at 
once that this planet offered a miniature representation of 
the ideas of Copernicus respecting the solar system, this 
discovery was received by the astronomical party with the 
liveliest pleasure, by the ecclesiastical with the most bitter 
opposition, some declaring that it was a mere optical 
deception, some a purposed fraud, some that it was sheer 
blasphemy, and some, fairly carrying out to its consequences 
the absurd philosophy of the day, asserted that, since the 
Invention of 
the telescope. 
Telescopic 
astronomical 
discoveries. 262 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. VIII. 
pretended satellites were invisible to the naked eye, they 
must be useless, and, being useless, they could not exist. 
Continuing his observations, Galileo found that Saturn 
differs in an extraordinary manner from other planets; 
but the telescope he used not being sufficient to demon- 
strate the ring, he fell into the mistake that the body of 
the planet is triple. This was soon followed by the dis- 
covery of the phases of Venus, which indisputably esta- 
blished for hei' a motion round the sun, and actually con- 
verted what had hitherto, on all hands, been regarded as 
one of the weightiest objections against the Copernican 
theory, into a most solid support. "If the doctrine of 
Copernicus be true, the planet Venus ought to show phases 
like the moon, which is not the caseso said the objectors. 
Copernicus himself saw the difficulty, And tried to remove 
it by suggesting that the planet might be transparent. 
The telescope of Galileo for ever settled the question by 
showing that the expected phases do actually exist. 
In the garden of Cardinal Bandini at Home, a.d. 1611, 
Galileo publicly exhibited the spots upon the sun. He had 
observed them the preceding year. Goaded on 
by the opposition his astronomical discoveries 
were bringing upon him, he addressed a letter 
in 1613 to the Abbe Castelli, for the purpose of showing 
that the Scriptures were not intended as a scientific 
authority. This was repeating Bruno's offence. Here- 
upon the Dominicans, taking alarm, commenced to attack 
him from their pulpits. It shows how reluctantly, and 
with what misgivings the higher ecclesiastics entered upon 
the quarrel, that Maraffi, the general of the Dominicans, 
apologized to Galileo for what had taken place. The 
astronomer now published another letter reiterating his 
former opinions, asserting that the Scriptures were only 
intended for our salvation, and otherwise defending him- 
self, and recalling the fact that Copernicus had dedicated 
his book to Pope Paul III. 
Through the suggestion of the Dominicans, Galileo was 
now summoned to Rome to account for his 
conduct and opinions before the Inquisition. 
He was accused of having taught that the earth moves; 
that the sun is stationary; and of having attempted to 
Commencing 
opposition to 
Galileo. 
He is summon- 
ed to Rome. ch. vin.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OE REASON. 
263 
reconcile these doctrines with the Scriptures. The sen- 
tence was that he must renounce these heretical opinions, 
and pledge himself that he would neither publish nor 
defend them for the future. In the event of his Is condemned 
refusal he was to be imprisoned. With the fate by theinqui- 
of Bruno in his recollection, he assented to the 'SIUuI1' 
required recantation, and gave the promise demanded. 
The Inquisition then proceeded to deal with the Copernican 
system, condemning it as heretical; the letters of Galileo, 
which had given rise to the trouble, were prohibited; also 
Kepler's epitome of the Copernican theory, and also the 
work of Copernicus. In their decree prohibiting 
this work " De Revolutionibus," the Congrega- 
tion of the Index, March 5, 1616, denounced the 
new system of the universe as " that false 
Pythagorean doctrine utterly contrary to the Holy Scrip- 
tures." 
Again it appears how reluctant the Roman authorities 
were to interfere, and how they were impelled rather 
by the necessity of their position than by their personal 
belief in the course they had been obliged to take. After 
all that had passed, the Tope, Paul V., admitted Galileo 
to an audience, at which he professed to him personally the 
kindest sentiments, and assured him of safety. 
When Urban VIII. succeeded to the pontifical 
chair, Galileo received the distinction of not 
less than six audiences; the Pope conferred on him several 
presents, and added the promise of a pension for his son. 
In a letter to the Duke of Florence his Holiness used the 
most liberal language, stated how dear to him Galileo was, 
that he had very lovingly embraced him, and requested 
the duke to show him every favour. 
Whether it was that, under these auspicious circum- 
stances, Galileo believed he could with impunity break 
through the engagement he had made, or whether an 
instinctive hatred of that intellectual despotism and hypo- 
crisy which was weighing upon Europe became 
irrepressible in his breast, in 1632 he ventured 
on the publication of his* work, entitled " The 
System of the World," its object being to es- 
tablish the truth of the Copernican doctrine. It is composed 
which con- 
demns the 
Copernican 
system. 
The personal 
sentiments of 
the Popes. 
Galileo pub- 
lishes " The 
System of 
the World." 264 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. viii. 
in the dialogue form, three speakers being introduced, two 
of them true philosophers, the third an objector. Whatever 
may have been the personal opinion of the Pope, there can 
be no doubt that his duty rendered it necessary for him to 
act. Galileo was therefore again summoned befor the 
Inquisition, the Tuscan ambassador expostulating against 
the inhumanity of thus dealing with an old man in ill 
health. But no such considerations were listened to, and 
Galileo was compelled to appear at Rome, February, 1633, 
and surrender himself to the 1 oly Office. The Pope's 
nephew did all in his power to meet the necessity of the 
Church and yet to spare the dignity of science. He paid 
every attention to the personal comfort of the accused. 
When the time came for Galileo to be put into solitary 
confinement, he endeavoured to render the imprisonment 
as light as possible; but, finding it to prey upon the 
spirits of the aged philosopher, he, on his own responsi- 
bility, liberated him, permitting him to reside in the 
house of the Tuscan ambassador. The trial being com- 
pleted, Galileo was directed to appear, on June 
22nd, to hear his sentence. Clothed in the peni- 
tential garment, he received judgment. His 
heretical offences were specified, the pledges he 
had violated recited; he was declared to have brought upon 
himself strong suspicions of heresy, and to be liable to the 
penalties thereof; but from these he might be absolved if, 
with a sincere heart, he would abjure and curse his 
heresies. However, that his offences might not altogether 
go unpunished, and that he might be a warning to others, 
he was condemned to imprisonment during the pleasure of 
the Inquisition, his dialogues were prohibited by public 
edict, and for three years he was directed to recite, once a 
week, the seven penitential psalms. 
In his garment of disgrace the aged philosopher was 
now made to fall upon his knees before the 
assembled cardinals, and, with his hand on the 
Gospels, to make the required abjuration of the 
heliocentric doctrine, and to give the pledges demanded. 
He was then committed to the prison of the Inquisition; 
the persons who had been concerned in the printing of his 
book were punished; and the sentence and abjuration were 
Is again con- 
demned by 
the Inquisi- 
tion. 
His degrada- 
tion and pun- 
ishment. CH. VIII.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
265 
formally promulgated, and ordered to be publicly read in 
the universities. In Florence, the adherents of Galileo 
were ordered to attend in the Church of Santa Croce to 
witness his disgrace. After a short imprisonment in tho 
jail of the Inquisition, he was ordered to Arcetri, and 
confined in his own house. Here severe misfortunes 
awaited him; his favourite daughter died; he fell into a 
state of melancholy; an application that he might go to 
Florence for the sake of medical advice was refused. It 
became evident that there was an intention to treat him 
with inexorable severity. After five years of confinement, 
permission was reluctantly accorded to him to remove to 
Florence for his health; but still he was forbidden to 
leave his house, or receive his friends, or even to attend 
mass during Passion Week without a special order. The 
Grand-duke tried to abate this excessive severity, directing 
his ambassador at the court of Rome to plead the venerable 
age and ill nealth of the immortal convict, and that it was 
desirable to permit him to communicate certain scientific 
discoveries he had made to some other person, such as 
Father Castelli. Not even that was accorded unless the 
interview took place in the presence of an official of the 
Inquisition. Soon after Galileo was remanded to Arcetri. 
He spent the weary hours in composing his work on Local 
Motion, his friends causing it to be surreptitiously pub- 
lished in Holland. His infirmities and misfortunes now 
increased. In 1637 he became totally blind. 
In a letter he plaintively says, referring to this 
calamity, " So it pleases God, it shall therefore 
please me also." The exquisite refinement of ecclesiastical 
vengeance pursued him remorselessly, and now gave him per- 
mission to sec his friends when sight was no longer possible. 
It was at this period that an illustrious stranger, the author 
of " Paradise Lost," visited him. Shortly after he became 
totally deaf; but to the last he occupied himself with 
investigations respecting the force of percussion. He 
died, January, 1642, in the seventy-eighth year 
of his age, the prisoner of the Inquisition. 
True to its instincts, that infernal institution 
followed him beyond the grave, disputing his right to 
make a will, and denying him burial in consecrated 
The calami- 
ties of his old 
age. 
His death; 
is refused 
burial. 266 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. VIII. 
ground. The pope also prohibited his friends from raising 
to him a monument in the church of Santa Croce, in 
Florence. It was reserved for the nineteenth century to 
erect a suitable memorial in his honour. 
The result of the discoveries of Copernicus and Galileo 
was thus to bring the earth to her real position 
of subordination and to give sublimer views of 
the universe. Moestlin expresses correctly the 
state of the case when he says, " What is the 
earth and the ambient air with respect to the immensity 
of space ? It is a point, a punctule, or something, if there 
be any thing, less." It had been brought down to the 
condition of one of the members of a family-the solar 
system. And since it could be no longer regarded as 
holding all other bodies in submissive attendance upon it, 
dominating over their movements, there was reason to 
suppose that it would be found to maintain interconnex- 
ions with them in the attitude of an equal or subordinate; 
in other words, that general relations would be discovered 
expressive of the manner in which all the planetary 
members of the solar system sustain their movements 
round the sun. 
Among those whose minds were thoroughly occupied 
with this idea, Kepler stands pre-eminently 
conspicuous. It is not at all surprising, con- 
sidering the tone of thought of those times, 
that he regarded his subject with a certain mysticism. 
They who condemn his manner of thus viewing things do 
not duly appreciate the mental condition of the generation 
in which he lived. Whatever may be said on that point, 
no one can deny him a marvellous patience, and almost 
superhuman painstaking disposition. Guess after guess, 
hypothesis after hypothesis, he submitted to computations 
of infinite labour, and doubtless he speaks the melancholy 
truth when he says, " I considered and reflected till I was 
almost mad." Yet, in the midst of repeated disappoint- 
ment, he held, with a truly philosophical determination, 
firmly to the belief that there must bo some physical 
interconnexion among the parts of the solar system, and 
that it would certainly be displayed by the discovery of 
laws presiding over the distances, times, and velocities of 
Steady ad- 
vance of the 
Copernican 
system. 
Kepler, his 
mode of in- 
quiry. ch. vnr.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
267 
the planets. In these speculations he was immersed 
before the publications of Galileo. In his " Mysterium 
Cosmographicum " he says, "In the year 1595 I was 
brooding with the whole energy of my mind on the subject 
of the Copernican system." 
In 1609 he published his work entitled " On the Motion 
of Mars." This was the result of an attempt, 
upon which he had been engaged since the 
beginning of the century, to reconcile the motions of that 
planet to the hypothesis of eccentrics and epicycles. It 
ended in the abandonment of that hypothesis, and in the 
discovery of the two great laws now known as the first 
and second laws of Kepler. They are respectively that 
the orbits of the planets are elliptical, and that the areas 
described by a line drawn from the planet to the sun are 
proportional to the times. 
In 1617 he was aggin rewarded by the discovery which 
passes under, the designation of Kepler's third law: it 
expresses the relation of the mean distances of the planets 
from the sun with the times of their revolutions-" the 
squares of the periodic times are in the same proportion 
as the cubes of the distances." In his "Epitome of the 
Copernican Astronomy," published 1622, he showed that 
this law likewise holds good for the satellites of Jupiter as 
regards their primary. 
Humboldt, referring to the movement of Jupiter's satel- 
lites, remarks: "It was this which led Kepler, 
in his 'Harmonices Mundi,'to state, with the 
firm confidence and security of a German spirit 
of philosophical independence, to those whose opinions 
bore sway beyond the Alps, ' Eighty years have elapsed 
during which the doctrines of Copernicus regarding the 
movement of the earth and the immobility of the sun 
have been promulgated without hindrance, because it was 
deemed allowable to dispute concerning natural things 
and to elucidate the works of God, and, now that new 
testimony is discovered in proof of the truth of those 
doctrines-testimony which was not known to the spiritual 
judges, ye would prohibit the promulgation of the true 
system of the structure of the universe.' " 
Thus we see that the heliocentric theory, as proposed by 
Discovery of 
Kepler's laws- 
His remon- 
strance with 
the Church. 268 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. viii. 
Copernicus, was undergoing rectification. The circular 
movements admitted into it, and which had bur- 
dened it with infinite perplexity, though they 
had hitherto been recommended by an illusive 
simplicity, were demonstrated to be incorrect. They were 
replaced by the real ones, the elliptical. Kepler, as was 
his custom, ingenuously related his trials and disappoint- 
ments. Alluding on one occasion to this, he says: "My 
first error was that the path of a planet is a perfect circle 
-an opinion which was a more mischievous thief of my 
time, in proportion as it was supported by the authority of 
all philosophers, and apparently agreeable to metaphysics." 
The philosophical significance of Kepler's discoveries 
was not recognized by the ecclesiastical party at 
first. It is chiefly this, that they constitute a 
most important step to the establishment of the 
doctrine of the government of the world by law. 
But it was impossible to receive these laws without seeking 
for their cause. The result to which that search event- 
ually conducted not only explained their origin, but also 
showed that, as laws, they must, in the necessity of nature, 
exist. It may be truly said that the mathematical exposi- 
tion of. their origin constitutes the most splendid monu- 
ment of the intellectual power of man. 
Before the heliocentric theory could be developed and 
made to burnish a clear exposition of the solar system, 
which is obviously the first step to just views of the 
universe, it was necessary that the science of mechanics 
should be greatly improved-indeed, it might 
be said, created; for during those dreary ages 
following the establishment of Byzantine power, 
nothing had been done toward the acquisition of correct 
views either in statics or dynamics. It was impossible 
that Europe, in her lower states of life, could produce men 
capable of commencing where Archimedes had left off. 
She had to wait for the approach of her Age of Reason for 
that. 
The man of capacity at last came. Leonardo da Vinci 
was born a.d. 1452. The historian Hallam, 
enumerating some of his works, observes, " His 
knowledge was almost preternatural." Many of his writings 
Rectification 
of.the Coper- 
nican theory. 
The philo- 
sophical im- 
port of these 
laws. 
Necessity for 
mechanical 
science. 
Leonardo da 
Vinci. CH. VIII.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
269 
still remain unpublished. Long before Bacon, he laid 
down the maxim that experience and observation must be 
the foundation of all reasoning in science; that experiment 
is the only interpreter of nature, and is essential to the 
ascertainment of laws. Unlike Bacon, who was ignorant 
of mathematics, and even disparaged them, he points out 
their supreme advantage. Seven years after the voyage 
of Columbus, this great man-great at once as an artist, 
mathematician, and engineer-gave a clear exposition of 
the theory of forces obliquely applied on a lever; a few 
years later he was well acquainted with the earth's annual 
motion. Ue knew the laws of friction, subsequently 
demonstrated by Amontons, and the principle of virtual 
velocities ; he described the camera obscura before Baptista 
Porta, understood aerial perspective, the nature of coloured 
shadows, the use of the iris, and the effects of the duration 
of visible impressions on the eye. He wrote well on 
fortification, anticipated Castelli on hydraulics, occupied 
himself with the fall of bodies on the hypothesis of the 
earth's rotation, treated of the times of descent along 
inclined planes and circular arcs, and of the nature of 
machines. He considered, with singular clearness, respira- 
tion and combustion, and foreshadowed one of the great 
hypotheses of geology, the elevation of continents. 
This was the commencement of the movement in Natural 
Philosophy; it was followed up by the publica- 
tion of a work on the principles of equilibrium by 
Stevinus, 1586. In this the author established 
the fundamental property of the inclined plane, 
and solved, in a general manner, the cases of forces acting 
obliquely. Six years later Galileo's treatise on mechanics 
appeared, a fitting commencement of that career which, 
even had it not been adorned with such brilliant astro- 
nomical discoveries, would alone have conferred the most 
illustrious distinction upon him. 
The dynamical branch of Mechanics is that which is 
under most obligation to Galileo. To him is due 
the establishment of the three laws of motion. 
They are to the following effect, as given by 
Newton: 
(1.) Every body perseveres in its state of rest or of 
Stevinus con- 
tinues the 
movement in 
Natural Phi- 
losophy. 
Discovery of 
the laws of 
motion. 270 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[cir. vm. 
uniform motion in a right lino unless it is compelled to 
change that state by forces impressed thereon. 
(2.) The alteration of motion is ever proportional to the 
motive force impressed, and is made in the direction of the 
right line in which that force is impressed. 
(3.) To every action there is always opposed an equal 
reaction, or the mutual actions of two bodies upon each 
other are always equal, and directed to contrary parts. 
Up to this time it was the general idea that motion can 
only be maintained by a perpetual application, impression, 
or expenditure of force. Galileo himself for many years 
entertained that error, but in 1G38 he plainly states in his 
" Dialogues on Mechanics" the true law of the uniformity 
and perpetuity of motion. Such a view necessarily implies 
a correct and clear appreciation of the nature of resistances. 
No experimental motion that man can establish is unre- 
strained. But a perception of the uniformity and per- 
petuity of motion lies at the very basis of physical 
astronomy. With difficulty the true idea was attained. 
The same may be said as respects rectilinear direction, for 
many supposed that uniform motion can only take place in 
a circle. 
The establishment of the first law of motion was essen- 
tial to the discovery of the laws of falling bodies, 
in which the descent is made under the influence 
of a continually acting force, the velocity in- 
creasing in consequence thereof. Galileo saw 
clearly that, whether a body is moving slowly or swiftly, 
it will be equally affected by gravity. This principle was 
with difficulty admitted by some, who were disposed to 
believe that a swiftly moving body would not be as much 
affected by a constant force like gravity as one the motion 
of which is slower. With difficulty, also, was the old 
Aristotelian error eradicated that a heavy body falls more 
swiftly than a light one. 
The second law of motion was also established and illus- 
trated by Galileo. In his " Dialogues " he shows 
that a body projected horizontally must have, 
from what has been said, a uniform horizontal motion, but 
that it will also have compounded therewith an accelerated 
motion downward. Here again we perceive it is necessary 
Establish- 
ment of the 
first law of 
motion, 
and of the 
second, CH. VII1 J 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
271 
to retain a steady conception of this intermingling of 
forces without deterioration, and, though it may seem 
simple enough to us, there were some eminent men of 
those times who did not receive it as true. The special 
case offered by Galileo is theoretically connected with the 
paths of military projectiles, though in practice, since 
they move in a resisting medium, the air, their path 
is essentially different from the parabola. Curvilinear 
motions, which necessarily arise from the constant action 
of a central force, making a body depart from the recti- 
linear path it must otherwise take, are •chiefly of interest, 
as we shall presently find, in the movements of the 
celestial bodies. 
A thorough exposition of the third law of motion was 
left by Galileo to his successors, who had di- 
rected their attention especially io the deter- 
mination of the laws of impact. Indeed, the whole subject 
was illustrated and the truth of the three laws verified in 
many different cases by an examination of the phenomena 
of freely falling bodies, pendulums, projectiles, and the 
like. Among those who occupied themselves with such 
labours may be mentioned Torricelli, Castelli, Viviani, 
Borelli, Gassendi. Through the investigations of these, 
and other Italian, French, and English natural philo- 
sophers, the principles of Mechanics were solidly esta- 
blished, and a necessary preparation made for their appli- 
cation in astronomy. By this time every one had become 
ready to admit that the motion of the planetary bodies 
would find an explanation on these principles. 
The steps thus far taken for an explanation of the move- 
ments of the planets in curvilinear paths there- 
fore consisted in the removal of the old miscon- 
ception that for a body to continue its motion 
forward in a straight line a continued applica- 
tion of force is necessary, the first law of motion disposing 
of that error. In the next place, it was necessary that clear 
and distinct ideas should be held of the combination or com- 
position of forces, each continuing to exercise its influence 
without deterioration or diminution by the other. The time 
had now come for it to be shown that the perpetual move- 
ment of the planets is a consequence of the first law of 
and of the 
third. 
Application 
of Mechanics 
to the celes- 
tial motions. 272 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. viii. 
motion; their elliptic paths, such as had been determined 
by Kepler, a consequence of the second. Several persons 
almost simultaneously had been brought nearly to this 
conclusion without being able to solve the prpblem com- 
pletely. Thus Borelli, a.d. 1666, in treating of the mo- 
tions of Jupiter's satellites, distinctly shows how a cir- 
cular motion may arise under the influence of a central 
force; he even uses the illustration so frequently intro- 
duced of a stone whirled round in a sling. In the same 
year a paper was presented to the Royal Society by Mr. 
Hooke, " explicating the inflection of a direct motion into 
a circular by a supervening attractive principle." Huygens 
also, in his " Horologium Oscillatorium," had published 
some theorems on circular motions, but no one as yet had 
been able to show how elliptical orbits could, upon these 
principles, be accounted for, though very many had become 
satisfied that the solution of this problem would before 
long be given. 
In April, 1686, the " Principia" of Newton was presented 
to the Royal Society. This immortal work not 
only laid the foundation of Physical Astronomy, 
it also carried the structure thereof very far 
toward its completion. It unfolded the mechanical theory 
of universal gravitation upon the principle that all bodies 
tend to approach each other with forces directly as their 
masses, and. inversely as the squares of their dis ances. 
To the force producing this tendency of bodies to 
approach each other the designation of attraction of 
gravitation, or gravity, is given. All heavy bodies fall to 
the earth in such a way that the direction of their move- 
ment is toward its centre. Newton proved that 
this is the direction in which they must neces- 
sarily move under the influence of an attraction 
of every one of the particles of which the earth 
is composed, the attraction of a sphere taking effect as if 
all its particles were concentrated in its centre. 
Galileo had already examined the manner in which 
gravity acts upon bodies as an accelerating force, 
and had determined the connexion between the 
spaces of descent and the times. He illustrated such facts 
experimentally by the use of inclined planes, by the aid of 
Newton; pub- 
lication of the 
" Principia." 
Propounds 
the theory of 
universal 
gravitation. 
Preparation 
for Newton. CH. VIII.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
273 
which the velocity may be conveniently diminished with- 
out otherwise changing the nature of the result. He had 
also demonstrated that the earth's attraction acts equally 
on all bodies. This he proved by inclosing various sub- 
stances in hollow spheres, and showing that, when they 
were suspended by strings of equal length and made to 
vibrate, the time of oscillation was the same for all. On 
the invention of the air-pump, a more popular demonstra- 
tion of the same fact was given by the experiment proving 
that a gold coin and a feather fall equally swiftly in an 
exhausted receiver. Galileo had also proved, by experi- 
ments on the leaning tower of Pisa, that the velocity of 
falling bodies is independent of their weight. It was for 
these experiments that he was expelled from that city. 
Up to the time of Newton there were only very vague 
ideas that the earth s attraction extended to any consider- 
able distance. Newton was led to his discovery 
by reflecting that at all altitudes accessible to 
man, gravity appears to be undiminished, and 
that, therefore, it may possibly extend as far as the moon, 
and actually be the force which deflects her from a 
rectilinear path, and makes her revolve in an orbit round 
the earth. Admitting the truth of the law of the inverse 
squares, it is easy to compute whether the moon falls from 
the tangent she would describe if the earth ceased to act 
upon her by a quantity proportional to that observed in 
the case of bodies falling near the surface. In the first 
calculations made by Newton, he found that the moon is 
deflected from the tangent thirteen feet every minute ; but, 
if the hypothesis of gravitation were true, her deflection 
should be fifteen feet. It is no trifling evidence of the 
scrupulous science of this great philosopher that hereupon 
he put aside the subject for several years, without, however, 
abandoning it. At length, in 1682, learning the result of 
the measures of a degree which Picard had executed in 
France, and which affected the estimate of the magnitude 
of the earth he had used, and therefore the distance of the 
moon, he repeated the calculations with these improved 
data. It is related that " he went home, took out his old 
papers, and resumed his calculations. As they drew to a 
close, he became so much agitated that he was obliged to 
Extension of 
attraction or 
gravity. 274 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. VIII. 
desire a friend to finish them. The expected coincidence 
.was verified. And thus it appeared that the moon is re- 
tained in her orbit and made to revolve round the earth by 
the force of terrestrial gravity. 
These calculations were founded upon the hypothesis 
that the moon moves in a circular orbit with a uniform 
velocity. But in the " Principia " it was demonstrated that 
when a body moves under the influence of an attractive 
force, varying as the inverse square of the distances, it 
must describe a conic section, with a focus at the centre of 
force, and under the circumstances designated by Kepler's 
laws. Newton, therefore, did far more than 
furnish the expected solution of the problem of 
elliptical motion, and it was now apparent that the 
existence of those laws might have been foreseen, since 
they arise in the very necessities of the case. 
This point gained, it is obvious that the evidence was 
becoming unquestionable, that as the moon is 
made to revolve round the earth through the 
influence of an attractive force exercised by the 
earth, so likewise each of the planets is com- 
pelled to move in an elliptical orbit round the sun by his 
attractive force. The heliocentric theory, at this stage, 
was presenting physical evidence of its truth. It was also 
becoming plain that the force we call gravitation must 
be imputed to the sun, and to all the planetary bodies as 
well as to the earth. Accordingly, this was what Newton 
asserted in respect to all material substance. 
But it is a necessary consequence of this theory that 
many apparent irregularities and perturbations 
of the bodies of the solar system must take place 
by reason of the attraction of each upon all the others. If 
there were but one planet revolving round the sun, its 
orbit might be a mathematically perfect ellipse ; but the 
moment a second is introduced, perturbation takes place 
in a variable manner as the bodies change their positions 
or distances. An excessive complication must therefore 
be the consequence when the number of bodies is great. 
Indeed, so insurmountable would these difficulties be, that 
the mathematical solution of the general problem of the 
solor system would be hopeless were it not for the fact that 
The cause of 
Kepler's laws. 
Resistless 
spread of the 
heliocentric 
theory. 
Perturbations 
accounted for. CH. VIII.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
275 
the planetary bodies are at very great distances from one 
another, and their masses, compared with the mass of the 
sun, very small. 
Taking the theory of gravitation in its universal ac- 
ceptation, Newton, in a manner that looks as if 
he were divinely inspired, succeeded in demon- 
strating the chief inequalities of the moon and 
planetary bodies; in determining the figure of the earth 
-that it is not a perfect sphere, but an oblate spheroid; 
in explaining the precession of the equinoxes and the tides 
of the ocean. To such perfection have succeeding mathe- 
maticians brought his theory, that the most complicated 
movements and irregularities of the solar system have been 
satisfactorily accounted for and reduced to computation. 
Trusting to these principles, not only has it been found 
possible, knowing the mass of a given planet, to determine 
the perturbations it may produce in adjacent ones, but 
even the inverse problem has been successfully attacked, 
and from the perturbations the place and mass of a hitherto 
unknown planet determined. It was thus that, from the 
deviations of Uranus from his theoretical place, the neces- 
sary existence of an exterior disturbing planet was fore- 
seen, and our times have witnessed the intellectual triumph 
of mathematicians directing where the telescope should 
point in order to find a new planet. The discovery of 
Neptune was thus accomplished. 
It adds to our admiration of the wonderful intellectual 
powers of Newton to know that the mathematical instru- 
ment he used was the ancient geometry. Not until 
subsequently was the analytical method resorted to and 
cultivated. This method possesses the inappreciable ad- 
vantage of relieving us from the mental strain which 
would otherwise oppress us. It has been truly said that 
the symbols think for us. Mr. Whewell observes: "No 
one for sixty years after the publication of tho 
' Principia,' and, with Newton's methods, no one 
up to the present day, has added any thing of 
value to his deductions. We know that he calculated all 
the principal lunar inequalities ; in many of the cases he 
has given us his processes, in others only his results. But 
who has presented in his beautiful geometry or deduced 
Results of the 
theory of gra- 
vitation. 
The "Princi- 
pia;" its in- 
comparable 
merit. 276 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. vin. 
from his simple principles any of the inequalities which he 
left untouched? The ponderous instrument of synthesis, 
so effective in his hands, has never since been grasped by 
any one who could use it for such purposes ; and we gaze 
at it with admiring curiosity, as on some gigantic imple- 
ment of war which stands idle among the memorials of 
ancient days, and makes us wonder what manner of man 
he was who could wield as a weapon what we can hardly 
lift as a burden." 
Such was the physical meaning of Newton's discoveries; 
their philosophical meaning was of even greater 
importance. The paramount truth was resist- 
lessly coming into prominence-that the govern- 
ment of the solar system is under necessity, and 
that it is mathematically impossible for the laws presiding 
over it to be other than they are. 
Thus it appears that the law of gravitation holds good 
throughout our solar system. But the heliocentric theory, 
in its most general acceptation, considers every fixed star 
as being, like the sun, a planetary centre. Hence, 
before it can be asserted that the theory of 
gravitation is truly universal, it must be shown 
that it holds good in the case of all other such 
systems. The evidence offered in proof of this is altogether 
based upon the observations of the two Herschels on the 
motions of the double stars. Among the stars there are 
some in such close proximity to each other that Sir W. 
Herschel was led to suppose it would be possible, from 
observations upon them, to ascertain the stellar parallax. 
While engaged in these inquiries, which occupied him for 
many years, he discovered that many of these stars are not 
merely optically in proximity, as being accidentally in the 
same line of view, but are actually connected physically, 
revolving round each other in regular orbits. The motion 
of these double suns is, however, in many instances so 
slow as to require many years for a satisfactory deter- 
mination. Sir J. Herschel therefore continued the obser- 
vations of his father, and with other mathe- 
maticians. investigated the characteristics of 
these motions. The first instance in which the true elliptic 
elements of the orbit of a binary star were determined 
Philosophical 
import of 
Newton's 
discoveries. 
Unity of idea 
in the con- 
struction of 
the universe. 
Gravitation of 
double stars. CH. VIII.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OB BEASON. 
277 
was given by M. Savary in the case of £ Ursa) Majoris, 
indicating an elliptic orbit of 58J- years. But the period 
of others, since determined, is very much longer ; thus, in 
cr Coronas, it is, according to Mr. Hind, more than 736 
years. From the fact that the orbits in which these stars 
move round each other are elliptical, it necessarily follows 
that the law of gravitation, according to the inverse 
square, holds good in them. Considering the prodigious 
distances of these bodies, and the departure, as regaids 
structure of the systems to which they belong, from the 
conditions obtaining in our unisolar system, we may per- 
haps assert the prevalence of the law of gravitation 
throughout the universe. 
If, in association with these double suns-sometimes, 
indeed, they are triple, and occasionally, as in the case of 
c Lyra), quadruple-there are opaque planetary globes, 
such solar systems differ from ours not only in having 
several suns instead of a single one, but, since the light 
emitted is often of different tints, one star shining 
with a crimson and another with a blue light, 
the colours not always complementary to one 
another, a wonderful variety of phenomena must be the 
result, especially in their organic creations; for organic 
forms, both vegetable and animal, primarily depend on the 
relations of coloured light. How varied the effects where 
there are double, triple, or even quadruple sunrises, and 
sunsets, and noons, and the hours marked off by red, or 
purple, or blue tints. 
It is impossible to look back on the history of the theory 
of gravitation without sentiments of admira- 
tion and, indeed, of pride. How felicitous 
has been the manner in which have been ex- 
plained the inequalities of a satellite like the moon under 
the disturbing influence of the sun; the correspondence 
between the calculated and observed quantities of these 
inequalities ; the extension of the doctrine to satellites of 
other planets, as those of Jupiter; the determination of 
the earth's figure; the causes of the tides; the different 
force of gravity in different latitudes, and a multitude 
of other phenomena. The theory asserted for itself that 
authority which belongs to intrinsic truth. It enabled 
Coloured light 
of double 
stars. 
Grandeur of 
Neu ton's 
discoveries. 278 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. VIII. 
mathematicians to point out facts not yet observed, and 
to foretell future events. 
And yet how hai d it is for truth to force its way when 
bigotry resists. In 1771, the University of Salamanca, 
being urged to teach physical science, refused, and this 
was its answer; "Newton teaches nothing that would 
make a good logician or metaphysician ; and Gassendi and 
Descartes do not agree so well with revealed truth as 
Aristotle does." 
Among the interesting results of Newton's theory may 
be mentioned its application to secular inequalities, such 
as the acceleration of the moon's mean motion, 
that satellite moving somewhat quicker now 
than she did ages ago. Laplace detected the cause of this 
phenomenon in the influence of the sun upon the moon, 
combined with the secular variation of the eccentricity of 
the earth's orbit. Moreover, he showed that this secular 
inequality of the motion of the moon is periodical, that it 
requires millions of years to re-establish itself, and that, 
after an almost inconceivable time, the acceleration be- 
comes a retardation. In like manner, the same mathe- 
matician explained the observed acceleration in the mean 
motion of Jupiter, and retardation of that of Saturn, as 
arising from the mutual attraction of the two planets, and 
showed that this secular inequality has a period of 929£ 
years. With such slow movements may be mentioned the 
diminution of the obliquity of the ecliptic, which has 
been proceeding for ages, but which will reach a limit and 
then commence to increase. These secular motions ought 
not to be without interest to those who suffer themselves 
to adopt the patristic chronology of the world, who suppose 
that the earth is only six thousand years old, and that it 
will come to an end in about one thousand years more. 
They must accept, along with that preposterous delusion, 
its necessary consequences, that the universe has been so 
badly constructed, and is such a rickety machine, that it 
can not hold together long enough for some of its wheels 
to begin to revolve. Astronomy offers us many illustrations 
of the scale upon which the world is constructed as to 
time, as well as that upon which it is constructed as to space. 
From what has been said, the conclusion forces itself 
The earth in 
time. CH. VI1I."| 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OE REASON. 
279 
upon us that the general laws obtaining as respects the 
earth, hold good likewise for all other parts 
of the universe; a conclusion sustained not 
only by the mechanism of such motions as 
we have been considering, but also by all evidence of a 
physical kind accessible to us. The circumstances under 
which our sun emits light and heat, and thereby vivifies 
his attendant planets, are indisputably the same as those 
obtaining in the case of every fixed star, each of which is 
a self-luminous sun. There is thus an aspect of homo- 
geneousness in the structure of all systems in the universe, 
which, though some have spoken of it as if it were the 
indication of a uniformity of plan, and therefore the evi- 
dence of a primordial idea, is rather to be looked upon as 
the proof of unchangeable and resistless law. 
What, therefore, now becomes of the doctrine authorita- 
tively put forth, and made to hold its sway for 
so many centuries, that the earth is not only the 
central-body of the universe, but in reality, the 
most noble body in it; that the sun and other stars are 
mere ministers or attendants for human use? In the 
place of these utterly erroneous and unworthy views, far 
different conceptions must be substituted. Man, when he 
looks upon the countless multitude of stars-when he 
reflects that all he sees is only a little portion of those 
which exist, yet that each is a light and life-giving sun to 
multitudes of opaque, and therefore, invisible worlds- 
when he considers the enormous size of these various 
bodies and their immeasurable distance from one another, 
may form an estimate of the scale on which the world is 
constructed, and learn therefrom his own unspeakable 
insignificance. 
In one beat of a pendulum a ray of light would pass 
eight times round the circumference of the earth. 
Thus we may take the sunbeam as a carpenter 
does his measuring-rule; it serves as a gauge in 
our measurements of the universe. A sunbeam would re- 
quire more than three years to reach us from a Centauri ; 
nine and a quarter years from 61 Cygni; from a Lyra? 
twelve years. These are stars whose parallax has been 
determined, and which are therefore nearest to us. 
Dominion of 
law in the 
universe. 
Ruin of an- 
thropocentric 
ideas. 
Aids for mea- 
surements in 
the universe. 280 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. viii. 
Of suns visible to the naked eye there are about 8000, 
but the telescope can discern in the Milky Way more than 
eighteen millions, the number visible increasing as more 
powerful instruments are used. Our cluster of 
stars is a disc divided into two branches at about 
one-third of its length. In the midst of innumerable com- 
peers and superiors, the sun is not far from the place 
of bifurcation, and at about the middle of the thickness. 
Outside the plane of the Milky Way the appearance would 
be like a ring, and, still farther off, a nebulous disc. 
From the contemplation of isolated suns and congre- 
gated clusters we are led to the stupendous pro- 
blem of the distribution of matter and force 
in space, and to the interpretation of those 
apparent phantoms of self-luminous vapour, circular and 
elliptic discs, spiral wreaths, rings and fans, whose edges 
fade doubtfully away, twins and triplets of phosphorescent 
haze connected together by threads of light and grotesque 
forms of indescribable complexity. Perhaps in some of 
these gleaming apparitions wo see the genesis, in some the 
melting away of universes. There is nothing motionless 
in the sky. In every direction vast transformations are 
occurring, yet all things proclaim the eternity of matter 
and the undiminished perpetuity of force. 
The theory of gravitation, as delivered by Newton, thus 
leads us to a knowledge of the mathematical 
construction of the solar system, and inferen- 
tially likewise to that of other systems; but it 
leaves without explanation a large number of singular 
facts. It explains the existing conditions of equilibrium 
of the heavenly bodies, but it tells us nothing of their 
genesis ; or, at the best, in that particular it falls back on 
the simple fiat of God. 
The facts here referred to conduct us, however, to 
another and far higher point of view. Some of 
them, as enumerated by Laplace, are the follow- 
ing :-1. All the planets and their satellites move 
in ellipses of such small eccentricity that they are nearly 
circles; 2. The movements of the planets are in the same 
direction and nearly in the same plane ; 3. The movements 
of the satellites are in the same direction as those of the 
Clusters of 
stars. 
Distribution 
of matter and 
force in space. 
Limit of the 
theory of 
gravitation. 
Phenomena of 
the solar sys- 
tem. CH. VIII.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
281 
planets; 4. The movements of rotation of these various 
bodies and of the sun are in the same direction as their 
orbitual motions, and in planes little different. 
The nebular hypothesis requires us to admit that all 
the ponderable material now constituting the 
various bodies of the solar system once extended 
in a rarefied or nebulous and rotating condition, beyond 
the confines of the most distant planet. That postulate 
granted, the structure and present condition of the system 
may be mathematically deduced. 
For, as the vast rotating spheroid lost its heat by 
radiation, it contracted, and its velocity of rotation was 
necessarily increased ; and thus were left behind from its 
equatorial zone, by reason of the centrifugal force, rotating 
rings, the same result occurring periodically again and 
again. These rings must lie all in one plane. They 
might break, collapsing into one rotating spheroid, a 
planet; or into many, asteroids; or maintain the ring- 
like form. From the larger of these secondary rotating 
spheroids other rings might be thrown off, as from the 
parent mass ; these, in their turn breaking and becoming 
spheroids, constitute satellites, whose movements corre- 
spond to those of their primaries. 
We might, indeed, advance a step farther, and show 
how, by the radiation of heat from a motionless nebula, a 
movement of rotation in a determinate direction could be 
engendered, and that upon these principles, the existence 
of a nebulous matter admitted, and the present laws and 
forces of nature regarded as having been unchanged, the 
manner of origin of the solar system might be deduced, and 
fill those singular facts previously alluded to explained; 
and not only so, but there is spontaneously suggested tho 
cause of many minor peculiarities not yet mentioned. 
For it follows from the nebular hypothesis that tho 
large planets should rotate rapidly, and tho 
small ones more slowly ; that the outer planets 
and satellites should be larger than the inner ones. Of 
the satellites of Saturn, the largest is the outermost; 
of those of Jupiter, the largest is the outermost save one. 
Of the planets themselves, Jupiter is the largest, and 
outermost save three. These cannot be coincidences, but 
The nebular 
hypothesis. 
Facts account- 
ed for by it. 282 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[CH. VIII. 
must be due to law. The number of satellites of each 
planet, with the doubtful exception of Venus, might be 
foreseen, the presence of satellites and their number being 
determined by the centrifugal force of their primary. The 
hypothesis also points out the time of revolution of the 
planets in their orbits, and of the satellites in theirs; it 
furnishes a reason for the genesis and existence of Saturn's 
rings, which are indeed its remaining witnesses-their 
position and movements answering to its requirements. It 
accounts for the physical state of the sun, and also for the 
physical state of the earth and moon as indicated by their 
geology. It is also not without furnishing reasons for 
the existence of comets as integrant members of our sys- 
tem ; for their singular physical state; for the eccentric, 
almost parabolic orbits of so many of them; for the fact 
that there are as many of them with a retrograde as with 
a direct motion; for their more frequent occurrence about 
the axis of the solar system than in its plane; and for 
their general antithetical relations to planets. 
If these and very many other apparently disconnected 
facts follow as the mechanical necessities of 
the admission of a gravitating nebula-a very 
simple postulate-it becomes important to ascer- 
tain whether, by actual observation, the existence of such 
material forms may be demonstrated in any part of the 
universe. It was the actual telescopic observation of such 
objects that led Herschel to the nebular hypothesis. He 
concluded that there are two distinct kinds of nebulae, 
one consisting of clusters of stars so remote that they 
could not be discerned individually, but that these may 
be discerned by sufficient telescopic power; the other 
being of a hazy nature, and incapable of resolution. 
Nebulae do not occur at random in the heavens: the 
regions poorest in stars are richest in them; they are 
few in the plane of our sidereal system, but numerous 
about its poles, in that respect answering to the occurrence 
of comets in the solar system. The resolution of many of 
these hazy patches of light into stars by no means disproves 
the truly nebulous condition of many others. 
Fortunately, however, other means than, telescopic 
observation for the settlement of this question are avail- 
Whether ne- 
bulfe actually 
exist. CH. VIII.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
283 
able. In 1846, it was discovered by the author of this 
book that the spectrum of an ignited solid is continuous, 
that is, has neither dark nor bright fixed lines. Fraunhofer 
had previously made known that the spectrum of ignited 
gases is discontinuous. Here, then, is the means of de- 
termining whether the light emitted by a given nebula 
comes from an incandescent gas, or from a congeries of 
ignited solids, stars, or suns. If its spectrum be discon- 
tinuous, it is a true nebula or gas; if continuous, a 
congeries of stars. 
In 1864, Mr. Huggins made this examination in the case 
of a nebula in the constellation Draco. It proved to be 
gaseous. 
Subsequent observations have shown that of sixty 
nebula? examined, nineteen give discontinuous or gaseous 
spectra ; the remainder continuous ones. 
It may, therefore, be admitted that physical evidence 
has at length been obtained, demonstrating the existence 
of vast masses of matter in a gaseous condition, and at a 
temperature of incandescence. The hypothesis of Laplace 
has thus a firm basis. 
Notwithstanding the great authority of the astronomers 
who introduced it, the nebular hypothesis has 
encountered much adverse criticism; not so 
much, however, from its obvious scientific defects, 
such as its inability to deal with the cases of Uranus and 
Neptune, as from moral and extraneous considerations. 
There is a line in Aristophanes which points out precisely 
the difficulty: 
'O Zeus ovk &v, aA.\' out' aurou △Tros ruui /3a<n\evaiv. 
A reluctance to acknowledge the presidency of law in 
the existing constitution and movements of the solar 
system has been yielded only to be succeeded by a reluc- 
tance to acknowledge the presidency of law in its genesis. 
And yet whoever will reflect on the subject will bo drawn 
to the conclusion that the principle involved was really 
settled by Newton in his " Principia "-that is to say, when 
it became geometrically certain that Kepler's laws originate 
in a mathematical necessity. 
As matters now stand, the nebular hypothesis may be 
Opposition to 
the nebular 
hypothesis. 284 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[cn. vm. 
regarded as the first superficial, and therefore imperfect, 
glimpse of a series of the grandest problems soon to present 
themselves for solution-the mathematical distribution of 
matter and force in space, and the variations of that dis- 
tribution in time. 
Such is the history of the dispute respecting the position 
of the earth in the universe. Not without reason, therefore, 
have I assigned the pontificate of Nicolas V. as 
the true close of the intellectual dominion of the 
Church. From that time the sceptre had passed 
into another hand. In all directions Nature was 
investigated, in all directions new methods of examina- 
tion were yielding unexpected and beautiful results. On 
the ruins of its ivy-grown cathedrals, Ecclesiasticism, 
surprised and blinded by the breaking day, sat solemnly 
blinking at the light and life about it, absorbed in the 
recollection of the night that had passed, dreaming of new 
phantoms and delusions in its wished-for return, and 
vindictively striking its talons at any derisive assailant 
who incautiously approached too near. I have not space 
to describe the scientific activity displayed in all directions; 
to do it justice would demand volumes. Mathematics, 
physics, chemistry, anatomy, medicine, and all the many 
branches of human knowledge received an impulse. 
Simultaneously with the great events I have been relating, 
every one of these branches was advancing. 
Vieta made the capital improvement of using 
letters as general symbols in algebra, and applied 
that science to geometry. Tycho, emulating 
Hipparchus of old, made a new catalogue of the stars; he 
determined that comets are beyond the moon, and that 
they cut the crystalline firmament of theology in all 
directions. Gilbert wrote his admirable book on the 
magnet; Gesner led the way to zoology, taking it up at 
the point to which the Saracens had continued Aristotle, 
by the publication of his work on the history of animals; 
Belon at the same time, 1540, was occupied with fishes 
and birds. Fallopius and Eustachius, Arantius and Varo- 
lius, were immortalizing themselves by their dissections: 
the former reminding us of the times of Ptolemy Phila- 
delphus, when he naively confesses " the Duke of Tuscany 
The intellec- 
tual ruin of 
ecclesias- 
ticism. 
Wonderful 
development 
of scientific 
activity. CH. vni.1 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
285 
was obliging enough to send living criminals to us, whom, 
we killed and then dissected." Piccolomini laid the 
foundations of general anatomy by his description of 
cellular tissue. Coiter created pathological anatomy, 
Prosper Alpinus diagnosis, Plater the classification of 
disease, and Ambrose Pare modern surgery. Such were 
the occupations and prospect of science at the close of the 
sixteenth century. 
Scarcely had the seventeenth opened when it became 
obvious that the movement, far from slacken- 
ing, was gathering force. It was the age of 
Galileo. Descartes introduced the theory of an 
ether and vortices; but, hearing of the troubles that had 
befallen Galileo, was on the point of burning his papers. 
Several years later, he was restrained from publishing his 
" Cosmos" " from a pious desire not to treat irreverently the 
decrees of the holy chair against the planetary movement 
of the earth." This was in 1633, when the report of the 
sentence of the Inquisition was made known. He also 
developed Vieta's idea of the application of algebra to 
geometry, and brought into prominence the mechanical 
fact, destined to an important application in physical 
astronomy, that every curvilinear deflection is due to a 
controlling force. To him, among Europeans, also is 
to be attributed the true explanation of the rise of water 
in an exhausted space-" the weight of the water counter- 
balances that of the air." Napier perfected his great and 
useful invention of logarithms. Hydraulics was created 
by Castelli; hydrostatics by Torricelli, who also discovered 
barometric variations : both were pupils of Galileo. Fabri- 
cius ab Aquapendente discovered the valves in the veins; 
Servetus almost detected the course of the circulation. 
Harvey completed what Servetus had left unfinished, and 
described the entire course of the blood; Asellius dis- 
covered the lacteals; Van Helmont introduced the theory 
of vitality into medicine, and made the practice or art 
thereof consist in regulating by diet the Archcus, whose 
seat he affirmed to be in the stomach. In strong contrast 
with this phantasy, Sanctorio laid the foundation of modern 
physiology by introducing the balance into its inquiries. 
Pascal, by a decisive experiment, establishcd*the doctrines 
The movement 
becomes still 
more vigorous. 286 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. viiJ. 
of the weight and pressure of the air, and published some 
of the most philosophical treatises of the age: "his Pro- 
vincial Letters did more than any thing to ruin the name 
of the Jesuits." The contagion spread to the lawyers : in 
1672 appeared Puffendorfs work on the "Law of Nature 
and Nations." The phlogistic theory, introduced by 
Beecher and perfected by Stahl, created chemistry, in 
contradistinction to the Arabian alchemy. Otto Guericke 
invented the air-pump, Boyle improved it; Hooke, among 
many other discoveries, determined the essential conditions 
of combustion. Far above all contemporaries in mathe- 
matical learning and experimental skill, Newton was al- 
ready turning his attention to the "reflexions, refractions, 
inflexions and colours of light," and introducing the idea 
of attractions into physics. Bay led the way to comparative 
anatomy in his synopsis of quadrupeds; Swammerdam im- 
] roved the art of dissection, applying it to the general 
history of insects ; Lister published his synopsis of shells ; 
Tournefort and Malpighi devoted themselves to botany; 
Grew discovered the sexes of plants; Brown the quinary 
arrangement of flowers. Geology began to break loose 
from the trammels of theology, and Burnet's Sacred theory 
of the Earth could not maintain its ground against more 
critical investigations. The Arabian doctrine of the move- 
ment of the crust of the earth began to find supporters. 
Lister ascertained the continuity of strata over great 
distances; Woodward improved mineralogy; the great 
mathematician, Leibnitz, the rival of Newton, propounded 
the doctrine of the gradual cooling of the globe, the de- 
scent of its strata by fracture, the deposit of sedimentary 
rocks, and their induration. Among physicians, Willis 
devoted himself to the study of the brain, traced the course 
of the nerves and classified them, and introduced the 
doctrine of the localization of functions in the brain. 
Malpighi and Lewenhoeck applied the microscope as an 
aid to anatomy ; the latter discovered spermatozoa. Graaf 
studied the function of the generative organs; Borelli 
attempted the application of mathematics to muscular 
movement;' Duverney wrote on the sense of hearing, 
Mayow on respiration; Ruysch perfected the art of injec- 
tion, and improved minute anatomy. ch. vin.J 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
287 
But it is in vain to go on. The remainder of these 
pages would be consumed in an attempt to record the 
names of the cultivators of science, every year increasing 
in number, and to do justice to their works. From the 
darkness that had for so many ages enveloped it, the 
human mind at last emerged into light. The intellectual 
motes were dancing in the sunbeam, and making it visible 
in every direction. 
Despairing thus to do justice to individual philosophers 
and individual discoveries, there is, however, 
one most important event to which I must 
prominently allude. It is the foundation of 
learned societies. Imitating the examples of the Academia 
Secretorum Naturae, instituted at Naples, 1560, by Baptista 
Porta, and of the Lyncean Academy, founded 1603 by 
Prince Frederic Cesi at Rome for the promotion of natural 
philosophy, the Accademia del Cimen to was established 
at Florence, 1637; the Royal Society of London, 1645 ; and 
the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris, 1666. 
Arrived at the close of the description of this first great 
victory of scientific truth over authority and 
tradition, it is well for us to pause and look 
back on the progress of man from the erroneous 
inferences of his social infancy to the true conclusions of 
his maturity-from anthropocentric ideas, which in all 
nations and parts of the world have ever been the same, 
to the discovery of his true position and insignificance in 
the universe. 
We are placed in a world surrounded with illusions. The 
daily events of our life and the objects before us tend 
equally to deceive us. If we cast our eyes on the earth, 
it seems to be made only to minister to our pleasures or 
our wants. If we direct our attention to the 
sky, that blue and crystalline dome, the edges 
of which rest on the flat land or the sea-a 
glacial vault, which Empedocles thought was frozen air, 
and the fathers of the Church the lowest of the seven 
concentric strata of heavens-we find a thousand reasons 
for believing that whatever it covers was intended by 
some Good Being for our use. Of the various living 
Institution of 
scientific 
societies. 
Review of an- 
thropocentric 
philosophy. 
The sky- 
apparent 
nature of. 288 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. viii. 
things placed with us beneath it, all are of an inferior 
grade when compared with ourselves, and all seem intended 
for us. The conclusions at which we thus arrive are 
strengthened by a principle of vanity implanted in our 
hearts, unceasingly suggesting to us that this pleasant 
abode must have been prepared for our reception, and 
furnished and ornamented expressly for our use. 
But reflexion teaches us that we came not hither of 
ourselves, and that doubtless the same Good Being who pre- 
pared this delightful abode brought us as tenants 
into it. From the fact of our own existence, wo 
are insensibly and inevitably led to infer the 
existence of God; from the favourable circumstances in 
which our lot is cast, we gather evidences of His goodness ; 
and in the energy which natural phenomena often display, 
we see the tokens of His power. What other explanation 
can we give of tempests in the sea or lightning in tho 
heavens? Moreover, it is only during a part of our time- 
our waking hours-that we are brought into relation with 
these material things; for the rest, when we are asleep, a 
state in which we spend more than a third part of our 
life, we are introduced to other scenery, other beings, 
another world. From these we gather that 
there are agents of an .intangible and more 
ethereal mould, perhaps of the nature of Him who 
brought us here, perhaps His subordinates and messen- 
gers. Whence do they issue and whither do they go? Is 
there not beyond the sky above us a region to which 
our imperfect vision cannot penetrate, but which may bo 
accessible to them from the peaks of elevated mountains, 
or to be reached only with wings? And thus we picture 
to ourselves a heaven shut off from earth, with all its sins 
and cares, by the untroubled and impenetrable sky-a 
place of light and repose, its pavement illuminated by tho 
sun and countless other shining bodies-a place of peace, 
but also a place of power. 
Still more, a thousand facts of our life teach us that we are 
exposed to influences of an evil nature as well 
as to those that are good. How often, in our 
dreams, does it happen that we are terror-stricken by the 
approach of hideous forms, faces of fearful appearance, 
Anthropo- 
centric ideas 
of God. 
Of the world 
and heaven. 
Of evil beings 
and hell. ch. vnr.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
289 
from which, we vainly struggle to escape. Is it not 
natural for us to attribute the evil we see in the world to 
these as the good to those ? and, since we can not conceive 
of the existence of beings without assigning them a place, 
where shall we find for these malignant spirits a habita- 
tion ? Is it not in the dark region beneath the ground, 
far away from the realms of light-a region from which, 
through the volcano, smoke and burning sulphur are cast 
into this upper world-a place of everlasting fire and 
darkness, whose portals are in caves and solitudes of 
unutterable gloom? 
Placed thus on the boundary between such onnosina: 
powers, man is the sport of circumstances, sus- 
tained by beings who seek his happiness, and 
tempted by those who desire his destruction. Is it at 
all surprising that, guided by such obvious thoughts and 
simple reasonings, he becomes superstitious? that he sees 
in every shadow a spirit, and peoples every solitary place 
with invisibles ? that he casts a longing look to the good 
beings who can protect him, seeking to invoke their aid 
by entreaties, and to propitiate their help by free-will 
sacrifices of things that are pleasant and valuable? Open 
to such influences himself, why should he not believe in 
the efficacy of prayer? His conscious superiority lends 
force to his suspicion that he is a worthy object for the 
opposing powers to contend for, a conclusion verified by 
the inward strifes he feels, as well as by the trials of life to 
which he is exposed. 
But dreams at night, and sometimes visions by day, 
serve to enforce the conclusion that life is not 
limited to our transitory continuance here, but 
endures hereafter, flow often at night do we 
see the well-known forms of those who have been dead a 
long time appearing before us with surprising vividness, 
and hear their almost forgotten voices ? These are admo- 
nitions full of the most solemn suggestions, profoundly 
indicating to us that the dead still continue to exist, and 
that what has happened to them must also happen to 
us, and we too are destined for immortality. Perhaps 
involuntarily wo associate these conclusions with others, 
expecting that in a future life good men will enjoy the 
Of man, the 
supernatural. 
His immor- 
tality and 
future life. 290 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[CH. VIII. 
society of good beings like themselves, the evil being 
dismissed to the realms of darkness and despair. And, as 
human experience teaches us that a final allotment can 
only be made by some superior power, we expect that He 
who w'as our Creator shall also be our Judge; that there 
is an appointed time and a bar at which the final destina- 
tion of all who have lived shall be ascertained, and eternal 
justice measure out its punishments and rew'ards. 
From these considerations there arises an inducement 
for us to lead a virtuous life, abstaining from 
wickedness and wrong; to set apart a body of 
men who may mediate for us, and teach us by precept and 
example the course it is best for us to pursue; to consecrate 
places, such as groves or temples, as the more immediate 
habitations of the Deity to which we may resort. 
Such are the leading doctrines of Natural Theology of 
primitive man both in the old and new continent. They 
arise from the operations of the human mind considering 
the fitness of things. 
Just as we have in Comparative Anatomy the structure 
of different animals examined, and their identities and 
differences set forth, thereby establishing their true rela- 
tions ; just as we have in Comparative Physiology the 
functions of one organic being compared with those of 
another, to the end that we may therefrom deduce their 
proper connexions, so, from the mythologies of 
various races of men, a Comparative Theology 
may be constructed. Through such a science 
alone can correct conclusions be arrived at respecting this, 
the most important of the intellectual operations of man- 
the definite process of his religious opinions. But it must 
be borne in mind that Comparative Theology illustrates 
the result or effect of Lae phase of life, and is not its 
cause. 
As man advances in knowledge he discovers that of his 
primitive conclusions some are doubtless erro- 
neous, and many require better evidence to 
establish their truth incontestably. A more 
prolonged and attentive examination gives him reason, in 
some of the most important particulars, to change his 
mind. He finds that the earth on which he lives is not a 
Inducements 
to morality. 
Course of 
Comparative 
Theology. 
Corrections of 
anthropocen- 
tric ideas. CH. VIII.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
291 
floor covered over with a starry dome, as he once supposed, 
but a globe self-balanced m space. The crystalline vault, 
or sky, is recognized to be an optical deception. It rests 
upon the earth nowhere, and is no boundary at all; there 
is no kingdom of happiness above it, but a limitless space, 
adorned with planets and suns. Instead of a realm of 
darkness and woe in the depths on the other side of the 
earth, men like ourselves are found there, pursuing, in 
Australia and New Zealand, the innocent pleasures and 
encountering the ordinary labours of life. By the aid of 
such lights as knowledge gradually supplies, he comes at 
last to discover that this, our terrestrial habitation, instead 
of being a chosen, a sacred spot, is only one of similar 
myriads, more numerous than the sands of the sea, and 
prodigally scattered through space. 
Never, perhaps, was a more important truth discovered. 
All the visible evidence was in direct opposition 
to it. The earth, which had hitherto seemed to 
be the very emblem of immobility, was demon- 
strated to be carried with a double motion; with 
prodigious velocity, through the heavens; the rising and 
setting of the stars were proved to be an illusion; 
and, as respects the size of the globe, it was 
shown to be altogether insignificant when com- 
pared with multitudes of other neighbouring ones-in- 
significant doubly by reason of its actual dimensions, and 
by the countless numbers of others like it in form, and 
doubtless, like it, the abodes of many orders of life. 
And so it turns out that our earth is a globe of about 
twenty-five thousand miles in circumference. The voyager 
who circumnavigates it spends no inconsiderable portion 
of his life in accomplishing his task. It moves round the 
sun in a year, but at so great a distance from that 
luminary that, if seen from him, it would look like a little 
spark traversing the sky. It is thus recognized as one of 
the members of the solar system. Other similar 
bodies, some of which are of larger, some of 
smaller dimensions, perform similar revolutions round the 
sun in appropriate periods of time. 
If the magnitude of the earth be too great for us to 
attach to it any definite conception, what shall we say of 
Consequence 
of discovering 
the foiin of 
the earth. 
Detection of 
its insig- 
nificance. 
Other solar 
bodies. 292 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. vm. 
the compass of the solar system? There is a defect in 
the human intellect which, incapacitates us for 
comprehending distances and periods that arc 
either too colossal or too minute. We gain no clearer 
insight into the matter when we are told that a comet 
which does not pass beyond the bounds of the system may 
perhaps be absent on its journey for more than a thousand 
years. Distances and periods'such as these are beyond our 
grasp. They prove to us how far human reason excels 
imagination, the one measuring and comparing things ot 
which the other can form no conception, but in the 
attempt is utterly bewildered and lost. 
But as there are other globes like our earth, so too there 
are other worlds like our solar system. There 
are self-luminous suns exceeding in number all 
computation. The dimensions of this earth pass into 
nothingness in comparison with the dimensions of the 
solar system, and that system, in its turn, is only an 
invisible point if placed in relation with the countless 
hosts of other systems which form, with it, clusters of 
stars. Our solar system, far from being alone in the 
universe, is only one of an extensive brotherhood, bound 
by common laws and subject to like influences. Even on 
the very verge of creation, where imagination might lay 
the beginning of the realms of chaos, we see unbounded 
proofs of order, a regularity in the arrangement of inani- 
mate things, suggesting to us that there are other intellec- 
tual creatures like us, the tenants of those islands in the 
abysses of space. 
Though it may take a beam of light a million of years 
to bring to our view those distant worlds, the end is not yet. 
Far away in the depths of space we catch the faint gleams 
of other groups of stars like our own. The finger of a man 
can hide them in their remoteness. Their vast distances 
from one another have dwindled into nothing. They and 
their movements have lost all individuality; the innumer- 
able suns of which they are composed blend all their 
collected light into one pale milky glow. 
Thus extending our view from the earth to the solar 
system, from the solar system to the expanse of 
the group of stars to which we belong, we behold 
Magnitude of 
the universe. 
The infinity 
of worlds. 
Insignificance 
cf man. CH. VIII.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
293 
a series of gigantic nebular creations rising up one after 
another, and forming greater and greater colonies of 
worlds. No numbers can express them, for they make 
the firmament a haze of stars. Uniformity, even though 
it be the uniformity of magnificence, tires at last, and 
we abandon the survey, for our eyes can only behold a 
boundless prospect, and conscience tells us our own un- 
speakable insignificance. 
But what has become of the time-honoured doctrine of the 
human destiny of the universe? that doctrine 
for the sake of which the controversy I have 
described in this chapter was raised. It has 
disappeared. In vain was Bruno burnt and Galileo im- 
prisoned ; the truth forced its way, in spite of all opposi- 
tion, at last. The end of the conflict was a total rejection 
of authority and tradition, and the adoption of scientific 
truth 
Triumph of 
scientific 
truth. CHAPTER IX. 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON-{Continued). 
HISTORY OF THE EARTH.-HEB SUCCESSIVE CHANGES IN THE COURSE OF 
TIME. 
Oriental and Occidental Doctrines respecting the Earth in Time.- 
Gradual Weakening of the latter by astronomical Facts, and the Rise 
of Scientific Geology. 
Impersonal Manner in which the Problem was eventually solved, chiefly 
through Facts connected with Heat. 
Proofs of limitless Duration from inorganic Facts.-Igneous and Aqueous 
Rocks. 
Proofs of the same from organic Facts.-Successive Creations and Ex- 
tinctions of living Forms, and their contemporaneous Distribution. 
Evidences of a slowly declining Temperature, and, therefore, of a long 
Time.-The Process of Events by Catastrophe and by Law.-Analogy 
of Individual and Race Development.-Both are determined by 
unchangeable Law. 
Conclusion that the Plan of the Universe indicates a Multiplicity of 
Worlds of infinite Space, and a Succession of Worlds in infinite Time. 
Age of the 
earth. 
A victory could not be more complete nor a triumph more 
brilliant than that which had been gained by 
science in the contest concerning the position of 
the earth. Though there followed closely thereupon an 
investigation of scarcely inferior moment-that respecting 
the age of the earth-so thoroughly was the ancient 
authority intellectually crushed that it found itself in- 
capable of asserting by force the Patristic idea that our 
planet is less than six thousand years old. 
Not but that a resistance was made. It was, however, 
of an indirect kind. The contest might be 
likened rather to a partisan warfare than to the 
deliberate movement of regular armies under 
recognized commanders. In its history there is no central 
The question 
is impersonal- 
ly solved. CH. IX.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
295 
figure like Galileo, no representative man, no brilliant and 
opportune event like the invention of the telescope. The 
question moves on to its solution impersonally. A little 
advance is made here by one, there by another. The war 
was finished, though no great battle was fought. In the 
chapter we are entering upon there is, therefore, none of 
that dramatic interest connected with the last. Imper- 
sonally the question was decided, and, therefore, imper- 
sonally I must describe it. 
In Oriental countries, where the popular belief assigns 
to the creation of man a very ancient date, and 
even asserts for some empires a duration of 
hundreds of thousands of years, no difficulty as 
respects the age of the earth was felt, there 
seeming to have been time enough for every event that 
human researches have detected to transpire. But in the 
West, where the doctrine that not only the earth, but the 
universe itself, was intended for man, has been carried to 
its consequences with exacting rigour, circumstances forbid 
us to admit that there was any needless delay between the 
preparation of the habitation and the introduction of the 
tenant. They also force upon us the conclusion that a few 
centuries constitute a very large portion of the time of 
human existence, since, if we adopt the doctrine of an 
almost limitless period, we should fall into a difficulty in 
explaining what has become of the countless myriads of 
generations in the long time so past, and, considering that 
we are taught that the end of the world is at hand, and 
must be expected in a few years at the most, we might 
seem to arraign the goodness of God in this, that He has 
left to their fate immeasurably the larger proportion of 
our race, and has restricted His mercy to us alone, who are 
living in the departing twilight of the evening of the 
world. 
But in this, as in the former case, a closer examination 
of the facts brings us to the indisputable conclusion that 
we have decided unworthily and untruly ; that 
our guiding doctrine of the universe being in- 
tended for us is a miserable delusion; that the 
scale on which the world is constructed as to time answers 
to that on which it is constructed as to space; that, as 
Oriental and 
Western doc- 
trines of the 
age of the 
earth. 
Correction of 
the European 
doctrine. 296 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. ix. 
respects our planet, its origin dates from an epoch too 
remote for our mental apprehension; that myriads of 
centuries have been consumed in its coming to its present 
state; that, by a slow progression, it has passed from 
stage to stage, uninhabited, and for a long time unin- 
habitable by any living thing; that in their proper order 
and in due lapse of time, the organic series have been it? 
inhabitants, and of these a vast majority, whose numbers 
are so great that we cannot offer an intelligible estimate 
of them, have passed away and become extinct, and that 
finally, for a brief period, we have been its possessors. 
Of the intentions of God it becomes us, therefore, to 
speak with reverence and reserve. In those ages when 
there was not a man upon the earth, what was the object? 
Was the twilight only given that the wolf might follow 
his fleeing prey, and the stars made to shine that the royal 
tiger might pursue his midnight maraudings ? Where was 
the use of so much that was beautiful and orderly, when 
there was not a solitary intellectual being to understand 
and enjoy? Even now, when we are so much disposed 
to judge of other worlds from their apparent adaptedness 
to be the abodes of a thinking and responsible order like 
ourselves, it may be of service to remember that this 
earth itself was for countless ages a dungeon of pestiferous 
exhalations and a den of wild beasts. 
It might moreover appear that the conclusions to which 
we come, both as respects the position and age 
of the world, must necessarily have for their 
consequences the diminution and degradation of 
man, the rendering him too worthless an object 
for God's regard. But here again we fall into an error. 
True, we have debased his animal value, and taught him 
how little he is-how insignificant are the evils, how vain 
the pleasures of his life. But, as respects his intellectual 
principle, how does the matter stand? What is it that 
has thus been measuring the terrestrial world, and weigh- 
ing it in a balance? What is it that has been standing 
on the sun, and marking out the orbits and boundaries of 
the solar system ? What is it that has descended into the 
infinite abysses of space, examined the countless worlds 
that they contain, and compared and contrasted them 
It elevates 
rather than 
degrades the 
position of 
man. CH. IX.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
297 
together? What is it that has shown itself capable of 
dealing with magnitudes that are infinite, even of com- 
paring infinites together! What is it that has not hesi- 
tated to trace things in their history through a past 
eternity, and been found capable of regarding equally the 
transitory moment and endless duration? That which is 
competent to do all this, so far from being degraded, rises 
before us with an air of surpassing grandeur and inap- 
preciable worth. It is the soul of man. 
From the facts given in the last chapter respecting the 
relations of the earth in space, we are next led 
to her relations in time. 
So long as science was oppressed with the doctrine of 
the human destiny of the universe, which, as its con- 
sequence, made this earth the great central body, and 
elevated man to supreme importance, there was much 
difficulty in treating the problem of the age of the world. 
The history of the earth was at first a wild and fictitious 
cosmogony. Scientific cosmogony arose, not from any 
theological considerations, but from the telescopic ascer- 
tainment of the polar compression of the planet Jupiter, 
and the consequent determination by Newton that the 
earth is a spheroid of revolution. With a true cosmogony 
came a better chronology. The patristic doc- 
trine had been that the earth came into existence 
but little more than five thousand years ago, 
and to this a popular opinion long current was 
added, that its end might be very shortly expected. From 
time to time periods were set by various authorities 
determining the latter event, and, as true knowledge was 
extinguished, the year 1000 came to be the universally 
appointed date. In view of this, it was not an uncommon 
thing for persons to commence their testamentary bequests 
with the words, " In expectation of the approaching end 
of the world. " But the tremendous moment passed by, 
and still the sun rose and set, still the seasons were 
punctual in their courses, and Nature wore her accus- 
tomed aspect. A later day was then predicted, and again 
and again disappointment ensued, until sober-minded men 
began to perceive that the Scriptures were never intended 
to give information on such subjects, and predictions of 
Relations of the 
earth in time. 
Anthropocen- 
tric ideas of 
the beginning 
and end of the 
world. 298 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. ix. 
the end of the world fell into discredit, abandoned to the 
illiterate, whose morbid anticipations they still amuse. 
As it was thus with the end of our planet, so it was as 
regards her origin. By degrees evidence began to ac- 
cumulate casting a doubt on her recent date, evidence 
continually becoming more and more cogent. In no in- 
significant manner did the establishment of the 
heliocentric theory, aided by the discoveries of 
the telescope, assist in this result. As I have 
said, it utterly ruined past restoration the doc- 
trine of the human destiny of the universe. With that 
went down all arguments which had depended on making 
man the measure of things. Ideas of unexpected sub- 
limity as to the scale of magnitude on which the world is 
constructed soon enforced themselves, and proved to be 
the precursors of similar ideas as to time. At length it 
was perceived by those who were in the van of the move- 
ment that the Bible was never intended to deliver a 
chronological doctrine respecting the beginning any more 
than the end of things, and that those well-meaning men 
who were occupied in wresting it from its true purposes 
were engaged in an unhappy employment, for its tendency 
could be no other than to injure the cause they designed 
to promote. Nevertheless, so strong were the ancient 
persuasions, that it was not without a struggle that the 
doctrine of a long period forced its way-a struggle for 
the age of the earth, which, in its arguments, in its ten- 
dencies, and in its results, forcibly recalls the preceding 
one respecting the position of the earth; but, in the end, 
truth overrode all authority and all opposition, and the 
doctrine of an extremely remote origin of our planet ceased 
to be open to dispute. 
In a scientific conception of the universe, illimitable 
spaces are of necessity connected with limitless time. 
The discovery of the progressive motion of light offered 
the means of an absolute demonstration of this 
connexion. Rays emitted by an object, and 
making us sensible of its presence by impinging 
on the eye, do not reach us instantaneously, but 
consume a certain period in their passage. 
If any sudden visible effect took place in the sun, we 
Rise of the 
doctrine of 
illimitable 
age. 
Indications de- 
pending on the 
progressive 
motion of 
light. CH. IX.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
299 
should not see it at the absolute moment of its occurrence, 
but about eight minutes and thirteen seconds later, this 
being the time required for light to cross the intervening 
distance. All phenomena take place in reality anterior 
to the moment at which we observe them by a time 
longer in proportion as the distance to be travelled is 
greater. 
There are objects in the heavens so distant that it 
would take many hundreds of thousands of years for their 
light to reach us. Then it necessarily follows, since we 
can see them, that they must have been created and must 
have been shining so long. 
The velocity with which light moves was first deter- 
mined by the Danish astronomer Romer from the eclipses 
of Jupiter's satellites, November, 1675. It was, therefore, 
a determination of the rate for reflected solar light in a 
vacuum, and gave 198,000 miles in a second. In 1727, 
Bradley determined it for direct stellar light by his great 
discovery of the aberration of the fixed stars. More 
recently, the experiments of M. Foucault and those of M. 
Fizeau, by the aid of rotating mirrors or wheels, have 
confirmed these astronomical observations, Fizeau's de- 
termination of the velocity approaching that of Romer. 
Probably, however, the most correct is that of Struve, 
191,515 miles per second. 
This astronomical argument, which serves as a general 
introduction, is strengthened by numerous phy- 
sical and physiological facts. But of the dif- 
ferent methods by which the age of the earth 
may be elucidated, I shall prefer that which 
approaches it through the phenomena of heat. 
Such a manner of viewing the problem has led to its 
determination in the minds of many thinking men. 
As correct astronomical ideas began to prevail, it was 
perceived that all the heat now on the surface 
of our planet is derived from the sun. Through 
the circumstance of the inclination of her axis of 
rotation to the plane of her annual motion, or 
through the fact of her globular form occasioning the 
presentation of different parts of her surface, according to 
their latitudes, with more or less obliquity, and hence the 
Investigation 
of the age of 
the earth 
through the 
phenomena 
of heat. 
Astronomical 
heat alone on 
the earth's 
surface. 300 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
Tch. ix. 
reception of less or more of the rays, there may be local 
and temporary variations. Bnt these do not affect the 
general principle that the quantity of heat thus received 
must be the same from year to year. 
This thermometric equilibrium not only holds good for 
the surface, it may also be demonstrated for the 
whole mass of the planet. The day has not 
shortened by the of a second since the time of 
Hipparchus, and therefore the decrease of heat can not have 
been so much as the of a Fahrenheit degree, on the 
hypothesis that the mean dilatation of all terrestrial 
substances is equal to that of glass, -<ro f°r one degree. 
If a decline had taken place in the intrinsic heat of the 
earth, there must have been a diminution in her size, and, 
as a necessary consequence, the length of the day must 
have become less. The earth has therefore reached a 
condition of equilibrium as respects temperature. 
A vast body of evidence has, however, come into pro- 
minence, establishing with equal certainty that 
there was in ancient times a far higher tempera- 
ture in the planet; not a temperature concerned with a 
fraction of a degree, but ranging beyond the limits of our 
thermometric scale. The mathematical figure of the earth 
offers a resistless argument for its ancient liquefied con- 
dition-that is, for its originally high temperature. But 
how is this to be co-ordinated with the conclusion just 
mentioned ? Simply by the admission that there have 
elapsed prodigious, it might almost be said limitless, periods. 
As thus the true state of affairs began to take on shape, 
it was perceived that the age of the earth is not a question 
of authority, not a question of tradition, but a 
mathematical problem sharply defined: to de- 
termine the time of cooling of a globe of known diameter 
and of given conductibility by radiation in a vacuum. 
In such a state of things, what could be more unwise 
than to attempt to force opinion by the exercise of autho- 
rity ? How unspeakably mischievous had proved to bo 
a like course as respects the globular form of the earth, 
which did not long remain a mere mathematical abstrac- 
tion, but was abruptly brought to a practical issue by the 
voyage of Magellan's ship. And on this question of the 
The equilibri- 
um of interior 
heat. 
Its ancient 
decline. 
Necessity for 
a long time. CH. IX.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
301 
age of the earth it would have been equally unwise to 
become entangled with or committed to the errors of 
patristicism-errors arising from well-meant moral con- 
siderations, but which can never exert any influence on 
the solution of a scientific problem. 
One fact after another bearing upon the question 
gradually emerged into view. It was shown 
that the diurnal variations of temperature-that 
is, those connected with night and day-extend 
but a few inches beneath the surface, the seasonal 
ones, connected with winter and summer, to many feet; 
but beyond this was discovered a stratum of invariable 
temperature, beneath which, if we descend, the heat in- 
creases at the rate of 1° Fahr, for every fifty or seventy 
feet. The uniformity of this rate seemed to imply that, 
at depths quite insignificant, a very high temperature 
must exist. This was illustrated by such facts that the 
water which rushes up from a depth of 1794 feet in the 
Artesian well of Grenelle has a temperature of 82° Fahr. 
The mean temperature of Paris being about 51? Fahr., 
these numbers give a rate of 1° for every fifty-eight feet. 
If, then, the increase of heat is only 100° per mile, at a 
depth of less than ten miles every thing must be red hot, 
and at thirty or forty in a melted state. It was by all 
admitted that the rise of temperature with the depth is 
not at all local, but occurs in whatever part of the earth 
the observation may be made. The general conclusion 
thus furnished was re-enforced by the evidence of volca- 
noes, which could no longer be regarded as merely local, 
depending on restricted areas for the supply of melted 
material, since they are found all over the land and under 
the sea, in the interior of continents and near the shores, 
beneath the equator and in the polar regions. It had 
been estimated that there are probably two thousand aerial 
or subaqueous eruptions every century. Some volcanoes, as 
2Etna, have for thousands of years poured forth their lavas, 
and still there is an unexhausted supply. Everywhere 
a common source is indicated by the rudely uniform 
materials ejected. The fact that the lines of volcanic 
activity shift pointed to a deep source; the periodic incre- 
ments and decrements of force bore the same interpretation. 
Indications of 
the interior 
heat of the 
earth. 302 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch.ix. 
They far transcend the range of history. The volcanoes 
of central France date from the Eocene period; their 
power increased in the Miocene, and continued through 
the Pliocene; those of Catalonia belong to the Pliocene, 
probably. Coupled with volcanoes, earthquakes, 'with their 
vertical, horizontal, and rotary vibrations, having a linear 
velocity of from twenty to thirty miles per minute, 
indicated a profound focus of action. The great earth- 
quake of Lisbon was felt from Norway to Morocco, from 
Algiers to the West Indies, from Thuringia to the Cana- 
dian lakes. It absolutely lifted the whole bed of the 
North Atlantic Ocean. Its origin was in no superficial 
point. 
A still more universal proof of a high temperature 
affecting the whole mass of the interior of the 
globe was believed to be presented in the small 
mean density of the earth, a density not more than 5'66 
times that of water, the mean density of the solid surface 
being 2'7, and that of the solid and sea-surface together 
1-6. But this is not a density answering to that which 
the earth should have in virtue of the attraction of her 
own parts. It implied some agent capable of rarefying 
and dilating, and the only such agent is heat. Although 
the law of the increase of density from the upper surface 
to the centre is unknown, yet a comparison of the earth's 
compression with her velocity of rotation demonstrated 
that there is an increasing density in the strata as we 
descend. The great fact, however, which stands pro- 
minently forth is the interior heat. 
Not only were evidences thus offered of the existence of 
a high temperature, and, therefore, of the lapse of a long 
time by the present circumstances of the globe; every 
trace of its former state, duly considered, yielded similar 
indications, the old evidence corroborating the new. And 
soon it appeared that this would hold good whether 
considered in the inorganic or organic aspect. 
In the inorganic, what other interpretation could be 
put on the universal occurrence of igneous rocks, 
some in enormous mountain ranges, some ejected 
from beneath, forcing their tortuous way through 
the resisting superincumbent strata,; veins of various 
Proof from the 
mean density. 
Inorganic 
proofs of a 
1 ormer high 
temperature. CH. IX.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
303 
mineral constitution, and, as their relations with one 
another showed, veins of very different dates? What 
other interpretation of layers of lava in succession, one 
under another, and often with old disintegrated material 
between ? What of those numerous volcanoes which have 
never been known to show any signs of activity in the 
period of history, though they sometimes occur in countries 
like France, eminently historic? What meaning could be 
assigned to all those dislocations, subsidences, and eleva- 
tions which the crust of the earth in every country 
presents, indications of a loss of heat, of a contraction in 
diameter, and its necessary consequence, fracture of the 
exterior consolidated shell along lines of least resistance? 
And though it was asserted by some that the catastrophes 
of which these are the evidences were occasioned by forces 
of unparalleled energy and incessant operation-unparal- 
leled when compared with such terrestrial forces as we are 
familiar with-that did not, in any respect, change the 
interpretation, for there could have been no abrupt 
diminution in the intensity of those forces, which, if they 
had lessened in power, must have passed through a long, 
a gradual decline. In that very decline there 
thus spontaneously came forth evidences of a 
long lapse of time. The whole course of Nature 
satisfies us how gradual and deliberate are her proceedings; 
that there is no abrupt boundary between the past and 
the present, but that the one insensibly shades off into the 
other, the present springing gently and imperceptibly out 
of the past. If volcanic phenomena and all kinds of 
igneous manifestations-if dislocations, injections, the in- 
trusion of melted material into strata were at one time 
more frequent, more violent-if, in the old times, mundane 
forces possessed an energy which they have now lost, their 
present diminished and deteriorated condition, coupled 
with the fact that for thousands of years, throughout the 
range of history, they have been invariably such as we 
find them now, should be to us a proof how long, how 
very long ago those old times must have been. 
Thus, therefore, was perceived the necessity of co-ordi- 
nating the scale of time with the scale of space, and such 
views of the physical history of the earth were extended 
These neces- 
sarily imply 
long time. 304 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
fcn. IX. 
to celestial bodies which were considered as having passed 
through a similar course. In one, at least, this 
assertion was no mere matter of speculation, but 
of actual observation. The broken surface of the 
moon, its volcanic cones and craters, its mountains, with 
their lava-clad sides and ejected blocks glistening in the 
sun, proved a succession of events like those of the earth, 
and demonstrated that there is a planetary as well as a 
terrestrial geology, and that in our satellite there is evidence 
of a primitive high temperature, of a gradual decline, and, 
therefore, of a long process of time. Perhaps also, con- 
sidering the rate of heat-exchange in Venus by reason of 
her proximity to the sun, the pale light which it is said 
has been observed on her non-illuminated part is the de- 
clining trace of her own intrinsic temperature, her heat 
lasting until now. 
If astronomers sought in systematic causes an explana- 
tion of these facts-if, for instance, they were 
disposed to examine how far changes in the ob- 
liquity of the ecliptic are connected therewith 
-it was necessary at the outset to concede that 
the scale of time on which the event proceeds is of pro- 
digious duration, this secular variation observing a slow 
process of only 45'7" in a century ; and hence, since the 
time of Hipparchus, two thousand years ago, the plane of 
the ecliptic has approached that of the equator by only 
a quarter of a degree. Or if, again, they looked to a 
diminishing of the eccentricity of the earth's orbit, they 
were compelled to admit the same postulate, and deal with 
thousands of centuries. Under whatever aspect, then, the 
theory was regarded, if once a former high temperature 
were admitted, and the fact coupled therewith that there 
has been no sensible decline within the observation of man, 
whether the explanation was purely geological or purely 
astronomical, the motion of heat in the mass of the earth 
is so slow, yet the change that has taken place is so great, 
the variations of the contemplated relations of the solar 
system so gradual-under whatever aspect and in what- 
ever way the fact was dealt with, there arose the indis- 
pensable concession of countless centuries. 
To the astronomer such a concession is nothing extra- 
Support from 
astroaomical 
facts. 
Astronomical 
facte imply 
slow secular 
changes. CH. IX.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
305 
ordinary. It is not because of the time required that he 
entertains any doubt that the sun and his system accom- 
plish a revolution round a distant centre of gravity in 
nineteen millions of years, or that the year of e Lyrae is 
half a million of ours. He looks forward to that distant 
day when Sirius will disappear from our skies, and the 
Southern Cross be visible, and Vega the polar star. Iio 
looks back to the time when y Draconis occupied that 
conspicuous position, and the builders of the great pyra- 
mid, b.c. 3970, gave to its subterranean passage an inclina- 
tion of 26° 15', corresponding to the inferior culmination 
of that star. He tells us that the Southern Cross began to 
be invisible in 52° 30' N., 2900 years before our era, and 
that it had previously attained an altitude of more than 
10°. When it disappeared from the horizon of the countries 
on the Baltic, the pyramid of Cheops had been erected more 
than a thousand years. 
We must pass by a copious mass of evidence furnished by 
aqueous causes of change operating on the earth's 
surface, though these add very weighty proof 
to the doctrine of a long period. The filling up 
of lakes, the formation of deltas, the cutting power of 
running water, the deposit of travertines, the denudation 
of immense tracts of country, the carrying of their detritus 
into the sea, the changes of shores by tides and waves, the 
formation of strata hundreds of miles in length, and the 
imbedding therein of fossil remains in numbers almost 
beyond belief, furnished many interesting and important 
facts. Of these not a few presented means of computation. 
It would not be difficult to assign a date for such geo- 
graphical events as the production of the Caspian and Dead 
Seas from an examination of the sum of saline material 
contained in their waters and deposited in their bed, with 
the annual amount brought into them by their supplying 
rivers. Such computations were executed as respects the 
growth of Lower Egypt and the backward cutting of 
Niagara Falls, and, though they might bo individually 
open to criticism, their mutual accordance and tendency 
furnished an evidence that could not be gainsaid. The 
continual accumulation of such evidence ought not to be 
without its weight on those who are still disposed to treat 
Proofs of time 
from aqueous 
effects, 306 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[CH. IX. 
slightingly the power of geological facts in developing 
truth. 
To such facts were added all those, with which volumes 
might be filled, proving the universality of the 
movements of the solid crust of the earth- 
strata once necessarily horizontal now inclined 
at all angles, strata unconformable to one another 
-a body of evidence most copious and most satisfactory, 
yet demonstrating from the immensity of the results how 
slowly the work had gone on. 
How was it possible to conceive that beds many hundred 
feet in thickness should have been precipitated suddenly 
from water? Their mechanical condition implied slow 
disintegration and denudation in other localities to furnish 
material; their contents showed no trace of violence; they 
rather proved the deposition to have occurred in a tranquil 
and quiet way. What interpretation could be put upon 
facts continually increasing in number like those observed 
in the south-east of England, where fresh-water beds a 
thousand feet thick are covered by other beds a thousand 
feet thick, but of marine origin ? What upon those in the 
north of England, where masses once uplifted a thousand 
feet above the level, and, at the time of their elevation, 
presenting abrupt precipices and cliffs of that height, as is 
proved by the fractures and faults of the existing strata, 
have been altogether removed, and the surface left plain ? 
In South Wales there are localities where 11,000 feet in 
thickness have been bodily carried away. Whether, there- 
fore, the strata that have been formed, and which remain 
to strike us with astonishment at their prodigious mass, 
were considered; or those that have been destroyed, not, 
however, without leaving unmistakable traces of them- 
selves ; the processes of wearing away to furnish material 
as well as the accumulation, of necessity required the lapse 
of long periods of time. The undermining of cliffs by the 
beating of the sea, the redistribution of sands and mud at 
the bottom of the ocean, the washing of material from hills 
into the lowlands by showers of rain, its transport by river 
courses, the disintegration of soils by the influence of frost, 
the weathering of rocks by carbonic acid, and the solution 
of limestone by its aid in water-these arc effects which, 
and from the 
movements of 
the earth's 
crust. CH. IX.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
307 
even at the quickest, seem not to amount to much in the 
course of the life of a man. A thousand years could yield 
but a trifling result. 
We have already alluded to another point of view from 
which these mechanical effects were considered. The level 
of the land and sea has unmistakably changed. There are 
mountain eminences ten or fifteen thousand feet in altitude 
in the interior of continents over which, or through which 
shells and other products of the sea are profusely scattered. 
And though, considering the proverbial immobility of the 
solid land and the proverbial instability of the water, it 
might at first be supposed much more likely that the sea 
had subsided than that the land had risen, a more critical 
examination soon led to a change of opinion. Before our 
eyes, in some countries, elevations and depressions are 
taking place, sometimes in a slow secular manner, as in 
Norway and Sweden, that peninsula on the north rising, 
and on the south sinking, at such a rate that, to accomplish 
the whole seven hundred feet of movement, more than 
twenty-seven thousand years would be required if it 
had always been uniform as now. Elsewhere, as on the 
south-western coast of South America, the movement is 
paroxysmal, the shore line lifting for hundreds of miles 
instantaneously, and then pausing for many years. In the 
Morea also, range after range of old sea-cliffs exist, some of 
them more than a thousand feet high, with terraces at the 
base of each ; but the Morea has been well known for the 
last twenty-five centuries, and in that time has undergone 
no material change. Again, in Sicily, similar interior 
sea-cliffs are seen, the rubbish at their bases containing tho 
bones of the hippopotamus and mammoth, proofs of the 
great change the climate has undergone since the sea 
washed those ancient beaches. Italy, pre-eminently tho 
historic country, in which, within the memory of man, no 
material change of configuration has taken place since the 
Pleistocene period, very late geologically speaking has 
experienced elevations of fifteen hundred feet. The seven 
hills of Rome are of the Pliocene, with fluviatile deposits 
and recent terrestrial shells two hundred feet above tho 
Tiber. There intervened between the older Pliocene and 
the newer a period of enormous length, as is demonstrated 308 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. IX. 
by the accumulated effects taking place in it, and, indeed, 
the same may be said of every juxtaposed pair of distinctly 
marked strata. It demanded an inconceivable time for 
beds once horizontal at the bottom of the sea to be tilted 
to great inclinations ; it required also the enduring exertion 
of a prodigious force. Ascent and descent may be detected 
in strata of every age: movements sometimes paroxysmal, 
but more often of tranquil and secular kind. The coal- 
bearing strata, by gradual submergence, attained in South 
Wales a thickness of 12,000 feet, and in Nova Scotia, a total 
thickness of 14,570 feet; the uniformity of the process of 
submergence and its slow steadiness is indicated by the 
occurrence of erect trees at different levels: seventeen such 
repetitions may be counted in a thickness of 4515 feet. 
The age of the trees is proved by their size, some being 
four feet in diameter. Bound them, as they gradually 
went down with the subsiding soil, calamites grew at one 
level after another. In the Sidney coal-field fifty-nine 
fossil forests thus occur in superposition. 
Such was the conclusion forcing itself from considerations 
connected with inorganic nature. It received a 
most emphatic endorsement from the organic 
world, for there is an intimate connexion 
between the existence and well-being both ot 
plants and animals, and the heat to which they are exposed. 
Why is it that the orange and lemon do not grow in New 
York? What is it that would inevitably ensue if these 
exotics were exposed to a cold winter ? What must take 
place if, in Florida or other of the Southern states, a season 
of unusual rigor should occur ? Does not heat thus con- 
fine within a fixed boundary the spread of these plants ? 
And so, again, how many others there are which grow 
luxuriantly in a temperate climate, but are parched up 
and killed if fortuitously carried beneath a hot tropical 
sun. To every one there is a climate which best suits the 
condition of its life, and certain limits of heat and cold 
beyond which its existence is not possible. 
If the mean annual heat of the earth's surface were slowly 
to rise, and, in the course of some centuries, the tempera- 
ture now obtaining in Florida should obtain in New York, 
the orange and lemon would certainly be found here. 
Organic proofs 
of a former 
high tempera- 
ture. CH. IX.j 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
309 
With the increasing heat those plants would commence a 
northward march, steadily advancing as oppor- 
tunity was given. Or, if the reverse took place, 
and for any reason the heat of the torrid zone 
declined until the winter's cold of New York should be at 
last reached under the equator, as the descent went on the 
orange and lemon would retreat within a narrow and 
narrower region, and end by becoming extinct, the con- 
ditions of their exposure being incompatible with the 
continuance of their life. From such considerations it is 
therefore obvious that not only does heat arrange the limits 
of the distribution of plants, erecting round them boun- 
daries which, though invisible, are more insuperable than 
a wall of brass, it also regulates their march, if march 
there is to be-nay, even controls their very existence, and 
to genera, and species, and individuals appoints a period of 
duration. 
Such observations apply not alone to plants; the animal 
kingdom offers equally significant illustrations. 
Why does the white bear enjoy the leaden sky 
of the pole and his native iceberg? Why does 
the .tiger restrict himself to the jungles of India ? Can it 
be doubted that, if the mean annual temperature should 
decline, the polar bear would come with his iceberg to 
corresponding southern latitudes, or, if the heat should rise, 
the tiger would commence a northward journey ? Does he 
not, indeed, every summer penetrate northward in Asia as 
far as the latitude of Berlin, and retire again as winter 
comes on ? Why is it that, at a given signal, the birds of 
passage migrate, pressed forward in the spring by the 
heat, and pressed backward in the autumn by the cold? 
The annual migration of birds illustrates the causes of 
geological appearances and extinctions. Do we not herein 
recognize the agent that determines animal distribution ? 
We must not deceive ourselves with any fancied terrestrial 
impediment or restraint. Let the heat rise but a few 
degrees, and the turkey-buzzard, to whose powerful wing 
distances are of no moment and the free air no impediment, 
would be seen hovering over New York; let it fall a few 
degrees, and he would vanish from the streets of Charleston ; 
let it fall a little more, and he would vanish from the 
Boundary of 
organisms by 
heat. 
Animals lo- 
calized as well 
as plants. 310 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. IX. 
earth. Shell-fish, once the inhabitants of the British seas, 
retired during the glacial period to the Mediterranean, and 
with the returning warmth have gone back northward 
again. 
Animals are thus controlled by heat in an indirect as 
well as a direct way. Indirectly; for, if their 
food be diminished, they must seek a more ample 
supply; if it fails, they must perish. Doubtless it was 
insufficient food, as well as the setting in of a more rigorous 
climate, that occasioned the destruction of the mastodon 
giganteus, which abounded in the United States after the 
drift period. Such great elephantine forms could not 
possibly sustain themselves against the rigors of the 
present winters, nor could they find a sufficient supply of 
food for a considerable portion of the year. The disap- 
pearance of animals from the face of the earth was, as 
Palaeontology advanced, ascertained to have been a deter- 
minate process, a condition of their existence, and either 
inherent in themselves or dependent on their environment. 
It was proved that the forms now existing are only an 
insignificant part of the countless tribes that have lived. 
The earth has been the theatre of a long succes- 
sion of appearances and removals, of creations 
and extinctions, reaching to the latest times. In 
the Pleistocene of .Sicily, of the fossil shells are ex- 
tinct ; in the bone caverns of England, out of thirty-seven 
mammals eighteen are extinct. But judging, from what 
may be observed of the duration of races contemporary 
with us, that their life is prolonged for thousands of years, 
successive generations of the same species in a long order 
replacing their predecessors before final removal occurs, 
this again resistlessly brought forward the same conclusion 
to which all the foregoing facts had pointed, that there 
have transpired since the introduction of animal life upon 
this globe very long periods of time. 
Through the operation of this law of extinction and of 
creation, animated nature, both on the continents and in 
the seas, has undergone a marvellous change. In the lias 
and oolitic .seas, the Enaliosauria, Cetiosauria, and Croco- 
dilia dominated as the Delphinidm and Balamidaa do in 
ours; the former have been eliminated, the latter produced. 
Control of ani- 
mals by food. 
Nature of cre- 
ations and ex- 
tinctions. CH. IX.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
311 
Along with, the cetaceans came the soft-scaled Cycloid 
and Ctenoid fishes, orders which took the place of the 
Ganoids and Placoids of the Mesozoic times. One after 
another successive species of air-breathing reptiles have 
emerged, continued for their appointed time to exist, and 
then died out. The development has been, not in the 
descending, but in the ascending order; the Amphitheria, 
Spalacotheria, Triconodon of the Mesozoic times were sub- 
stituted by higher tertiary forms. Nor have these muta- 
tions been abrupt. If mammals are the chief character- 
istic of the Tertiary ages, their first beginnings are seen 
far earlier; in the triassic and oolitic formations there 
are a few of the lower orders struggling, as it were, to 
emerge. The aspect of animated nature has altogether 
changed. No longer does the camelopard wander over 
Europe as he did in the Miocene and Pliocene times; no 
longer are great elephants seen in the American forests, 
the hippopotamus in England, the Rhinoceros in Siberia. 
The hand of man has introduced in the New the horse of 
the Old World; but the American horse, that ran on the 
great plains contemporary with the megatherium and 
megalonyx, has for tens of thousands of years been extinct. 
Even the ocean and the rivers are no exception to these 
changes. 
What, then, is the manner of origin of this infinite 
succession of forms ? It is often sufficient to see 
clearly a portion of a plan to be able to determine 
with some degree of certainty the general ar- 
rangement of the whole; it is often sufficient to know with 
precision a part of the life of an individual to guess with 
probable accuracy his action in some forthcoming event, or 
to determine the share he has borne in affairs that are 
past. It is enough to appreciate thoroughly the style of a 
master to ascertain without doubt the authenticity of an 
imputed picture. And so, in the affairs of the universe, it 
is enough to ascertain the manner of operation of a part 
in order to settle the manner of operation of the whole. 
When, therefore, it was perceived how the disappearance 
of vanishing forms from the surface of the globe is ac- 
complished-that it is not by a sudden and grand provi- 
dential intervention-that there is no visible putting forth 
Creations and 
extinctions 
by law. 312 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. ix. 
of the Omnipotent hand, but slowly and silently, yet 
surely, the ordinary laws of Nature are permitted to take 
their course-that heat, and cold, and want of food, and 
dryness, and moisture, in the end, as if by an irresistible 
destiny, accomplish the event, it seemed to indicate that, 
as regards the introduction of new-comers, a suitableness 
of external conditions had called them forth, as an un- 
suitableness could end them. Changes in the constitution 
of the air or its pressure, in the composition of the sea or 
its depth, in the brilliancy of light or the amount of heat, 
in the inorganic material of a medium, will modify old 
forms into new ones, or compel their extinction. Birth 
and death go hand in hand; creation and extinction are in- 
separable. The variation of organic form is continuous; 
it depends upon an orderly succession of material events ; 
appearances and eliminations are managed upon a common 
principle; they stand connected with the irresistible course 
of great mundane changes. It was impossible that geo- 
logists could reach any other conclusion than that such 
phenomena are not the issue of direct providential inter- 
ventions, but of physical influences. The procession of 
organic life is not a motley march; it follows the procession 
of physical events; and, since it is impossible to re-establish 
a sameness of physical conditions that have once come to 
an end, or reproduce the order in which they have occurred, 
it of necessity follows that no organic form can reappear 
after it has once died out-once dead, it is clean gone for 
ever. < 
In the course of the life of individual man, the parts 
that constitute his system are undergoing mo- 
mentary changes; those of to-day are not the 
same as those of yesterday, and they will be 
replaced by others to-morrow. There have been, and are 
every instant, insterstitial deaths of all the constituent 
particles, and an unceasing removal of those that have 
performed their duty. In the stead of departing portions, 
new ones have been introduced, interstitial births and 
organizations perpetually taking place. In physiology it 
became no longer a question that all this proceeds in a 
determinate way under the operation of principles that are 
fixed, of laws that are invariable. The alchemists intro- 
Interstitial 
molecular 
creations. CH. IX.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
313 
duced no poetical fiction when they spoke of the micro- 
cosm, asserting that the system of man is emblematical of 
the system of the world. The intercalation of a new 
organic molecule in a living being answers to the intro- 
duction of a new form in the universal organic series. It 
requires as much power to call into existence a living 
molecule as to produce a living being. Both are accom- 
plished upon the same principle, and that principle is not 
an incessant intervention of a supernatural kind, but the 
operation of unvarying law. Physical agents, working 
through physical laws, remove in organisms such molecules 
as have accomplished their work and create new ones, and 
physical agents, working through physical laws, control 
the extinctions and creations of forms in the universe of 
life. The difference is only in the time. What is accom- 
plished in the one case in the twinkling of an eye, in the 
other may demand the lapse of a thousand centuries. 
The variation of organic forms, under the force of 
external circumstances, is thus necessary to be understood 
in connexion with that countless succession of living 
beings demonstrated by geology. It carries us, in common 
with so much other evidence, to the lapse of a long time. 
Nor are such views as those to which we are thus con- 
strained inconsistent with the admission of a Providential 
guidance of the world. Man, however learned and pious ho 
may be, is not always a trustworthy interpreter of the ways 
of God. In deciding whether any philosophical doctrine 
is consistent or inconsistent with the Divine attributes, 
we are too prone to judge of those attributes by our own 
finite and imperfect standard, forgetting that the only test 
to which we ought to resort is the ascertainment if the 
doctrine be true. If it be true, it is in unison with God. 
Perhaps some who have rejected the conception of the 
variation of organic forms, with its postulate-limitless 
duration, may have failed to remember the grandeur of 
the universe and its relations to space and to time; 
perhaps they do not recall the system on which it is 
administered. Like the anthropomorphite monks of the 
Nile, they conceive of God as if he were only a very large 
man; else how could it for a moment have been doubted 
that it is far more-I use the expression reverently-in 314 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[CH. IX. 
the style of the great Constructor to carry out his inten- 
tions by the summary operations of law? It 
might be consistent with the weakness and 
ignorance of man to be reduced to the necessity 
of personal intervention for the accomplishment of his 
plans, but would not that be the very result of such 
ignorance ? Does not absolute knowledge actually imply 
procedure by preconceived and unvarying law? Is not 
momentary intervention altogether derogatory to the 
thorough and absolute sovereignty of God? The astro- 
nomical calculation of ancient events, as well as the 
prediction of those to come, is essentially founded on the 
principle that there has not in the times under considera- 
tion, and that there will never be in the future, any 
exercise of an arbitrary or overriding will. The corner- 
stone of astronomy is this, that the solar system-nay, 
even the universe, is ruled by necessity. To operate by 
expedients is for the creature, to operate by law for the 
Creator; and so far from the doctrine that creations and 
extinctions are carried on by a foreseen and predestined 
ordinance-a system which works of itself without need 
of any intermeddling-being an unworthy, an ignoble con- 
ception, it is completely in unison with the resistless 
movements of the mechanism of the universe, with what- 
ever is orderly, symmetrical, and beautiful upon earth, 
and with all the dread magnificence of the heavens. 
It was in Italy that particular attention was first given to 
organic remains. Leonardo da Vinci asserts that 
they are real shells, or the remains thereof, and 
hence that the land and sea must have changed 
their relative position. At this time fossils were looked upon 
as rare curiosities, no one supposing that they were at all 
numerous, and many were the fantastic hypotheses pro- 
posed to account for their occurrence. Some referred them 
to the general deluge mentioned in Scripture; some to a 
certain plastic power obscurely attributed to the earth; 
some thought that they were engendered by the sunlight, 
heat, and rain. To Da Vinci is due the first clear assertion 
of their true nature, that they are actually the remains of 
organic beings. Soon the subject was taken up by other 
eminent Italians. Fracaster wrote on the petrifactions of 
D-fence of the 
process of all 
things by law. 
Historical 
sketch of early 
Palaeontology. CH. IX.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
315 
Verona; Scilla, a Sicilian, on marine bodies turned into 
stone, illustrating his work by engravings. Still later, 
Vallisneri, 1721, published letters on marine bodies found 
in rocks, attempting by their aid to determine the extent 
of the marine deposits of Italy. These early cultivators 
of geology soon perceived the advantage to be gained by 
the establishment of museums and the publication of 
catalogues. The first seems to have been that of John 
Kentman, an example that was followed by Calceolarius 
and Vallisneri. Subsequently Fontanelle proposed the 
construction of charts in accordance with fossil remains; 
but the principle involved was not applied on the great 
scale as a true geological test until introduced by Smith in 
connexion with the English strata. 
To Steno, a Dane, is due the recognition of pre-organic 
in contradistinction to organic rocks, a distinc- 
tion the terms of which necessarily involve 
the idea of time. Soon it became generally recognized 
that the strata in which organic remains occur are of a 
later date than those devoid of them, the pre-organic rocks 
demonstrating a pre-organic time. Moreover, as facts were 
developed, it was plain that there are essential differences 
in the relations of fossils, and that, though in Italy the 
same species of shells may occur in the mountains that 
occur in the adjacent seas, this was very far from being 
the case uniformly elsewhere. At length the truth began 
to emerge, that in proportion as the strata under examina- 
tion are of an older date, so are the differences between 
their organic remains and existing species more marked. 
It was also discovered that the same species often extends 
superficially over immense districts, but that in a vertical 
examination one species after another rapidly appears in a 
descending order-an order which could be verified in 
spite of the contortions, fractures, and displacements of 
the strata. A very important theoretical conclusion was 
here presented; for the rapid succession of essentially dif- 
ferent organic forms, as the rocks were older, was clearly 
altogether inconsistent with one catastrophe, as the uni ■ 
versal deluge, to -which it had been generally referred. 
It was plain that the thickness of the strata in which they 
were enveloped, and the prodigious numbers in which they 
The pre-or- 
ganic time. 316 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. IX. 
occurred, answered in some degree to the period of life of 
those fossils, since every one of them, large or small, must 
have had its time of birth, of maturity, and of death. 
When, therefore, it could be no longer doubted 
that strata many hundreds of feet in thickness 
were crowded with such remains, it became 
altogether out of the question to refer their entombment 
to the confusion of a single catastrophe, for every thing 
indicated an orderly and deliberate proceeding. Still more 
cogent did this evidence become when, in a more critical 
manner, the fossils were studied, and some strata were 
demonstrated to be of a fresh-water and others of a marine 
origin, the one intercalated with the other like leaves in a 
book. To this fact may be imputed the final overthrow of 
the doctrine of a single catastrophe, and its replacement 
by a doctrine of periodical changes. 
From these statements it will therefore be understood 
that, commencing with the first appearance of 
organization, an orderly process was demon- 
strated from forms altogether unlike those with 
which we are familiar, up to those at present existing, a 
procedure conducted so slowly that it was impossible to 
assign for it a shorter duration than thousands of centuries. 
Moreover, it seemed that the guiding condition which had 
controlled this secular march of organization was the same 
which still determines the possibility of existence and the 
distribution of life. The succession of organic forms 
indicates a clear relation to a descending temperature. 
The plants of the earliest times are plants of an ultra- 
tropical climate, and that primitive vegetation seemed to 
demonstrate that there had been a uniform climate-a 
climate of high temperature-all over the globe. The 
coal-beds of Nova Scotia exhibited the same genera and 
species as those of Europe, and so well marked was the 
botanical connexion with the declining temperature in 
successive ages that attempts were made to express eras by 
their prevailing organisms; thus Brongniart's division is, 
for the Primary strata, the Age of Acrogens; the Secondary, 
exclusive of the Cretaceous, the Age of Gymnogens; the 
third, including the Cretaceous and Tertiary, the Age of 
Angiosperms. It is to be particularly remarked that the 
Insufficiency 
of a single 
catastrophe. 
The orderly 
progression of 
organization. CH. IX.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
317 
Cretaceous flora, m the aggregate, combines the antecedent 
and succeeding periods, proving that the change was not by 
crisis or sudden catastrophe, but that the new forms rose 
gently among the old ones. After the Eocene period, 
dicotyledonous angiosperms became the prevalent form, 
and from that date to the Pleistocene the evidences of a 
continued refrigeration are absolute. 
As thus an examination was made from the most ancient to 
the later ages, indications were found of a climate arrance- 
ment more and more distinct-in the high lati- 
tudes, from the ultratropical through the tropical, 
the temperate, down to the present frigid state; 
in lower latitudes the declining process stopping short at 
an earlier point. It therefore appeared that there has 
been a production of climates both in an order of time and 
in an order of locality, the greatest change having occurred 
in the frigid zone, which has passed through all mean 
temperatures, an intermediate change in the temperate, 
and a minimum in the torrid zone. The general effect has 
thus been to present a succession of surfaces on the same 
planet adapted to a varied organization, and offering a 
more magnificent spectacle than if we were permitted to 
inspect many different planets; for in them there might 
be no necessary connexion of their forms of life, but in 
this there is, so that, were our knowledge of Comparative 
Physiology more perfect, we might amuse ourselves with 
intercalating among the plant and animal organisms 
familiar to us hypothetical forms that would make the 
series complete, and verify our principles by their subse- 
quent discovery in the deep strata of the earth. 
Does not this progression of life in our planet suggest a 
like progression for the solar system, which in its aggregate 
is passing in myriads of years through all organic phases ? 
May we not also, from our solar system, rise to a similar 
conception for the universe ? 
There are two very important considerations, on which 
we must dwell for the complete understanding of the 
consequences of these changes: 1st. The mechanism of 
the declining temperature; 2d. Its effect in the organic 
world. 
1st. A uniformly high temperature could never be 
Climates in 
time and in 
place. 318 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. ix. 
manifested all over the surface of our planet through any- 
heating influence of the sun. A high and 
uniform temperature unerringly points to an 
internal cause; and the gradual appearance of 
climates, manifesting a relatively increasing 
power of the sun, indicates the slow diminution of that 
internal heat. But this is precisely the conclusion which 
was come to from a contemplation of the earth from a 
purely physical point of view. So long as its intrinsic 
heat overpowered that derived from the sun, it was not pos- 
sible that any thing answering to climates could be esta- 
blished ; and, until a certain degree of cooling by radiation 
had been accomplished, the heat must have been compara- 
tively'- uniform in all latitudes; but, that point gained, there 
necessarily ensued an arrangement of zones of different 
temperature^, or, in other words, climates appeared, the 
process being essentially slow, and becoming slower as the 
loas of heat went on. Finally, when loss of heat from the 
earth ceased, an equilibrium was reached in the climate 
arrangement as we now find it. Thus purely physical as 
well as geological considerations brought philosophers on 
this point to the same conclusion-that conclusion which 
has been so often repeated-very long periods of time. 
2nd. As to the effect on the organic world. Nothing can 
live at a temperature higher than the boiling- 
point of water, for the condition of life implies 
that there shall circulate from part to part of a 
living mechanism a watery liquid, sap, or blood. 
From this it necessarily follows that a planet, the tem- 
perature of which is above a certain limit, must necessarily 
have a lifeless surface; and this seemed to be the inter- 
pretation of that pre-organic time to which we have re- 
ferred. Moreover, when the temperature suitably descends 
so as to come within the limit at which life is possible, 
its uniformity- over the surface of a planet will produce a 
sameness in the organization. It would be an identity if 
heat were the only regulating condition of life. At this 
stage of things, the solar heat being overpowered, and a 
sensibly uniform temperature in all latitudes existing, still 
the only possible organic forms are those consistent with a 
high temperature, uniformity in the physical condition 
The nature of 
terrestrial de- 
clining tem- 
perature. 
Consequent 
effect on the 
Flora and 
Fauna. cn. IX.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
319 
impressing a general uniformity m the aspect of life 
geographically. But the moment that climate 
arrangement has become possible, variety of 
organic form becomes possible. Now also ensues 
another all-important result-geographical dis- 
tribution. Both of plants and animals, those whoso vital 
conditions are inconsistent with the occurring change must 
retire from the affected locality. In plants this retroces- 
sion is brought to pass by the gradual sickening and 
death of individuals, or the impossibility of reproduction; 
in animals there is added thereto, because of their power 
of locomotion, voluntary retirement, at least in the case of 
individuals, and immobility in the species is corrected by 
locomotion in the individual. The affected region has 
become unsuitable, cheerless, uncomfortable; they abandon 
it; and as the boundary they thus, in the one case, can 
not, and in the other will not overpass, advances, so do 
they recede before it. If the change were abrupt, or took 
place by a sudden crisis, there would seem to be no other 
possible event than an overcrowding of the unaffected 
region and a desolation of the part that had varied. But, 
since a developing cell under a new condition produces a 
new form, and since the physical change is taking place 
with extreme slowness, the appearance of modified struc- 
tures ensues. And thus, by decline of temperature, two 
distinct results are accomplished-first the production of 
organic forms in an order of succession, new ones re- 
placing the old, as if they were transmutations of them, 
and, secondly, geographical distribution. 
In my " Physiology " I have endeavoured to explain in 
detail the principles here set forth. I have en- 
deavoured to show that the aspect of sameness 
presented by an animal or plant is no proof of 
unchangeability. Those forms retain in our times their 
special aspect because the conditions of the theatre in 
which they live do not change ; but let the mean tempe- 
rature rise, let the sun-rays become brighter, change the 
composition of the air, and forthwith the world of organi- 
zation would show how profoundly it was affected. Nor 
need such changes, in one sense, be more than insignificant 
to produce prodigious results. Thus the air contains only 
Production 
and distribu- 
tion of new 
organisms. 
Delusive na- 
ture of organic 
equilibrium. 320 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. ix. 
its volume of carbonic acid gas. That apparently 
trifling quantity taken away, in an instant the whole 
surface of the earth would become a desolate waste, without 
the possibility of vegetable life. 
As physical geology advanced, the Coal period was per- 
ceived to be the chief epoch in the history of our 
planet. Through a slow decline of temperature, 
a possibility had gradually been attained, so far as the 
condition of heat was concerned, for a luxuriant vegetable 
growth. All that prodigious mass of carbon now found in 
the earth in the various forms of coal existed as carbonic 
acid in the atmosphere. The proportion of free oxygen 
was less than at present by a volume equal to the excess * 
of carbonic acid. A change in the constitution of this 
primaeval atmosphere was occasioned by the action of the 
ligh t; for, under the influence of the sun-rays, 
plants decompose carbonic acid, appropriating 
its carbon, and, for the most part, setting the 
oxygen free. The quantity of carbon which can thus be 
condensed for the use of a plant, and, indeed, every such 
decomposing action by light, is directly proportionate to 
the quantity of light consumed, as experiments which 1 
have personally made have proved. For the production 
of so great a weight of combustible matter a very long 
period of time was necessarily required, that the sun might 
supply the necessary luminous influence. 
Age after age the sunbeams continued their work, 
ehanging the mechanical relations and composition of the 
atmosphere, the constitution of the sea, and the appear- 
ance of the surface of the earth. There was a prodigious 
growth of fems, lepidodendra, equisetacese, coniferae. The 
percentage of oxygen in the air continually increased, that 
of carbonic acid continually declined; the pressure of the 
air correspondingly diminished, partly because of the 
replacement of a heavy gas by a lighter one, and partly 
because of the general decline of temperature slowly taking 
place, which diminished the absolute volume of vapour. 
The sea, in its deepest abysses, was likewise 
affected by the sunlight; not directly, but in an 
indirect way; for, as the removal of carbonic acid from 
the atmosphere went on, portions of that gas were per- 
The Coal 
period. 
Effects of light 
on the atmo- 
sphere, 
and also on 
the sea. OH. IX.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
321 
petually surrendered by the ocean in order to maintain a 
diffusion-equilibrium between its dissolved gas and the 
free gas of the air. And now no longer could be held in 
transparent solution by the water those great quantities of 
carbonate of lime which had once been concealed in it, the 
deposit of a given weight of coal in the earth being in- 
evitably followed by the deposit of an equivalent weight 
of carbonate of lime in the sea. This might have taken 
place as an amorphous precipitate; but the probabilities 
were that it would, occur, as in fact it did, under forms of 
organization in the great limestone strata coeval with and 
posterior to the coal. The air and the ocean were thus 
suffering an invisible change through the disturbing 
agency of the sun, and the surface of the solid earth was 
likewise undergoing a more manifest, and, it may be said, 
more glorious alteration. Plants, in wild luxuriance, were 
developing themselves in the hot and dank climate, and 
the possibility was now approaching for the appearance of 
animal types very much higher than any that had yet 
existed. In the old heavy atmosphere, full of a noxious 
gas, none but slowly-respiring cold-blooded 
animals could maintain themselves; but after 
the great change in the constitution of the air 
had been accomplished, the quickly-respiring and hot- 
blooded forms might exist. Hitherto the highest advance- 
ment that animal life could reach was in batrachian and 
lizard-like organisms; yet even these were destined to 
participate in the change, increasing in magnitude and 
vital capacity. The pterodactyl of the chalk, a flying 
lizard, measures nearly seventeen feet from tip to tip of 
its wings. The air had now become suitable for mammals, 
both placental and implacental, and for birds. One after 
another, in their due order, appeared the highest verte- 
brates : marine, as the cetacean; aerial, as the bat; and in 
the terrestrial, reaching, in the Eocene, quadrumanous 
animals, but not, until after the Pliocene, man. 
Although the advance of geology may here- 
after lead to a correction of some of the con- 
clusions thus attained to respecting the first 
dates of different organic forms, and carry them 
back to more ancient times, it is scarcelv likelv that anv 
Cold-blooded 
animals suc- 
ceeded by hot. 
The date of 
organisms 
may change, 
but the order 
not. 322 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. ix. 
material modification of their order of occurrence will ever 
be made. Birds, mammals, reptiles, fishes, and inverte- 
brates may each be detected in earlier strata; even in 
some of those formations now regarded as non-fossiliferous, 
organisms may be found; but it is not at all probable that 
the preponderance of reptiles will ever cease to be the 
essential characteristic of the Secondary rocks, or that of 
mammals of the Tertiary, or that a preceding period of 
vast duration, in which the type of life had been the 
invertebrate, will ever be doubted. Nothing, probably, 
will ever be discovered to invalidate the physical con- 
clusion that, while there was an excess of carbonic acid in 
the air, the Flora would tend to be Cryptogamic and 
Gymnospermic, and that there would be a scarcity of 
monocotyledons and dicotyledonous angiosperms in the 
coal; nothing to disprove the fact that the animals were 
slow-breathing and cold-blooded; and that it was not until 
after the oxygen of the air had increased and the mean 
temperature had declined that birds made their appearance. 
Though both placental and marsupial animals may here- 
after be found earlier than in the Stonesfield slate; though 
wood and herb-eating beetles, grasshoppers, dragon-flies, 
and May-flies may be found beneath the lias, and scorpions 
and cockroaches beneath the coal, though, also beneath the 
coal, salamanders and Sauroid batrachians, of which the 
archegosaurus is an example, may occur ; though reptiles, as 
the telerpeton, may be found deeper than the old red sand- 
stone ; yet the connexion between aerial constitution and 
form of life will never be shaken. Still will remain the facts 
that the geographical distribution of types was anterior to 
the appearance of existing species ; that organisms first 
appeared in a liquid medium, primitively marine, then 
fluviatile, and at last terrestrial; that Radiates, Molluscs, 
Articulates, Vertebrates, were all at first aquatic, and that 
the Radiates have ever remained so; that the plane of 
greatest vital activity has ever been the sea-level, where the 
earth and air touch each other ; that the order of individual 
development is the order of mundane development. Still will 
remain the important conclusions that the mammalian 
Fauna has diverged more rapidly than the testaceous; that 
hot-blooded animals have not had that longevity of species CH. IX.J 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
323 
which has been displayed by the cold, just as we observe 
in the individual the possibility of muscular contraction by 
a given galvanic force lasts much longer in the latter than 
in the former; that if the hot-blooded tribes have thus a 
briefer duration, they enjoy a compensation in the greater 
energy of their life-perhaps this being the cause and that 
the effect; that, notwithstanding the countless forms 
exhibited by species, their duration is so great that they 
outlive vast changes in the topographical configuration of 
countries-the Fauna of seme countries having been in 
existence before those countries themselves ; that the plan 
of individual development has ever been as it is now, and 
that sameness of external influence produces similarity of 
organization. . 
In its early history theoretical geology presented two 
schools-one insisting on a doctrine of catas- 
trophes, one on a doctrine of uniformity. The 
former regarded those changes which have mani- 
festly taken place in the history of our planet 
as having occurred at epochs abruptly. To this doctrine 
the prevailing impression that there had been providential 
interventions lent much force. The other school, reposing 
on the great principle of the invariability of the laws of 
Nature, insisted that affairs had always gone on at the 
same rate and in the same way as they do now. Hence it 
maintained an opposition to the catastrophists, and in this, 
it may be said, was actually not true to its own principles. 
Any doctrine of uniformity, rightly considered from its 
most general point of view, includes an admission of 
catastrophes. Numerous illustrations of this truth spon- 
taneously suggest themselves. A tower, the foundations 
of which are slowly yielding, may incline more and more 
for many centuries, but the day must come in which it 
will fall at last. In the uniformity of the disturbance a 
catastrophe was eventually involved. And thus, in what 
has been said respecting geological events, though they 
are spoken of as proceeding quietly and with uniformity, 
it may be undei stood that sudden crises are also con- 
templated. Moreover, those who adopt the doctrine of 
uniformity in an absolute sense must pay a due regard to 
the variations in intensity of physical acts which their 
The doctrine 
of catastro- 
phes and uni- 
formity. 324 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. ix 
own principles imply. The uniform cooling of a hot body 
actually means a cooling at first fast, and then slower and 
slower; and invariability of chemical change actually im- 
plies more violent and summary modifications at a high 
temperature than at one which is low. 
But, though it may at first sight have appeared that an 
admission of the doctrine of catastrophes is in harmony 
with a providential government of the world, and that the 
emergence of different organic forms in successive ages is 
a manifestation of creative intervention, of which it was 
admitted that as many as from twelve to twenty, if no 
more, successive instances might be recognized, we may 
well congratulate ourselves that those important doctrines 
rest upon a far more substantial basis. Rightly considered, 
the facts lead to a very different conclusion. Physiological 
investigations have proved that all animals, even man, 
during the process of development, pass in 
succession through a definite cycle of forms. 
Starting from a simple cell, form after form, in a 
definite order is assumed. In this long line of 
advance the steps are ever, in all individuals, the same. 
But no one would surely suppose that the changed aspect 
at any moment presented is due to a providential inter- 
position. On the contrary, it is the inevitable 
result of "what has been taking place under the 
law of development, and the sure precursor of 
what is about to follow. In the organic world, the succes- 
sive orders, and genera, and species are the counterparts 
of these temporary embryonic forms of the individual. 
Indeed, we may say of those successive geological beings 
that they are mere embryos of the latest-embryos that 
had gained a power of reproduction. How shall we 
separate the history of the individual from the history of 
the whole ? Do not the fortunes and way of progress of 
the one follow the fortunes and way of progress of the 
other? If, in a transitory manner, these forms are as- 
sumed by the individual, equally in a transitory manner 
are they assumed by the race. Nor would it be philo- 
sophical to suppose that the management in the one 
instance differs from the management in the other. If the 
one is demonstrably the issue of a law in action, so must 
Successive 
forms as- 
sumed by 
man. 
But they are 
riuidly deter- 
mined by law. CH. IX.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
325 
the other be too. It does not matter that the entire cycle 
is passed through by the individual in the course of a 
few months, while in the race it demands ages. 
The standard of time that ought to be applied 
is the respective duiation of life. In man it is 
much if he attains to threescore years and ten ; 
but the entire period of human record, embracing several 
thousand years, offers not a single instance of the birth, 
maturity, and death of a species. They, therefore, who 
think they find, in the successive species that have in an 
orderly manner replaced each other in the life of the earth, 
the sure proof of Divine intervention, would do well to 
determine at what point the production of such forms by 
law ceases, and at what point their production by the 
immediate act of God begins. Their task will be as hard 
to tell where one colour in the rainbow ends and where the 
next commences. They will also do well to remember 
that, in great mundane events, the scale of time is ample, 
and that there may be no essential difference between a 
course that is run over in a few days and one that requires 
for its completion thousands of centuries. 
The co-existence of different types in the organic series 
was the incontrovertible fact by which was de- 
monstrated the gradual passage from form to 
form without catastrophes, the argument relied 
upon gathering strength from such circumstances 
as these, that even the fossil shells of the modern Italian 
tuffs which are not extinct exhibit a slight want of corre- 
spondence when compared with those now inhabiting 
the Mediterranean, some of the old ones being twice and a 
half as large as the present, and that there is a numerical 
passage from strata containing seventy per cent, of recent 
shells to those that are altogether recent, or contain one 
hundred per cent. This is manifestly indicative of a con- 
tinually changing impression bringing on a corresponding 
modelling. It is the proof of a slow merging into, or of a 
measured assumption of, the new form-a transition, for 
the completion of which probably a very long time is 
required. That the existing reindeer is found in the same 
fluviatile deposits with an extinct hippopotamus seemed 
certainly to prove that there was a condition of things in 
Individual 
and race de- 
velopment 
conducted in 
the same way. 
Catastrophes 
disproved by 
the co-exist- 
ence of types. 326 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
fen. ix. 
which the co-life of those animals was possible in the same 
locality, and that, as the physical causes slowly changed, 
the one might be eliminated and the other might be left. 
That the regulating conditions were altogether physical 
was obvious from such facts as that in the bone-caves 
of Australia all the mammals are marsupial, and in the 
pampas of South America they are allied to such forms 
as are indigenous, armadilloes, sloths, etc., showing the 
tokens of lineage or hereditary transmission. For still 
more remote times numerous instances of a similar na- 
ture were detected; thus, throughout the whole Secondary 
period, the essential characteristic was the wonderful de- 
velopment of reptile life, while in the Tertiary it was the 
development of mammals. But the appearance of mammals 
had commenced long before that of reptiles had ceased. 
Indeed, the latter event is incomplete in our times; for, 
though the marine Saurians have been almost entirely 
removed, the fluviatile and terrestrial ones maintain them- 
selves, though diminished both in species and individuals. 
Now such an overlapping of reptiles and mammals was 
altogether irreconcilable with the doctrine of a crisis or 
catastrophe, and, in fact, it demonstrated the changing 
of organisms in the changing of physical states. 
Cuvier maintained the doctrine of the permanence of 
animal species from the facts that the oldest 
known do not appear to have undergone any 
modification, and that every existing one shows 
a resistance to change. If his observations are 
restricted to periods not exceeding human history, they 
may perhaps be maintained; but that duration cannot be 
looked upon as more than a moment in the limitless pro- 
gress we are considering, and it was in this view 
that Cuvier's doctrine proved to be incapable of 
defence. What does it signify if our domestic 
animals show no variations when compared with the cor- 
responding images depicted on the hieroglyphic monuments 
of Egypt, or with the descriptions left by ancient authors ? 
Evidence of that kind is valueless. Boes the geologist 
ask of the architect his opinion whether there have ever 
been upliftings and down-sinkings of the earth? If he 
did, would not every structure in Europe be brought 
Cuvier's doc- 
trine of per- 
manence of 
species. 
Imperfection 
of evidence in 
its support. CH. IX.J 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
327 
forward as an evidence that nothing of the kind had ever 
occurred ? A leaning tower, or a church with inclining 
walls in Italy, might pass for nothing ; the Pyramids would 
testify that Egypt itself had never undergone any disturb- 
ance-they remain solid on their bases, undisturbed. But 
what is the weight of all this when placed in opposition 
with the mass of evidence offered by inclined and fractured 
strata ? And yet such is precisely the proof offered in 
behalf of the permanence of animals. The facts with which 
the zoologist deals, like those on which the architect 
depends, are insufficient for the purpose-they are wanting 
in extent of time. There have been movements in the 
crust of the earth, though every building in the world 
may be perpendicular; there have been transformations of 
organisms, though for four thousand years there may have 
been no perceptible change. 
If ever there had been a universal creation of all possible 
organic forms or combinations, forthwith vast 
numbers of them must have disappeared, every 
type being eliminated which was not in corre- 
spondence with the external conditions or with 
the medium in which it was placed. If the environment 
or the physical conditions underwent a variation, a cor- 
responding variation in the forms that could by possibility 
exist must ensue, and, from a thorough study of those not 
eliminated, the physical conditions might be ascertained ; 
and conversely, from a thorough knowledge of the phy- 
sical conditions, the forms that could escape elimination 
might be designated. The facts on which Cuvier rested 
did not demonstrate what he supposed. His immobility 
of species was no consequence of an innate or intrinsic 
resistance possessed by them, but merely an illustration 
that external physical agents had not undergone any well- 
marked variation in the time with which he was concerned. 
What is here meant by variation in physical forces or 
condition is not any intrinsic change in their 
nature, but the varied manner in which they 
may work by interfering with one another, or 
experiencing declines of intensity. From the 
fact that we may react in the fixed stars, through the pro- 
gressive motion of light, the history of a million of past 
Control of or- 
ganisms by 
physical con- 
ditions. 
Nature of 
variation of 
physical 
conditions. 328 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. ix. 
years, we may be sure that the forces of nature have under- 
gone no intrinsic change; that light was propagated at 
the same rate, was capable of producing the same optical 
and chemical effects, and varied in its intensity by distance 
as it does now; that heat determined corporeal magnitudes. 
These are things that in their nature are absolutely un- 
changeable. Always, as now, the freezing of water, and 
its boiling under a given pressure, must have been the 
same; there must have been a thermometric zero of life 
and an upward limit, no animal process ever going on 
below 32° Fahrenheit or above 212° Fahrenheit. 
But out of this invariability of natural causes variations 
in their condition of action arise, and it is these 
that affect organic forms. Of such forms, some 
become at length incapable of maintaining themselves in 
the slow progress of change; others acclimatize, or accom- 
modate, or suit themselves thereto by undergoing modi- 
fications, and this was at last discerned to be the true ex- 
planation of extinctions and appearances, events taking 
place very slowly in untold periods of time, and rather by im- 
perceptible degrees than by a sudden catastrophe or crisis. 
The doctrine of the transmutation of species has met 
with no little resistance. They who have re- 
fused to receive it as one of the truths of Na- 
ture have perhaps not given full weight to physiological 
evidence. When they ask, Ilas any one ever witnessed 
such an event as the transmutation of one species into 
another ? has any experimenter ever accomplished it by 
artificial means ? they do not take a due account .of time. 
In the Fables it is related that when the flowers were one 
evening conversing, " Our gardener," said the rose to the 
lily, " will live for ever. I have not seen any change in 
him. The tulip, who died yesterday, told me that she 
had remarked the same thing; she believed that he must 
be immortal. I am sure that he never was born." 
Two modes have been presented by which we may con- 
ceive of the influence of physical agents upon 
organic forms, d'heir long persistent action upon 
the individual may give rise to modifications, developing 
one part, stunting another; and such variations, being 
transmitted in an hereditary way, may become firmly 
Effect thereof 
on organisms. 
Transmuta- 
tion of species. 
Two modes of 
action. CH. IX.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
329 
fixed at last. Thus a given plant mqy, m the course of 
ages, under the influence of unremittingly acting physical 
conditions, undergo a permanent change, and a really new 
plant arise as soon as, through the repetitions of successive 
generations, the modifications have become so thorough, so 
profound, as to be capable of transmission with certainty. 
Perhaps this is what has taken place with many of our 
kitchen-garden plants, of which the special varieties may 
be propagated by seeds. But there is another mode by 
■which that result may be reached, even if we decline the 
doctrine of St. Augustine, who, in his work " De Civitate 
Dei," shows how islands may be peopled with animals by 
" spontaneous generation." All organic forms originally 
spring from a simple cell, the development of which, as 
indicated by the final form attained, is manifestly de- 
pendent on the physical conditions it has been exposed to 
during its course. If those conditions change, that final 
form must change correspondingly; and in this manner, 
since all organic beings come from the same starting-point 
-the same cell, as has been said, which helplessly submits 
to whatever impression may be put upon it-the issue is 
the same as though a transformation or transmutation had 
occurred, since the descendant is not like its ancestors. 
Such a manner of considering these changes is in harmony 
with our best physiological knowledge, since it does not 
limit itself to a small portion of the life of an individual, 
but embraces its whole cycle or career. For the more 
complete examination of this view I may refer to the 
second chapter of the second book of my " Physiology." 
But here has arisen the inquiry, Does the modification 
of organic forms depend exclusively on the im- 
pressions of external influences, or is it due to 
a nisus or force of development residing in the 
forms themselves? 
Whether we consider the entire organic series in its 
succession, or the progress of an individual in his de- 
velopment, the orderly course presented might seem to 
indicate that the operation is taking place under a law- 
an orderly progression being always suggestive of the 
operation of law. But a philosophical caution must, how- 
ever, be here exercised; for deceptive appearances may 
Problem of the 
modification 
of forms. 330 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. ix. 
lead, us into the error of imputing to such a law, impressed 
by the Creator on the developing organism, that which 
really belongs to external physical conditions, which, on 
their part, are following a law of their own. What is 
here meant may be illustrated, by the facts that occur on 
the habitable surface of a planet suffering a gradual de- 
cline of heat. On such a surface a succession 
of vegetable types might make its appearance, 
and, as these different types emerged or were eliminated, 
we might speak of the events as creations and extinctions, 
and therefore as the acts of God. Or, in the second place, 
we might refer them to an intrinsic force of development 
imparted to each germ, which reached in due season its 
maximum, and then declined and died out; and, com- 
paring each type with its preceding and succeeding ones, 
the interrelation might be suggested to us of the operation 
of a controlling law. Or, in the third place, we might 
look to the external physical condition-the decline of 
heat-itself taking place at a determinate rate under a 
mathematical law, and drawing in its consequences the 
organic variations observed. 
Now the first of these explanations in reality means the 
arbitrary and unchallengeable will of God, who calls into 
existence, and extinguishes according to his sovereign 
pleasure, whatever he pleases; the orderly progression wo 
notice becoming an evidence that his volitions are not 
erratic, but are according to pure reason. The second 
implies that there has been impressed upon every germ a 
law of continuous organic variation-it might have been 
through the arbitrary fiat of God. The third implies that 
the successive types owe their appearance and elimination 
to a physical influence, which is itself varying under a 
strict mathematical necessity; for the law of cooling, 
which the circumstances force on our attention, is such 
a strict mathematical necessity. 
If at this point we balance the probabilities of these 
three explanations, we shall perhaps find our- 
selves biassed toward the last, as physiologists 
have been, because of its rigorous scientific aspect, and 
should not be surprised to find it supported by an array of 
facts depending on the principle that the appearance of 
Three solu- 
tions of it. 
Their relative 
probability. CH. IX.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
331 
new forms does not observe a certain inevitable order, or 
stand in a certain relation to time. From individual de- 
velopment it might seem as if the advancing procession 
of an organism is such that specific forms ever appear in a 
certain order one after another, and at certain intervals; 
but the fallacy of such a conclusion is apparent when 
we attend to the orderly procedure of the physical condi- 
tions to which the developing organism is exposed. The 
passing through a given form at a given epoch is due to 
the relation being to space and its conditions, 
not to time. And so in the life of the earth, if 
development were according to time, we should 
have an orderly succession of grades as the earth grew 
older, and in all localities, at a given moment, the con- 
temporary organisms would be similar; but if it were 
according to space, that rigorous procedure would not 
occur; in its stead we should have a broken series, the 
affiliation being dependent on the secularly continuous 
variation of the physical condition. 
Now this was discovered to be the case. For instance, 
throughout the northern hemisphere, during the Tertiary 
period, an extinct placental Fauna was contemporaneous 
with an extinct marsupial Fauna in Australia. If the 
development was proceeding according to time, by an 
innate nisus, and not according to external influences, the 
types for the same epoch in the two hemispheres should 
be the same; if under external influences, irrespective of 
time, they should be, as they were found to be, different. 
If true-going clocks, which owe their motion to their 
own internal mechanism, were started in all countries of 
the earth at the same instant, they would strike their 
successive hours simultaneously. But sun-dials, which 
owe their indications to an exterior cause, would in dif- 
ferent longitudes tell different times, or, when the needful 
light was absent, their shadows would altogether fail. 
As to the vegetable kingdom, the principles that hold 
for the animal again apply. At a very early period, even 
before the deposit of the coal, all the distinct forms of 
vegetable tissue were in existence, and nothing to prevent, 
so far as time was concerned, their being united together 
all over the world into similar structural combinations. 
Development 
is in place, 
not in time. 332 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
|_CH. IX. 
And, in truth, as the botany of the Coal period proves, 
there was a far more extensive sameness than we see at 
present, simply because the distribution of heat was more 
uniform and climates were less marked. But from this 
point the diversity of form in climate distribution becomes 
more and more conspicuous, though we must descend, 
perhaps, as late as the Wealden before we discover any 
flowering plants, except Gymnosperms, as Conifers and 
Cycads. All this is what might be expected on the 
doctrine of external influence, but not on the doctrine of 
an innate and interior developmental force. 
If, at this stage, attention is once again turned to the 
animal kingdom, we find our opinion confirmed. The 
diminution of carbonic acid in the atmosphere, the deposit, 
of coal in the earth, the precipitation of carbonate of limo 
in the sea, the disengagement of an increased quantity of 
oxygen in the air, and the reduction of atmospheric pres- 
sure-different effects contemporaneously occurring-were 
soon followed by the consequence which they made pos- 
sible-the appearance of hot-blooded mammals. Perhaps 
those first arising might, like our hibernates, 
lead a sluggish existence, with imperfect respi- 
ration ; but, as the media improved and the 
temperature declined, more vigorous forms of life emerged, 
though we have probably to descend to the Tertiary epoch 
before we meet with birds, which of all animals have 
the most energetic respiration, arid possess the highest 
heat. 
As with the atmosphere, so with the sea. Variations in 
its composition must control the organisms it 
contains. With its saline constituents its life 
must change. Before the sunlight had removed from the 
atmosphere so much of its carbonic acid, decomposing it 
through the agency of plants, the weight of carbonate 
of lime held in solution by the highly carbonated water 
was far greater than was subsequently possible, and the 
occurrence of limestone became a necessary event. With 
such a disturbance in the composition of the sea-water, its 
inhabiting organisms were necessarily disturbed. And so 
again, subsequently, when the solar heat began to pre- 
ponderate on the surface over the subsiding interior heat, 
Cold and hot- 
btooded ani- 
mals. 
Theorganisms 
of the sea. CH. I-Xd 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
333 
the constitution of the sea-water, as respects its salinity, 
was altered through difference of evaporation in different 
latitudes, an effect inevitably making a profound impres- 
sion on marine animal life. 
Supported by the facts that have been mentioned re- 
specting the later fossils of Australia and Brazil, 
and their analogy to forms now existing in those 
countries, much stress was laid on the hereditary 
transmission of structure, and hence the inference was 
drawn that such examples are of a mixed nature, depending 
in part on external agency, in part on an interior develop- 
mental force. From marsupial animals, marsupials will 
issue; from placental ones, those that are placental. But 
here, perhaps, an illustration drawn from the inorganic 
kingdom may not be without interest and use. Two pieces 
of carbonate of lime may be rolling among the pebbles 
at the bottom of a brook, one perpetually splitting into 
rhomboids, the other into arragonitic prisms. The frag- 
ments differ from one another not only thus in their 
crystalline form, but in their physical qualities, as density 
and hardness, and in their optical qualities also. We 
might say that the calc-spar crystals gave birth to calc- 
spar crystals, and the arragonitic to arragonite; we might 
admit that there is an interior propensity, an intrinsic 
tendency to produce that result, just as we say that there 
is a tendency in the marsupial to engender a marsupial; 
but if, in our illustration, we look for the cause of-that 
cause, we find it in a physical impression long antecedently 
made, that the carbonate of lime, crystallizing at 212° Fahr., 
produces arragonite, and, at a lower temperature, calc- 
spar ; and that the physical impression thus accomplished, 
though it may have been thousands of years ago, was 
never cast oft', but perpetually manifested itself in all the 
future history of the two samples. That which we some- 
times speak of as hereditary transmission, and refer to an 
interior property, peculiarity, or force, may bo nothing 
more than the manifestation of a physical impression 
long antecedently made. 
In the last place, the idea of an intrinsic force of 
development is in connexion with time and a progres- 
sion, and only comes into prominence when we examine a 
Nature of 
hereditary- 
transmission. 334 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[cir. ix. 
limited portion or number of the things under considera- 
tion. The earth, though very beautiful, is very far from 
being perfect. The plants and animals we see 
are only the wrecks of a broken series, an in- 
complete, and, therefore, unworthy testimonial of the 
Almighty power. We should judge very inadequately of 
some great author if only here and there a fragmentary 
paragraph of his work remained; and so, in the book of 
organization, we must combine what is left with what we 
can recover from past ages and buried strata before wo 
can rise to a comprehension of the grand argument, and 
intelligibly grasp the whole work. 
Of that book it is immaterial to what page we turn. It 
tells us of effects of such magnitude as imply 
prodigiously long periods of time for their 
accomplishment. Its moments look to us as if 
they were eternities. What shall we say when we read in 
it that there are fossiliferous rocks which have been slowly 
raised ten thousand feet above the level of the sea so lately 
as since the commencement of the Tertiary times; that 
the Purbeck beds of the upper oolite are in themselves the 
memorials of an enormous lapse of time; that, since a 
forest in a thousand years can scarce produce more than two 
or three feet of vegetable soil, each dirt-bed is the work of 
hundreds of centuries. What shall we say when it tells 
us that the delta of the Mississippi could only be formed 
in many tens of thousands of years, and yet that is only 
as yesterday when compared with the date of the inland 
terraces ; that the recession of the Falls of Niagara from 
Queenstown to the present site consumed thirty thousand 
years ; that if the depression of the carboniferous strata of 
Nova Scotia took place at the rate of four feet in a century, 
there were demanded 375,000 years for its completion-- 
such a movement in the upward direction would have 
raised Mont Blanc ; that it would take as great a river as 
the Mississippi two millions of years to convey into the 
Gulf of Mexico as much sediment as is found in those 
strata. Such statements may appear to us, who with 
difficulty shake off the absurdities of the patristic chrono- 
logy, wild and impossible to be maintained, and yet they 
are the conclusions that the most learned and profound 
The broken 
organic chain. 
Enormous 
age of the 
earth. CH. IX.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
335 
geologists draw from their reading of the Book of 
Nature. 
Thus, as respects the age of the earth and her relations 
in time, we approach the doctrine of Orientals, 
who long ago ascertained that the scales of time 
and of space correspond to each other. More 
fortunate than we, they had but one point of resistance to 
encounter, but that resistance they met with dissimulation, 
and not in an open way. They attempted to conceal the 
tendency of their doctrine by allying or affiliating it with 
detected errors. According to their national superstition, 
the earth is supported on the back of an elephant, and this 
on a succession of animals, the last of which is a tortoise. 
It is not to be supposed that the Brahmans, who wrote 
commentaries on the Surya Siddhanta, should for a moment 
have accepted these preposterous delusions-that was im- 
possible for such great geometers; yet led, perhaps, by a 
wish to do nothing that might disturb public feeling, 
they engaged in the hopeless task of showing that their 
profound philosophical discoveries were not inconsistent 
with the ancient traditions ; that a globular and revolving 
earth might be sustained on a descending succession of 
supporting beasts. But they had the signal advantage 
over us that those popular traditions conceded to them 
that limitless time for which we have had to struggle. 
The progression of life on the surface of our planet is 
under the guidance of pre-ordained and resistless 
law-it is affiliated with material and corre- 
spondingly changing conditions. It suggests that the suc- 
cession of organic forms which, in a due series, the earth's 
surface in the long lapse of time has presented, is the 
counterpart of a like progress which other planets in the 
solar system exhibit in myriads of years, and leads us to 
the conception of the rise, development, and extinction of 
a multiplicity of such living forms in other systems- 
a march of life through the universe, and its passing 
away. 
Magnitudes and times, therefore, go parallel with one 
another. With the abandonment of the geocentric theory, 
and of the doctrine of the human destiny of the universe, 
have vanished the unworthy hypotheses of the recent date 
Summary as 
respects the 
world in time. 
The life of the 
universe. 336 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. IX. 
of creation and the approaching end of all things. In 
their stead are substituted more noble ideas. 
The multiplicity of worlds in infinite space leads 
to the conception of a succession of worlds in 
infinite time. This existing universe, with all 
its splendours, had a beginning, and will have an end ; it 
had its predecessors, and will have its successors ; but its 
march through all its transformations is under the control 
of laws as unchangeable as destiny. Asa cloud, which is 
composed of myriads of separate and isolated spherules 
of water, so minute as to be individually invisible, on a 
summer's afternoon changes its aspect and form, disap- 
pearing from the sky, and being replaced in succeeding 
hours hy other clouds of a different aspect and shape, so 
the universe, which is a cloud of suns and worlds, changes 
in the immensity of time its form and fashion, and that 
which is contemporary with us is only an example of 
countless combinations of a like kind, which in ancient 
times have one after another vanished away. In periods 
yet to come the endless succession of metamorphoses will 
still go on, a series of universes to which there is no end. 
Multiplicity 
of worlds im- 
plies succes- 
sion of worlds. CHAPTER X. 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON-(Continued), 
THE NATURE AND RELATIONS OF MAN. 
Position of Man according to the Heliocentric and Geocentric Theories. 
Or Animal Life.-The transitory Nature of living Forms.-Relations 
of Plants and Animals.-Animals are Aggregates of Matter expending 
Force originally derived from the Sun. 
The Organic Series.-Man a Member of it. -His Position determined 
by Anatomical and Physiological Investigation of his Nervous System.- 
Its triple Forms: Automatic, Instinctive, Intellectual. 
The same progressive Development is seen in individual Man, in the 
entire animal Series, and in the Life of the Globe.-They are all under 
the Control of an eternal, universal, irresistible Law. 
The Aim of Nature is intellectual Development, and human Institutions 
must conform thereto. 
Summary of the Investigation of the Position of Man.-Production of 
Inorganic and Organic Forms by the Sun.-Nature of Animals and 
their Series.-Analogies and Differences between them and Man.-The 
Soul.- The World. 
Whex the ancient doctrine of the plurality of worlds was 
restored by Bruno, Galileo, and other modern 
astronomers, the resistance it encountered was 
mainly owing to its anticipated bearing on the 
nature and relations of man. It was said, if 
round our sun, as a centre, there revolve so many plane- 
tary bodies, experiencing the changes of summer and 
winter, day and night-bodies illuminated by satellites, 
and perhaps enjoying twilight and other benefits such as 
have been conferred on the earth-shall we not consider 
them the abodes of accountable, perhaps of sinful, beings 
like ourselves? Nay, more; if each of the innumerable 
fixed stars is,, as our sun, a central focus of light, attended 
The apparent 
position of 
man on the 
heliocentric 
theory. 338 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[cn. x. 
by dark and revolving globes, is it not necessary to admit 
that they also have their inhabitants ? But among so 
many families of intelligent beings, how is it that we, the 
denizens of an insignificant speck, have alone been found 
worthy of God's regard ? 
It was this reasoning that sustained the geocentric 
theory, and made the earth the centre of the universe, the 
most noble of created things ; the sun, the moon, the stars, 
being only ministers for the service of man. 
But, like many other objections urged in that memorable 
conflict, this was founded on a misconception, 
or, rather, on imperfect knowledge. There may 
be an infinity of worlds placed under the me- 
chanical relations alluded to, but there may not 
be one among them that can be the abode of life. The 
physical conditions under which organization is possible 
are so numerous and so strictly limited that the chances 
are millions to one against their conjoint occurrence. 
In a religious point of view, we are greatly indebted to 
Geology for the light it has cast on this objec- 
tion. It has taught us that during inconceivable 
lapses of time our earth itself contained no living 
thing. These were those preorganic ages to which refer- 
ence was made in the last chapter. Then by slow degrees, 
as a possibility for existence occurred, there gradually 
emerged one type after another. It is but as yesterday 
that the life of man could be maintained. 
Only in the presence of special physical conditions can 
an animal exist. Even then it is essentially 
ephemeral. The life of it, as a whole, depends 
on the death of its integrant parts. In a water- 
fall, which maintains its place and appearance unchanged 
for many years, the constituent portions that have been 
precipitated headlong glide finally and for ever away. For 
the transitory matter to exhibit a permanent form, it is 
necessary that there should be a perpetual supply and also 
a perpetual removal. So long as the jutting ledge over 
which the waters rush, and the broken gulf below that 
receives them, remain unchanged, the cataract presents the 
same appearance. But variations in them mould it into a 
new shape; its colour changes with a clear or cloudy 
The fallacy 
of objections 
to that the- 
ory. 
Evidence 
furnished by 
Geology. 
The transitory 
nature of 
living forms, CH. X.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
339 
sky; the rainbow seen in its spray disappears when tho 
beams of the snn are withdrawn. 
So in that collection of substance which constitutes an 
animal; whatever may be its position, high or low, in the 
realm of life, there is a perpetual introduction of new 
material and a perpetual departure of the old. It is a 
form, rather than an individual, that we see. Its per- 
manence altogether depends on the permanence of the 
external conditions. If they change, it also changes, and 
a new form is the result. 
An animal is therefore a form through which material 
substance is visibly passing and suffering trans- 
mutation into new products. In that act of 
transmutation force is disengaged. That which 
we call its life is the display of the manner in which the 
force thus disengaged is expended. 
A scientific examination of animal life must include two 
primary facts. It must consider whence and Matterand 
in what manner the stream of material substance force- 
has been derived, in what manner and whither it passes 
away. And, since force can not be created from nothing, 
and is in its very nature indestructible, it must determine 
from what source that which is displayed by animals has 
been obtained, in what manner it is employed, and what 
disposal is made of it eventually. 
The force thus expended is originally derived from the 
sun. Plants are the intermedium for its con- 
veyance. The inorganic material of a saline na- 
ture entering into their constitution is obtained 
from the soil in which they grow, as is also, for the most 
part, the water they require; but their organic substance 
is derived from the surrounding atmosphere, and hence it 
is strictly true that they are condensations from the air. 
These statements may be sufficiently illustrated, and the 
relation between plants and animals shown, by 
tracing the course of any one of the ingredients 
entering into the vegetable composition, and de- 
rived, as has been said, from the air. For this 
purpose, if we select their chief solid clement, carbon, the 
remarks applicable to the course it follows will hold good 
for other accompanying elements. It is scarcely necessary 
Characteris- 
tics of animal 
life. 
Force is de- 
rived from 
the sun. 
Mode in which 
plants obtain 
material 
substance. 340 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. x. 
to embarrass the brief exposition of vegetable life now to 
be given by any historical details, since these will come 
with more propriety subsequently. It is sufficient to 
mention that the chemical explanations of vegetable 
physiology rest essentially on the discovery of oxygen 
gas by Priestley, of the constitution of carbonic acid by 
Lavoisier, and of water by Cavendish and Watt. 
While the sun is shining, the green parts of plants, 
especially the leaves, decompose carbonic acid, 
one of the ingredients of the atmospheric air. 
This substance is composed of two elem nts, 
carbon and oxygen; the former is appropriated by the 
plant, and enters into the composition of elaborated or 
descending sap, from which forthwith organic products, 
such as starch, sugar, wood fibre, acids, and bases are 
made. The other element, the oxygen, is for the most part 
refused by the plant, and returns to the air. As the 
process of decomposition goes on, new portions of carbonic 
acid are presented through mechanical movements, the 
trembling of the leaf, breezes, and currents rising from the 
foliage warmed by the solar beams giving place to other 
cool currents that set in below. 
The action of a plant upon the air is therefore the 
separation of combustible material from that medium. 
Carbon is thus obtained from carbonic acid; from water, 
hydrogen. Plant life is chemically an operation of re- 
duction, foi' in like manner ammonia is decomposed into 
its constituents, which are nitrogen and hydrogen; and 
sulphuric and phosphoric acids, which like ammonia, may 
have been brought into the plant through its roots in the 
form of salt bodies, are made to yield up the oxygen with 
which they had been combined, and their sulphur and 
phosphorus, combustible elements, are appropriated. 
Every plant, from the humblest moss to the oak of a 
thousand years, is thus formed by the sun from 
material obtained from the air-combustible 
material once united with oxygen, but now 
separated from that body. It is of especial 
importance to remark that in this act of decomposition, 
force, under the form of light, has disappeared, and become 
incorporated with the combustible, the organizing material. 
Action of a 
plant on the 
air. 
Composition 
and resolution 
of matter and 
force. CH. X.J 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
341 
This force is surrendered again, or reappears whenever the 
converse operation, combination with oxygen, occurs. 
Vegetable products thus constitute a magazine in which 
force is stored up and preserved for any assignable time. 
Hence they are adapted for animal food and for the pro- 
curing of warmth. The heat evolved in the combustion 
of coal in domestic economy was originally light from the 
sun appropriated by plants in the Secondary geological 
times, and locked up for untold ages. The sun is also the 
source from which was derived the light obtained in all oui' 
art'Scial operations of burning gas, oil, fat, wax, for the 
purposes of illumination. 
My own experiments have proved that it is the light of 
the sun, in contradistinction to the heat, which 
occasions the decomposition of carbonic acid, 
furnishing carbon to plants and oxygen to the 
atmosphere. But such is the relation of the so-called 
imponderable principles of chemistry to each other, and 
their mutual convertibility, that that which has disap- 
peared in performing its function as light may reappear as 
heat or electricity, or in the production of some mechanical 
effect. 
Food is used by all animals for the sake of the force it 
thus contains, the remark applying to the car- The nature of 
nivora as well as the herbivora. In both cases fuOd- 
the source of supply is the vegetable kingdom, indirectly 
or directly. The plant is thus indispensable to the animal. 
It is the collector and preserver of that force the expendi- 
ture of which constitutes the special display of animal life. 
From this point of view, animals must therefore be 
considered as machines, in which force obtained as has 
been described, is utilized. The food they take, or the 
tissue that has been formed from it, is acted upon by the 
air they breathe, and undergoes partial or total oxydation, 
and now emerges again, in part as heat in part as nerve- 
force, in some few instances in part as light or electricity, 
the force that originally came from the sun. 
There is, therefore, a cycle or revolution 
through which material particles suitable for 
organization incessantly run. At one moment 
they exist as inorganic combinations in the air or the soil. 
Correlation 
of physical 
forces. 
Cycle through 
which matter 
and force 
pass. 342 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. x. 
then as portions of plants, then as portions of animals, 
then they return to the air or soil again to renew their 
cycle of movement. The metamorphoses feigned by the 
poets of antiquity have hence a foundation in fact, and the 
vegetable and animal, the organic and inorganic worlds are 
indissolubly bound together. Plants are reducing, animals 
oxydizing, machines. Plants form, animals destroy. 
Thus, by the light of the sun, the carbonic acid of the 
atmosphere is decomposed-its oxygen is set free, its carbon 
furnished to plants. The products obtained serve for the 
food of animals, and in their systems the carbon is re- 
oxydized by the air they respire, and, resuming the con- 
dition of carbonic acid, is thrown back into the atmo- 
sphere in the breath, ready to bo decomposed by the 
sunlight once more, and run through the same cycle of 
changes again. The growth of a plant and the respiration 
of an animal are dependent on each other. 
Material particles arc thus the vehicles of force. They 
undergo no destruction. Chemically speaking, 
they are eternal. And so, likewise, force never 
deteriorates or becomes lessened. It may as- 
sume new phases, but it is always intrinsically 
unimpaired. The only changes it can exhibit are those 
of aspect and of distribution ; of aspect, as electricity, 
affinity, light, heat; of distribution, as when the diffused 
aggregate of many sunbeams is concentrated in one animal 
form. 
It is but little that we know respecting the mutations 
and distribution of force in the universe. We cannot tell 
what becomes of that which has characterized animal life, 
though of its perpetuity we may be assured. It has no 
more been destroyed than the malerial particles of which 
such animals consist. They have been transmuted into 
new forms-it has taken on a new aspect. The sum total 
of matter in the world is invariable; so, likewise, is the 
sum total of force. 
These conclusions resemble in many respects those of the 
philosophy of Averroes, but they are free from 
the heresy which led the Lateran Council, under 
Leo X., to condemn the doctrines of the great Spanish 
Mohammedan. The error of Averroes consisted in this, 
The duration 
of matter and 
imperish- 
ability of 
force. 
Theory of 
Averroes. CH. X.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
343 
that he confounded what is here spoken of under the 
designation of force with the psychical principle, and 
erroneously applied that which is true for animals to the 
case of man, who is to be considered as consisting of three 
essentially distinct parts-a material body, upon which 
operate various physical forces, guided and controlled by 
an intelligent soul. 
In the following paragraphs the distinction here made 
is brought into more striking relief. 
The station of any animal in the organic series may be 
determined from the condition of its nervous 
system. To this observation man himself is not 
an exception. Indeed, just views of his position 
in the world, of the nature of his intellect and 
mental operations, can not be obtained except from the 
solid support afforded by Anatomy. The reader has 
doubtless remarked that, in the historical sketch of the 
later progress of Europe given in this book, I 
have not referred to metaphysics, or psychology, 
or mental philosophy. Cultivated as they have 
been, it was not possible for them to yield any 
other result than they did among the Greeks. A lever 
is no mechanical power unless it has a material point of 
support. It is only through the physical that the 
metaphysical can be discovered. 
An exposition of the structure, the physical forces, and 
the intellectual operations of man must be 
founded on anatomy. We can only determine 
the methods of action from the study of the 
mechanism, and the right interpretation of that 
mechanism can only be ascertained from the construction 
of its parts, from observations of the manner in which 
they are developed, from comparisons with similar struc- 
tures in other animals, not rejecting even the lowest, and 
from an investigation of their habits and peculiarities. 
Believing that, in the present state of science, doctrines in 
psychology, unless they are sustained by evidence derived 
from anatomy and physiology, are not to be relied on, I 
have not thought it necessary to devote much space to 
their introduction. They have not taken a part in the 
recent advances of humanity. They belong to an earlier 
Anatomical 
mode of deter- 
mining posi- 
tion in the 
animal series. 
The useless- 
ness of the 
metaphysical 
sciences. 
Necessity of 
resorting to 
Anatomy and 
Physiology. 344 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. x. 
social period, and are an anachronism in ours. I have 
referred to these points heretofore in my work on Physio- 
logy, and perhaps shall be excused the following extract: 
" The study of this portion of the mechanism of man 
brings us therefore in contact with metaphysical science, 
and some of its fundamental dogmas we have to consider. 
Nearly all philosophers who have cultivated in recent 
times that branch of knowledge, have viewed with appre- 
hension the rapid advances of physiology, foreseeing that 
it would attempt the final solution of problems 
which have exercised the ingenuity of the last 
twenty centuries. In this they are not mistaken. 
Certainly it is desirable that some new method should be 
introduced, which may give point and precision to whatever 
metaphysical truths exist, and enable us to distinguish, 
separate, and dismiss what are only vain and empty specu- 
lations. 
" So far from philosophy being a forbidden domain to 
the physiologist, it may be asserted that the time has now 
come when no one is entitled to express an 
opinion in philosophy unless he has first studied 
physiology. It has hitherto been to the detriment of truth 
that these processes of positive investigation have been 
repudiated. If from the construction of the human brain 
we may demonstrate the existence of a soul, is not that a 
gain ? for there are many who are open to arguments of 
this class on whom speculative reasoning or a mere dictum 
falls without any weight. Why should we cast aside the 
solid facts presented to us by material objects? In his 
communications throughout the universe with us, God ever 
materializes. lie equally speaks to us through the thou- 
sand graceful organic forms scattered in profusion over 
the surface of the earth, and through the motions and 
appearances presented by the celestial orbs. Our noblest 
and. clearest conceptions of his attributes have been ob- 
tained from these material things. I am persuaded that 
the only possible route to truth in mental philosophy is 
through a study of the nervous mechanism. The experience 
of 2500 years, and the writings of the great metaphysicians 
attest, with a melancholy emphasis, the vanity of all other 
means. 
Solution of 
psychological 
questions. 
Uncertaintyof 
metaphysics. CH. X.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
345 
" Whatever may be said by speculative philosophers to 
the contrary, the advancement of metaphysics is through 
the study of physiology. What sort of a science would 
optics have been among men who had purposely put out 
their own. eyes ? What would have been the progress of 
astronomy among those who disdained to look at the 
heavens? Yet such is the preposterous course followed by 
the so-called philosophers. They have given us imposing 
doctrines of the nature and attributes of the mind in ab- 
solute ignorance of its material substratum. Of the great 
authors who have thus succeeded one another in ephemeral 
celebrity, how many made themselves acquainted with the 
structure of the human brain ? Doubtless some 
had been so unfortunate as never to see one! Yet 
that wonderful organ was the basis of all their 
speculations. In voluntarily isolating them- 
selves from every solid fact which might serve to be a 
landmark to them, they may be truly said to have sailed 
upon a shoreless sea from which the fog never lifts. The 
only fact they teach us with certainty is, that they know 
nothing with certainty. It is the inherent difficulty of 
their method that it must lead to unsubstantial results. 
What is not founded on a material substratum is necessarily 
a castle in the air." 
Considering thus that scientific views of the nature of 
man can only be obtained from an examination 
of his nervous system, and that the right inter- 
pretation of the manner of action of that system 
depends on the guiding light of comparative 
anatomy and physiology, I shall, in the following ex- 
position, present the progress of discovery on those 
principles. 
In those low tribes of life which show the first indica- 
tions of a nervous system, its operation is purely 
mechanical. An external impression, as a touch, 
made upon animals of that kind, is instantly 
answered to by a motion which they execute, 
and this without any manifestation of will or conscious- 
ness. The phenomenon is exactly of the same kind as in a 
machine of which, if a given lever is touched, a motion is 
instantly produced. 
Necessity of 
the interpre- 
tation of 
structure. 
Intellectual 
relations of 
man depend 
on his nervous 
system. 
The rudimen- 
tary nervous 
system is 
automatic. 346 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. x. 
In any nervous system there are two portions anatomi- 
cally distinct. They are, 1st, the fibrous; 2d, 
the vesicular. It may be desirable to describe 
briefly the construction and functions of each 
of these portions. Their conjoint action will 
then be intelligible. 
1st. A nerve fibre consists essentially of a delicate thread 
-the axis filament, as it is called-enveloped 
in an oil-like substance, which coagulates or 
congeals after death. This, in its turn, is inclosed in a 
thin investing sheath or membranous tube. Many such 
fibres bound together constitute a nerve. 
The function of such a nerve fibre is indisputably alto- 
gether of a physical kind, being the conveyance 
of influences from part to part. The axis 
filament is the line along which the translation 
occurs, the investing material being for the purpose of 
confining or insulating it, so as to prevent any lateral 
escape. Such a construction is the exact counterpart of 
many electrical contrivances, in which a metallic wire is 
coated over with sealing-wax or wrapped round with silk, 
the current being thus compelled to move in the wire 
without any lateral escape. Of such fibres, some convey 
their influences to the interior, and hence are called cen- 
tripetal ; some convey them to the exterior, and hence 
are called centrifugal. No anatomical difference in the 
structure of the two has, however, thus far been discovered. 
As in a conducting wire the electrical current moves in a 
progressive manner with a definite velocity, so in a nerve 
filament the influence advances progressively at a rate 
said to be dependent on the temperature of the animal 
examined. It seems in the cold-blooded to be much slower 
than in the hot. It has been estimated in the frog at 
eighty-five feet per second; in man at two hundred feet- 
an estimate probably too low. 
The fibres thus described are of the kind designated by 
physiologists as the cercbro-spinal; there are others, passing 
under the name of the sympathetic, characterized by not 
possessing the investing medullary substance. In colour 
they are yellowish-gray; but it is not necessary here to 
consider them further. 
Two elemen- 
tary forms of 
nerve struc- 
ture. 
Structure of a 
nerve fibre. 
Function of a 
nerve fibre is 
conduction. CH. X.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
347 
2nd. The other portion of the nervous structure is the 
vesicular. As its name imports, it consists of 
vesicles filled with a gray granular material. 
Each vesicle has a thickened spot or nucleus upon it, and 
appears to be connected with one or more fibres. If the 
connexion is only with one, the vesicle is called unipolar; 
if with two, bipolar ; if with many, multipolar or stellate. 
Every vesicle is abundantly supplied with blood. 
As might be inferred from its structure, the vesicle differs 
altogether from the fibre in function. I may 
refer to my " Physiology " for the reasons which 
have led to the inference that these are contrivances for 
the purposes of permitting influences that have been trans- 
lated along or confined within the fibre to escape and 
diffuse themselves in the gray granular material. They 
also permit influences that are coming through many 
different channels into a multipolar vesicle to communicate 
or mix with one another, and combine to produce new 
results. Moreover, in them influences may be long pre- 
served, and thus they become magazines of force. Combined 
together, they constitute ganglia or nerve centres, on 
which, if impressions be made, they do not necessarily 
forthwith die out, but may remain gradually declining 
away for a long time. Thus is introduced into the nervous 
mechanism the element of time, and this important function 
of the nerve vesicle lies at the basis of memory. 
It has been said that the vesicular portion of the nerve 
mechanism is copiously supplied with blood. Indeed, the 
condition indispensably necessary for its functional activity 
is waste by oxydation. Arterial vessels are abundantly 
furnished to insure the necessary supply of 
aerated blood, and veins to carry away the 
wasted products of decay. Also, through the 
former, the necessary materials for repair and 
renovation are brought. There is a definite waste of 
nervous substance in the production of a definite mechanical 
or intellectual result-a material connexion and condition 
that must never be overlooked. Hence it is plain that 
unless the repair and the waste are synchronously equal 
to one another, periodicities in the action of the nervous 
system will arise, this being the fundamental condition 
Structure of a 
nerve vesicle. 
Function of a 
nerve vesicle; 
Physiological 
condition of 
nerve action 
is nerve waste. 348 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[CH. X. 
connected with the physical theories of sleep and 
fatigue. 
The statements here made rest upon two distinct forms 
of evidence. In part they are derived from an interpreta- 
tion of anatomical structure, and in part from direct 
experiment, chiefly by the aid of feeble electrical cur- 
rents. The registering or preserving action displayed by a 
ganglion may be considered as an effect, resembling that 
of the construction known as Ritter's secondary piles. 
It will not suit my purpose to offer more than the 
simplest illustration of the application of the foregoing 
facts. When an impression, either by pressure or in any 
other way, is made on the exterior termination of a 
centripetal fibre, the influence is conveyed with a velocity 
such as has been mentioned into the vesicle to which that 
fibre is attached, and thence, going forth along 
the centrifugal fibre, may give rise to motion 
through contraction of the muscle to which that 
fibre is distributed. An impression has thus produced a 
motion, and to the operation the designation of reflexion 
is commonly given. This reflexion takes place without 
consciousness. The three parts-the centripetal fibre, the 
vesicle, and the centrifugal fibre -conjointly constitute a 
simple nervous arc. 
A repetition of these arcs, each precisely like all the 
others, constitutes the first step toward a complex 
nervous system. Their manner of arrangement 
is necessarily subordinated to the general plan 
of construction of the animals in which they 
occur. Thus, in the Radiates it is circular; in the 
Articulates, linear, or upon an axis. But, as the conditions 
of life require consentaneousness of motion in the different 
parts, these nerve arcs are not left isolated or without 
connexion with each other. As it is anatomically termed, 
they are commissured, nerve fibres passing from each to 
its neighbours, and each is thus brought into sympathy or 
connexion with all the others. 
The next advance is a very important one, for it indicates 
the-general plan on which the nervous system 
is to be developed: it is the dedication of 
special nerve arcs to special duties. Thus, in 
Reflex action 
of the ner- 
vous system. 
Gradual com- 
plexity of the 
nervous sys- 
tem. 
First appear- 
ance of spe- 
cial ganglia. CH. X.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
349 
the higher articulates and molluscs, there are such combi- 
nations expressly for the purpose of respiration and deglu- 
tition. Their action is altogether of the reflex kind; it 
takes place without consciousness. These ganglia are com- 
missured for the sake of sympathetic action, and frequently 
several of them are coalesced for the sake of package. 
1 his principle of dedication to special uses is carried out 
in the introduction of ganglia intended to be affected by 
light, or sounds, or odours. The impressions of those 
agencies are carried to the ganglion by its centripetal 
fibres. Such ganglia of special action are most commonly 
coalesced together, forming nervous masses of conspicuous 
size; they are always commissured with those for ordinary 
motions, the action being reflex, as in the preceding case, 
though of a higher order, since it is attended with con- 
sciousness. 
Such being the elementary construction of a nervous 
system, it is plain that animal tribes in which 
it exists in no higher degree of complexity must 
be merely automata. In this remark many 
insects must be included, for the instinct they display is 
altogether of a mechanical kind, and, so far as they are 
concerned, without design. Their actions are uniformly 
alike; what one does under given circumstances, under 
the same circumstances another will certainly do. They 
are incapable of education, they learn nothing by experi- 
ence, and the acts they are engaged in they accomplish as 
well at the first trial as ever after. 
Of parts like those described, and of others of a higher 
order, as will be presently seen, the most complex nervous 
system, even that of man, is composed. It 
might, perhaps, be expected that for the deter- 
mination of the duty of each part of such 
complex system the physiologist must necessarily 
resort to experiment, observing what functions have been 
injured or destroyed when given portions have been 
removed by his knife. At the best, however, evidence 
of that kind must be very unsatisfactory on account of 
the shock the entire system receives in vivisections, 
and accordingly, artificial evidence can, for the most part, 
be used only in a corroborative way. But, as Cuvier 
They are 
automatic 
mechanisms. 
Evidence to 
be used in 
these investi- 
gations. 350 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. x. 
observed, the hand of Nature has prepared for us these very 
experiments without that drawback. The animal series, 
as we advance upward from its lowest members, proves to 
us what is the effect of the addition of new parts in 
succession to a nervous system, as also does any individual 
thereof in its successive periods of development. It is one 
of the most important discoveries of modern physiology 
that, as respects their nervous system, we can safely 
transfer our reasonings and conclusions from the case of 
the lowest to that of the highest animal tribes. 
The articulata present structures and a mode of action 
illustrating in a striking manner the nervous system of man. 
Lengthwise upon their ventral region is laid a double 
cord, with ganglia, like a string of beads; sometimes 
the cords are a little distance apart, but more generally 
they are coalesced, each pair of ganglia being 
fused into one. To every segment of the body 
a pair is supplied, each pair controlling its own 
segment, and acting toward it automatically, 
each also acting like any of the others. But in the region 
of the head there is a special pair, the cephalic ganglia, 
receiving fibres from the eyes and other organs of sense. 
From them proceed filaments to the ventral cord, establish- 
ing communications with every segment. So every part 
has two connexions, one with its own ventral ganglia, and 
one with the cephalic. 
It is not difficult to determine experimentally the func- 
tions of the ventral ganglia and those of the cephalic. 
If a centipede be decapitated, its body is still capable of 
moving, the motion being evidently of a reflex kind, 
originating in the pressure of the legs against the surface 
on which they rest. The ventral cord, with its 
ganglia, is hence purely an automatic mechanism. 
But if, in making the decapitation, we leave a 
portion of the body in connexion with the head, 
we recognize very plainly that the cephalic ganglia are 
exercising a governing power. In the part from which 
they have been cut off the movement is forward, regardless 
of any obstacle; in that to which they are attached there 
are modifications in the motions, depending on sight or 
other special senses; obstacles are avoided, and a variety 
First intro- 
duction of 
governing 
ganglia. 
But thus far 
actions are 
only instinc- 
tive. CH. X.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
351 
of directions pursued. Yet still the actions are not in- 
telligent, only instinctive. The general conclusion there- 
fore is, that the cephalic ganglia are of a higher order 
than the ventral, the latter being simply mechanical, the 
former instinctive; but thus far there is no trace of intel- 
ligence. 
In man these typical parts are all present, and discharge 
the functions specified. His spinal cord answers 
to the ventral cord of the articulates. It has its 
lateral communications in the same way, and 
each segmental portion presents the same reflex action. 
Toward its upper part it dilates to form the medulla 
oblongata, sending forth nerves for respiration and deglu- 
tition. Of these the action is still reflex, as is proved by 
the involuntary movements of respiration and deglutition. 
A portion of food being placed in the pharynx, 
contraction instantly occurs, the will having 
no kind of control over the act of swallowing. 
Above or in front of this enlargement is a series of ganglia, 
to which converge the nerves of special sense-of hearing-, 
sight, smell; these are, therefore, the equivalents 
of the cephalic ganglia of insects, their function 
being also the same. In the lowest vertebrates, 
as in the amphioxus, the nervous system consists of 
nothing more. It may therefore be said to have only two 
parts-the cord and the sensory ganglia, and to have two 
functions-the automatic, attributable to the former, and 
the instinctive, attributable to the latter. 
But as we advance from the low vertebrates upward in 
the animal scale, we begin to detect new organs; on the 
medulla oblongata a cerebellum, and on the 
sensory ganglia a cerebrum. From this moment 
the animal displays reasoning powers, its intel- 
ligence becoming more strikingly marked as the develop- 
ment of the new organs is greater. 
It remains to determine with exactness the function of 
one of these new parts, the cerebrum; the other 
portion, the cerebellum, being of minor interest, 
and connected, probably, with the locomotive apparatus. 
For the same reason it is unnecessary to speak of the 
sympathetic nerve, since it belongs to the apparatus of 
Nervous ana- 
tomy of verte- 
brates, as man. 
Their auto- 
matic appa- 
ratus. 
Their instinc- 
tive appara- 
tus. 
Their intel- 
lectual appa- 
ratus. 
Functions of 
the brain. 352 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[CH. X. 
organic life. Confining our attention, therefore, to the 
true brain, or cerebrum, we soon recognize that the intel- 
ligence of an animal is, in a general manner, proportional 
to the relative size of this organ as compared with the 
sensory ganglia. We are also struck with the fact that 
the cerebrum does not send forth to other portions any 
independent fibres of its own, nor does it receive any from 
them, its only means of communication being through the 
parts that have been described-that is to say, through 
the sensory and automatic apparatus. The 
cerebrum is therefore a mechanism of a higher 
order, and its relationship with the thalami 
optici and corpora striata indicate the conditions 
of its functions. It can only receive impressions which 
have come through them, and only act upon the body 
through their intermedium. Moreover, as we ascend the 
animal scale, we find that these cerebral parts not only 
increase in size, but likewise, in their turn, give 
rise to offshoots ; secondary lobes emerging pos- 
teriorly on the primary ones, and, in due season, 
tertiary lobes posteriorly on the secondary. To these, in 
human anatomy, the designations of anterior, middle, and 
posterior lobes have been respectively given. In propor- 
tion as this development has proceeded, the intellectual 
qualities have become more varied and more profound. 
The relation of the cerebrum to the cranio-spinal axis is 
manifested by the circumstance that the latter 
can act without the former. In sleep the 
cerebrum is, as it were, torpid, but respiration, 
deglutition, and other reflex actions go on. If we touch 
the palm of a sleeping infant our finger is instantly 
grasped. But, though the axis can work with- 
out the cerebrum, the cerebrum can not work 
without the axis. Illustrations of these truths 
may be experimentally obtained. An animal from which 
the cerebrum has been purposely removed may be observed 
to perform actions automatic and instinctive, but never 
intelligent; and that there is no difference between 
animals and man in this respect is demonstrated by the 
numerous instances recorded in the works of medicine and 
surgery of injuries by accident or disease to the human 
Its relations 
to the instin- 
tive and auto- 
matic por- 
t.inns. 
Its secondary 
and tertiary 
lobes. 
Action of the 
spinal cord 
alone. 
Conjoint ac- 
tion of the 
brain and cord. ch. x.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
353 
nervous system, the effects corresponding to those arti- 
ficially produced in experiments on animals. This im- 
portant observation, moreover, shows that we may with 
correctness use the observations made on animals in our 
investigations of the human system. 
In the nervous system of man our attention is therefore 
especially demanded by three essentially distinct 
parts-the spinal cord, the sensory ganglia, and 
the cerebrum. Of the first, the spinal cord, the 
action is automatic; by its aid we can walk, 
from place to place, without bestowing a thought on our 
movements; by it we swallow involuntarily; by it we 
respire unconsciously. The second portion, the 
sensory ganglia, is, as we have seen, the counter- 
part of the cephalic ganglia of invertebrates; it 
is the place of reception of sensuous impressions 
and the seat of consciousness. To these ganglia instinct 
is to be referred. Their function is not at all impaired by 
the cerebrum superposed upon them. The third portion, 
the cerebrum, is anatomically distinct. It is the seat of 
ideas. It does not directly give rise to motions, being 
obliged to employ for that purpose its intermediate 
automatic associated apparatus. In this realm of ideas 
thoughts spring forth suggestively from one another in a 
perpetual train or flux, and yet the highest 
branch of the nervous mechanism still retains 
traces of the modes of operation of the parts from 
which it was developed. Its action is still often reflex. 
Reason is not al-ways able to control our emotions, as when 
we laugh or weep in spite of ourselves, under the impression 
of some external incident. Nay, more; the inciting cause 
may be, as we very well know, nothing material-nothing 
but a recollection, an idea-and yet it is enough. But 
these phenomena are perhaps restricted to the first or 
anterior lobes of the brain, and, accordingly, we remark 
them most distinctly in children and in animals. As the 
second and third lobes begin to exercise their pow'er, such 
effects are brought under control. 
There is, therefore, a regular progression, a definite 
improvement in the nervous system of the animal scries, 
the plan never varying, but being persistently carried 
Three distinct 
parts of the 
nervous sys- 
tem of man. 
They are the 
automatic, 
the instinc- 
tive, the 
intellectual. 
Dominating 
control of the 
latter. 354 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. x. 
out, and thus offering a powerful argument for relationship 
among all those successively improving forms, 
an observation which becomes of the utmost 
interest to us in its application to the verte- 
brates. In the amphioxus, as has been said, the 
cranio-spinal axis alone exists; the Cyclostome fishes 
are but a step higher. In fishes the true cerebrum 
appears at first in an insignificant manner, a condition 
repeated in the early embryonic state both of birds and 
mammals. An improvement is made in reptiles, whose 
cerebral hemispheres are larger than their optic lobes. As 
we advance to birds, a further increase occurs; the hemi- 
spheres are now of nearly sufficient dimensions to cover 
over those ganglia. In the lower mammals there is 
another step, yet not a very great one. But from the 
anterior lobes, which thus far have constituted the entire 
brain, there are next to be developed the middle lobes. 
In the Rodents the progress is still continued, and in the 
Ruminants and Pachyderms the convolutions have become 
well marked. In the higher carnivora and 
quadrumana the posterior or tertiary lobes ap- 
pear. The passage from the anthropoid apes 
to man brings us to the utmost development thus far 
attained by the nervous system. The cerebrum has 
reached its maximum organization by a continued and 
unbroken process of development. 
This orderly development of the nervous system in the 
animal series is recognized again in the gradual 
development of the individual man. The pri- 
mitive trace, as it faintly appears in the germinal 
membrane, marks out the place presently to be 
occupied by the cranio-spinal axis, and, that point of 
development gained, man answers to the amphioxus. 
Not until the twelfth week of embryonic life does he reach 
the state permanently presented by birds; at this time 
the anterior lobes are only perceptible. In four or six 
weeks more the middle lobes are evolved posteriorly on the 
anterior, and, finally, in a similar manner, the tertiary or 
posterior ones are formed. And thus it appears that, 
compared with the nervous system of other animals, that 
of man proceeds through the same predetermined succes- 
Progressive 
nervous de- 
velopment in 
the animal 
series. 
It attains its 
maximum in 
man. 
The same pro- 
gressive devel- 
opment occurs 
in each indi- 
vidual man. CH. X.l 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
355 
sion of forms. Theirs suffers an arrest, in some instances 
at a lower, in some at a higher point, but his passes 
onward to completion. 
But that is not all. The biography of the earth, the 
life of the entire globe, corresponds to this 
progress of the individual, to this orderly 
relation of the animal series. Commencing 
with the oldest rocks that furnish animal re- 
mains, and advancing to the most recent, we recognize 
a continual improvement in construction, indicated by 
the degree of advancement of the nervous system. The 
earliest fishes did not proceed beyond that condition of 
the spinal column which is to be considered as embryonic. 
The Silurian and Devonian rocks do not present it in an 
ossified state. Fishes, up to the Carboniferous epoch, had 
a heterocercal tail, just as the embryos of osseous fishes of 
the present time have up to a certain period of their life. 
There was, therefore, an arrest in the old extinct forms, 
and an advance to a higher point in the more modern. 
The buckler-headed fishes of the Devonian rocks had their 
respiratory organs and much of their digestive apparatus 
in the head, and showed an approximation to the tadpoles 
or embryos of the frog. The crocodiles of the oolite had 
biconcave vertebrae, like the embryos of the recent ones 
which have gained the capability of making an advance 
to a higher point. In the geological order, reptiles make 
their appearance next after fishes, and this is what wTe 
should expect on the principle of an ascending nervous 
development. Not until long after come birds, later in 
date and higher in nervous advancement, capable not only 
of instinct, but also of intelligence. Of mammals, the 
first that appear are what we should have expected-the 
marsupials;, but among the tertiary rocks, very many 
other forms are presented, the earlier ones, whether her- 
bivorous or carnivorous, having a closer correspondence 
to the archetype than the existing ones, save in their 
embryonic states, the analogies occurring in 
such minor details as the possession of forty- 
four teeth. The biography of the earth is thus, 
on the great scale, typical of individual life, 
even that of man, and. the succession of species in the 
It occurs 
again in the 
entire life of 
the globe. 
Absolute 
necessity of 
admitting 
transmuta- 
tion of forms. 356 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. x. 
progress of numberless ages is the counterpart of the 
transmutation of an individual from form to form. As in 
a dissolving view, new objects emerge from old ones, and 
new forms spontaneously appear without the exercise of 
any periodical creative act. 
For some days after birth the actions of the human 
being are merely reflex. Its cranio spinal axis 
alone is in operation, and thus far it is only an 
automaton. But soon the impressions of ex- 
ternal objects begin to be registered or preserved 
in the sensory ganglia, and the evidences of 
memory appear. The first token of this is perhaps the 
display of an attachment to persons, not through any 
intelligent recognition of relationship, but merely because 
of familiarity. This is followed by the manifestation of a 
liking to accustomed places and a dread of strange ones. 
At this stage the infant is leading an instinctive life, and 
has made no greater advance than many of the lower 
mammals; but they linger here, while he proceeds onward. 
He soon shows high powers of memory, the exercise of 
reason in the determinations of judgment, and in the 
adaptation of varied means to varied ends. 
Such is therefore the process of development of the 
nervous system of man ; such are the powers which con- 
sequently he successively displays. His reason at last is 
paramount. No longer are his actions exclusively prompted 
by sensations; they are determined much more by ideas 
that have resulted from his former experiences. While 
animals which approach him most closely in construction 
require an external stimulus to commence a train of 
thought, he can direct his mental operations, and in this 
respect is parted from them by a vast interval. The 
states through which he has passed are the automatic, the 
instinctive, the intellectual; each has its own apparatus, 
and all at last work harmoniously together. 
But besides this superposition of an instinctive apparatus 
upon an automatic one, and an intellectual 
upon an instinctive, the nervous system consists 
of two equal and symmetrical lateral portions, 
a right half and a left. Each person may be 
considered as consisting in reality of two individuals. 
Life of man 
from infancy 
to maturity in 
accordance 
with his an- 
atomy. 
Every person 
consists of 
two lateral 
individuals. CH. X.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
357 
The right half may be stricken with palsy, the left be 
unimpaired; one may lose its sight or hearing, the other 
may retain them. These lateral halves lead independent 
lives. Yet, though independent in this sense, they are 
closely connected in another. The brain of the right side 
rules over the left half of the body, that of the left side 
rules over the right of the body. On the relationships 
and antagonisms of the two halves of the cerebro-spinal 
system must be founded our explanations of the 
otherwise mysterious phenomena of double and 
alternate life ; of the sentiment of pre-existence; 
of trains of thought, often double, but never 
triple ; of the wilful delusions of castle-building, in which 
one hemisphere of the brain listens to the romance sug- 
gestions of the other, though both well know that the 
subject they are entertaining themselves with is a mere 
fiction. The strength and precision of mental operations 
depend as much upon the complete equivalency of the two 
lateral halves as upon their absolute development. It 
is scarcely to be expected that great intellectual indications 
will be given by him, one of whose cerebral hemispheres 
is unequal to the other. But for the detailed consideration 
of these topics I may refer the reader to my work on 
Physiology. He will there find the explanation of the 
nature of registering ganglia; the physical theory of 
memory; the causes of our variable psychical powers at 
different times ; the description of the ear as the organ of 
time ; the eye as the organ of space; the touch as that of 
pressures and temperatures; the smell and taste as those 
for the chemical determination of gases and liquids. 
From a consideration of the construction, development, 
and action of the nervous system of man, we 
may gain correct views of his relations to other 
organic beings, and obtain true psychical and 
metaphysical theories. There is not that homo- 
geneousness in his intellectual structure which writers on 
those topics so long supposed. It is a triple mechanism. 
A gentle, a gradual, a definite development 
reaches its maximum in him without a breach 
of continuity. Parts which, because of their 
completion, are capable of yielding in him such splendid 
Consequences 
of this double- 
ness of con- 
struction. 
Conclusions 
from the fore- 
going ana- 
tomical facts. 
Man a mem- 
ber of the ani- 
mal series. 358 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. x. 
results, are seen in a rudimentary and useless condition in 
organisms very far down below. On the clear recognition 
of this rudimentary, this useless state, very much depends. 
It indicates the master-fact of psychology-the fact that 
Averroes overlooked-that, while man agrees with inferior 
beings in the type of his construction, and passes in his 
development through transformations analogous to theirs, 
he differs from them all in this, that he alone possesses an 
accountable, an immortal soul. It is true that there are 
some which closely approach him in structure, but the 
existence of structure by no means implies the exercise of 
functions. In the still-born infant, the mechanism for 
respiration, the lungs, is completed ; but the air may never 
enter, and the intention for which they were formed never 
be carried out. 
Moreover, it appears that the order of development in 
the life of individual man and the order of 
development in the life of the earth are the 
.• ame, their common features indicating a common 
plan. The one is the movement of a few hours, the other 
of myriads of ages. This sameness of manner in their 
progression points out their dependence on a law immu- 
table and universal. The successive appearance of the 
animal series in the endless course of time has not, 
therefore, been accidental, but as predetermined and as 
certain as the successive forms of the individual. In the 
latter we do not find any cause of surprise in the as- 
sumption of states ever increasing in improvement, ever 
rising higher and higher toward the perfection destined to 
be attained. We look upon it as the course of nature. 
Why, then, should we consider the extinctions and 
creations of the former as offering any thing unaccount- 
able, as connected with a sudden creative fiat or with an 
arbitrary sentence of destruction ? 
In this book I have endeavoured to investigate the 
progress of humanity, and found that it shows 
all the phases of individual movement, the 
evidence employed being historical, and, there- 
fore, of a nature altogether different from that 
on which our conclusions in the collateral instances rest. 
It may serve to assure us that the ideas here presented are 
His l.fe and 
that of the 
planet alike. 
Progress of 
humanity is 
according to 
law. CH. X.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
359 
true when we encounter, at the close of our investigation, 
this harmony between the life of the individual, the life of 
society, and the life of the earth. 
Is it probable that the individual proceeds in his move- 
ment of development under law, that the planet also pro- 
ceeds in its movements under law, but that society does 
not proceed under law ? 
Man, thus, is the last term of an innumerable series of 
organisms, which, under the domination of law, 
has, in the lapse of time, been evolving. Law 
has controlled the inorganic world, and caused 
the earth to pass through various physical conditions, 
gently and continuously succeeding one another. The 
plastic forms of organic beings have been modelled to suit 
those changing conditions. The invariability of that law 
is indicated by the numberless ages through which it has 
been maintained, its universality by its holding good in 
the life of the meanest individual. 
But it is only a part of sociology that we have considered, 
and of which we have investigated the development. 
In the most philosophical aspect the subject in- 
cludes comparative as well as human sociology. 
For, though there may not be society where actions are 
simply reflex, there is a possibility of it where they are 
instinctive, as well as ■where they are intellectual. Its 
essential condition being intercommunication, there are 
necessarily modifications depending respectively on touch 
or upon the higher and more delicate senses. That is 
none the less society which, among insects, depends upon 
antennal contacts. Human society, founded on speech, 
sight, hearing, has its indistinct beginnings, its rudiments, 
very low down in the animal scale, as in the bell-like note 
which some of the nudibranchiate gasteropods emit, or 
the solitary midnight tapping with which the death-watch 
salutes his mate. Society resting on instinct is charac- 
terized by immobility; it is necessarily unprogressive. 
Society resting on intellect is always advancing. 
But, for the present, declining this general examination 
of sociology, and limiting our attention strictly to that of 
humanity, we can not fail to be struck with the fact that 
in us the direction of evolution is altogether toward 
Eternity and 
universality 
of that law. 
Comparative 
sociology. 360 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. x. 
the intellectual, a conclusion equally impressed upon 
us whether our mode of examination be anatomical or 
historical. Anatomically we find no provision 
in the nervous system for the improvement of 
the moral, save indirectly through the intellec- 
tual, the whole aim of development being for 
the sake of intelligence. Historically, in the same manner, 
we find that the intellectual has always led the way in 
social advancement, the moral having been subordinate 
thereto. The former has been the mainspring of the 
movement, the latter passively affected. It is a mistake 
to make the progress of society depend on that which is 
itself controlled by a higher power. In the earlier and 
inferior stages of individual life we may govern through 
the moral alone. In that way we may guide children, 
but it is to the understanding of the adult that we must 
appeal. A system working only through the 
moral must sooner or later come into an anta- 
gonism with the intellectual, and, if it do not 
contain within itself a means of adaptation to 
the changing circumstances, it must in the end be over- 
thrown. This was the grand error of that Boman system 
which presided while European civilization was developing. 
It assumed as its basis a uniform, a stationary psychological 
condition in man. Forgetting that the powers of the 
mind grow with the possessions of the mind, it considered 
those who lived in past generations as being in no 
respect mentally inferior to those who are living now, 
though our children at sixteen may have a wider range of 
knowledge than our ancestors at sixty. That such an 
imperfect system could exist for so many ages is a proof of 
a contemporary condition of undeveloped intellect, just as 
we see that the understanding of a child does not revolt 
against the moral suasion, often intrinsically feeble, through 
which we attempt to influence him. But it would be as 
unphilosophical to treat with disdain the ideas that have 
served for a guide in the earlier ages of European life, as 
to look with contempt on the motives that have guided us 
in youth. Their feebleness and incompetency are excused 
by their suitability to the period of life to which they ar© 
applied. 
The aim of 
Nature is not 
at moral, but 
intellectual 
development. 
Systems of 
policy must 
be in accord- 
ance there- 
with. CH. X.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
361 
But whoever considers these things will see that there 
is a term beyond which the application of such methods 
cannot be extended. The head of a family 
would act Unwisely if he attempted to apply to 
his son at twenty-one the methods he had 
successfully used at ten; such methods could 
be only rendered effective by a resort to physical 
compulsion. A great change in the intervening years has 
taken place, and ideas once intrinsically powerful can 
exert their influence no more. The moral may have 
remained unchanged; it may be precisely as it was-no 
better, no worse; but that which has changed is the 
understanding. Reasoning and inducements of an in- 
tellectual kind are now needful. An attempt to persist in 
an absolute system by constraint would only meet with 
remonstrance and derision. 
If it is thus with the individual, so it is likewise 
with humanity. For centuries nations may live 
under forms that meet their requirements, forms 
suitable to a feeble state; but it is altogether 
illusory to suppose that such an adaptedness can continue 
for ever. A critical eye discerns that the mental features 
of a given generation have become different from those of 
its ancestors. New ideas and a new manner of action are 
the tokens that a modification has silently taken place. 
Though after a short interval the change might not 
amount to much, in the course of time there must inevi- 
tably be exhibited the spectacle of a society that had 
outgrown its forms, its rules of life. 
Wherever, then, such a want of harmony becomes 
perceptible, where the social system is incompatible with 
the social state, and is, in effect, an obsolete anachronism, 
it is plainly unphilosophical and unwise to resort to means 
of compulsion. No matter what the power of governments 
or of human authorities may be, it is impossible for them 
to stop the intellectual advancement, for it forces its way 
by an organic law over which they have no kind of control. 
Astronomers sometimes affirm that'the sun is the cause, 
directly or indirectly, of all the mechanical 
movements that take place upon the earth. 
The Age of 
Reason de- 
mands intel- 
lectual incen- 
tives for the 
individual. 
And the same 
holds good for 
humanity. 
Summary of 
the investiga- 
tion of the 362 
TliE EUROPEAN' AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. x. 
position of 
man. 
Physiologists say that he is the generator of the 
countless living forms with which her surface is 
adorned. 
If the light, the warmth, and other physical influences 
of the sun could be excluded, there would be 
a stagnant and icy sea encircling silent and 
solitary shores. But the veil once withdrawn, 
or the influences permitted to take effect, this 
night and stillness would give place to activity and 
change. In the morning beams of the day, the tropical 
waters, expanding, would follow from east to west the 
course of the sun, each renewed dawn renewing the 
impulse, and adding force to the gentle but resistless 
current. At one place the flowing mass would move 
compactly; at another, caught by accidentally projecting 
rocks, it would give off little eddies, expending their share 
of its force ; or, compressed in narrow passages, it would 
rush impetuously along. Upon its surface myriads of 
momentary ripples would play, or opposing winds, called 
intc existence by similar disturbances in the air, would 
force it into waves, making the shores resound with their 
breaking surge. Twice every day, under the conjoint 
influences of the sun and moon, as if the inanimate globe 
itself were breathing, the tide would rise and fall again 
upon the bosom of the deep. 
The eddy, the ripple, the wave, the current, are acci- 
dental forms through which the originally imparted force 
is displayed. They are all expending power. Their life, 
if such a term can be used, is not the property of 
themselves, but of the ocean to which they belong. 
Influences which thus metaphorically give life to the 
sea, in reality give life to the land. Under 
their genial operation a wave of verdure spreads 
over the earth, and countless myriads of animated things 
attend it, each like the eddies and ripples of the sea, 
expending its share of the imparted force. The life of these 
accidental forms, through which power is being transposed, 
belongs, not to itself, but to the universe of which it is 
a part. 
Of the waves upon the ocean there may not bo two 
alike. The winds, the shores, their mutual interferences, 
Influence of 
the sun on in- 
organic 
nature, 
and on or- 
ganic nature. CH. X.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
363 
a hundred extraneous influences, mould them into their 
ephemeral shapes. So those collections of matter- 
of which animated things consist offer a plastic 
substance to be modified. The number of individuals counts 
like the ripples of the sea. 
As external circumstances change, animated forms 
change with them, and thus arises a series of 
which the members stand in a connected rela- 
tion. The affiliated sequence of the external circumstances 
is represented in the affiliated succession of living types. 
From parts, or from things already existing, new parts 
and new things emerge, the new not being added or 
juxtaposed to the old, but evolved or developed from it. 
From the homogeneous or general, the heterogeneous or 
special is brought forth. A new member, fashioned in 
secrecy and apart, is never abruptly ingrafted on any 
living thing. New animal types have never been suddenly 
located among old ones, but have emerged from them by 
process of transmutation. As certainly as that every 
living thing must die, so must it reach perfection by 
passing through a succession of subordinate forms. An 
individual, or even a species, is only a zoological phase in 
a passage to something beyond. An instantaneous adult, 
like an immortal animal, is a physiological impossibility. 
This bringing forth of structure from structure, of 
function from function, incidentally presents, 
upon the whole, an appearance of progressive 
improvement, and for such it has been not 
unfrequently mistaken. Thus if the lowest animals, which 
move by reflex action instantly but unconsciously, when 
an impression is made upon them, be compared with the 
higher ones, whose motions are executed under the influence 
of antecedent impressions, and are therefore controlled by 
ideas, there seems to have been such an improvement. 
Still, however, it is altogether of a physical kind. Every 
impression of which the dog or elephant is conscious 
implies change in the nerve centres, and these changes are 
at the basis of the memory displayed by those animals. 
Our own experience furnishes many illustrations. When 
we gaze steadfastly on some brightly-illuminated object, 
and then close or turn aside our eyes,-a fading impression 
Nature of 
animals. 
They consti- 
tute a series. 
The doctrine 
of progressive 
improvement. 364 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
Tch. x. 
of the object at which we have been looking still remains; 
or, when a spark is made to revolve rapidly, we think we 
see a circle of fire, the impression upon the retina lasting 
until the spark has completed its revolution. In like 
manner, though far more perfectly, are impressions regis- 
tered or stored up in the sensory ganglia, the phantoms 
of realities that have once been seen. In those organs 
countless images may thus be superposed. 
Man agrees with animals thus approaching him in 
anatomical construction in many important 
respects. He, too, represents a continuous 
succession of matter, a continuous expenditure 
of power. Impressions of external things are concealed 
in his sensory ganglia, to be presented for inspection in 
subsequent times, and to constitute motives of action. 
But he differs from them in this, that what was pre- 
paratory and rudimentary in them is complete and perfect 
in him. From the instrument of instinct there has been 
developed an instrument of intellection. In the most 
perfect quadrupeds, an external stimulus is required to 
start a train of thought, which then moves on in a 
determinate way, their actions indicating that, under the 
circumstances, they reason according to the same rules as 
man, drawing conclusions more or less correct from the 
facts offered to their notice. But, the instrument of 
intellection completed, it is quickly brought into use, and 
now results of the highest order appear. The succession 
of ideas is under control; new trains can be originated 
not only by external causes, but also by an interior, a 
spontaneous influence. The passive has become active. 
Animals remember, man alone recollects. Every thing 
demonstrates that the development and completion of this 
instrument of intellection has been followed by the super- 
addition of an agent or principle that can use it. 
There is, then, a difference between the brutes and man, 
not only as respects constitution, but also as 
respects destiny. Their active force merges into 
other mundane forces and disappears, but the 
special principle given to him endures. We willingly 
persuade ourselves that this principle is actually per- 
sonified, and that the shades of the dead resemble their 
Analogies be- 
tween ani- 
mals and man. 
Points of dis- 
tinction be- 
tween them. cir. x.l 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
365 
living forms. To Eastern Asia, where philosophy has 
been accustomed to the abstract idea of force, the pleasures 
we derive from this contemplation are denied, the cheer- 
less doctrine of Buddhism likening the life of man to the 
burning of a lamp, and death to its extinction. Perceiving 
in the mutation of things, as seen in the narrow range of 
human vision, a suggestion of the variations and distribu- 
tion of power throughout nature, it rises to a grand, and, 
it must be added, an awful conception of the universe. 
But Europe, and also the Mohammedan nations of Asia, 
have not received with approbation that view. To them 
there is an individualized impersonation of the 
soul, and an expectation of its life hereafter. 
The animal fabric is only an instrument for its use. 
The eye is the window through which that mysterious 
principle perceives: through the ear are brought to its 
attention articulate sounds and harmonies; by the other 
organs the sensible qualities of bodies are made known. 
From the silent chambers and winding labyrinths of the 
brain the veiled enchantress looks forth on the outer 
world, and holds the subservient body in an irresistible 
spell. 
This difference between the Oriental and European ideas 
respecting the nature of man reappears in their 
ideas respecting the nature of the world. The 
one sees in it only a gigantic engine, in which 
stars and orbs are diffusing power and running 
through predestined mutations. The other, with better 
philosophy and a higher science, asserts a personal God, 
who considers and orders events in a vast panorama before 
him. 
The human 
soul. 
Extension of 
these views 
to the nature 
of the world. CHAPTER XI 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON-{Continued} 
THE UNION OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
European Progress in the Acquisition of exact Knowledge.-Its Resem- 
blance to that of Greece. 
Discoveries respecting the Air -Its mechanical and chemical Properties 
-Its Relation to Animals and Plants.-The Winds.-Meteorology.- 
Sounds.-Acoustic Phenomena 
Discoveries respecting the Ocean-Physical and chemical Phenomena.- 
-Tides and Currents. - Clouds.-Decomposition of Water. 
Discoveries respecting other material Substances.-Progress of Chemistry. 
Discoveries respecting Electricity, Magnetism, Light, Heat 
Mechanical Philosophy and Inventions.-Physical Instruments.-The 
Result illustrated by the Cotton Manufacture-Steam-engine-Bleach- 
ing-Canals-Railways.-Improvements in the Construction of Ma- 
chinery.-Social Changes produced.-Its Effect on intellectual Activity. 
The scientific Contributions of various Nations, and especially of Italy. 
The Age of Beason m Europe presents all the peculiarities 
of the Age of Reason in Greece. There are modern re- 
presentatives of King Ptolemy Philadelphus among his 
furnaces and crucibles; of Hipparchus cataloguing the 
stars; of Aristyllus and Timochares, with their stone 
quadrants and armils, ascertaining the planetary motions ; 
of Eratosthenes measuring the size of the earth; of Hero- 
philus dissecting the human body; of Archimedes settling 
the laws of mechanics and hydrostatics; of Manetho 
collating the annals of the old dynasties of Egypt; of 
Euclid and Apollonius improving mathematics. There 
are botanical gardens and zoological menageries 
like those of Alexandria, and expeditions to the 
sources of the Nile. The direction of thought is 
the same ; but the progress is on a greater scale, 
and illustrated by more imposing results. The exploring 
Analogies be- 
tween the Age 
of Reason in 
Europe and in 
Greece. CH. XI.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
367 
voyages to Madagascar are replaced by circumnavigations 
of the world; the revolving steam-engine of Hero by the 
double-acting engine of Watt; the great galley of Ptolemy, 
with its many banks of rowers, by the ocean steam-ship; 
the solitary watch-fire on the Pharos by a thousand light- 
houses, with their fixed and revolving lights ; the courier 
on his Arab horse by the locomotive and electric telegraph; 
the scriptorium in the Serapion, with its shelves of papyrus, 
by countless printing-presses ; the " Almagest" of Ptolemy 
by the " Principia" of Newton; and the Museum itself by 
English, French, Italian, German, Dutch, and Russian 
philosophical societies, universities, colleges, and other 
institutions of learning. 
So grand is the scale on which this cultivation of 
science has been resumed, so many are those 
engaged in it, so rapid is the advance, and so 
great are the material advantages, that there is 
no difficulty in appreciating the age of which it 
is the characteristic. The most superficial outline enables 
us to recognize at once its resemblance to that period of 
Greek life to which I have referred. To bring its features 
into relief, I shall devote a few pages to a cursory review 
of the progress of some of the departments of science, 
selecting for the purpose topics of general interest. 
First, then, as respects the atmosphere, and the pheno- 
mena connected with it. 
From observations on the twilight, the elasticity of 
aerial bodies, and the condensing action of cold, 
the conclusion previously arrived at by Alhazen 
was established, that the atmosphere does not extend, 
unlimitedly into space. Its height is considered to be 
about forty-five miles. From its compressibility, the 
greater part of it is within a much smaller limit; were it 
of uniform density, it would not extend more than 29,000 
feet. Hence, comparing it with the dimensions ■'of the 
earth, it is an insignificant aerial shell, in thickness not 
the eightieth part of the distance to the earth's centre, and 
its immensity altogether an illusion. It bears about the 
same proportion to the earth that the down upon a peach 
bears to the peach itself. 
A foundation for the mechanical theory of the atmo- 
European 
progress in 
the acquisi- 
tion of know- 
ledge. 
The atmo- 
sphere. 368 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[cn. xi 
sphere was laid as soon as just ideas respecting liquid 
pressures, as formerly taught by Archimedes, were restored, 
the conditions of vertical and oblique pressures investi- 
gated, the demonstration of equality of pressures in all 
directions given, and the proof furnished that the force 
of a liquid on the bot tom of a vessel may be very much 
greater than its weight. 
Such of these conclusions as were applicable were soon 
transferred to the case of aerial bodies. The 
weight of the atmosphere was demonstrated, its 
pressure illustrated and measured ; then came the dispute 
about the action of pumps, and the overthrow of the 
Aristotelian doctrine of the horror of a vacuum. Coinci- 
dently occurred the invention of the barometer, and the 
proof of its true theory, both on a steeple in Taris and on 
a mountain in Auvergne. The invention of the air-pump, 
and its beautiful illustrations of the properties of the 
atmosphere, extended in a singular manner the taste for 
natural philosophy. 
The mechanics of the air was soon followed by its che- 
mistry. From remote ages it had been num- 
bered among the elements, though considered 
liable to vitiation or foulness. The great discovery of oxy- 
gen gas placed its chemical relations in their proper position. 
One after another, other gases, both simple and compound, 
were discovered. Then it was recognized that the atmo- 
sphere is the common receptacle for all gases and vapours, 
and the problem whether, in the course of ages, it has ever 
undergone change in its constitution arose for solution. 
The negative determination of that problem, so far as a 
few thousand years are concerned, was neces- 
sarily followed by a recognition of the anta- 
gonism of animals and plants, and their mutually 
balancing each other, the latter accomplishing 
their duty under the influence of the sun, though he is a 
hundred millions of miles distant. From this it appeared 
that it is not by incessant interventions that the sum total 
of animal life is adjusted to that of vegetable, but that, in 
this respect, the system of government of the world is by 
the operation of natural causes and law, a conclusion the 
more imposing since it contemplates all living things, and 
Its mechani- 
cal relations. 
Its chemical 
relations. 
The anta- 
gonism of 
animals and 
plants. CH. XI.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
369 
includes even man himself. The detail of these investiga- 
tions proved that the organic substance of plants is 
condensed from the inorganic air to which that of all 
animals returns, the particles running in ever-repeating 
cycles, now in the air, now in plants, now in animals, now 
in the air again, the impulse of movement being in the 
sun, from whom has come the force incorporated in plant 
tissues, and eventually disengaged in our fires, shining in 
our flames, oppressing us in fevers, and surprising us in 
blushes. 
Organic disturbances by respiration and the growth 
of plants being in the lowest stratum of the air, its 
uniformity of composition would be impossible 
were it not for the agency of the winds and the 
diffusion of gases, which it was found would 
take place under any pressure. The winds were at length 
properly referred to the influence of the sun, whose heat 
warms the air, causing it to ascend, while other portions 
flow in below. The explanation of land and sea breezes 
was given, and in the trade-wind was found a proof of the 
rotation of the earth. At a later period followed the 
explanation of monsoons in the alternate heating and 
cooling of Asia and Africa on opposite sides of the line, 
and of tornadoes, which are disks of air rotating round d 
translated axis with a diameter of one hundred or one 
hundred and fifty miles, the axis moving in a curvilinear 
track with a progressive advance of twenty or twenty-five 
miles an hour, and the motions being in opposite directions 
in opposite hemispheres of the globe. 
The equatorial calms and trade-winds accounted for on 
physical principles, it was admitted that the winds of high 
latitudes, proverbially uncertain as they are, depend in 
like manner on physical causes. 
With these palpable movements there are others of a 
less obvious kind. Through the air, and by reason of 
motions in it, sounds are transmitted to us. 
The Alexandrian mathematicians made sound a favourite 
study. Modern acoustics arose from the recognition that 
there is nothing issuing from the sounding 
body, but that its parts are vibrating and 
affecting the medium between it and the ear. Not only 
The winds; 
their origin 
and nature. 
Of sounds; 
th. ir velocity. 370 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. xi. 
by the air-pump, but also by observations in the rare 
atmosphere of the upper regions, it was shown that the 
intensity of sound depends upon the density. On the top 
of a mountain the report of a pistol is no louder than that 
of a cracker in the valley. As to the gradual propagation 
of sounds, it was impossible to observe fire-arms discharged 
at a distance without noticing that the flash appears 
longer before the report in proportion as the distance is 
greater. The Florenti re academicians attempted a deter- 
mination of the velocity, and found it to be 1148 feet in a 
second. More accurate and recent experiments made it 
1089*42 feet at the freezing-point of water ; but the velo- 
city, though independent of the density, increases with the 
temperature at the rate of 1*14 foot for each degree. For 
other media the rate is different; for water, about 4687 
feet in a second, and in cast iron about 10^ times greater 
than in air. All sounds, irrespective of their note or 
intensity, move at the same velocity, the medium itself 
being motionless in the mass. No sound can pass through 
a vacuum. The sudden aerial condensation attending the 
propagation of a sound gives rise to a momentary evolu- 
tion of heat, which increases the elasticity of the air, and 
hence the velocity is higher than 919 feet in a second, 
otherwise the theoretical rate. 
Turning from soniferous media to sounding bodies, it 
was shown that the difference between acute 
and grave sounds depends on the frequency of 
vibration. The ear can not perceive a sound originating 
in less than thirty-two vibrations in a second, nor one of 
more than 24,000. The actual number of vibrations in a 
given note was counted by means of revolving wheels and 
other contrivances. 1 have not space to relate the in- 
vestigation of many other acoustic facts, the reference of 
sounds to phases of condensation, and rarefaction in the 
elastic medium taking place in a normal direction; the 
affections of note, intensity, quality ; the passage in curved 
lines and around obstacles; the production of sympathetic 
sounds ; nodal points ; the effect of reeds ; the phenomena 
of pipes and flutes, and other wind instruments; the 
various vibrations of solids, as bells ; or of membranes, as 
drums ; visible acoustic lines; the reflexion of undulations 
Acoustic phe- 
nomena. CH. XI.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
371 
by surfaces of various forms; their interferences, so that, 
no matter how intense they may be individually, they can 
be caused to produce silence; nor of whispering galleries, 
echoes, the nature of articulate sounds, the physiology of 
the vocal and auditory organs of man, and the construction 
of speaking machines. 
Like the air, the ocean, which covers three-fourths of 
the earth's surface, when reduced to a proper 
standard of measure, loses very much of its 
imposing aspect. The varnish that covers a twelve-inch 
globe represents its relative dimension not inadequately. 
On the theory of gravitation, the tides of the ocean 
were explained as depending on the attractive 
force of the sun and moon. Its currents, in a 
general manner, are analogous to those of the air. They 
originate in the disturbing action of solar heat, the tem- 
perature of the sea varying from 85° in the torrid zone to 
the freezing-point as the poles are approached. Its spe- 
cific gravity at the equator is estimated at l-028; but this 
density necessarily varies with the rate at which superficial 
evaporation takes place; the pure vapour rising, leaves a 
more concentrated salt solution. The effect is therefore, in 
some degree, to counteract the expansion of the water by 
warmth, for the sun-rays, being able to penetrate several 
feet below the surface, correspondingly raise the tem- 
perature of thart portion, which expands and becomes 
lighter ; but, simultaneously, surface evaporation tends to 
make the water heavier. Notwithstanding this, currents 
are established through the preponderance of the dilatation, 
and of them the Gulf Stream is to us the most striking 
example. 
The physical action of the sun-rays in occasioning 
currents operates through the expansion of 
water, of which warm portions ascend to the 
surface, colder portions from beneath setting in 
to supply their place. These currents, both hot and cold, 
are affected by the diurnal rotation of the earth, the action 
being essentially the same as that for the winds. They 
exert so great an influence as conveyers of heat that they 
disturb the ordinary climate relation depending on the 
sun's position. In this way the Gulf Stream, a river of 
The ocean; 
its size. 
Tides and 
currents. 
Effects of 
ocean 
streams. 372 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. xi. 
hot water in a sea of' cold, as soon as it spreads out on the 
surface of the Atlantic in higher latitudes, liberates into 
the air the heat it has brought from the torrid zone; and 
this, being borne by the southwest wind, which blows in 
those localities for the greater part of the year, to the 
westerly part of the European continent, raises by many 
degrees the mean annual temperature, thus not only 
regulating the distribution of animals and plants, but 
also influencing human life and its pursuits, making 
places pleasant that would otherwise be inclement, and. 
even facilitating the progress of civilization. Whatever, 
therefore, can atfect the heat, the volume, the velocity, the 
direction of such a stream, at once produces important 
consequences in the organic world. 
The Alexandrian school had attained correct ideas 
respecting the mechanical properties of water 
as the type of liquids. This knowledge was, 
however, altogether lost in Europe for many 
ages, and not regained until the time of Stevinus 
and Galileo, who recovered correct views of the nature of 
pressure, both vertical and oblique, and placed the sciences 
of hydrostatics and hydrodynamics on exact foundations. 
The Florentine academicians, from their experiments on 
water inclosed in a globe of gold, concluded that it is 
incompressible, an error subsequently corrected, and its 
compressibility measured. The different states in which 
it occurs, as ice, water, steam, were shown to depend 
altogether on the amount of latent heat it contains. Out 
of these investigations originated the invention of the 
steam-engine, of which it may be said that it has revolu- 
tionized the industry of the world. Soon after the expla- 
nation of the cause of its three states followed the great 
discovery that the opinion of past ages respecting its 
elementary nature is altogether erroneous. It is not a 
simple element, but is composed of two ingredients, oxygen 
and hydrogen, as was rigorously proved by decomposing 
and forming it. By degrees, more correct views of the 
nature of evaporation were introduced ; gases and vapours 
were found to coexist in the same space, not because of 
their mutual solvent power, but because of their individual 
and independent elasticity. The instantaneous formation 
Physical and 
chemical re- 
lations of 
water. cn. xi.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OJ REASON. 
373 
of vapours in a vacuum showed that the determining 
condition is heat, the weight of vapour capable of existing 
in a given space being proportional to the temperature. 
More scientific views of the nature of maximum density 
were obtained, and on these principles was effected the 
essential improvement of the low-pressure steam-engine- 
the apparent paradox of condensing the steam without 
cooling the cylinder. 
In like manner much light was cast on the meteorological 
functions of water. It was seen that the diurnal vaporiza- 
tion from the earth depends on the amount of 
heat received, the vapour rising invisibly in the 
air till it reaches a region where the temperature 
is sufficiently low. There condensation into vesicles of 
perhaps °f an inch diameter ensues, and of myriads 
of such globules a cloud is composed. Of clouds, notwith- 
standing their many forms and aspects, a'classification 
was given-cirrus, cumulus, stratus, etc. It was obvious 
why some dissolve away and disappear when they encounter 
warmer or drier spaces, and why others descend as rain. 
It was shown that the drops can not be pure, since they 
come in contact with dust, soluble gases, and organic 
matter in the air. Sinking into the ground, the water 
issues forth as springs, contaminated with whatever is in 
the soil, and finds its way, through streamlets 
and rivers, back to the sea, and thus the drainage 
of countries is accomplished. Through such a 
returning path it comes to the receptacle from which it 
set out; the heat of the sun raised it from the ocean, the 
attraction of the earth returns it thereto; and, since the 
heat-supply is invariable from year to year, the quantity 
set in motion must be the same. Collateral results of no 
little importance attend these movements. Every drop of 
rain falling on the earth disentegrates and disturbs portions 
of the soil; every stream carries solid matter into the sea. 
It is the province of geology to estimate the enormous 
aggregate of detritus, continents washed away and new 
continents formed, and the face of the earth remodelled 
and renewed. 
The artificial decomposition of water constitutes an 
epoch in chemistry. The European form of this science, 
Clouds and 
their nomen- 
clature. 
The return of 
water to the 
sea. 374 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. xi. 
in contradistinction to the Arabian, arose from the 
doctrine of acids and alkalies, and their neutra- 
lization. This was about a.d. 1614. It was 
perceived that the union of bodies is connected with the 
possession of opposite qualities, and hence was introduced 
the idea of an attraction of affinity. On this the discovery 
of elective attraction followed. Then came the recognition 
that this attraction is connected with opposite electrical 
states, chemistry and electricity approaching each other. 
A train of splendid discoveries followed; metals were 
obtained light enough to float on water, and even appa- 
rently to accomplish the proverbial impossibility of setting 
it on fire. In the end it was shown that the chemical 
force of electricity is directly proportional to its absolute 
quantity. Better views of the nature of chemical 
attraction were attained, better views of the 
intrinsic nature of bodies. 'Hie old idea of four elements 
was discarded, as also the Saracenic doctrine of salt, 
sulphur, and mercury. The elements were multiplied 
until at length they numbered more than sixty. Alchemy 
merged into chemistry through the theory of 
phlogiston, which accounted for the change that 
metals undergo when exposed to the fire on the principle 
that something was driven off from them-a something 
that might be restored again by the action of combustible 
bodies. It is remarkable how adaptive this theory was. It 
was found to include the cases of combustive operations, 
the production of acids, the breathing of animals. It 
maintained its ground even long after the discovery of 
oxygen gas, of which one of the first names was dephlo- 
gisticated air. 
But a false theory always contains within itself the 
germ of its own destruction. The weak point of this was, 
that when a metal is burnt the product ought to be 
lighter than the metal, whereas it proves heavier. At 
length it was detected that what the metal had 
gained the surrounding air had lost. This 
discovery implied that the balance had been 
resorted to for the determination of weights 
and for the decision of physical questions. The reintro- 
duction of that instrument-for, as we have seen, it had 
Progress of 
chemistry. 
Attraction. 
The elements. 
Theory of 
phlogiston. 
Introduction 
of the balance 
into chemis- 
try. CH. XI.J 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
375 
ages before been employed by the Saracen philosophers, 
who used several different forms of it-marked the epoch 
when chemistry ceased to be exclusively a science of 
quality and became one of quantity. 
On the ruins of the phlogistic theory arose the theory 
of oxygen, which was sustained with singular 
ability. Its progress was greatly facilitated 
by the promulgation of a new nomenclature in 
conformity to its principles, and of remarkable elegance 
and power. In the course of time it became necessary, 
however, to modify the theory, especially by deposing 
oxygen from the attitude of sovereignty to which it had 
been elevated, and assigning to it several colleagues, such 
as chlorine, iodine, etc. The introduction of the balance 
was also followed by important consequences in theoretical 
chemistry, among which pre-eminently was the establish- 
ment of the laws of combinations of bodies. 
Extensive and imposing as is the structure of chemistry, 
it is very far from its completion. It is so 
surrounded by the scaffolding its builders are 
using, it is so deformed with the materials of their work, 
that its true plan can not yet be made out. In this 
respect it is far more backward than astronomy. It has, 
however, disposed of the idea of the destruction and 
creation of matter. It accepts without hesitation the 
doctrine of the imperishability of substance; 
for, though the aspect of a thing may change 
through decompositions and recombinations, in 
which its constituent parts are concerned, every atom 
continues to exist, and may be recovered by suitable 
processes, though the entire thing may have seemingly 
disappeared. A particle of water raised from the sea may 
ascend invisibly through the air, it may float above us in 
the cloud, it may fall in the rain-drop, sink into the earth, 
gush forth again in the fountain, enter the rootlets of a 
plant, rise up with the sap to the leaves, be there decom- 
posed by the sunlight into its constituent elements, its 
oxygen and hydrogen; of these and other elements, acids 
and oils, and various organic compounds may be made: 
in these or in its undecomposed state it may be received in 
the food of animals, circulate in their blood, be essentially 
Theory of oxy 
gen, and the 
nomenclature 
Present state 
of chemistry. 
Indestructi- 
bility of 
matter. 376 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. XI. 
concerned in acts of intellection executed by the brain, it 
may be expired in the breath. Though shed in the tear 
in moments of despair, it may give birth to the rainbow, 
the emblem of hope. Whatever the course through which 
it has passed, whatever mutations it has undergone, what- 
ever the force it has submitted to, its elementary constituents 
endure. Not only have they not been annihilated, they have 
not even been changed; and in a period of time, longer 
short, they find their way as water back again to the sea 
from which they came. 
Discoveries in electricity not only made a profound 
impression on chemistry, they have taken no insigni- 
ficant share in modifying human opinion on other very 
interesting subjects. In all ages the lightning 
had been looked upon with superstitious dread. 
The thunderbolt had long been feigned to be the especial 
weapon of Divinity. A like superstitious sentiment had 
prevailed respecting the northern lights, universally re- 
garded in those countries in which they display themselves 
as glimpses of the movements of the angelic hosts, the 
banners and weapons of the armies of heaven. A great 
blow against superstition was struck when the physical na- 
ture of these phenomena was determined. As to the con- 
nexion of electrical science with the progress of civilization, 
what more needs to be said than to allude to the telegraph ? 
It is an illustration of the excellence and fertility of 
modern methods that the phenomena of the 
attraction displayed by amber, which had been 
known and neglected for two thousand years, in one-tenth 
of that time led to surprising results. First it was shown 
that there are many other bodies which will 
act in like manner ; then came the invention of 
the electrical machine, the discovery of electrical repulsion, 
and the spark ; the differences of conductibility in bodies ; 
the apparently two species of electricity, vitreous and 
resinous ; the general law of attraction and repulsion ; the 
wonderful phenomena of the Leyden phial and the electric 
shock ; the demonstration of the identity of lightning and 
electricity ; the means of protecting buildings and ships 
by rods ; the velocity of electric movement-that immense 
distances can be passed through in an inappreciable time; 
Electrical 
discoveries. 
Theories of 
electricity. 
Electrical 
phenomena. CH. XI.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
377 
the theory of one fluid and that of two; the mathematical 
discussion of all the phenomena, first on one and then on 
the other of these doctrines; the invention of the torsion 
balance ; the determination that the attractive and repul 
sive forces follow the law of the inverse squares ; the 
conditions of distribution on conductors; the elucidation 
of the phenomena of induction. At length, when dis- 
covery seemed to be pausing, the facts of galvanism were 
announced in Italy. Up to this time it was 
thought that the most certain sign of the death 
of an animal was its inability to exhibit muscular con- 
traction : but now it was shown that muscular move- 
ments could be excited in those that are dead and even 
mutilated. Then followed quickly the invention of the 
Voltaic pile. Who could have foreseen that the twitching 
of a frog's leg in the Italian experiments would 
establish beyond all question the compound 
nature of water, separating its constituents from 
one another ? would lead to the deflagration and dissipation 
in a vapour of metals that could hardly be melted in a 
furnace ? would show that the solid earth we tread upon 
is an oxide ? yield new metals light enough to swim upon 
water, and even seem to set it on fire ? produce the most 
brilliant of all artificial lights, rivalling if not excelling, 
in itsjntolerable splendour the noontide sun ? would occa- 
sion a complete revolution in chemistry, compelling that 
science to accept new ideas, and even a new nomenclature ? 
that it would give us the power of making magnets 
capable of lifting more than a ton, and cast a light on 
that riddle of ages, the pointing of the mariner's com- 
pass north and south, explain the mutual attraction or 
repulsion of magnetic needles ? that it would enable us 
to form exquisitely in metal casts of all kinds of objects 
of art, and give workmen a means of gilding and silver- 
ing without risk to their health? that it would sug- 
gest to the evil disposed the forging of bank notes, the 
sophisticating of jewelry, and be invaluable in the 
uttering of false coinage ? that it would carry the 
messages of commerce and friendship instantaneously 
across continents or under oceans, and " waft a sigh from 
Indus to the pole ?" 
Voltaic elec- 
tricity. 
Results of the 
discovery of 
Galvani. 378 
TIIH EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[cn. xi. 
Yet this is only a part of what the Italian experiment, 
carried out by modern methods, has actually done. Could 
there be a more brilliant exhibition of their power, a 
brighter earnest of the future of material philosophy ? 
As it had been with amber, so with the magnet. Its 
properties had lain uninvestigated for two 
thousand years, except in China, where the 
observation had been made that its qualities may bo 
imparted to steel, and that a little bar or needle so 
prepared, if floated on the surface of water or otherwise 
suspended, will point north and south. In that manner 
the magnet had been applied in the navigation of ships, 
and in journeys across trackless deserts. The first 
European magnetical discovery was that of Columbus, 
who observed a line of no variation west of the Azores. 
Then followed the detection of the dip, the demonstration 
of poles in the needle, and of the law of attraction 
and repulsion; the magnetic voyage undertaken by the 
English government; the construction of general varia- 
tion charts; the observation of diurnal variation; local 
perturbations ; the influence of the Aurora, which affects 
all the three expressions of magnetical power: the dis- 
turbance of the horary motion simultaneously over thou- 
sands of miles, as from Kasan to Paris. In the njeantime, 
the theory of magnetism improved as the facts came out. 
Its germ was the Cartesian vortices, suggested by the 
curvilinear forms of iron filings in the vicinity of magnetic 
poles. The subsequent mathematical discussion was con- 
ducted upon the same principles as in the case of 
electricity. 
Then came the Danish discovery of the relations of elec- 
tricity and magnetism, illustrated in England 
by rotatory motions, and in France adorned by 
the electrodynamic theory, embracing the action of currents 
and magnets, magnets and magnets, currents and currents. 
The generation of magnetism by electricity was after a 
little delay followed by its converse, the production of 
electricity by magnetism; and thermoelectric currents, 
arising from the unequal application or propagation of 
heat, were rendered serviceable in producing the most 
sensitive of all thermometers. 
Discoveries in 
magnetism. 
Electro-mag- 
netism. cir. xi.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
379 
The investigation of the nature and properties of lieTit 
rivals in interest and value that of electricity. 
What is this agent, light, which clothes the 
earth with verdure, making animal life possible, extending 
man's intellectual sphere, bringing to his knowledge the 
forms and colours of things, and giving him information 
of the existence of countless myriads of worlds ? What is 
this light which, in the midst of so many realities, 
presents him with so many delusive fictions, which rests 
the coloured bow against the cloud-the bow once said, 
when men transferred their own motives and actions to 
the Divinity, to be the weapon of God ? 
The first ascertained optical fact was probably the 
propagation of light in straight lines. The 
theory of perspective, on which the Alexandrian 
mathematicians voluminously wrote, implies as much; 
but agreeably to the early methods of philosophy, which 
were inclined to make man the centre of all things, it was 
supposed that rays are emitted from the eye and proceed 
outwardly, not that they come from exterior objects and 
pass through the organ of vision inwardly. Even the 
great geometer Euclid treated the subject on that erroneous 
principle, an error corrected by the Arabians. In the 
meantime the law of reflexion had been discovered; 
that for refraction foiled Alhazen, and was reserved for a 
European. Among natural optical phenomena the form 
of the rainbow was accounted for, notwithstanding a 
general belief in its supernatural origin. Its colours, 
however, could not be explained until exact ideas of 
refrangibility, dispersion, and the composition of white 
light were attained. The reflecting telescope was in- 
vented ; the recognized possibility of achromatism led to 
an improvement in the refractor. A little 
previously the progressive motion of light had 
been proved, first for reflected light by the eclipses of 
Jupiter's satellites, then for the direct light of the stars. 
A true theory of colours originated with. the formation of 
the solar spectrum; that beautiful experiment led to the 
discovery of irrationality of dispersion and the fixed lines. 
The phenomena of refraction in the case of Iceland spar 
were examined, and the law for the ordinary and extra- 
Of light and 
optics. 
Optical dis- 
coveries. 
Colours and 
white light. 380 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. xi. 
ordinary rays given. At the same time the polarization 
of light by double refraction was discovered. A century 
later it was followed by polarization by reflexion and 
single refraction, depolarization, irised rings, bright and 
black crosses in crystals, and unannealed or compressed 
glass, the connexion between optical phenomena and 
crystalline form, uniaxial crystals giving circular rings and 
biaxial oval ones, and circular and elliptical polarization. 
The beautiful colours of soap-bubbles, at first mixed up 
with those of striated and dotted surfaces, were traced to 
their true condition-thickness. The determination of 
thickness of a film necessary to give a certain colour was the 
first instance of exceedingly minute measures beautifully 
executed. These soon became connected with fringes in 
shadows, and led to ascertaining the length of waves of 
light. 
Meantime more correct ideas respecting vision were 
obtained. Alhazen's explanation of the use of 
the retina and lens was adopted. This Jiad 
been the first truly scientific investigation in 
physiology. The action of the eye was reduced to that of 
the camera-obscura described by Da Vinci, and the old 
notion of rays issuing therefrom finally abandoned. It 
had held its ground through the deceptive illustration of 
the magic-lantern. Of this instrument the name indi- 
cates the popular opinion of its nature. In the stories 
of necromancers and. magicians of the time are to be 
found traces of applications to which it was insidiously de- 
voted-the raising of the dead, spectres skipping along 
the ground or dancing on the walls and chimneys, 
pendulous images, apparitions in volumes of smoke. 
These early instruments were the forerunners 
of many beautiful inventions of later times- 
the kaleidoscope, producing its forms of marvellous sym- 
metry : the stereoscope, aided by photography, offering the 
very embodiment of external scenery ; the achromatic and 
reflecting telescope, to which physical astronomy is so 
greatly indebted ; and the achromatic microscope, now 
working a revolution in anatomy and physiology. 
In its theory optics has presented a striking contrast to 
acoustics. Almost from the very beginning it was recog- 
Vision; the 
functions of 
the eye. 
Optical in- 
struments. ch. xi.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
381 
nized that sound is not a material substance emitted 
from the sounding body, but only undulations 
occurring in the air. For long, optics failed 
to reach an analogous conclusion. The advancement of 
the former science has been from the general principle 
down to the details, that of the latter from the details up 
to the general principle. 
That light consists of undulations in an elastic medium 
was first inferred in 1664. Soon after, reflexion, refraction, 
and double refraction were accounted for on that principle. 
The slow progress of this theory was doubtless owing to 
Newton's supremacy. He gave a demonstration in the se- 
cond book of the " Principia ''(Prop. 42) that wave motions 
must diverge into the unmoved spaces, and carried popular 
comprehension with him by such illustrations as that we 
hear sounds though a mountain interpose. It was thought 
that the undulatory theory was disposed of by the impos- 
sibility of seeing through a crooked pipe, though we can 
hear through it; or that we cannot look round a corner, 
though we can listen round one. 
The present century finally established it through the 
discovery of interference, the destruction of the emission 
theory being inevitable when it was shown that light, 
interfering under certain circumstances with light, may 
produce darkness, as sound added to sound may produce 
silence-results arising from the action of undulating 
motion. The difficulties presented by polarization were 
not only removed, but that class of phenomena was 
actually made a strong support of the theory. The 
discovery that two pencils of oppositely polarized light 
would not interfere, led at once to the theory of transverse 
vibrations. Great mathematical ability was now required 
for the treatment of the subject, and the special considera- 
tion of many optical problems from this new point of 
view, as, for example, determining the result of transverse 
vibrations coming into a medium of different density in 
different directions. As the theory of universal gravita- 
tion had formerly done, so now the undulatory theory 
began to display its pow'er as a physical truth, enabling 
geometers to foresee results, and to precede the experi- 
menter in conclusions. Among earlier results of the kind 
The undula- 
torv theory. 382 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. xi. 
was the prediction that both the rays in the biaxial 
crystal topaz are extraordinary, and that circular polariza- 
tion may be produced by reflexion in a rhomb of glass. 
The phenomena of depolarization offered no special diffi- 
culty ; and many new facts, as those of elliptic polariza- 
tion and conical refraction, have since illustrated the power 
of the theory. 
Light, then, is the result of ethereal undulations im- 
pinging on the eye. There exists throughout 
the universe and among the particles of all 
bodies an elastic medium, ether. By reason of 
the repulsion of its own parts it is uniformly diffused in 
a vacuum. In the interior of refracting media it exists in 
a state of less elasticity compared with its density than in 
vacuo. Vibrations communicated to it in free space are 
propagated through such media by the ether in their 
inteiior. The parts of shining bodies vibrate as those of 
sounding ones, communicating their movement to the 
ether, and giving rise to waves in it. They produce in us 
the sensation of light. The slower the vibration, the longer 
the wave; the more frequent, the shorter. On wave-length 
colour depends. In all cases the vibrations ^re transverse. 
The undulatory movement passes onward at the rate of 
192,000 miles in a second. The mean length of a wave of 
light is 0.0000219 of an inch; an extreme red wave is 
about twice as long as an extreme violet one. The yellow 
is intermediate. The vibrations which thus occasion light 
are, at a mean, 555 in the billionth of a second. As with 
the air, which is motionless when a sound passes through 
it, the ether is motionless, though traversed by waves of 
light. That which moves forward is no material substance, 
but only a form, as the waves seen running along a shaken 
cord, or the circles that rise and fall, and spread outwardly 
when a stone is thrown into water. The wave-like form 
passes onward to the outlying spaces, but the water does 
not rush forward. And as we may have on the surface of 
that liquid waves the height of which is insignificant, or 
those which, as sailors say, are mountains high in storms 
at sea, their amplitude thus differing, so in the midst of 
the ether difference of amplitude is manifested to us by 
difference in the intensity or brilliancy of light. 
The ether and 
its move- 
ments. CH. XI J 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
383 
The human eye, exquisitely constructed as it is, is never- 
theless an imperfect mechanism, being limited 
in its action. It can only perceive waves of 
a definite length, as its fellow organ, the ear, 
can only distinguish a limited range of sounds. It can 
only take note of vibrations that are transverse, as the ear 
can only take note of those that are normal. In optics 
there are two distinct orders of facts; the actual relations 
of light itself, and the physiological relations of our organ 
of vision, with all its limitations and imperfections. Light 
is altogether the creation of the mind. The ether is one 
thing, light is another, just as the air is one thing and 
sound another. The ether is not composed of the colours 
of light any more than the atmospheric air consists of 
musical notes. 
To the chemical agency of light much attention has in 
recent times been devoted. Already in photo- 
graphy, it has furnished us an art which, though 
yet in its infancy, presents exquisite representa- 
tions of scenery, past events, the countenances of our 
friends. In an almost magical way it evokes invisible 
impressions, and gives duration to fleeting shadows. More- 
over, these chemical influences of light give birth to the 
whole vegetable world, with all its varied charms of 
colour, form, and property, and, as we have seen in the 
last chapter, on them animal life itself depends. 
The conclusions arrived at in optics necessarily entered 
as fundamental ideas in thermotics, or the science 
of beat; for radiant heat moves also in straight 
lines, undergoes reflexion, refraction, double 
refraction, polarization, and hence the theory of transverse 
vibrations applies to it. Heat is invisible light, as light 
is visible heat. Correct notions of radiation originated 
with the Florentine academicians, who used concave 
mirrors; and, in the.cold-ray experiment, masses of ice of 
five hundred pounds weight. The refraction of invisible 
heat was ascertained in consequence of the invention of 
the thermoelectric pile. Its polarization and depolarization 
soon followed. Already had been demonstrated the in- 
fluence of the physical state of radiant surfaces, and that 
the heat comes also from a little depth beneath them. 
The human 
eye; its capa- 
bilities. 
Chemical in- 
fluences of 
light. 
Of heat; re- 
flexion; re- 
fraction. 384 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[CH. XI. 
The felicitous doctrine of exchanges of heat imparted 
true ideas of the nature of calorific equilibrium 
and'the heating and cooling of bodies, and of- 
fered an explanation of many phenomena, as, for instance, 
the formation of dew. This deposit of moisture occurs 
after sunset, the more copiously the clearer the 
sky; it never appears on a cloudy night; it 
neither ascends from the ground like an exhalation, nor 
descends like a rain. It shows preferences in its manner 
of settling, being found on some objects before it is on 
others. All these singular peculiarities were satisfactorily 
explained, and another of the mysteries, the unaccountable 
wonders of the Middle Ages, brought into the attitude of 
a simple physical fact. 
It is impossible, in a limited space, to relate satisfactorily 
what has been done respecting ignition, the pro- 
duction of light by incandescence, the accurate 
measurement of the conductibility of bodies, the determina- 
tion of the expansions of solids, liquids, gases, under increas- 
ing temperature, the variations of the same substance at 
different degrees, the heat of fluidity and elasticity, and 
specific heat, or to do justice to the .great im- 
provements made in all kinds of instruments- 
balances, thermometers, contrivances for linear and angular 
measures, telescopes, microscopes, spectroscopes, chrono- 
meters, aerostats, telegraphs, and machinery generally. 
The tendency in every direction has been to 
practical applications. More accurate knowledge 
implies increasing power, greater wealth, higher 
virtue. The morality of man is enhanced by the improve- 
ment of his intellect and by personal independence. Our ago 
has become rational, industrial, progressive. In its great 
physical inventions Europe may securely trust. There is 
nothing more to fear from Arabian invasions or Tartar 
irruptions. The hordes of Asia could be swept away like 
chaff before the wind. Let him who would form a correct 
opinion of the position of man in the present and preceding 
phases of his progress reflect on the losses of Christendom in 
Asia and Africa, in spite of all the machinery of an Age of 
Faith, and the present security of Europe from every 
barbarian or foreign attack. 
Exchanges of 
heat. 
The dew, na- 
ture of. 
Incandes- 
cence. 
Physical in- 
struments. 
Effect or me- 
chanical in- 
ventions. CH. XI. f 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
385 
From almost any of the branches of industry facts 
might be presented illustrating the benefits arising from 
the application of physical discoveries. As an example, I 
may refer to the cotton manufacture. 
In a very short time after the mechanical arts were 
applied to the manufacture of textile fabrics, so great was 
the improvement that a man could do more work 
in a day than he had previously done in a year. 
That manufacture was moreover accompanied 
by such collateral events as actually overturned 
the social condition throughout Europe. Among these 
were the invention of the steam-engine, the canal system, 
the prodigious development of the iron manufacture, the 
locomotive, and railroads; results not due to the placemen 
and officers to whom that continent had resigned its 
annals, whose effigies encumber the streets of its cities, 
but to men in the lower walks of life. The assertion is true 
that James Watt, the instrument maker, conferred on his 
native country more solid benefits than all the treaties she 
ever made and. all the battles she ever won. Arkwright 
was a barber, Harrison a carpenter, Brindley a millwright's 
apprentice. 
By the labours of Paul or of Wyatt, who introduced the 
operation of spinning by rollers, a principle perfected by 
Arkwright; by the rotating carding-engine, first devised 
by Paul; by the jenny of Highs or Hargreaves; the 
water-frame; the mule, invented by Crompton, so greatiy 
was the cotton manufacture developed as to de- 
mand an entire change in the life of operatives, 
and hence arose the factory system. At a 
critical moment was introduced Watt's inven- 
tion, the steam-engine. Ilis first patent was taken out in 
1769, the same year that Arkwright patented spinning by 
rollers. Watt's improvement chiefly consisted 
in the use of a separate condenser, and the 
replacement of atmospheric pressure by that of steam. 
Still, it was not until more than twenty years after that this 
engine was introduced into factories, and hence it was not, 
as is sometimes supposed, the cause of their wonderful 
increase. It came, however, at a fortunate time, nearly 
coincident with the invention of the dressing-machine by 
Radcliffe and the power-loom by Cartwright. 
Illustration 
from the cot- 
ton manufac- 
ture. 
Developement 
of the cotton 
manufacture 
in England. 
The steam-en- 
gine of Watt. 386 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
]_CH. xi. 
If the production of textile fabrics received such advan- 
tages from mechanics, equally was it favoured by chemistry 
in the discovery of bleaching by chlorine. To 
bleach a piece of cotton by the action of the 
air and the sun required from six to eight months, and 
a large surface of land must be used as a bleach-field. 
The value of land in the vicinity of great towns presented 
an insuperable obstacle to such uses. By chlorine the 
operation could be completed in the course of a few 
hours, and in a comparatively small building, the fibre 
being beautifully and permanently whitened. Nor wero 
the chemical improvements restricted to this. 
Calico-printing, an art practised many thousand 
years ago among the Egyptians, was perfected 
by the operation of printing from cylinders. 
It deserves to be remarked that the cotton manufacture 
was first introduced into Europe by the Arabs. Abder- 
rahman III., A.n. 930, caused it to be commenced in 
Spain; he also had extensive manufactures of silk and 
leather, and interested himself much in the culture of the 
sugar-cane, rice, the mulberry. One of the nlost valuable 
Spanish applications of cotton was in the invention of 
cotton paper. The Arabs were also the authors of the 
printing of calicoes by wooden blocks, a great improvement 
on the old Indian operation of painting by hand. 
We may excuse the enthusiastic literature of the cotton 
manufacture its boasting, for men had accom- 
plished works that were nearly God-like. Mr. 
Baines, writing in 1833, states that the length 
of yarn spun in one year was nearly five thousand millions 
of miles, sufficient to pass round the earth's circumference 
more than two hundred thousand times-sufficient to reach 
fifty-one times from the earth to the sun. It would 
encircle the earth's orbit eight and a half times. The 
wrought fabrics of cotton exported in one year would form 
a girdle for the globe passing eleven times round the 
equator, more than sufficient to form a continuous sheet 
from the earth to the moon. And, if this was the case 
thirty years ago, by what illustrations would it be possible 
to depict it now (1859), when the quantity of cotton 
imported by England alone is more than twelve hundred 
millions of pounds? 
Bleaching by 
chlorine. 
Calico-print- 
ing by cy- 
linders. 
Extent of the 
cotton manu- 
facture. CH. XI.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
387 
But such a vast development in that particular manu- 
facture necessarily implied other improvements, 
especially in locomotion and the transmission 
of intelligence. The pedlar's pack, the pack- 
horse, and the cart became altogether inadequate, and, in 
succession, were replaced by the canal system of the last 
century, and by the steam-boats and railroads of this. 
The engineering triumphs of Brindley, whose 
canals were carried across valleys, over or through 
mountains, above rivers, excited unbounded admiration in 
his own times, and yet they were only the precursors of the 
railway engineering of ours. As it was, the canal system 
proved to be inadequate to the want, and oaken railways, 
which had long been used in quarries and coal-pits, with 
the locomotive invented by Murdoch in 1784, were destined 
to supplant them. It does not fall within my present 
purpose to relate how the locomotion of the whole civilized 
world was revolutionized, not by the act of 
some mighty sovereign or soldier, but by George 
Stephenson, once a steam-engine stoker, who, by the 
invention of the tubular boiler and the ingenious device 
of blowing the chimney instead of the fire, converted the 
locomotive of the last century, which, at its utmost speed, 
could only travel seven miles an hour, into the locomotive 
of this, which can accomplish seventy. I need not dwell 
on the collateral improvements, the introduc- 
tion of iron for rails, metallic bridges, tubular 
bridges, viaducts, and all the prodigies of the existing 
system of railway engineering. 
It is not only on account of the gigantic nature of the 
work it has to execute that the machinery employed in 
the great manufactures, such as those of cotton 
and iron, is so worthy of our admiration; im- 
provements as respects the correctness, and even 
the elegance of its own construction, attract our 
attention. It has been truly said of steam-engines that 
they were never properly made until they made themselves. 
In any machine, the excellence of its performance depends 
on the accuracy of its construction. Its parts must be 
made perfectly tine, and, to work smoothly, must work 
without error. To accomplish such conditions taxed to 
Improve- 
ments in 
locomotion. 
Brindley's 
canals. 
Stephenson's 
locomotivt s. 
The railway 
system. 
Improvement 
in the con- 
struction of 
machinery. 388 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[cm xi. 
its utmost the mechanical ingenuity of the last century; 
and, indeed, it was not possible to reach perfect success so 
long as the hand alone was resorted to. Work executed 
by the most skilful mechanic could be no more than 
approximately correct. Not until such machines as the 
sliding rest and planing engine were introduced could 
any approach to perfection be made. Improvements of 
this nature reacted at once on the primary construction of 
machinery, making it more powerful, more accurate, more 
durable, and also led to the introduction of greater elegance 
in its planning or conception, as any one may see who 
will compare the clumsy half wooden, half metal machinery 
of the last century with the light and tasteful constructions 
of this. 
While thus the inventive class of men were gratifying 
their mental activity, and following that pursuit which 
has ever engrossed the energetic in all ages of the world- 
the pursuit of riches; for it was quickly perceived that 
success in this direction was the high road to 
wealth, public consideration, and honour-the 
realization of riches greater than the wildest 
expectations of the alchemists; there were silently and in 
an unobserved manner great social and national results 
arising. The operative was correct enough in his con- 
clusion that machinery was throwing him out of work, 
and reflecting persons were light enough in their belief 
that this extensive introduction of machines was in some 
way accomplishing a disorganization of the social economy. 
Doubtless, for the time being, the distress and misery 
were very severe; men were compelled to starve < r to 
turn to new avocations; families were deprived of their 
1 ong-accustomed means of support; such must necessarily 
be the incidents of every great social change, even though 
it be a change of improvement. Nor was it until the 
new condition of things had passed through a considerable 
advance that its political tendency began to be plainly 
discerned. It was relieving the labourer from the burden 
of his toil, supplanting manual by mechanical action. In 
the cotton-mill, which may be looked upon as 
the embodiment of the new system and its 
tendencies, the steam-engine down below was doing the 
Social changes 
effected by 
machinery. 
T ife in the 
mill. UH. XT.] 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
389 
drudgery, turning the wheels and executing the labour, 
while the operatives above-men, women, and children - 
were engaged in those things which the engine could not 
accomplish-things requiring observation and intelligent 
action. Under such a state it was not possible but that a 
social change should ensue, for relief from corporeal labour 
is always followed by a disposition for mental activity; 
and it was not without a certain degree of plausibility 
that the philanthropist, whose attention was directed to 
this subject, asserted that the lot of the labouring man 
was no better than it had been before: he had changed 
the tyrant, but had not got rid of the tyranny; for the 
demands of the insatiate, inexorable, untiring steam-engine 
must be without delay satisfied; the broken thread must 
be instantly pieced; the iron fingers must receive their 
new supply; the finished work must be forthwith taken 
away. 
AVhat was thus going on in the mill was a miniature 
picture of what was going on in the state. 
Labour was comparatively diminishing, mental 
activity increasing. Throughout the last century the 
intellectual advance is most significantly marked, and 
surprising is the contrast between the beginning and the 
close. Ideas that once had a living force altogether died 
away, the whole community offering an exemplification of 
the fact that the more opportunity men have for reflection 
the more they will think. Well, then, might those whose 
interests lay in the perpetuation of former ideas and the 
ancient order of things look with intolerable apprehension 
on what was taking place. They saw plainly that this 
intellectual activity would at last find a political expres- 
sion, and that a power, daily increasing in intensity, 
would not fail to make itself felt in the end. 
In such things are manifested the essential differences 
between the Age of Faith and the Age of 
Beason. In the former, if life was enjoyed in 
calmness it was enjoyed in stagnation, in un- 
productiveness, and in a worthless way. But how dif- 
ferent in the latter ! Every thing is in movement. So 
many are the changes we witness, even in the course of 
a very brief period, that no one, though of the largest 
Intellectual 
activity. 
Difference be- 
tween past at id 
present ages. 390 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
[ch. xi. 
intellect, or in the most favourable position, can predict 
the future of only a few years hence. We see that ideas 
which yesterday served us as a guide die to-day, and will 
be replaced by others, we know not what, to-morrow. 
In this scientific advancement, among the triumphs of 
which we are living, all the nations of Europe 
have been engaged. Some, with a venial pride, 
claim for themselves the glory of having taken 
the lead. But perhaps each of them, if it might 
designate the country-alas ! not yet a nation-that 
should occupy the succeeding post of honour, would in- 
scribe Italy on its ballot. It was in Italy that Columbus 
was born; in Venice, destined one day to be restored to 
Italy, newspapers were first issued. It was in 
Italy that the laws of the descent of bodies to 
tne eartn and of the equilibrium of fluids ■were first 
determined by Galileo. In the Cathedral of l isa that 
illustrious philosopher watched the swinging of the 
chandelier, and, observing that its vibrations, large and 
small, were made in equal times, left the house of God, his 
prayers unsaid, but the pendulum clock invented. To the 
Venetian senators he first showed the satellites of Jupiter, 
the crescent form of Venus, and, in the garden of Cardinal 
Bandini, the spots upon the sun. It was in Italy that 
Sanctorio invented the thermometer; that Torricelli con- 
structed the barometer and demonstrated the pressure of 
the air. It was there that Castelli laid the foundation of 
hydraulics and discovered the laws of the flowing of water. 
Ihere, too, the first Christian astronomical observatory 
was established, and there Stancari counted the number 
of vibrations of a string emitting musical notes. There 
Grimaldi discovered the diffraction of light, and the 
Florentine academicians showed that dark heat may bo 
reflected by mirrors across space. In our own times 
Melloni furnished the means of proving that it may bo 
polarized. The first philosophical societies were the Italian ; 
the first botanical garden was established at Pisa; the 
first classification of plants given by Csesalpinus. The 
first geological museum was founded at Verona; the first 
who cultivated the study of fossil remains were Leonardo 
da Vinci and Fracasta. The great chemical discoveries 
Scientific 
contributions 
of various 
nations, 
especially of 
Italy. CH. XI.J 
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON. 
391 
of this century were made by instruments which bear the 
names of Galvani and Volta. Why need I speak of 
science alone? Who will dispute with that illustrious 
people the palm of music and painting, of statuary and 
architecture ? The dark cloud which for a thousand years 
has hung over that beautiful peninsula is fringed -with 
irradiations of light. There is not a department of 
human knowledge from which Italy has not extracted 
glory, no art that she has not adorned. 
Notwithstanding the adverse circumstances in which 
she has been placed, Italy has thus taken no 
insignificant part in the advancement of science. 
I may at the close of a work of which so large a portion 
has been devoted to the relation of her influences, political 
and religious, on the rest of Europe, be perhaps excused 
the expression of a hope that the day is approaching in 
which she will, with Home as her capital, take that place 
in the modern system to which she is entitled. The 
course of centuries has proved that her ecclesiastical 
relation with foreign countries is incompatible with her 
national life. It is that, and that alone, which has been 
the cause of all her ills. She has asserted a jurisdiction in 
every other government; the price she has paid is her 
own unity. The first, the all-important step in her 
restitution is the reduction of the papacy to a purely 
religious clement'. Her great bishop must no longer be an 
earthly prince. Rome, in her outcry for the preservation 
of her temporal possessions, forgets that Christian Europe 
has made a far greater sacrifice. It has yielded Bethlehem, 
Gethsemane, Calvary, the Sepulchre, the Mount of the 
Ascension. That is a sacrifice to which the surrender of 
the fictitious donations of barbarian kings is not to be 
compared. 
Causes of her 
depression. 
The foregoing paragraphs were written in 1859. Since 
that time Italy has become a nation, Rome is its capital, 
Venice belongs to it. In 1870-71 I was an eye-witness of 
the presence of Italian troops in the Eternal City. CHAPTER XII. 
CONCLUSION.-THE FUTURE OF EUROPE. 
Summary of the Argument presented in this Book respecting the mental 
Progress of Europe. 
Intellectual Development is the Object of Individual Life.-It is also the 
Result of social Progress. 
Nations arriving at Maturity instinctively attempt their own intellectual 
Organization.-Example of the Manner in which this has been done 
in China.-Its Imperfection.-What it has accomplished. 
The Organization of public Intellect is the End to which European 
Civilization is tending. 
A philosophical principle becomes valuable if it can be 
used as a guide in the practical purposes of life. 
The object of this book is to impress upon its reader a 
conviction that civilization does not proceed in 
an arbitrary manner or by chance, but that it 
passes through a determinate succession of stages, 
and is a development according to law. 
For this purpose, we considered the relations between 
individual and social life, and showed that they 
are physiologically inseparable, and that the 
course of communities bears an unmistakable 
resemblance to the progress of an individual, 
and that man is the archetype or exemplar of society. 
We then examined the intellectual history of Greece- 
a nation offering the best and most complete 
illustration of the life of humanity. From the 
beginnings of its mythology in old Indian 
legends and of-its philosophy in Ionia, we saw that it 
passed through phases like those of the individual to its 
decrepitude and death in Alexandria. 
General sum- 
mary of the 
work. 
Individual 
and social life 
have been 
considered; 
in the intel- 
lectual history 
of Greece; CH. xn.j 
THE FUTURE OF EUROPE. 
393 
Then, addressing ourselves to the history of Europe, we 
found that, if suitably divided into groups of 
ages, these groups, compared with each other 
in chronological succession, present a striking 
resemblance to the successive phases of Greek life, and 
therefore to that which Greek life resembles-that is to 
say, individual life. 
For the sake of convenience in these descriptions we 
have assumed arbitrary epochs, answering to the periods 
from infancy to maturity. History justifies the assump- 
tion of such periods. There is a well-marked difference 
between the aspect of Europe during its savage 
and mythologic ages; its changing, and grow- 
ing, and doubting condition during the Roman 
republic and the Caesars; its submissive contentment un- 
der the Byzantine and Italian control; the assertion of 
its manhood, and right of thought, and freedom of action 
which characterize its present state-a state adorned by 
great discoveries in science, great inventions in art, addi- 
tions to the comforts of life, improvements in locomo- 
tion, and the communication of intelligence. Science, 
capital, and machinery conjoined are producing industrial 
miracles. Colossal projects are undertaken and executed, 
and the whole globe is literally made the theatre of 
action of every individual. 
Nations, like individuals, are born, pass through a 
predestined growth, and die. One comes to its end at an 
early period and in an untimely way; another, not until 
it has gained maturity. One is cut off by feebleness in 
its infancy, another is destroyed by civil disease, another 
commits political suicide, another lingers in old age. But 
for every one there is an orderly way of progress to its 
final term, whatever that term may be. 
Now, when we look at the successive phases of individual 
life, what is it that we find to be their chief 
characteristic ? Intellectual advancement. And 
we consider that maturity is reached when in- 
tellect is at its maximum. The earlier stages are pre- 
paratory ; they are wholly subordinate to this. 
If the anatomist be asked how the human form advances 
to its highest perfection, he at once disregards all the 
and the 
history of 
Europe. 
The contrasts 
its ages dis- 
play. 
The object of 
development 
is intellect. 394 
THE FUTURE OF EUROPE. 
[ch. xn. 
inferior organs of which it is composed, and answers that 
it is through provisions in its nervous structure 
for intellectual improvement; that in succession 
it passes through stages analogous to those 
observed in other animals in the ascending scale, but in 
the end it leaves them far behind, reaching a point to 
which they never attain. The rise in organic develop- 
ment measures intellectual dignity. 
In like manner, the physiologist considering the vast 
series of animals now inhabiting the earth with 
us, ranks them in the order of their intelligence, 
lie shows that their nervous mechanism unfolds itself 
upon the same plan as that of man, and that, as its ad- 
vancement in this uniform and predetermined direction 
is greater, so is the position attained to higher. 
The geologist declares that these conclusions hold good 
in the history of the earth, and that there has 
been an orderly improvement in intellectual 
power of the beings that have inhabited it 
successively. It is manifested by their nervous systems, 
lie affirms that the cycle of transformation through which 
every man must pass is a miniature representation of the 
progress of life on the planet rIhe intention in both 
cases is the same. 
The sciences, therefore, join with history in affirming 
that the great aim of nature is intellectual 
improvement. They proclaim that the succes- 
sive stages of every individual, from its earliest 
rudiment to maturity-the numberless organic 
beings now living contemporaneously with us, and con- 
stituting the animal scries-the orderly appearance of 
that grand succession which, in the slow lapse of lime, has 
emerged-all these three great lines of the manifestation 
of life furnish not only evidences, but also proofs of the 
dominion of law. In all the general principle is to 
differentiate instinct from automatism, and then to dif- 
ferentiate intelligence from instinct. In man himself the 
three distinct modes of life occur in an epochal order 
through childhood to the most perfect sta'e. And this 
holding good for the individual, since it is physiologically 
impossible to separate him from the race, what holds 
It is the same 
m individual 
life, 
and in the ani- 
mal series, 
and in the 
general life of 
the globe. 
Succession of 
automatism, 
instinct, and 
intelligence. UH. XII.] 
THE FUTURE OF EUROPE. 
395 
good for the one must also hold good for the other. Hence 
man is truly the archetype of society. His development 
is the model of social progress. 
What, then, is the conclusion inculcated by these 
doctrines as regards the social progress of great 
communities ? It is that all political institu- 
tions-imperceptibly or visibly, spontaneously 
or purposely-should tend to the improvement and 
organization of national intellect. 
The expectation of life in a community, as in an 
individual, increases in proportion as the artificial con- 
dition or laws under which it is living agree with the 
natural tendency. Existence may be maintained under 
very adverse circumstances for a season; but, for sta- 
bility and duration, and prosperity, there must bo a 
correspondence between the artificial conditions and the 
natural tendency. 
Europe is now entering on its mature phase of life. 
Each of its nations will attempt its own in- 
tellectual organization, and will accomplish it 
more or less perfectly, as certainly as that bees 
build combs and fill them with honey. The excellence 
of the result will altogether turn on the suitability and 
perfection of the means. 
There are historical illustrations which throw light 
upon the working of these principles. Thus, 
centuries ago, China entered on her Age of 
Beason, and instinctively commenced the operation of 
mental organization. What is it that has given to her 
her wonderful longevity ? What is it that insures tho 
well-being, the prosperity of a population of three hundred 
and sixty millions-more than one fourth of the human race 
-on a surface not by any means as large as Europe ? Not 
geographical position; for, though the country may in 
former ages have been safe on the East by reason of the 
sea, it has been invaded and conquered from the West. 
Not a docility, want of spirit, or submissiveness of the 
people, for there have been-bloody insurrections. The 
Chinese empire extends through twenty degrees of 
latitude ; the mean annual temperature of its northern pro- 
vinces differs from that of the southern by twenty-five 
The object of 
social de- 
velopment. 
Application of 
these princi- 
ples to Europe. 
Example offer- 
ed by China. 396 
THE FUTURE OF EUROPE. 
[ch. xii. 
Fahrenheit degrees. Hence, with a wonderful variety in 
its vegetation, there must be great differences in the types 
of men inhabiting it. But the principle that lies at the 
basis of its political system has confronted successfully all 
these human varieties, and has outlived all revolutions. 
The organization of the national intellect is that princi- 
ple. A broad foundation is laid in universal 
education. It is intended that every Chinese 
shall know how to read and write. The special 
plan then adopted is that of competitive ex- 
aminations. The way to public advancement is open 
to all. Merit, real or supposed, is the only passport to 
office. Its degree determines exclusively social rank. The 
government is organized on mental qualifications. The 
imperial constitution is imitated in those of the provinces. 
Once in three years public examinations are held in each 
district or county, with a view of ascertaining those who 
are fit for office. The bachelors, or those who are success- 
ful, are triennially sent for renewed examination in the 
provincial capital before two examiners deputed from the 
general board of public education. The licentiates thus 
sifted out now offer themselves for final examination 
before the imperial board at Pekin. Suitable candidates 
for vacant posts are thus selected. There is no one who 
is not liable to such an inquisition. When vacancies 
occur they are filled from the list of approved men, who 
are gradually elevated to the highest honours. 
It is not because the talented, who, when disappointed 
constitute in other countries the most dangerous 
of all classes, are here provided for, that sta- 
bility of institutions has been attained, but 
because the political system approaches - to an 
agreement with that physiological condition which guides 
all social development. The intention is to give a do- 
minating control to intellect. 
The method through which that result is aimed at is 
imperfect, and, consequently, an absolute coin- 
cidence between the system and the tendency is 
not attained, but the stability secured by their 
approximation is very striking. The method itself is 
the issue of political forms through which the nation for 
She has or- 
ganized her 
public intel- 
lect, 
and obtains 
stability for 
her institu- 
tions. 
Imperfection 
of the method 
she employs. CH. XH.j 
THE FUTURE OF EUROPE. 
397 
ages has been passing. Their insufficiency and imperfec- 
tions are incorporated with and reappear in it. 
To the practical eye of Europe a political system thus 
founded on a literary basis appears to be an 
absurdity. But we must look with respect on 
anything that one-fourth of mankind have 
concluded it best to do, especially since they have con- 
sistently adhered to their determination for several thou- 
sand years. Forgetting that herein they satisfy an instinct 
of humanity which every nation, if it lives long enough, 
must feel, Europe often asserts that it is the competitive 
system which has brought the Chinese to their present 
state, and made them a people without any sense of 
patriotism or honour, without any faith or vigour. 
These are the results, not of their system, but of old age. 
There are octogenarians among us as morose, selfish, and 
conceited as China. 
The want of a clear understanding of our relative 
position vitiates all our dealings with that 
ancient empire. The Chinese has heard of our 
discordant opinions, of our intolerance toward 
those who differ in ideas from us, of our worship of 
wealth, and the honour we pay to birth ; he has heard 
that we sometimes commit political power to men who 
are so little above the animals that they can neither read 
nor write; that we hold military success in esteem, and 
regard the profession of arms as the only suitable occupa- 
tion for a gentleman. It is so long since his ancestors 
thought and acted in that manner that he justifies 
himself in regarding us as having scarcely yet emerged 
from the barbarian stage. On our side, we cherish the 
delusion that we shall, by precept or by force, convert 
him to our modes of thought, religious or political, and 
that we can infuse into his stagnating veins a portion 
of our enterprise. 
A tiustworthy account of the present condition of China 
would be a valuable gift to philosophy, and also to states- 
manship. On a former page I have remarked 
(Chap. I. Vol. I.) that it demands the highest 
policy to govern populations living in great dif- 
ferences of latitude. Yet China has not only controlled 
Its literary 
basis inade- 
quate. 
Relative posi- 
tion of Europe 
and China. 
What China 
has really ac- 
compl.shed. 398 
THE FUTURE OF EUROPE. 
(ch. xn. 
her climatic strands of people, she has even made them, if 
not homogeneous, yet so fitted to each other that they 
all think and labour alike. Europe is inevitably hastening 
to become what China is. In her we may see what we 
shall be like when we are old. 
A great community, aiming to govern itself by intellect 
rather than by coercion, is a spectacle worthy of admira- 
tion, even though the mode by which it endeavours to 
accomplish its object is plainly inadequate. Brute force 
holds communities together as an iron nail binds 
pieces of wood by the compression it makes- 
a compression depending on the force with 
which it has been hammered in. It also holds 
more tenaciously if a little rusted with age. But intelli- 
gence binds like a screw. The things it has to unite 
must be carefully adjusted to its thread. It must be 
gently turned, not driven, and so it retains the consenting 
paits firmly together. 
Notwithstanding the imperfections of a system founded 
on such a faulty basis, that great community has accom- 
plished what many consider to be the object of states- 
manship. They think that it should be permanence in 
Institutions. But permanence is only, in an apparent 
sense, the object of good statesmanship; progression, in 
accordance with the natural tendency, is the real one. 
The successive steps of such a progression follow one 
another so imperceptibly that there is a delusive appear- 
ance of permanence. Man is so constituted that he is 
never aware of continuous motion. Abrupt variations 
alone impress his attention. 
Forms of government, therefore, are of moment, though 
not in the manner commonly supposed. Their value in- 
creases in proportion as they permit or encourage the 
natural tendency for development to be satisfied. 
While Asia has thus furnished an example of the effects 
of a national organization of intellect, Europe, on a smaller 
scale, has presented an illustration of the same kind. The 
papal system opened, in its special circumstances, 
a way for talent. It maintained an intellectual 
organization for those who were within its pale, 
irrespective of wealth or birth. It was no objection that 
Difference In 
government 
by force and 
intelligence. 
A similar ex- 
ample in ths 
case of Italy. CH. XII.] 
THE FUTURE OF EUROPE. 
399 
the greatest churchman frequently came from the lowest 
-walks of life. And that organization sustained it in spite 
of the opposition of external circumstances for several cen- 
turies after its supernatural and ostensible basis had com- 
pletely decayed away. 
Whatever may be the facts under which, in the different 
countries of Europe, such an organization takes place, or 
the political forms guiding it, the basis it must 
rest upon is universal, and, if necessary, com- 
pulsory education. In the more enlightened 
places the movement has already nearly reached 
that point. Already it is an accepted doctrine that the 
state, as well as the parent, has rights in a child and that 
it may insist on education; conversely also, that every 
child has a claim upon the government for good instruction. 
After providing in the most liberal manner for that, free 
countries have but one thing more to do for the accomplish- 
ment of the rest. 
That one thing is to secure intellectual freedom as com- 
pletely as the rights of property and personal liberty have 
been already secured. Philosophical opinions 
and scientific discoveries are entitled to be judged 
of by their truth, not by their relation to exist- 
ing interests. The motion of the earth round the sun, the 
antiquity of the globe, the origin of species, are doctrines 
which have had to force their way in the manner described 
in this book, not against philosophical opposition, but 
opposition of a totally different nature. And yet the in- 
terests which resisted them so strenuously have received 
no damage from their establishment beyond that consequent 
on the discredit of having so resisted them. 
There is no literary crime greater than that of exciting 
a social, and especially a theological odium against ideas 
that are purely scientific, none against which the dis- 
approval of every educated man ought to be more strongly 
expressed. The republic of letters owes it to its own 
dignity to tolerate no longer offences of that kind. 
To such an organization of their national intellect, and 
to giving it a political control, the countries 
of Europe are thus rapidly advancing. They 
are hastening to satisfy their instinctive tendency. The 
Approach of 
Europeto uni- 
versal educa- 
tion. 
Necessity of 
intellectual 
freedom. 
The future 
course of Europe. 400 
THE FUTURE OF EUROPE. 
[ch. xn. 
special form in which they will embody their intentions 
must, of course, depend to a great degree on the political 
forms under which they have passed their lives, modified 
by that approach to homogeneousness which arises from 
increased intercommunication. The canal system, so won- 
derfully developed in China, exerted no little influence in 
that respect-an influence, however, not to be compared 
with that which must be the result of the railway system 
of Europe. 
In an all-important particular the prospect of Europe 
is bright. China is passing through the last 
stage of civil life in the cheerlessness of Buddh- 
ism ; Europe approaches it through Christianity. 
Universal benevolence cannot fail to yield a 
better fruit than unsocial pride. There is a fairer hope 
for nations animated by a sincere religious sentiment, 
who, whatever their political history may have been, have 
always agreed in this, that they were devout, than for a 
people who dedicate themselves to a selfish pursuit of 
material advantages, who have lost all belief in a future, 
and are living without any God. 
I have now come to the end of a work which has occupied 
me for many years, and which I submit, with many mis- 
givings as to its execution, to the indulgent consideration 
of the public. These pages will not have been written in 
vain if the facts they present impress the reader, as they 
have impressed the author, with a conviction that the 
civilization of Europe has not taken place fortuitously, but 
in a definite manner, and under the control of natural law; 
that the procession of nations does not move forward like 
a dream, without reason or order, but that there is a pre- 
determined, a solemn march, in which all must join, ever 
moving, ever resistlessly advancing, encountering and en- 
during an inevitable succession of events; that individual 
life and its advancement through successive stages is the 
model of social life and its secular variations. 
I have asserted the control of natural law in the shaping 
of human affairs-a control not inconsistent with free-will 
any more than the unavoidable passage of an individual 
Its hopeful- 
ness com- 
pared with 
that of China. CH. XII.] 
THE FUTURE OF EUROPE. 
401 
as he advances to maturity and declines in old age is in- 
consistent with his voluntary actions; that higher law 
limits our movements to a certain direction, and guides 
them in a certain way. As the Stoics of old used to say, 
an acorn may lie torpid in the ground, unable to exert its 
living force, until it receives warmth, and moisture, and 
other things needful for its germination ; when it grows, 
it may put forth one bud here and another bud there; the 
wind may bend one branch, the frost blight another ; the 
innate vitality of the tree may struggle against adverse 
conditions or luxuriate in those that are congenial; but, 
whatever the circumstances may be, there is an overruling 
power for ever constraining and modelling it. The acorn 
can only produce an oak. 
The application of this principle to human societies is 
completely established by a scientific study of their history ; 
and the more extensive and profound that study, the better 
shall we be able to distinguish the invariable law in the 
midst of the varying events. But that once thoroughly 
appreciated, we have gained a philosophical guide for the 
interpretation of the past acts of nations, and a prophetic 
monitor of their future, so far as prophecy is possible in 
human affairs. INDEX. 
Abba OcMNA, a distinguished Jewish 
physician, i. 401. 
Abbot Arnold, his sanguinary order at 
the capture of Beziers, ii. 62. 
Abdallah penetrates Africa as far as 
Tripoli, i. 334. 
Abdalmalek invades Africa, i. 334. 
Abderrahman slain at the battle of 
Tours, ii. 30. 
Abderrahman III., description of the 
Court of, ii. 32. 
Introduces cotton manufacture into 
Spain, ii. 386. 
Abderrahman Sufi improves the pho- 
tometry of the stars, ii. 42. 
Abdulmalek, his scrupulous integrity 
in regard to the church of 
Damascus, i. 338. 
Abelard, Peter, his character and doc- 
trines, ii. 11. 
Abkah, his temporary success in sub- 
jugating Africa, i. 334. 
About Wefa discovers the variation of 
the moon, i. 325. 
Abraham Ibn Sahal, obscene character 
of the songs of, ii. 35. 
Absorption of the soul of man, the 
Veda doctrine of, i. 60. 
Abu-Bekr, the successor of Mohammed 
and first Khalif, i. 334. 
Abul Cassem, a Moorish writer of 
the tenth century, on trade and 
commerce, ii. 44. 
Abul Hassan, an Arab astronomer, ii. 
42. 
Abu Othman, a Moorish writer on 
zoology, ii. 39. 
Acacim, Bishop of Constantinople, 
excommunicated by Felix, the 
Bishop of Rome, i. 352. 
Academies, accusation of heresy 
against the Italian, ii. 213. 
Foundation of modern learned, ii. 
287. 
Academy, Old, founded by Plato, iM69. 
Middle, founded by Arcesilaus, i. 
169. 
New, founded by Carneades, i. 169. 
Fourth, founded by Philo of 
Larissa, i. 170. 
Fifth, founded by Antiochus of As- 
calon, i. 170. 
Acherusian Cave, superstitiously be- 
lieved to lead to hell, i. 36. 
Achilles, spear of, preserved as a 
relic, i. 51. 
Puzzle, advanced by Zeno the 
Eleatic as one of four arguments 
against the possibility of motion, 
i. 122. 
Acoustics, discoveries in, and pheno- 
mena of, ii. 370. 
Adrian, Pope, incurs the displeasure 
of Charlemagne in consequence 
of selling his vassals as slaves, i. 
373. 
Adriatic Sea, North, change of depth 
in, i. 30. 
.fineas Svlvius becomes Pope Pius II., 
i. 299. 
His remark on the Council of Basle, 
ii. 100. 
On the state of faith, ii. 103. 
On Christendom, ii. 109. 
Aerial martyrs, account of, i. 426. 
jEschylus condemned to death for 
blasphemy, but saved by his bro- 
ther Aminias, i. 50. ' 
Aesculapius, the father of Greek 
medicine, i. 393. INDEX. 
403 
Affinity, first employed in its modern 
acceptation by Albertus Magnus, 
ii. 153. 
Africa, circumnavigation of, by the 
ships of Pharaoh Necho, i. 78. 
Conquered by the Arabs, i. 333. 
Effects of the loss of, on Italy, i. 350. 
Circumnavigation of, by Vasco de 
Gama, ii. 168. 
Age of the earth, problem of, ii. 294. 
Proofs of, ii. 334. 
Age of Faith, Greek, i. 143. 
Its problems, i. 217. 
European, i. 308. 
In the East, end of, i. 326. 
In the West, i. 349; ii. 1, 27, 77, 
105. 
Its literary condition, ii. 128. 
Results of, in England, ii. 229. 
Contrast of, and age of Reason, ii. 
389. 
Age of Greek decrepitude, i. 207. 
Age of Inquiry, Greek, its solutions, 
i. 217. 
History of, European, i. 239, 265. 
Age of Reason, Greek, its problems, i. 
221. 
Approach of, ii. 151, 190. 
History of, ii. 252, 29 4 
Age of Reason, Greek, i. 171. 
Ages, duration of Greek, i. 222. 
Ages of life of man, i. 14. 
Of intellectual progress of Europe, 
i. 19. 
Algazzali's, of life of man, iL 52. 
Each has its own logic, ii. 192. 
Agriculture in a rainless country, 
i. 85. 
Air, modern discoveries of the rela- 
tions of, i. 102. 
Aix-la-Chapelle, adorned by Charle- 
magne, i. 373. 
Aiznadin, battle of, i. 335. 
Al Abbas, a Moorish writer on botanv, 
ii. 39. 
Alaric, capture of Rome by, i. 300. 
Albategnius discovers the motion of 
the sun's apogee, i. 325. 
Determines the length of the 
j ear, ii. 41. 
Al Beithar, a Moorish writer on 
botany, ii. 39. 
Albertus Magnus constructs a brazen 
man, ii. 116. 
His extensive acquirements, ii. 153. 
Alberuni, a Moorish writer on gems, 
ii. 39. 
Albigensian revolt, ii. 147. 
Albucasis, a skilful surgeon of Cor- 
dova, ii. 39. 
Alby, edict of Council of, against the 
Jewish physicians, ii. 125. 
Ai-Cawthor, river of, mentioned in 
the Koran, i. 346. 
Alchemists, Saracenic, i. 409. 
Alchemists, minor, of England, 
France, and Germany, ii. 155. 
Alchemy, theory and object of, i. 406. 
Alcuin, a Benedictine monk, founded 
the University of Paris, i. 437. 
Alemanni, Christianized at the begin- 
ning of the sixth century, i. 365. 
Alexander, Bishop of Constantinople, 
his controversy with Arius, i. 
285. 
Alexander II. excommunicates the 
Bishop of Milan, ii. 17. 
Alexander IV., Pope, he endeavours 
to destroy the " Everlasting 
Gospel," ii. 78. 
Alexander of Aphrodisais, his prin- 
ciples and tendencies, i. 259. 
Alexander the Great, his invasion of 
Persia, i. 171. 
His character, i. 174. 
Alexandria, foundation of, i. 173. 
Political state of, i. 200. 
Decline of the school of, i. 204. 
Description of, i. 323. 
Its capture, i. 334. 
" Alexiad " of Anna Comnena, ii. 59. 
Algazzali, his writings and doctrines, 
ii. 50. 
Alhakem, Khalif, his extensive library, 
ii. 32. 
Alhazen discovers atmospheric refrac- 
tion, ii. 42. 
Review of, ii. 45. 
His conclusions on the extent of 
the atmosphere confirmed, ii. 367 404 
INDEX. 
Ali, believed by the Shiites to be an 
incarnation of God, i. 347. 
His patronage of literature carried 
out by his successors, ii. 36. 
Alineations, employed by Hipparchus 
in making a register of the stars, 
• i. 202. 
Alliacus, Cardinal, the five memoirs 
of, ii, 254. 
Almagest, of Ptolemy, description of, 
i. 203. 
Translated by Averrhoes, ii. 67. 
Almaimon, his letter to the Emperor 
Theophilus, ii. 40. 
Determines the obliquity of the 
ecliptic, ii. 41. 
Also the size of the earth, ii. 41. 
His accuracy confirmed by the 
measurements of Kernel, ii. 255. 
Almansor patronizes learned men ir- 
respective of their religious 
opinions, i. 336. 
Alps, upheaval of, i. 31. 
Al-Sirat bridge, spoken of in the 
Koran, i. 346. 
Alwalid I., Khalif, prohibits the use 
of Greek, i. 339. 
Amadeus, elected " Pope Felix V.," ii. 
103. 
Amber brought from the Baltic, i. 
46. 
Supposed by Thales to possess a 
living soul, i. 97. 
Its electrical power imputed to a 
soul residing in it, i. 100. 
Study of its phenomena has led to 
important results, ii. 376. 
Ambrose of Milan converts St. Augus- 
tine, i. 304. 
Apology for the impostures prac- 
tised by, i. 313. 
Ambrose Pard lays the foundation of 
modern surgery, ii. 285. 
America, persecutions practised in, ii. 
117. 
Discovery of, ii. 163. 
Where name first occurs, ii. 163. 
Crime of Spain in, ii. 188. 
Antiquity of its civilization, ii. 
189. 
America, United States of, separation 
of Church and State in, ii. 143, 
227. 
Opportune occurrence of the Revo- 
lution, ii. 150. 
Culmination of the Reformation in, 
t ii. 226. 
American tragedy, ii. 166. 
Ammon, St., wonder related of, i. 
427. 
Ammonius Saccas, reputed author of 
the doctrines of Neo-Platonism, 
i. 211. 
Amrou, the Mohammedan general, 
takes Alexandria, i. 333. 
Amulets, whence their supposed 
power derived, i. 403. 
Anabaptists, number of, put to death, 
ii. 226. 
Analogy of Greek and Indian Philo- 
sophy, i. 210. 
Analysis, higher, commencement of 
the, i. 134. 
Political dangers of, i. 139. 
Anaxagoras condemned to death for 
impiety, i. 50. 
His doctrines, i. 108. 
Persecution and death of, 110. 
Anaximander of Miletus, his doctrines, 
i. 106. 
Originates cosmogony and biologv, 
i. 107. 
Anaximenes of Miletus holds the doc- 
trine that air is the first prin- 
ciple, i. 98. 
Anchorets, number of, i. 432. 
Animals, Veda doctrine of use of, i. 61. 
Are localized as well as plants, ii. 
309. 
Order of succession of, ii. 321. 
Animals, cold and hot-blooded, ii. 
332. 
Characteristics of, ii. 339. 
In lower tribes of, movements are 
automatic, ii. 349. 
Their instinctive and intellectual 
apparatus, ii. 351. 
Their nature, ii. 363. 
Analogy between, and Man, ii. 
364. INDEX. 
405 
Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
takes part in the dispute between 
the realists and nominalists, ii. 12. 
Anthony, St., a grazing hermit, i. 
427. 
Delusions of, i. 429. 
Anthropocentric stage of thought, i. 
36. 
Ideas, prominence of, i. 64. 
Ruin of, ii. 279. 
Philosophy, review of, ii. 287. 
Antimony, its uses, and origin of its 
name, ii. 156. 
Antiochus of Ascalon, founder of the 
fourth Academy, i. 170. 
Antiochus, King of Syria, cedes his 
European possessions to Rome, i. 
246. 
Antisthenes, founder of the Cynical 
School, i. 149. 
Antonina, wife of Belisarius, her cruel 
treatment of Sylverius, i. 354. 
Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius, Emperor, 
his acknowledgments to Epic- 
tetus, i. 259. 
Antonio de Dominis, outrage on the 
body of, ii. 225. 
Apennines, upheaval of, i. 31. 
Apocalypse, comments on, ii. 78. 
Apollonius Pergaeus, the writings of, 
i. 201. 
His geometry underrated by Pa- 
tristicism, i. 316. 
Apollonius of Tyana aids in the intro- 
duction of Orientalism, i. 210. 
Wonders related of, ii. 115. 
Aquinas, Thomas, a Dominican, the 
rival of Duns Scotus, ii. 14. 
Sojourns with Albertus Magnus, ii. 
116. 
Arabian influence, importance of, 
i. 383. 
Sorcery, i. 390. 
School system, ii. 36. 
Practical science, ii. 38. 
Medicine and surgery, ii. 39. 
Astronomy, ii. 41. 
Practical art, ii. 43. 
Commerce, ii. 43. 
Numerals, ii. 49. 
Arabs cultivate learning, i. 335. 
Rapidity of their intellectual de- 
velopment, i. 336. 
Invade Spain, ii. 28. 
Arabs, civilization and refinement of 
Spanish, ii. 30. 
Introduce the manufacture of cot- 
ton into Europe, ii. 386. 
Invent cotton paper, and the print- 
ing of calico by wooden blocks, 
ii. 386. 
Arantius, a distinguished anatomist, 
ii. 284. 
Arcesilaus, founder of the Middle 
Academy, i. 169. 
Archimedes, the writings of, i. 194. 
His mechanical inventions held in 
contempt by Patristicism, i. 316. 
Arctinus, his poums held in venera- 
tion, i. 51. 
Arddha Chiddi, the founder of Buddh- 
ism, life of, i. 66. 
Argonautic voyage, object of, i. 41. 
Its real nature, i. 45. 
Ariminium, Council of, i. 289. 
Aristarchus attempts to ascertain the 
sun's distance, i. 199. 
Aristippus, the founder of the 
Cyrenaic School, i. 149. 
Aristotle keeps a druggist's shop in 
Athens, i. 129, 397. 
Biography of, i. 176. 
His works translated into Arabic, 
i. 402. 
Aristotelism compared with Platonism 
i. 177. 
Arithmetic, Indian, ii. 40. 
Arius, his heresy, i. 285. 
His death, i. 288. 
Political results of his heresy, i. 
326. 
Arnold of Brescia, murder of, ii. 25. 
Arnold de Villa Nova, biographical 
sketch of, ii. 130. 
Art, Black, i. 404. 
Artesian Wells, ii. 301. 
Articulata, anatomy of, ii. 350. 
Asclepions, effect of the destruction 
of, i. 387. 
Nature and organization of, i. 393. 406 
INDEX. 
Asellius discovers the lacteals, ii. 
285. 
Asoka, King, patronizes Buddhism, i. 
67. 
Aspasia, history of, significant, i. 132. 
Astrolabe, known to the Saracens, ii. 
42. 
Astr nomical refraction, understood 
by Alhazen, ii. 46. 
Astronomy, primitive, i. 39. 
Passes beyond the fetich stage, i. 
100. 
Of Eratosthenes, i. 199. 
How she takes her revenge on the 
Church, i. 360. 
The intellectual impulse makes its 
attack through, ii. 133. 
Astronomy affords illustration of the 
magnitude and age of the world, 
ii. 278. 
Athanasius rebels against the Emperor 
Constantine, i. 289. 
First introduces monasticism into 
Italy, i. 433. 
Athene, statues of, i. 51. 
Athens, her progress in art, i. 132. 
Athens, her philosophy, i. 133. 
Her fall, ii. 109. 
Atlantic, first voyage across, ii. 162. 
Atmosphere, height of, determined 
by Alhazen, ii. 47. 
Effects of light on, ii. 320. 
The phenomena and properties of, 
ii. 367. 
Atomic theory, suggested by Demo- 
critus, i. 125. 
Attalus, King of Pergamus, effect of 
his bequests to Rome, i. 247. 
Attila, King of the Huns, "the 
scourge of God," invades Africa, 
i. 350. 
Augsburg, Diet of, ii. 211. 
Augustine, St., causes Pelagius to be 
expelled from Africa, i. 294. 
Writes the "City of God," i. 301. 
Character of that work, i. 304. 
Denies the possibility of the Anti- 
podes, i. 315. 
His notion of the Virgin, i. 361. 
On spontaneous generation, ii. 329. 
Auricular confession, introduction of, 
ii. 65. 
"Ausculta Fili," Papal bull of, ii. 83. 
Australian, how affected by physical 
circumstances, i. 26. 
Avenzoar, a Moorish writer on phar- 
macy, ii. 39. 
Averrhoes, of Cordova, the chief com- 
mentator on Aristotle, ii. 39. 
His theory of the soul, ii. 193. 
Confounded force with the psychical 
principle, ii. 343. 
His erroneous view of man, ii. 357. 
Avicenna, the geological views -of, i. 
411. 
A physician and philosopher, ii. 39. 
Avignon, Papacy removed to, ii. 86. 
Voluptuousness of, ii. 95. 
Papacy leaves, ii. 96. 
Azof, Sea of, dependency of the Medi- 
terranean, i. 28. 
Babylonian, extent of astronomical 
observations, i. 192. 
Bacon, Lord, nature of his philosophv, 
ii. 258. 
Bacon, Roger, titles of his works, ii. 
120. 
Is the friend of the Pope, ii. 132. 
His history and his discoveries, ii. 
153. 
Baconian philosophy, its principles un- 
derstood and carried into practice 
eighteen hundred years before 
Bacon was born, ii. 175. 
Bactrian empire, European ideas trans- 
mitted through, i. 45. 
Badbee, John, the second English mar- 
tyr, denies transubstantiation, ii. 
99. 
Bagdad, Khalifs of, patronize learning, 
i. 335. 
Its university founded by the Khalif 
Al Raschid, i. 402. 
Baghavat Gita, i. 65. 
Baines on the extent of the cotton 
manufacture, ii. 386. 
Bajazet, defeats Sigismund, King of 
Hungary, at the battle of Nico- 
polis, ii. 106. INDEX. 
407 
" Balance of Wisdom," probably writ- 
ten by Alhazen, ii. 47. 
Balboa discovers the Great South Sea, 
ii. 174. 
Ball, John, his preaching an index of 
the state of the times, ii. 148. 
Balthazar Cossa, Pope John XXI1L, 
ii. 98. 
Barbarians, Northern, their influence 
on civilization in Italy, i. 416. 
Barbarossa, Frederick, surrenders Ar- 
nold of Brescia to the Church, ii. 
25. 
Barsumas assists in the murder of the 
Bishop of Constantinople, i. 297. 
Basil Valentine introduces antimony, 
ii. 156. 
Basil, St., Bishop of Caesarea, founder 
of the Basilean order of monks, 
i. 436. 
Basle, Council of, ii. 102. 
Bavarians, Christianized, i. 365. 
" Beatific Vision," questioned by John 
XXII., ii. 94. 
Beecher introduced the phlogistic the- 
ory, ii. 286. 
Bechil, the discoverer of phosphorus, 
i. 410. 
Belgrade, taken by Soliman the Mag- 
nificent, ii. 109. 
Belisarius reconquers Africa, i. 327. 
Captures Rome, i. 350. 
Benedetto Gaetani, Cardinal, his parti- 
cipation in causing the abdication 
of Peter Morrone, Celestine V., 
ii. 80. 
Benedict, St., miracles related of, i. 
435. 
Benedictines, their numbers, i. 436. 
Ben Ezra, his numerous acquirements, 
ii, 123. 
Berengar of Tours, opinions of, ii. 
lb. 
Many of his doctrines embraced by 
Wickliffe, ii. 98. 
Berkeley, his doctrine on the exist- 
ence of matter, i. 231. 
Bernard of Clairvaux stimulates the 
second Crusade, ii. 24. 
Bernard, St., attacks Abelard, ii. 11. 
Bernardini, Peter, the father of St. 
Francis, ii. 64. 
Bertha, Queen of Kent, assists in the 
conversion of England to Christi- 
anity, i. 366. 
Beziers, the capture of, by Abbot Ar- 
nold, ii. 62. 
Council of, opposes the Jewish phy- 
sicians, ii. 125. 
Bible, translated into Latin by Je- 
rome, i. 306. 
Its superiority to the Koran, i. 343. 
Translated into English by Wick- 
liffe, ii. 99. 
Its character and general circula- 
tion, ii. 224. 
Biology originates with Anaximander, 
i. 107. 
Birds, migration of, i. 6. 
Bishops, rivalries of the three, i. 298. 
Their fate, i. 306. 
Accusation of House of Commons 
against the English, ii. 235. 
Their reply, ii. 236. 
Black Art sprang from Chaldee no- 
tions, i. 404. 
Black Sea, a dependency of the Medi- 
terranean, i. 28. 
Bleaching by chlorine, ii. 386. 
Blood admixture, effect of, i. 15. 
Degeneration, its effect, ii. 144. 
Boccaccio obtains a professorship for 
Leontius Pilatus, ii. 194. 
Bodin's, " De Kepublica," i. 6. 
Boethius falls a victim to the wrath 
of Theodoric, i. 353. 
His character, i. 358. 
Boilman, Tom, origin of the nickname, 
ii. 244. 
Boniface VIII., Pope, " Benedetto 
Gaetani, ' his quarrel with the 
Colonnas, ii 80. 
Boniface of Savoy, Archbishop of 
Canterbury, his rapacity, ii. 75. 
Boniface, an English missionary of 
the seventh century, i. 366. 
Books, longevity of, ii. 201. 
Borelli on circular motion, ii. 272. 
Applies mathematics to muscular 
movement, ii. 286. 408 
INDEX. 
Boyle improves the air-pump, ii. 286. 
Bradley determines the velocity of 
direct stellar light, ii. 299. 
Brahman, how regarded according to 
the Institutes of Menu, i. 63. 
Attempted to reconcile ancient tra- 
ditions with modern philosophical 
discoveries, ii. 335. 
Brain, functions, ii. 351. 
Breakspear, Nicholas, afterwards Pope 
Adrian IV., ii. 25. 
Brown, discoverer of the quinary 
arrangement of flowers, ii. 286. 
Brindley, a millwright's apprentice, ii. 
385. 
His engineering triumph in the 
construction of canals, ii. 387. 
Bruchion, the library in, i., 318. 
Bruno, Giordano, teaches the helio- 
centric theory, ii. 257. 
Is burnt as a heretic, ii. 258. 
Brutes, why supposed by Diogenes to 
be incapable of thought, i. 102. 
Buddhism, its rise, i. 65. 
The organisation of, i. 67. 
Its fundamental principle, i. 68. 
Its views of the nature of man. i. 
70. 
Philosophical estimate of, i. 72. 
Bulgarians converted bv a picture, i. 
367. 
Bunsen, his estimate of Eusebius's 
chronology, i. 198. 
Bunyan, John, his writings surpass 
those of St. Augustine, i. 305. 
His twelve years'imprisonment for 
preaching, ii. 242. 
Probable source of much of the ma- 
chinery of the Pilgrim's Progress, 
ii. 248. 
Burnet's " Sacred Theory of the 
Earth," ii. 286. 
Byzantine system adopted in Italy, i. 
349. 
Government persecutes the Nesto- 
rians and Jews, i. 385. 
Suppression of medicine, i. 386. 
Cabanis, quoted on the influence of 
the Jews, ii. 120. 
Cabot, Sebastian, rediscovers New- 
foundland, and attempts to find a 
north-west passage to China, ii. 
174. 
Cabral discovers Brazil, ii. 174. 
Cadesia, effect of the battle of, i. 
335. 
Cajsalpinus first gives a classification 
of plants, ii. 390. 
Cajsar becomes master of the world, i. 
248. 
Calico printing, antiquity of the art, 
and how improved, ii. 383. 
Caligula, Emperor, an adept in al- 
chemy, i. 407. 
Calixtus 111., Pope, issues his fulmi- 
nations against Halley's comet, 
ii. 253. 
Callimachus, author of a treatise on 
birds, and a poet, i. 201. 
Callisthenes accompanies Alexander 
the Great in his campaigns, i. 
172. 
Is hanged by his orders, i. 174. 
Transmits to Aristotle records 
of astronomical observations, i. 
192. 
Calvin establishes a new religious 
sect, ii. 211. 
Causes Servetus to be burnt as a. 
heretic, ii. 225. 
Calydonian boar, hide of, preserved as 
a relic, i. 51. 
Cambvses conquers Egypt, i. 79, 
186. 
Canal of Egypt, reopened by Necho, i. 
78. 
A warning from the oracle of 
Amun causes Necho to stop the 
construction of, i. 93. 
Cleared again from sand, i. 325. 
Canals the precursors of railways, ii. 
387. 
Of China, their influence, ii, 400. 
Cannibalism of Europe, i. 32. 
Canonic of Epicurus, imperfection of, 
i. 167. 
Canosa, scene at, the King of Ger- 
many seeking pardon of the Pope, 
ii. 19. INDEX. 
409 
Cape of Good Hope, doubled by Vasco 
de Gama, ii. 168. 
First made known in Europe by the 
Jews, ii. 175. 
Caracalla, alluded to in the reply of 
the Christians to the Pagans, i. 
302. 
Carat, its derivation and signification, 
ii. 44. 
Carneades, the founder of the New 
Academy, his doctrines, i. 169. 
Carthage, description of, i. 129. 
Its conquest contemplated by Alex- 
ander the Great, i. 174. 
Most effectually controlled by inva- 
ding Africa, i. 245. 
Heraclius contemplates making it 
the metropolis of the Eastern em- 
pire, i. 329. 
Carthage stormed and destroyed by 
Hassan, i. 334. 
Carthaginian commerce, nature, and 
extent of, i. 130. 
" Carolinian Books " published by 
Charlemagne, against image wor- 
ship, i. 372. 
Caspian and Dead Seas, level of, ii. 
305. 
Castelli assists in the verification of 
the laws of motion, ii. 271. 
Creates hydraulics, ii. 285. 
Lays the foundation of hydraulics, 
ii. 390. 
Casuistry, development of, ii. 66. 
Catalogue of stars contained in the Al- 
magest of Ptolemy, i. 203. 
Catasterisims of Eratosthenes, i. 196. 
Catastrophe, insufficiency of a single, 
ii. 316. 
Doctrine of, ii. 323. 
Cato causes Carneades to be expelled 
from Rome, i. 164. 
Celibacy of clergy insisted on by the 
monks, i. 426. 
Necessity of, ii. 16. 
Celt, sorcery of the, i. 34. 
Cerebral sight, important religious 
result of, i. 430. 
Cerinthus, his opinion of the nature 
of Christ, i. 270. 
Chadizah, the wife of Mohammed, i. 
330, 337. 
Chakia Mouni, meaning of the name, 
i. 67. 
The founder of Buddhism, i. 342. 
Chalcedon, Council of, i. 297. 
It determines the relation of the 
two natures of Christ, i. 299. 
Chaldee notions give rise to the black 
art, i. 404. 
Chalons, battle of, i. 350. 
Charlemagne, his influence in the con- 
version. of Europe, i. 364. 
Disapproves of idolatry, i. 368. 
Developes the policy of his father 
Pepin, i. 371. 
Is crowned Emperor of the West, 
i. 371. 
The immorality of his private life, 
i. 374. 
Charles Martel gains the battle of 
Tours, i. 368. 
His relations to the Church, i. 369. 
Pope Gregory III. seeks his aid, i. 
423. 
Charms, the source of their supposed 
power, i. 403. 
Chemistry, fetichism of, i. 101. 
Pythagorean, i. 116. 
Scientific, cultivated by the Arabs, 
i. 408. 
Chemistry, progress of, ii. 374. 
Chilperic II. permitted to retain his 
title, i. 369. 
Chilperic III. deposed and shut up 
in the convent of St. Omer, i. 
370. 
China, her policy, ii. 395. 
Chinese Buddhism, i. 72, 74. 
Chosroes II., his successes, i. 328. 
The effect of his wars on commerce, 
i. 337. 
Christian reply to the accusation of 
the Pagans, i. 301. 
Christianity, influence of Roman, i. 
241. 
Debased in Rome, i. 264. 
Distinction between, and ecclesi- 
astical organizations, i. 267. 
Its first organization, i. 269. 410 
INDEX. 
Christianity, three modifications of, i. 
271. 
Judaic, i. 271. 
Gnostic, i. 273. 
Platonic, i. 273. 
Spreads from Syria, i. 274. 
Antagonizes imperialism, i. 275. 
Its persecutions, i. 277. 
Hellenized, i. 290. 
Paganization of, i. 309. 
Expelled from Palestine, Asia Mi- 
nor, Egypt, and Carthage, i. 332. 
Paganisms of, i. 359. 
Allied to art, i. 359. 
Chronology of Eratosthenes, i. 197. 
Church, Greek and Latin, i. 291. 
Effects of union of, and State, i. 
377. 
What she had done, ii. 145. 
Services, their influence on the 
people, ii. 202. 
Separation of, and State, ii. 227. 
Cicero, his opinions and principles, i. 
258. 
Cimbri, cause of their invasion, i. 30. 
Cipher, its derivation and meaning, 
ii. 40. 
Alluded to by Pope Sylvester, ii. 49. 
Circle, the quadrature of, treated by 
Archimedes, i. 194. 
Circumnavigation of Africa, why un- 
dertaken by the Egyptian Kings, 
i. 78. 
Its repetition contemplated by Alex- 
ander, i. 173. 
Of the earth, ii. 172. 
Results of, ii. 173. 
Circumstances, how far man is the 
creature of, i. 389. 
Clement V., Pope, takes up his resi- 
dence at Avignon, ii. 86. 
Clement of Alexandria, his invective 
against the corruptions of Chris- 
tianity, i. 358. 
Cleomedes, an astronomer of Alexan- 
dria, i. 202. 
Cleopatra, the last of the Ptolemies, i. 
200. 
Is presented with one of the Alex- 
andrian libraries, i. 318. 
Clergy, responsible for the massacre at 
Thessalonica, i. 313. 
Support the delusion of superna- 
turalism, ii. 113. 
American, ii. 227. 
English accused by the Commons, 
ii. 235. 
Discipline Act, ii. 237. 
Degraded condition of the lower, in 
England, ii. 242. 
" Clericis Laicos," bull issued by Pope 
Boniface, ii. 82. 
Clermont, Council of, authorizes the 
First Crusade, ii. 21. 
Climacus, John, author of " Ladder of 
Paradise," ii. 59. 
Climates, in time and place, ii. 317. 
Clotilda, Queen of the Franks, counsels 
her husband Clovis, i. 365. 
Clouds and their nomenclature, ii. 
373. 
Cnidos, medical school of, i. 396. 
Cnudesuya, aqueduct of, ii. 186. 
Coal period, ii. 320. 
Its botany, ii. 332. 
Cobham, Lord, hanged for heresy and 
treason, ii. 99. 
Cochlea, its function, i. 5. 
Ccenobitism succeeds Eremitism, i. 
432. 
Coffee-houses, their political and 
social importance, ii. 249. 
Coinage, its adulteration, i. 251. 
Coiter creates pathological anatomy, 
ii. 285. 
Cold, influence of, on man, i. 28. 
Colleges founded by the Jews, i. 402, 
ii.'121. 
Colonial system, origin of Greek, i. 
128. 
Colonies, Greek, essentially weak, i. 
113. 
Philosophical influence of, i. 128. 
Colonnas, their quarrel with Pope 
Boniface, ii. 80. 
Colossus of Rameses IL, its great anti- 
quity, i. 87. 
Colours of rainbow, ii. 379. 
Columban, a missionary of the sixth 
century, i. 366. INDEX. 
411 
Columbus, his early life, ii. 159. 
Is confuted by the Council of Sala- 
manca, ii. 161. 
His voyage across the Atlantic, ii. 
162. 
Discovery of America, ii. 163. 
Commerce, development of Mediter- 
ranean, i. 45. 
Favourable to the spread of new 
ideas, i. 127. 
Commerce, many of the devices of 
modern, known to the Carthagi- 
nians, i. 130. 
Communities, nature of progress of, i. 
12. 
Comnena, Anna, " Alexiad " of, ii. 
59. 
Condillac, his theory of memory and 
comparison, i. 232. 
Conon of Alexandria, i. 194. 
Constance, Council of, ii. 99. 
Constantine the Great, the success of 
his policy, i. 277. 
Influence of the reign of, i. 278. 
Removes the metropolis, i. 279. 
His tendencies to Paganism, i. 280. 
His relations to the Church, i. 281. 
His policy, i. 282. 
Conversion and death, i. 283. 
Attempts to check the Arian con- 
troversy, i. 286. 
Denounces Arius as a heretic, i. 
287. 
Constantine, Pope, an usurper, his 
cruel treatment, i. 378. 
Constantine Copronymus, his icono- 
clastic policy, i. 418. 
Constantine Palaeologogus, the last of 
the Roman Emperors, ii. 108. 
Constantinople, Council of, i. 419. 
Determines that Son and Holy 
Spirit are equal to the Father, i. 
299. 
The seventh general, held at, i, 
419. 
Sack of, ii. 56. 
Its literature, ii. 58. 
Siege of, by the Turks, ii. 107. 
Fall of, ii. 108. 
Convocation, charges against, ii. 235. 
Copais, tunnel of, i. 32. 
Copernican system, condemned by the 
Inquisition, ii. 263. 
Theory of, rectified, ii. 268. 
Copernicus, the works of, ii. 255. 
His doctrine, ii. 256. 
Copronymus the Iconoclast, i. 418. 
Cordova, description of, ii. 30. 
Corinth, mechanical art reached its 
perfection in, i. 132. 
Her fall, ii. 109. 
Cosmas Indicopleustes, his argument 
against the sphericity of the 
earth, ii. 159. 
Cosmo de' Medici, ii. 192. 
Cosmogony, originates with Anaxi- 
mander, i. 107. 
Of Anaxagoras, i. 109. 
Of Pythagoras, i. 115. 
Cotton manufacture, ii. 385. 
Councils, their object and nature, i. 
236. 
Are not infallible, i. 297. 
Creations and extinctions, cause of, 
ii. 311. 
Criterion of truth, existence of, 
doubted by Anaxagoras, i. 110. 
One of the problems of Greek philo- 
sophy, i. 230. 
Remarks on, i. 232. 
A practical one exists, i. 235. 
Criticism, effect of philosophical, i. 
46. 
Rise of, ii. 190. 
Effect of, on literature and religion, 
ii. 224. 
Cross, the true, discovered, i. 309. 
Crotona, a Greek colonial city, i. 111. 
Its extent, i. 128. 
Crusades, origin of, ii. 20. 
The first, ii. 22. 
Political result of, ii. 23. 
Atrocities in the South of France, 
ii. 62. 
Effect of, ii. 135. 
Ctesiphon, the metropolis of Persia, 
sack of, i. 335. 
Cuvier, his doctrine of the permanence 
of species, ii. 326. 
His remark on vivisection, ii. 349. 412 
INDEX, 
Cuzco, the metropolis of Peru, de- 
scription of, ii. 181. 
Cycle of life, i. 233. 
Cyclopean structures, i. 32. 
Cynical school, i. 149. 
Cyprian, his complaints against the 
clergy and confessors, i. 358. 
Cyprian, St., his remarks at the 
Council of Carthage, i. 291. 
Cyprus taken by the Saracens, i. 335. 
Cyrenaic school, i. 149. 
Cyril, St., his acts, i. 321. 
An ecclesiastical demagogue, i. 391. 
Dailld, his estimate of the Fathers, 
ii. 225. 
Damascus taken, i. 334. 
Damasus, riots at the election of, i. 
292, 
Damiani, Peter, his charges against 
the priests of Milan, ii. 7. 
Death, interstitial, i. 14. 
" Defender of Peace," nature of the 
work, ii. 93. 
Deification, John Erigena on, ii. 9. 
Deity, anthropomorphic ideas of, in 
the Koran, i. 342. 
Delos, a slave market, i. 246. 
Deluges, ancient, i. 30. 
Delusions, of the sense, i. 230. 
Created by the mind, i. 429. 
Demetrius Phalereus, his instruc- 
tions to collect books, i. 188. 
Demetrius Poliorcetes quoted, i. 166. 
Democritus asserts the unreliability 
of knowledge, i. 124. 
Descartes, his theory of clear ideas, 
i. 231. 
Introduces the theory of an ether 
and vortices, ii. 285. 
Desert, influences of the, i. 6. 
Destiny, Democritus's opinion of, i. 
125. 
Stoical doctrine of, i. 185. 
Deucalion, deluge of, i. 51. 
Development of organisms, Alhazen's 
theory of, ii. 48. 
Dew, the nature of, ii. 384. 
Diaphragm of Dictearchus, i. 196. 
Didymus, wonderful taciturnity re- 
lated of, i. 427. 
Diodes, a writer on hygiene and 
gymnastics, i. 397. 
Diocletian, state of things under, i. 276. 
Diogenes of Apol Ionia developes the 
doctrines of Anaximenes, i. 99. 
Diogenes of Sinope extends the doc- 
trines of Cynicism, i. 149. 
Dioscorus, Bishop of Alexandria, de- 
posed by the Council of Chal- 
cedon, i. 297. 
Djafar, or Geber, an Arabian chemist, 
describes nitric acid and aqua 
regia, i. 410. 
Djondesabour, medical college of, 
founded by the Nestorians and 
Jews, i. 391. 
Patronized by the Khalif Al Ras- 
chid, i. 402. 
Docetes, their ideas of the nature of 
Christ, i. 270. 
Dogmatists, their theory of the treat- 
ment of disease, i. 399. 
Dominic, St., wonders related of, ii. 63. 
Dominicans, they oppose Galileo, ii. 
262. 
Donatists recalled from banishment 
by Constantine, i. 281. 
Drama, an index of national mental 
condition, ii. 249. 
Draper's Physiology quoted on cere- 
bral sight, i. 430. 
On the benefits conferred by the 
Church, ii. 145. 
On the necessity of resorting to 
anatomy and physiology, ii. 343. 
Dreams, Algazzali's view of their 
nature, ii. 51. 
Druids, i. 241. 
Du Molay,burnt at the stake, ii. 92. 
Duns Scotus, John, a Franciscan 
monk, the rival of Thomas 
Aquinas, ii. 14. 
Duverney on the sense of hearing, ii. 
286. 
Ear, i. 5. 
Earth, globulai- form of, implied by 
the voyage of Columbus, ii. 164. INDEX. 
413 
Earth, globular form of, proved by 
its shadow in eclipses of the 
moon, ii. 171. 
Is not the immovable centre of the 
universe, ii. 254. 
Age of, ii. 278. 
Its slow cooling, ii. 301. 
Mean density of, ii. 302. 
Movement of the crust of, ii. 306. 
Development of life on, ii. 355. 
Earthquakes, ii. 302. 
Easter, dispute respecting, i. 291. 
Ebionites, their doctrine of our 
Saviour's lineage, i. 272. 
Ebn Djani, physician to the Sultan 
Saladin, and author of a work 
on the medical topography of 
Alexandria, ii. 124. 
Ebn J unis, a Moorish astronomer, ii. 
41. 
Astronomical table of, ii. 42 
Ebn Zohr, competitor of Raschi, ii. 
123. 
Ecclesiasticism, its decline, ii. 143. 
Its downfall, ii. 284. 
Eclipse, solar, predicted by Thales, i. 
97. 
Ecliptic, discovery of obliquity of, 
falsely imputed to Anaximenes, 
i. 99. 
Determined with accuracy by Al- 
maimon, ii. 41. 
Slow process of its secular varia- 
tion, ii. 304. 
Ecstasy, i. 213. 
Edessa, church of, rre-built by Mao-' 
wiyah for his Christian subjects, 
i. 338. 
Edward I. of England compels the 
clergy to pay taxes, ii. 81. 
Egypt, conquest of, by Cambyses, i. 79. 
Antiquity of civilization in, i. 81. 
Pre-historic Life of, i. 81. 
Influence of, on Europe, i. 82. 
Antiquity of its monarchy, i. 84. 
Geological age of, i. 87. 
Geography and topography of, i. 87. 
Roman annexation of, i. 248. 
Egyptian ports opened, i. 77. 
Theology i. 91. 
Elcano, Sebastian de, the Lieutenant 
of Magellan, ii. 173. 
Eleatic philosophy, i. 118. 
Influence of the school, i. 220. 
Electricity, discoveries in, ii. 377. 
Electro-magnetism, ii. 378. 
Elixir of Life, i. 407. 
Effect of the search for, on medicine, 
i. 411. 
Eloquence, Parliamentary, decline 
of its power, ii. 204. 
Elphinstone, quotation from, i. 64. 
Elysium, i. 36. 
Emanation, doctrine of, i. 225. 
Empedocles, biography of, i. 123. 
Empirics, their doctrine, i. 399. 
England, conversion of, i. 366. 
Policy of an Italian town gave an 
impress to its history, ii. 17. 
Its social condition, ii. 229. 
Condition of, at the suppression of 
the monasteries, ii, 230. 
Backward condition of, ii. 233. 
State of, at the close of the seven- 
teenth century, ii, 238. 
Ephesus, Council of, called " Robber 
Synod," i. 297. 
Determines that the two natures 
of Christ make but one person, 
i. 299. 
Epictetus, his doctrines, i. 259. 
Epicureans, modern, i. 168. 
Epicurus, the doctrine of, i. 165. 
His irreligion, i. 168. 
Epicycles and eccentrics, Hipparchus's 
theory of, i. 202. 
Epochs of individual life, i. 14. 
Of national life, i. 19. 
Erasmus becomes alienated from the 
Reformers, ii. 225. 
Wonderful popularity of his "Col- 
loquies," ii. 238. 
Eratosthenes, the writings and works 
of, i. 196. 
Astronomy of, i. 199. 
Eremitism, its modifications, i. 432. 
Erigena, John, a Pantheist employed 
by the Archbishop of Rheims, ii. 9. 
Essenes, a species of the first hermits 
among the Jews, i. 425. 414 
INDEX. 
Ether, movements of, ii. 382. 
Ethical philosophy, i. 143. 
Its secondary analysis, i. 164. 
Ethics of Plato, i. 158. 
Ethnical element, definition of, and 
conditions of change in, i. 12. 
Eucharist, difference of opinion about, 
ii. 210. 
Euclid of Alexandria, his various 
works, i. 193. 
His reply to Ptolemy Philadelphus, 
i. 398. 
Euclid of Megara, an imitator of 
Socrates, i. 148. 
Eugenius IV., Pope, dethroned by 
the Council of Basle, ii. 102. 
Eumenes, King of Pergam us, esta- 
blishes a second library in Alex- 
andria, i. 318. 
Eunapius, his opinion of Plotinus, i. 
212. 
Eunostos, harbour of, connected by a 
canal with lake Mareotis, i. 323. 
Euripides tainted with heresy, i. 50. 
Europe, description of, i. 23. 
Greatest elevation of, above the 
sea, i. 23. 
Vertical displacement of, i. 29. 
Conversion of, i. 365. 
Psychical change in, i. 364. 
Social condition of, after Charle- 
magne, i. 376. 
Barbarism of, ii. 27. 
Future of, ii. 392. 
European climate, modification of 
Asiatic intruders by, i. 34. 
Old religion, i. 240. 
Priesthood, i. 240. 
Slave-trade, i. 373. 
Eusebius, his contempt of philosophy, 
i. 314. 
Perverts chronology, i. 197. 
Is deposed, i. 297. 
His apology for the Fathers, i. 314. 
His chronology subverts that of 
Manetho and Eratosthenes, i. 316. 
His admission of his own want of 
truthfulness, i. 360. 
Eustachius distinguished by his dis- 
sections, ii. 284. 
Eutychianism, i. 296. 
"Everlasting Gospel," ii. 75. 
Existence depends on physical condi* 
tions, i. 7. 
Extinction Of species, cause of, i. 8. 
Extinctions and creations, law of, ii. 
311. 
Eye, arranged on refined principles 
of optics, i. 5. 
Functions of, ii, 380. 
Capabilities of the human, ii. 383. 
Fabricius ab Aquapendente discovers 
the valves in the veins, ii. 285. 
Fairies destroyed by tobacco, ii. 126. 
Faith, two kinds of, ii. 192. 
Fallopius distinguished by his dissec- 
tions, ii. 284. 
Fasting, continued, its effect on the 
mind, i. 429. 
Faustus, his accusation to Augustine, 
i. 310. 
Felix V., Pope, abdicates, ii. 103. 
Felix, Bishop of Rome, excommuni- 
cated by Acacius, Bishop of Con- 
stantinople, i. 352. 
Fernel establishes the true nature of 
syphilis, ii. 232. 
Measures the size of the earth, ii. 
255. 
Fetiches supposed a panacea, i. 386. 
Fetichism displaced by star worship, 
i. 3. 
Difficulty of early cultivators of 
philosophy to emerge from, i. 100. 
Feudal system, how it originated, i. 
376. 
Fire, asserted by Heraclitus to be the 
first principle, i. 104. 
Fire, liquid or Greek, used by the 
Arabs, i. 408. 
Fireworks used bv the Arabs, i. 
408. 
Flagellants, their origin, ii. 76. 
Flavianus, Bishop of Constantinople, 
deposed, i. 297. 
Florence, the Academy of Athens re- 
vived in the Medicean gardens 
of, ii. 193. INDEX. 
415 
Florentine Academicians erroneously 
suppose water to be incompres- 
sible, ii. 372. 
Originate correct notions of the 
radiation of heat, ii. 383. 
Show that dark heat may be re- 
flected by mirrors, ii. 390. 
Florentius, a priest, attempts to poison 
St. Benedict, i. 435. 
Food, location of animals controlled 
by, ii. 310. 
Its nature, ii. 341. 
Force, animal, its source, ii. 339. 
Formosus, rape, converted the Bul- 
garians, i. 367. 
Forms contrasted with law, i. 22. 
Introduction of, personified, i. 37. 
Fictitious permanence of, succes- 
sive, i. 104. 
Fracasta, an early cultivator- of fossil 
remains, ii. 391. 
Francis, St., his early life, ii. 64. 
Placed by the lowest of his order 
in the stead of our Saviour, ii. 83. 
Franciscans, higher English, their op- 
position to Pope Boniface, ii. 83. 
Franks Christianized at the end of 
the fifth century, i. 365. 
Fratricelli, their affirmation, i. 283. 
Burned by the inquisition for he- 
resy, ii. 79. 
Frederick IL, Emperor of Germany, 
birth of ii. 25. 
His Mohammedan tendencies, ii. 66. 
Free trade, its effects, i. 254. 
Freewill not inconsistent with the 
doctrine of law, i. 21. 
Galen, his opinions, i. 259. 
His division of physicians into two 
classes, i. 399. 
Galileo, the historical representative 
of the intellectual impulse, ii. 
134. 
Invents the telescope, ii. 261. 
Astronomical discoveries of, ii. 261. 
Is condemned by the Inquisition, 
ii. 263. 
Publishes " The System of the 
World," ii. 263. 
Galileo, his degradation and punish- 
ment, ii. 264. 
His death, ii. 265. 
His three laws of motion, ii. 269. 
Re-discovers the mechanical proper- 
ties of fluids, ii, 372, 390. 
Geber, or Djafar, the alchemist, dis- 
covers nitric acid and aqua regia, 
i. 409. 
Gelasius, his fearless address to the 
Emperor, i. 353. 
Geminus, an Alexandrian astronomer, 
i. 202. 
Genoa, her commerce, ii. 158. 
Genseric, King of the Vandals, invited 
by Count Boniface into Africa, 
i. 327. 
Invited to Rome, i. 350. 
Geocentric theory, its adoption by 
the Church, ii. 254. 
Important result of its abandon- 
ment, ii. 335. 
Geographical discovery, effects of, i. 
44. 
Geography, primitive, i. 39. 
Its union with the marvellous, i. 42. 
Of Ptolemy, i. 204. 
End of Patristic, ii. 164. 
Geological movements of Asia, i. 29. 
Geology, ii. 294. 
Evidence furnished by, as to the 
position of man, ii. 338. 
Gepidae, converted in the fourth cen- 
tury, i. 365. 
Gerbert, life of, ii. 4. 
His Saracen education, ii. 4. 
His ecclesiastical advancement, ii. 
5. 
Becomes Pope Sylvester II., ii. 6. 
Is the first to conceive of a European 
crusade, ii. 21. 
Said to have introduced a know- 
ledge of the Arabic numerals 
into Europe, ii. 49. 
Germans not prone to idolatry, i. 415. 
Insist on a reform in the Papacy, 
ii. 2. 
Gesner, Luther's opinion of the 
manner of his death, ii. 117. . 
Leads the way to zoology, ii. 284. 416 
INDEX. 
Gilbert proposed to determine the 
longitude by magnetic observa- 
tions, ii, 167. 
Adopts the views of Copernicus, ii. 
260. 
Publishes his book on the magnet, 
ii. 284. 
Gilbert of Ravenna elected antipope, 
ii. 20. 
Gisella, Queen of Hungary, assists in 
the conversion of her subjects 
to Christianity, i. 365. 
Glass, its rate of dilatation by heat, 
ii. 300. 
Globes, used by the Saracens, ii. 41. 
Gobi, dry climate of, i. 25. 
Character of its botany, i. 25. 
Was once the bed of a sea, i. 29. 
Gold, Ancient value of, i, 251. 
Potable, attempts to make, i. 407. 
Problem of, solved by Djafar, i. 409. 
Gotama, the founder of Buddhism, 
life of, i. 67. 
Goths become permanently settled in 
the Eastern empire, i. 300. 
Adopt the Byzantine system, i. 349. 
Have possession of Italy, i. 350. 
Date of their conversion, i. 365. 
Gotschalk, his persecution, ii. 8. 
Graaf, a physiologist, ii. 286. 
Greece, Roman invasion of, i. 247. 
Greek mythology, i. 38. 
Transformations of, i. 43. 
Cause of its destruction, i. 44. 
Secession of literary men and 
philosophers, i. 47. 
Movements repeated in Europe, I. 
53. 
Philosophy, origin of, i. 94. 
Summary of, i. 141. 
Its four grand topics, i. 223. 
Fire, i. 408. 
Learning, revival of, ii. 193. 
Cause of dislike of, ii. 195. 
Gregory IL, Pope, defends image- 
worship, i. 421. 
Gregory III., Pope, defies the emperor, 
i. 423. 
Gregory VI., Pope, purchases the Pa- 
pacy, i. 381. 
Gregory VIL, his policy, ii. 15. 
Gregory IX., Pope., excommunicates 
Frederick IL, ii. 67. 
Gregory XL, Pope, restores the 
Papacy to Rome, ii. 96. 
Gregory XIL, Pope, deposed by the 
Council of Pisa, ii. 97. 
Gregory the Great, his history, i. 355. 
Burns the Palatine Library, i. 357. 
Attempts to reconvert England, i. 
366. 
Gregory of Nazianzum, his opinion of 
Councils, i. 299. 
Grew discovers the sc^s of plants, 
ii. 286. 
Grimaldi discovers the diffraction of 
light, ii. 390. 
Grostete, Robert, Bishop of Lincoln, 
the result of his inquiry into 
the emoluments of foreign ec- 
clesiastics, ii. 55. 
Makes a speaking head, ii. 116. 
Grotius, his opinion of the Reforma- 
tion, ii. 225. 
Guido, a Benedictine monk, the inven- 
tor of the scale of music, i. 437. 
Gulf Stream, its influence on the 
western countries of Europe, i. 
24 ; ii. 371. 
Gunpowder, its composition given by 
Marcus Grascus, i. 408. 
Hades, i. 39. 
Origin of the Greek, i. 92. 
Hadrian IV., Nicholas Breakspear, ii. 
25. 
Hallam, his opinion of Leonardo da 
Vinci quoted, ii. 268. 
Halley's comet, how described and 
regarded, ii. 253. 
Hallucination, fasting a frequent 
cause of, i. 428. 
Hannina, the earliest Jewish physi- 
cian, i. 400. 
Haroun, a physician of Alexandria, 
the first to describe the small- 
pox, i. 401. 
Haroun-al-Raschid, Khalif, sends 
Charlemagne the keys of our 
Saviour's sepulchre, i. 374. INDEX. 
417 
Haroun-al-Raschid places all his 
public schools under John Masue, 
i. 392. 
Patronizes a medical college and 
founds a university, i. 402. 
Causes Homer to be translated into 
Syriac, ii. 34. 
Harpalus, employed by Alexander in 
his scientific undertakings, i. 173. 
Harvey discovers the circulation of 
the blood, ii. 285. 
Hassan takes Carthage by storm, i. 334. 
Heart constructed upon the principles 
of hydraulics, i. 5. 
Heat, control of, over life, i. 8. 
Distribution of, in Europe, i. 26. 
Sources of, i. 103. 
Boundary of organisms by, ii. 309. 
Decline of, in the earth, ii. 318. 
Properties of, ii. 383. 
Helena, the mother of Constantine the 
Great, superintends the building 
of monumental churches, i. 309. 
The influence she exercised in the 
religion of the world, i. 366. 
Her benevolence in founding hospi- 
tals, i. 386. 
Adopts image-worship, i. 414. 
Heliocentric theory, its meaning, ii. 
254. 
Resistless spread of, ii. 274. 
Heming introduced street-lamps in 
England, ii. 241. 
Henry V., Emperor of Germany, his 
resistance to the Popes, ii. 24. 
Henry VIII., King of England, had 
personal reasons for discontent, 
ii. 216. 
The instrument, not. the author, of 
the revolution, ii. 238. 
Henry the Fowler asserts the power of 
the monarchical principle, i. 376. 
Heraclitus, his philosophical system, 
i. 104. 
Heraclius, Emperor, resists the second 
Persian attack, i. 326. 
His contemplated abandonment of 
Constantinople, i. 329. 
Defeated at the battle of Aiznadin, 
i. 335. 
Heraclius, the effect on commerce of 
his long wars, i. 337. 
Hercules, legend of, i. 37. 
Heresy, Pelagian, i. 293. 
Nestorian, i. 295. 
Eutychian, i. 296. 
Followed the spread of literature, 
ii. GO. 
Heretics, burning of, by the Inquisi- 
tion, ii. 75. 
Hermits, their origin, i. 424. 
Aerial, i. 426. 
Grazing, i. 427. 
Their numbers, i. 432. 
Hero, the inventor of the first steam- 
engine, i. 205, 387. 
Herodotus, i. 49. 
Herschels, their discoveries, ii. 276. 
Hesiod extends the theogony of 
Homer, i. 43. 
Hessians, period of their conversion, 
i. 365. 
Hiero's crown gives origin to hydro- 
statics, i. 195. 
Hieroglyphics, their origin and value, 
i. 83. 
Hilarion, a hermit of the fourth 
century, i. 425. 
Said to be the first to establish a 
monastery, i. 432. 
Hilary, Bishop of Arles, his contumacy 
denounced, i. 300. 
Hildebrand brought on an ecclesias- 
tical reform, ii. 3. 
His difficulty in reconciling the 
dogmas of the Church with the 
suggestions of reason, ii. 12. 
Becomes Pope Gregory VII., ii. 
15. 
Hindu polytheism, i. 34. 
Philosophy, i. 56. 
Hipparchus, the writings of, i. 202. 
Hippocrates, his opinion of Democritus, 
i. 126. 
Review of, i. 393. 
Historians, secession of, from the 
public faith, i. 49. 
Hobbes, his philosophical opinions, i. 
231. 
Holy places, loss of, ii. 134. 418 
INDEX. 
Homer, theogony of, extended by He- 
siod, i. 43. 
Homceomeriai, i. 109. 
Honorius passes a law against concu- 
binage among the clergy, i. 359. 
Honorius III. compels Frederick II. to 
marry Yolinda de Lusignan, ii. 
67. 
Hooke, his paper to the Royal Society 
on circular motion, ii. 272. 
Determines the essential conditions 
of combustion, ii. 286. 
Hormisdas, Pope, policy pursued by, 
i. 353. 
Horner's observation on the rate of 
the mud deposit of the Nile, i. 
87. 
Hosius of Cordova sent to Alexandria, 
i. 286. 
Houris of Paradise, i. 346. 
Humboldt pays tribute to Erato- 
sthenes, i. 196. 
His remarks on the movement of 
Jupiter's satellites, ii. 267. 
Hume, his doctrine of mind and 
matter, i. 231. 
Huss, John, martyrdom of, ii. 100. 
Adopts the theological views of 
Wickliffe, ii. 148. 
Hvdrometer improved by Alhazen, ii. 
48. 
Hyksos, old empire of Egypt invaded 
and overthrown by the, i. 76. 
Hypatia lectures on philosophy in 
Alexandria, i. 322. 
Murdered by Cyril, i. 324. 
Hypocrisy, organization of, i. 54. 
lamblicus, a wonder-worker, i. 215. 
Iconoclasm, i. 416. 
Ideal theory, Plato's, i. 153. 
Criticism on, i. 161. 
Illiberis, Council of, condemns the 
worship of images, i. 414. 
Images, bleeding and winking, i. 415. 
Image-worship resisted by Charle- 
magne, i. 372. 
Fostered by the Empress Helena, i. 
414. 
In the West, i. 415. 
"Imitation of Christ," tendency of, 
ii. 196. 
Immortality, double, implied by Plato's 
doctrine, i. 161. 
Impulses, two, against the Church, ii. 
131. 
Incandescence, the production of light 
by, ii. 384. 
Incarnations, divine, necessary conse- 
quence of the belief of, i. 91. 
Incas, the ancestors of one of the 
orders of nobilijy among the 
Peruvians, ii. 183. 
Incombustible men, i. 409. 
Index Expurgatorius, promulgated by 
Paul IV., ii. 214. 
Indian, American, i. 27. 
Indo-Germanic invasion, i. 32. 
Inductive philosophy founded by 
Aristotle, i. 76. 
Indulgences, nature of, ii. 207. 
Innocent I., Pojit, settles the Pelagian 
controversy in favour of the 
African bishops, i. 294. 
Innocent III., Pope, his interference in 
behalf of temporary political in- 
terests, ii. 53. 
His death, ii. 62. 
Prohibits the study of science in 
the schools of Paris, ii. 76. 
Innocent IV.. Pope, excommunicates 
Frederick, ii. 72. 
Innocent VIII., Pope, his bull against 
witchcraft, ii. 116. 
Inquisition, its origin, ii. 62. 
Attempts to arrest the intellectual 
revolt, ii. 74. 
Its sacrifices, ii. 188. 
Its effect on Protestantism in Spain 
and Italy, ii. 220. 
Insane, Diogenes' view of the, i. 
102. 
Insect an automatic mechanism, ii. 
349. 
Institutes of Menu, i. 63. 
Intellect, the primal, Anaxagoras's 
view of, i. 108. 
Intellectual class, the true representa- 
tion of a community, i. 13. 
Despair, ii. 52. INDEX. 
419 
Intellectual impulse makes its attack 
through astronomy, ii. 133. 
Development the aim of nature, ii. 
359. 
Interstitial death, i. 14. 
Creations, ii. 312. 
Investitures, the conflict on, ii. 17. 
Invisible, localization of the, i. 36. 
Ionian philosophy, puerilities of, i. 
106. 
Irene, the Empress, puts out her son's 
eyes, i. 374. 
Hei- superstitious cruelty, i. 420. 
Iris, its function, i. 5. 
Isis, her worship, i. 187. 
Isothermal lines, i. 24, 26. 
Israfil, the angel, i. 345. 
Italian Christianity, boundaries of, ii. 
1. 
System, its movements, ii. 150. 
Italy, relations of, ii. 127. 
Degraded state of,«ii. 127. 
Immorality of, ii. 136. 
Cause of her degradation, ii. 143. 
Scientific contributions of, ii. 390. 
Causes of her depression, ii. 391. 
James L, his proceedings against 
witchcraft, ii. 117. 
Jason, the voyage of, i. 41. 
Jaxartes, its drying up, i. 29. 
Jerome of Prague, his martyrdom, ii. 
101. 
Jerome, St., denounces Pelagius, i. 
294. 
Translates the Bible into Latin, i. 
306. 
His equivocal encomiums on mar- 
riage, i. 359, 427. 
Jerusalem, position of, i. 77. 
Bishops of, i. 272. 
Church of, i. 291. 
Fall and pillage of, i. 328, 335. 
Capture of, ii. 22. 
Surrender of, to Frederick IL, ii. 68. 
Jesuits, the Order of, instituted, ii. 
220. 
The extent of their influence, ii. 
221; 
Causes of their suppression, ii. 222. 
Jewish physicians, their writings, ii. 
120. 
Jewish-Spanish physicians, writings 
of, ii. 123. 
Jews, conversion of, i. 270. 
Are the teachers of the Saracens, i. 
384. 
Their influence on supernaturalism, 
. ii. 119. 
Medical studies among, ii. 121. 
Expulsion of, from France, ii. 126. 
Their geographical knowledge and 
its results, ii. 175. 
John, King of England, is excommuni- 
cated by Pope Innocent III., ii. 
54. 
John, Pope, died in prison, i. 353. 
John VIII., Pope, pays tribute to the 
Mohammedans, i. 379. 
John XVI., Antipope, cruel and igno- 
minious treatment of, i. 381. 
John XXII., Pope, the practical cha- 
racter of his policy, ii. 93. 
John of Damascus takes part in the 
Iconoclastic dispute, ii. 59. 
Joshua ben Nun, a professor at Bag- 
dad, i. 402. 
Journalism is gradually supplanting 
oratory, ii. 204. 
Judgment, future, according to the 
Egyptian theology, i. 92. 
According to the Koran, i. 345. 
Right of individual, asserted by 
Luther, ii. 209. 
Jugurthine War, i. 247. 
Julian, Emperor, attempts the restor- 
ation of paganism, i. 311. 
Justinian closes the philosophical 
schools in Athens, i. 216. 
His re-conquest of Africa, i. 327. 
Effect of his wars, i. 351. 
Conquers Italy, i. 354. 
Justin Martyr, his illustrations of his 
idea of the divine ray, i. 274. 
Kaleidoscope, an optical instrument, 
ii. 380. 
Kalid, the " Sword of God," defeats 
Heraclius at the battle of Aizna- 
din, i. 335. 420 
INDEX. 
Kant, his philosophical doctrines, i. 
232. 
Kempis, Thomas i, author cf the 
" Imitation of Christ," ii. 196. 
Kepler, the effect of the discovery of 
his laws, i. 4. 
His work prohibited by the Inqui- 
sition, ii. 263. 
His mode of inquiry, ii. 266. 
Discovery of his laws, ii. 267. 
Cause of his laws, ii. 274. 
Kiersi, Council of, quotation from, i. 
369. 
Kirk's lambs, ferocity of, ii. 244. 
Koran, passages from the, i. 331. 
Review of the, i. 340. 
Labarum, story of, believed, i. 309. 
Lactantius, his argument against the 
globular form of the earth, i. 
315. 
" Ladder of Paradise," ii. 59. 
Langton, Stephen, Magna Charta ori- 
ginates from his suggestion, ii. 
54. 
Languages, modern, their effects, ii. 
192. 
Languedoc, light literature of, ii. 35. 
Laplace discovers the cause of the 
irregularity ofthe moon's motion, 
ii. 278. 
On some of the phenomena of the 
solar system, ii. 280. 
Lapland, cause of the contentment 
and inferiority of, i. 13. 
Lateran Council, second, vests the 
elective power to the Papacy in 
the Cardinals, ii. 15. 
Third, defines the new basis of the 
Papal system, ii. 18. 
Fourth, establishes the necessity of 
auricular- confession, ii. 65. 
Latin, the use of, as a sacred language, 
required by the Church, ii. 191. 
Lavaur, massacre of, ii. 62. 
Law, the world ruled by, i. 20. 
Succession of affairs determined by, 
i. 389. 
Eternity and universality of, ii. 
359. 
Lawyers, their agency first recognized, 
ii. 81. 
Their power antagonistic to the 
ecclesiastical, ii. 82. 
Their opposition to supernaturalism, 
ii. 113. 
Leaning towers, i. 30. 
Leaves of plants, their action, ii. 339. 
Legends of Western Saints, i. 435. 
Legion, Roman, how constructed, i. 
251. 
Leibnitz, his doctrine of the mind, i. 
231. 
His contribution to geology, ii. 286. 
Leif, the first discoverer of America, 
ii. 164. 
Lentulus, spurious letter of, to the 
Roman senate, i. 361. 
Leo III., Pope, crowns Charlemagne 
in St. Peter's, i. 371. 
Assaulted by the nephews of Adrian, 
i. 378. 
Leo the Chazar continues an icono- 
clastic policy, i. 419. 
Leo the Great, i. 352. 
Leo the Isaurian, the founder of a 
new dynasty at Constantipole, i. 
416. 
Publishes an edict prohibiting the 
worship of images, i. 417. 
Leo X., Pope, exposed to obloquy, ii. 
213. 
His character, ii. 215. 
Is reported to have contracted 
syphilis, ii. 232. 
Leontius Pilatus, description of, by 
Boccaccio, ii. 194. 
Lesches, poems of, i, 51. 
Levites, their manner of healing, i. 
400. 
Lewenhoeck discovers spermatozoa, ii. 
286. 
Liberty not appreciated in India, i. 
62. 
Mental when maintained, ii. 227. 
Libraries, Alexandrian, size of, i. 
188. 
Establishment of, i. 317. 
Licinius neutralizes the policy of Con- 
stantine, i. 278. INDEX. 
421 
Life, individual, is of a mixed kind, i. 
2. 
Social, its nature, i. 2. 
First opinion of savage, i. 3. 
Variable rapidity of, i. 18. 
Light, velocity of motion of, ii. 279, 
298. 
Proves the age of the world, ii. 
298. 
White, ii. 379. 
Chemical influences of, ii. 383. 
Limestone deposited from the sea, ii. 
321. 
Lipari, the crater of, supposed to be 
the opening into hell, i. 354, 
357. 
Lippershey first constructs a telescope, 
ii. 261. 
Lisbon, the great earthquake of, ii. 
302. 
Listening contrasted with reading, ii. 
203. 
Lister, author of a synopsis of shells, ii. 
286. 
Ascertains the continuity of strata, 
ii. 286. 
Literary men, their influence, ii. 150. 
Literature, spread of gay, from Spain, 
ii. 60. 
Profligate character of, in England, 
ii. 244. 
Lithotomy, new operations for, by 
the Alexandrian surgeons, i. 399. 
Livy, writings of, vindictively pur- 
sued by Gregory the Great, i. 
357. 
Locke, his theory of the sources of 
ideas, i. 231. 
Locomotion, followed by mental deve- 
lopment, ii. 119, 136. 
Provisions for, show the social con- 
dition of a nation, ii. 239. 
Locomotives, invented by Murdoch, ii. 
387. 
Logic, Aristotle's, i. 177. 
Character of mediseval, ii. 111. 
Each age of life has its own, ii. 
192. 
"Logos," Philo's idea of the, i. 210. 
Justin Martyr's idea of the, i. 274. 
Lombards, converted at the beginning 
of the sixth century, i. 365. 
London, condition of, towards the 
close of the seventeenth centurv, 
ii. 238. 
Lorenzo de' Medici, his patronage of 
literature and philosophy, ii. 195. 
Loretto, miracle of, ii. 80. 
Louis XIV., his order in council pun- 
ishing sorcery, ii. 118. 
Louis, St., his character, ii. 73. 
Lucius Apuleius, i. 211. 
Lucretius, the irreligious nature of his 
poem, i. 257. 
Luitprand captures Ravenna, i. 422. 
Luitprand quoted on Constantinople, 
ii. 58. 
Luther, experiences of, ii. 117. 
The revolt of, ii. 149. 
History of, ii. 208. 
Excommunication of, ii. 211. 
Looked upon with contempt by the 
Italians, ii. 215. 
Lyceum, Aristotle founds a school in, 
i. 176. 
Lyons, Council of, ii. 71. 
Macaulay, Lord, has taken too limited 
a view of the Reformation, ii. 
227. 
Macedonian campaign opens a new 
world to the Greeks, i. 45. 
Its ruinous effects on Greece, i. 172. 
Its effect on intellectual progress, i. 
186. 
Macedonius, Bishop of Constantinople, 
his heresy, i. 289. 
Machiavelli, the principles of, ii. 137. 
His " History of Florence," ii.143. 
Machinery, social changes effected by, 
ii. 388. 
Magellan, his great voyage, ii. 169. 
Magic and necromancy, Plotinus re- 
sorts to, i. 214. 
Magic lantern, ii. 380. 
Magna Charta originates from a sug- 
gestion of Stephen Langton, ii. 
54. 
Magnet supposed by Thales to have a 
living soul, i. 97. 422 
INDEX. 
Magnetic variation, discovery of the 
line of, ii. 163. 
Erroneously supposed by Columbus 
to be immovable, ii. 165. 
Magnetism, discoveries in, ii. 378. 
Maimonides, his life and writings, ii. 
124. 
Malpighi devotes himself to botany, 
ii. 286. 
Applies the microscope to anatomy, 
ii. 286. 
Man the archetype of society, i. 2. 
Controlled by physical agents, i. 10. 
Variations of, i. 11. 
First form of, according to Anaxi- 
mander, i. 107. 
Nature and development of, i. 233. 
His race connections, i. 234. 
Apparent position of, on the helio- 
centric theory, ii. 337. 
Marco Polo, ii. 174. 
Marcus Graccus gives the composition 
of gunpowder, i. 408. 
Mareotis, Lake, i. 323. 
Mariner's compass introduced by the 
Arabs, ii. 43. 
Marozia, her infamy and cruelty, i. 
380. 
Marriage, compulsory in the time of 
Augustus, i. 253. 
Sinfulness of, according to the prin- 
ciples of the monks, i. 426. 
Marsilio, his work " The Defender of 
Peace," ii. 93. 
Marsilius Ficinus, the Platonist, ii. 
193. 
Masue', John, the Nestorian, superin- 
tendence of schools entrusted to, 
by Haroun al Raschid, i. 392, 
ii. 36. 
Matilda, Countess, aids Gregory VIL, 
ii. 16. 
Calumniated by the married clergy, 
ii. 17. 
Matter, its indestructibility, ii. 375. 
Maximum of certainty, i. 236. 
Maximus Tyrius, i. 259. 
Max Mullei- on language, i. 33. 
Mayow on respiration, ii. 286. 
Mechanical invention, effeqt of, ii. 384. 
Medicine, Byzantine, suppression of, 
i. 386. 
Origin of Greek, i. 393. 
Egyptian, i. 397. 
Alexandrian, i. 398. 
Mediterranean Sea, its dependencies 
and extent, i. 28. 
Propriety of its name, i. 39. 
Wonders of, i. 41. 
Trade of, ii. 158. 
Megaric school, i. 148. 
Melanchthon, ii. 211. 
Melissus of Samos, an Eleatic, i. 123. 
Melloni first polarizes light, ii. 390. 
Mendicant Orders, establishment of, 
ii. 62. 
Menu, institutes of, i. 63. 
Extract from, i. 224. 
Metaphysics, Aristotle's, i. 178. 
Uncertainty of, ii. 344. 
Meteoric stone, boasted prediction of 
fall of, i. 111. 
Mexico, social condition of, ii. 175. 
Michael the Stammerer, his incredu- 
lity and profanity, i. 420. 
Middle Ages, their condition, i. 139. 
Migration of birds, i. 6. 
Milan, Bishop of, excommunicated, ii. 
17. 
Milky way, as explained by the Py- 
thagoreans, i. 117. 
Mill life, ii. 388. 
Milton, his " Paradise Lost " a Mani- 
chean composition, ii. 245. 
In favour of the Copernican system, 
ii. 260. 
Miracle cure, i. 386. 
Plays, ii. 246. 
Missionaries, Irish and British, i. 366. 
Mithridates, King of Pontus, studies 
poisons and antidotes, i. 400. 
Moawiyah, Khalif, sends his lieutenant 
against Africa, i. 334. 
Rebuilds the church of Edessa, i. 
338. 
Moestlin quoted in favour of the Co- 
pernican system, ii. 266. 
Mohammed subject to delusions, i. 148, 
330. 
History of, i. 329. INDEX. 
423 
Mohammed II., ii. 107. 
Mohammedanism, causes of the spread 
of, i. 337. 
Popular, i. 345. 
Sects of, i. 347. 
Arrest of, in Western Europe, ii. 30. 
Literature of, ii. 34. 
Uniformly patronized physical sci- 
ence, ii. 121. 
Monasteries, condition of Europe at 
the suppression of, ii. 230. 
Monasticism, amelioration of, i. 431. 
Spread of, from Egypt, i. 433. 
Monks, African and European, i. 237. 
Labours and successes of, i. 365. 
Their origin and history, i. 424. 
Differences of Eastern and Western, 
i. 434. 
Their intellectual influence, i. 438. 
Monotheism preceded by imperialism, 
i. 256. 
Roman, its boundaries, i. 261. 
Montanus, the pretended Paraclete, i. 
291. 
Moon, variations of, discovered b 
Aboul Wefa, i. 325. 
Volcanic action in, ii. 304. 
Moors boast of an Arab descent, i. 337. 
Moral plays, ii. 248. 
Moris, Lake, i. 96. 
Moslems, their creed, ii. 37. 
Motion, the three laws of, ii. 269. 
Muggleton, Lewis, his doctrines, ii. 
239. 
Murdoch invents the locomotive, ii. 
387. 
Musa completes the conquest of Africa, 
i. 333. 
. Arrested at the head of his army, i. 
369. 
Museum of Alexandria, i. 187. 
Its studies arranged in four facul- 
ties, i. 397. 
Music, scale of, invented by Guido, i. 
437. 
Mycene, gate of, i. 32. 
Mythology, Greek, origin of, i. 37. 
Napier invents and perfects loga- 
rithms, ii. 285. 
Narses, the eunuch, sent by Justi- 
nian against Rome, i. 351. 
Nations, progress of, like that of in- 
dividuals, i. 12. 
Secular variations of, i. 16. 
Death of, i. 17. 
Are only transitional forms, i. 17. 
Nearchus, an intimate friend of Alex- 
ander the Great, i. 173. 
Nebulae, existence of, ii. 282. 
Nebular hypothesis, ii. 281. 
Necromancy, Alexandrian, i. 404. 
Neo-Platonism, its origin imputed to 
Ammonius Saccas, i. 211. 
Nervous system, general view of, ii. 
346. 
Three distinct parts of human, ii. 
353. 
Nestorians, their origin, i. 295. 
Early cultivate medicine, i. 385. 
Their history and progress, i. 391. 
New academy founded by Carneades, 
i. 169. 
Newspapers, their origin, ii. 204. 
When first regularly issued in Eng- 
land, ii. 249. 
Were first issued in Italy, ii. 390. 
Newton, quotation from " Principia " 
of, i. 120. 
Availed himself of the doctrines of 
Hipparchus, i. 202. 
Under no obligation to Bacon, ii. 
259. 
Publication of the " Principia " of, 
ii. 272. 
His mathematical learning and ex- 
perimental skill, ii. 286. 
Niagara Falls furnish proof of time 
from effect produced, ii. 305. 
Prove the enormous age of the 
earth, ii. 334. 
Nicaea, Council of, summoned by Con- 
stantine, i. 286. 
Second council of, summoned by 
Irene, i. 420. 
Nicene Creed, i. 287. 
Nicholas V. a patron of art, ii. 110. 
Nicomedia, church of, destroyed, i. 277. 
Niebuhr, his opinion of the Greek ac- 
count of the Persian war, i. 131. 424 
INDEX 
Nile, inundations of, i. 86. 
Nirwana, the end of successive exist- 
ences in the Buddhist doctrine, 
i. 71, 230. 
Nitria, why well adapted for monks, i. 
432. 
Nogaret, William de, the legal advi- 
ser of Boniface, ii. 84. 
Advises King Philip the Fair, ii. 
91. 
Nomades, Asiatic, i. 29. 
Nominalism, doctrine of, sprang from 
scholastic philosophy, ii. 11. 
Norman invasion of England favoured 
by Pope Gregory VII., ii. 16. 
Norway, depth of rain in, i. 25. 
Elevation and depression in level of, 
ii. 307. 
Norwegians, diet of, accounted for, i. 
27. 
Novatus the heretic, i. 284. 
Number the first principle according 
to the Pythagorean philosophy, 
i. 113. 
Numenius, a Trinitarian, i. 211. 
Numerals, Arabic, derived from the 
Hindus, ii. 40. 
Introduced into different countries, 
ii. 49. 
Oaks, objects of adoration among the 
German nations, i. 241. 
Obelisks, Egyptian, prodigious height 
of, i. 76. 
Observatories first introduced into 
Europe by the Arabs, ii. 42. 
Ocean, its size, ii. 371. 
Octave, the grand standard of harmo- 
nical relation among the Pytha- 
goreans, i. 116. 
Oliva, John Peter, his comment on 
the Apocalypse, ii. 78. 
Olympian deities, their nature, i. 50. 
Omar, Khalif, takes Jerusalem, 1. 
335. 
His behaviour contrasted with that 
of the Crusaders, ii. 22. 
Opinion and Reason, Parmenides's work 
on, i. 121. 
Optics, discoveries in, ii. 37 
Oratory supplanted by journalism, ii. 
204. 
Orchomenos, ruins of, i. 32. 
Orders, monastic, rise and progress of, 
i. 433. 
Orestes compelled to interfere to stop 
a riot in Alexandria, i. 322. 
Organ, the, invented by Sylvester, a 
Benedictine monk, i. 437. 
Organisms', permanence of, due to ex- 
ternal conditions, i. 8. 
Control of physical agents over, i. 
9. 
Dates of various, ii. 321. 
Orpheus, legend of, i. 37. 
Osiris, daily ceremony before tomb of, 
i. 89. 
One of the divinities of the Egyp- 
tian theology, i. 91. 
Site of temple of, given to the 
church, i. 319. 
Osporco changes his unseemly name 
into Sergius, ii. 143. 
Ostrogoth monarchy overthrown, i; 
351. 
Otho III., Emperor, contemplates a 
reform in the Church, and is poi- 
soned by Stephania, ii. 6. 
Otranto taken by the Mohammedans, 
ii. 109. 
Otto, Guericke, invented the air-pump 
ii. 286. 
Oxus, its drying up, i. 29. 
Pacific Ocean crossed, ii. 171. 
Paganism, attitude of, i. 268. 
Death-blow given to, by Theodosius, 
i. 312. 
Pagans, accusation of, against the 
Christians, i. 301. 
Painting and sculpture, relation of 
the Church to, i. 360. 
Palaeontology, historical sketch of 
early, ii. 314. 
Palatine library burnt by Gregory 
the Great, i. 357. 
Pandataria, Sylverius banished to, i, 
354. 
Pantheism, theology of India under- 
laid with, i. 59. INDEX. 
425 
Pantheism adopted by Parmenides, i. 
121. 
Greek, i. 223. 
Papacy, history of, i. 290. 
Consolidation of its power in the 
West, i. 362. 
Signal peculiarity of, i. 378. 
Human origin of, i. 382. 
Paper, invention of, ii. 200. 
Pappus, an Alexandrian geometrician, 
i. 204. 
Parabolani diverted from their ori- 
ginal intent by Cyril, i. 321, 386. 
" Paraclete," doctrines of faith dis- 
cussed in the, ii. 10. 
Paradise spoken of with clearness by 
Mohammed, i. 345. 
Parliament, its accusation against the 
clergy, ii. 235. 
Parma, John of, the General of the 
Franciscans, ii. 77. 
Parmenides, doctrines of, i. 121. 
Pascal, his views of humanity, i. 18. 
The influence of his writings, ii. 
285. 
Path-zone, i. 24. 
Patristicism, introduction of, i. 314. 
Doctrines of, i. 315. 
Conflict of, with philosophy, i. 316. 
Decline of, ii. 129. 
End of geography of, ii. 164. 
Ethnical ideas of, ii. 165. 
End of, ii. 225. 
Paulus jEmilius, his severity, i. 249. 
Pausanias, i. 131. 
Pelagian controversy, its effect on Pa- 
pal superiority, i. 293. 
Pelagius, his doctrines, i. 293, 366. 
Penances, the Veda doctrine of, i. 
61. 
Pendulum first applied to clocks by 
the Moors, ii. 42. 
Pepin, the son of Charles Martel, i. 
370. 
Pergamus, library of, transferred to 
Egypt, i. 318. 
Pericles embraces obnoxious opinions, 
i. 50. 
His the age of improvement in 
architecture and oratory, i. 132. 
Perictione, the reputed mother of 
Plato, i. 151. 
Periodicities, human cause of, i. 7. 
Peripatetics, their philosophy, i. 178. 
Persecutions, moral effects of, ii. 225. 
Persepolis, burning of by Alexander 
the Great, i. 174. 
Perses, revolt of, i. 246. 
Persia, Greek invasion of, i. 171. 
Subdued by Othman III., i. 335. 
Persian invasion of Europe, i. 130. 
Attack on the Byzantine system, i. 
326. 
Personified forms introduced, i. 37. 
Perturbations, astronomical, account- 
ed for, ii. 274. 
Peru, its coast, a rainless district, i. 
86. 
A description of, ii. 179. 
Peter d'Apono, the alchemist, the 
wonders imputed to him, ii. 116. 
Peter de Brueys, his martyrdom, ii. 
60. 
Peter Morrone becomes Celestine V., 
i. 79. 
Peter the Hermit, ii. 22, 135. 
Peter the Venerable,his acquirements, 
ii. 12. 
Peter's pence, ii. 54. 
Petrarch, his opinion of Avignon, ii. 
95. 
His zeal for learning, ii. 194. 
Pharaoh Necho, his ships first double 
the Cape of Good Hope, ii. 167. 
Philadelphus Ptolemy, i. 189. 
Phil®, mysterious temple of, i. 89. 
Philip the Fair protects the Colonnas, 
ii. 81. 
Philiston, a writer on regimen, i. 397. 
Philo of Larissa, founder of the fifth 
academy, i. 170. 
Philo the Jew thinks he is inspired, i. 
209. 
Compares the mind to the eye, i. 
234. 
Philosopher's stone, i. 407. 
Philosophers, persecution of, i. 311. 
The revolt of, ii. 149. 
Philosophical criticism, effect of, i. 46. 
Schools, Indian, i. 65. 426 
INDEX. 
Philosophical principles, application 
of, i. 237. 
Philosophy, peripatetic, i. 178. 
Greek, end and summary of, i. 217. 
Greek and Indian, the analogy be- 
tween, i. 236. 
Reappearance of, ii. 3. 
Phlogiston, theory of, ii. 374. 
Phocajans built Marseilles, i. 46. 
Phoenicians, enterprise of, i. 45. 
Phosphorus discovered by Achild Be- 
chil, i. 410. 
Photius, his two works, ii. 59. 
Photography, ii. 383. 
Physical instruments, improvements 
in, ii. 384. 
Physicians, classes of, i. 397. 
Jewish, i. 400. 
Oppose supernaturalism, ii. 113. 
Are disliked by the Church, ii. 121. 
Physics of Zeno, i. 183. 
Physiology, its phases the same as 
those of physics, i. 5. 
Of Plato, i. 156. 
Of Aristotle, i. 180. 
Piccolomini lays the foundation of 
general anatomy, ii. 285. 
Pietro de Vinea undertakes to poison 
Frederick II., ii. 72. 
Pinzons of Palos assist Columbus, ii. 
161. 
Pisa, Council of, deposes the rival 
Popes, ii. 97. 
The first botanical gardens esta- 
blished at, ii. 390. 
Plagues, mortality of ancient, i. 250. 
Plants, effect of seasons on, i. 6. 
Their dependence on the air, i. 102, 
ii. 339. 
Plataea, fabulous number slain at 
battle of, i. 130. 
Plater first classified diseases, ii. 285. 
Plato, his profound knowledge of hu- 
man nature, i, 53. 
His doctrines, i. 152. 
Platonism, Plutarch leans to, i. 210. 
Reappearance of, in Europe, ii. 193. 
Plays, miracle, moral, real, ii. 246. 
Pleiades, a nickname given to seven 
Alexandrian poets, i. 201. 
Plotinus, writings of, i. 212, 404. 
Plutarch leans to platonizing Orien- 
talism, i. 210. 
Poggio Bracciolini quoted, ii. 101. 
Polarization of light lends support to 
the undulatory theory, ii. 382. 
Pole star, ii. 305. 
Polycrates, Bishop of Ephesus, op- 
poses Victor, Bishop of Rome, i. 
291. 
Polygamy, institution of, i. 331. 
Secured the conquest of Africa, i. 
334. 
Its influence in consolidating the 
conquests of Mohammedanism, i. 
338. 
Polytheism, its antagonism to science, 
i. 49. 
Slowness of its decline, i. 52. 
Pontifical power sustained by phy- 
sical force, i. 300. 
Popes, biography of, from A.D. 757, 
i. 378. 
Had no faith in the result of the 
Crusades, ii. 23. 
Porphyry, his writings, i. 214, 404. 
Porsenna takes Rome, i. 244. 
Posidonius, i. 232. 
Praxagoras wrote on the pulse, i. 397. 
Pre-existence, Plato's notion of, i. 160. 
Press, liberty of, secured, ii. 250. 
"Principia," Newton's, quotation 
from, i. 120. 
Publication of, ii. 272. 
Its incomparable merit, ii. 275. 
Printing, invention of, ii. 198. 
Effects of, ii. 200. 
Problems of Greek philosophy, i. 217. 
Proclus burns Vitalian's ships, i. 215. 
His theology, i. 215. 
Procopius, the historian, secretary to 
Belisarius, ii. 58. 
Profatius, a Jew, appointed regent of 
the faculty of Montpellier, ii. 
125. 
Prosper Alpinus writes on diagnosis, 
ii. 285. 
Protestant, origin of the name, ii. 211. 
Provincial letters of Pascal, intiuenc* 
of, ii. 286. INDEX. 
427 
Psammetichus overthrows the ancient 
policy of Egypt, r. 75. 
" Psammites," a work of Archimedes, 
i. 195. 
Psychology, origin of, i. 101. 
Solution of questions of, ii. 344. 
Ptolemies, political position of, i. 186. 
Biography of, i. 200. 
Ptolemy, his "Syntaxis," i. 203. 
Puffendorf, author of the " Law of 
Nature and Nations," ii. 286. 
Pulpit, influence of, affected by the 
press, ii. 201. 
Decline of eloquence of, ii. 203. 
Its relation to the drama, ii. 249. 
State of, an index of the mental 
condition of a nation, ii. 249. 
Punic wars, results of, i. 245. 
Puranas, i. 65. 
Pyramids of Egypt, size of, i. 75. 
The Great, its antiquity and won- 
ders, i. 81. 
What they have witnessed, i. 84. 
Their testimony unreliable as to 
the age of the world, ii. 327. 
Pyrrho, the founder of the Sceptics, 
i. 164. 
Pyrrhus, the Epirot, i. 244. 
Pythagoras, biography of, i. 111. 
The service he rendered us, i. 230. 
Quintus Sextius, i. 258. 
Quipus, a Peruvian instrument for 
enumeration, ii. 185. 
Quito, why it was regarded as a holy 
place, ii. 185. 
Rab, a Jewish anatomist, i. 400. 
Rabanus, a Benedictine monk, sets 
up a school in Germany, i. 437. 
Rabbis cultivate medicine, ii. 122. 
Radbert, his views on transubstantia- 
tion, ii. 10. 
Railways, ii. 387. 
Rain, quantity of in Europe, i. 25. 
Maximum points of, i. 25. 
Rainless countries, agriculture in, i. 
85. 
Of the West, i. 86. 
Peru one, ii, 180. 
Rainy days, number of, i. 26. 
Influence of, i. 27. 
Raineses IL, his policy, i. 78. 
Raschi, his varied acquirements, ii. 
123. 
Ravenna, Gerbert appointed Arch- 
bishop of, ii. 6. 
Ray leads the way to comparative 
anatomy, ii. 286. 
Raymond Lully, said to have been 
compelled to make gold for Ed- 
ward IL, ii. 155. 
Raymond de Pennaforte compiles a 
list of decretals, ii. 70. 
Reading, its advantage over listening, 
ii. 203. 
Realism, its origin, ii. 11. 
Reason, Algazzali's doctrine of the 
fallibility of, ii. 51. 
Reductio ad absurdum introduced 
by Zeno, i. 122. 
Reflection, Democritus's view of, i. 125. 
Reflex action, ii. 348. 
Reformation attempted in Greece, i. 
50. 
Influences leading to, ii. 190. 
Dawn of the, ii. 204. 
In Switzerland, ii. 210. 
Organization of, ii. 211. 
In Italy, ii. 212. 
Arrest of, ii. 214. 
Counter, ii. 219. 
Culmination of, in America, ii. 226. 
Relics, age of, i. 51. 
Worship of, i. 414. 
Reminiscence, Plato's doctrine of, i. 
153. 
Republic of Plato, i. 159. 
Revolution, French, ii. 150. 
Rhacotis, Alexandria erected on the 
site of, i. 192. 
Rhazes discovers sulphuric acid, i. 410. 
Rhazes, a Moorish writer on botany, 
ii. 39. 
Rheims, Gerbert appointed Arch- 
bishop of, ii. 5. 
Rhodes raised from the sea, i. 30. 
Rhodians, maritime code of, i. 45. 
Richard I. of England treacherously 
imprisoned, ii. 25. 428 
INDEX. 
Richard I. of England, his treatment 
by Saladin contrasted with that 
he received from a Christian 
prince, ii. 136. 
Rienzi, a demagogue, ii. 95. 
Rig Veda, asserted to have been re- 
vealed by Brahma, i. 58. 
" Robber Synod," the council of Ephe- 
sus, i. 297. 
Roderic, King of the Goths, ii. 28. 
Roderigo de Triana, the first of 
Columbus's crew to descry land, 
ii. 163. 
Roman power, influence of, i. 52. 
Christianity, influence of, on the 
people, i. 241. 
History, importance of, i. 242. 
Power, triple form of, i. 243. 
First theocracy and legends, i. 243. 
History, early, i. 243. 
Slave laws, atrocity of, i. 249. 
Slave system, social effects of, i. 249. 
Depravity, i. 252. 
Women, their dissoluteness, i. 253. 
Ethnical element disappears, i. 255. 
Conquest, effects of, i. 256. 
Rome, cause of permanence of, i. 11. 
Unpitying tyranny of, i. 267. 
Fall and sack of, by Alaric, i. 300. 
Fall and pillage of, by the Vandals, 
i. 350. 
Progress of, to Papal supremacy, i. 
352. 
Relations of, to Constantinople, i. 
353. 
Three pressures upon, ii. 1. 
Pillaged, sacked, and fired by 
Henry, ii. 20. 
Immoralities of, brought to light 
by the Crusades, ii. 136. 
Its geological peculiarities, ii. 307. 
Romer, his estimate of the velocity of 
light confirmed, ii. 299. 
Roscelin of Compiegne, an early 
advocate of Nominalism, ii. 11. 
Ruysch improves minute anatomy, ii. 
286. 
Sacramentarians, separate from the 
Lutherans, ii. 211. 
Sahara Desert affects the distribution 
of heat in Europe, i. 24. 
Saladin retakes Jerusalem, ii. 25. 
His noble behaviour to Richard I., 
ii. 136. 
Salamanca, Columbus confuted by the 
Council of, ii. 161. 
Council of, its reply when urged 
to teach physical science, ii. 
278. 
Sampson, Agnes, burnt for witch- 
craft, ii. 117. 
Samuel, an accomplished Jewish phy- 
sician, i. 400. 
Sanctorio lays the foundation of 
modern physiology, ii. 285. 
Invents the thermometer, ii. 390. 
Sanscrit vocabulary, i. 33. 
Saracens, their policy, i. 336. 
Cause of their check in the conquest 
of France, i. 369. 
Are taught by the Nestorians and 
Jews, i. 384. 
They dominate in the Mediter- 
ranean, i. 422. 
Their chemistry, medicine, and 
surgery, ii. 39. 
Their philosophy, ii. 49. 
Early cultivators of astronomy, ii. 
133. 
Sardica, Council of, i. 292. 
Satan, notion of, had become debased, 
i. 414. 
Sautree, William, the first English 
martyr, ii. 99. 
Saviour, in Koran never called Son 
of God, i. 342. 
Model of, eventually received, i. 
361. 
Scandinavian geological motion, i. 
30. 
Discovery of America, ii. 164, 175. 
Sceptics, rise of, i. 163. 
Schism, causes of the great, ii. 96. 
Scholastic philosophy, rise of, ii. 11. 
Theology, rise of, ii. 12. 
Schools, philosophical Greek, merely 
points of reunion, i. 112. 
The Megaric, Cyrenaic, and 
Cynical, i. 148. INDEX. 
429 
Science, Alexandrian, suppressed, i. 
325. 
Sculpture, relation of Church to, i. 
360. 
Sea of Azof, a dependency of the 
Mediterranean, i. 28. 
Seasons, effect of, on animals and 
plants, i. 6. 
Sebastian de Elcano, the Lieutenant 
of Magellan, ii. 173. 
Secular geological movement of 
Europe and Asia, i. 29. 
Inequalities of satellites, ii. 277. 
Semicircular canals, their function, 
i. 5. 
Seneca, the influence of his writings 
accounted for, i. 258. 
Sens, Council of, report of, to Rome, 
ii. 11. 
Sensation, Democritus confounds it 
with thought, i. 125. 
Senses, Algazzali's doctrine of the 
fallibility of, ii. 50. 
Septuagint Bible, the translators of, 
entertained by Ptolemy Phila- 
delphus, i. 190. 
Serapion, causes of its umbrage to 
Archbishop Theophilus, i. 318. 
Destruction of, i. 319. 
Serapis, establishment of the worship 
of, i. 187. 
Description of the temple of, i. 
318. 
Statue of, destroyed, i. 319. 
Temple of, used for a hospital, i. 
399. 
Servetus, the burning of, by Calvin, 
ii. 226. 
Almost detected the circulation of 
the blood, ii. 285. 
Servile rebellion in Sicily, i. 247. 
Seville, tower of, an observatory 
built by the Arabs, ii. 42. 
Shakespeare, quotation from, i. 207. 
His position with regard to English 
literature, ii. 249. 
Shepherds, the, their exertions in 
behalf of King Louis, ii. 76. 
Shiites, one of the seventy-three 
Mohammedan sects, i. 347. 
Sigismund, Emperor, his treacherous 
conduct to John Huss, ii. 101. 
Silver, its comparative value in Rome, 
i. 251. 
Simon Magus, an Oriental magician, 
wonders related of, ii. 114. 
Simony, organization of, ii. 97. 
Sirius, its supposed influence on the 
waters of the Nile, i. 90. 
Slave system, Roman, i. 249. 
Slavery under Charlemagne, i. 373. 
Recognized in certain cases in 
Mexico, ii. 176. 
Slavians converted by Greek mission- 
aries, i. 367. 
Smyrna, Erasistratus established a 
school there, i. 399. 
Snow, distribution of, in Europe, i. 
26. 
Snowy days, number of, at various 
places, i. 26. 
Social war, important results of, i. 
247. 
Eminence, no preservative from so- 
cial delusion, ii. 117. 
Society, the intellectual class the true 
representative of a community, 
i. 13. 
Sociology, comparative, ii. 359. 
Socrates, Aristophanes excites the 
people against, i. 47. 
His mode of teaching, and his 
doctrines, i. 143. 
Character of, in Athens, i. 146. 
"The Mad," i. 150. 
Solar system proves the existence of 
law, i. 4. 
Soliman the Magnificent takes Bel- 
grade, ii. 109. 
Sonnites, one of the seventy-three 
Mohammedan sects, i. 347. 
Sopater accused of magic, and decapi- 
tated, i. 310. 
Sophists, their doctrines, i. 135. 
Their influence, i. 220. 
Sorcery, intermingling of magic and, 
i. 402. 
Introduction of European, ii. 115. 
Soul, Indian ideas of the, i. 60. 
Purification of, i. 61. 430 
INDEX. 
Soul, Diogenes' opinion of that of the 
world, i. 99. 
Plato's doctrine of the triple con- 
stitution of, i. 156. 
Greek problem as to the nature of, 
i. 218. 
As to the immortality and absorp- 
tion of, i. 228. 
The human, ii. 365. 
Sound, nature and properties of, ii. 
369. 
Spain, Roman annexation of, i. 247. 
Arab invasion of, ii. 28. 
Literature of, ii. 35. 
Crime of, ii. 166. 
Sparta, Lycurgus abolished private 
property in, i. 129. 
Spartacus, the gladiator, i. 248. 
Species, Cuvier's doctrine of the per- 
manence of, ii. 326. 
Opposition to the doctrine of trans- 
mutation of, ii. 328. 
Specific gravity, Alhazen's tables of, 
clearly approach our own, ii. 
48. 
Sphajrus, the Stoic, fraud practised 
on, i, 189. 
Spheres, music of, a belief entertained 
by the Pythagoreans, i. 116. 
Sphinxes, one of the wonders of 
ancient Egypt, i. 76. 
Spinal cord, its separate and conjoint 
action, ii. 352. 
Spires, first Diet of, ii. 210. 
Spirit, in chemistry, had at first a 
literal meaning, i. 405. 
Spiritualists, their devout regard for 
the "Everlasting Gospel," ii. 78. 
Spontaneous generation, Anaxi- 
mander's doctrine of, i. 107. 
Anaxagoras's doctrine of, i. 109. 
Stage, state of, an index of the mental 
condition of a nation, ii. 249. 
Stancari first counted the vibrations 
of a string emitting musical 
notes, ii. 390. 
Stars, multiple, i. 4. 
Coloured light of double, ii. 277. 
Our cluster of, how divided, ii. 
280. 
Star-worship, fetichism displaced by, 
i. 3. 
The philosophy of, i. 90. 
Steam-engine first invented by Hero, 
i. 205, 387. 
The nature of Watt's improvement 
in, ii. 385. 
Steno first recognizes the twofold 
division of rocks, ii. 315. 
Stephania, wife of Crescentius, poisons 
Otho III., ii. 7. 
Stephanas, a grammarian of Constan- 
tinople, ii. 58. 
Stephen IL, Pope, consecrates Pepin 
and his family, i. 370. 
Stephen III., Pope, urges Charlemagne 
against the Lombards, i. 371. 
Stephenson, George, his improvement 
in the locomotive, and its results, 
ii. 387. 
Stercorists, their doctrines, ii. 10. 
Stereoscope, an optical instrument, ii. 
380. 
Stevinus, his mechanical works, ii. 
269. 
Revives correct views of the me- 
chanical properties of water, ii. 
372. 
Stigmata, marks miraculously im- 
pressed on the body of St. Francis, 
ii. 64. 
Stilicho, a Goth, compels Alaric to re- 
treat, and Rhadogast to sur- 
render, i. 300. 
Is murdered by the Emperor, his 
master, i. 300. 
Stoicism, its intention, i. 183. 
Stoics, exoteric philosophy of, i. 184. 
Struve, his estimate of the velocity of 
light, ii. 299. 
Stylites, St. Simeon, an aerial martyr 
of the fifth century, i. 426. 
Success too often the criterion of 
right, i. 332. 
Sun, agency of, i. 103. 
Aristarchus's attempts to ascertain 
the distance of, i. 199. 
The source of force, ii. 339. 
Influence of, on organic and inor- 
ganic nature, ii. 362. INDEX. 
431 
Sun-dials, invention of, wrongfully 
ascribed to Anaximander, i. 107. 
Supererogation, the theory of, ii. 207. 
Supernatural appearances, cause of, i. 
428. 
Supernatural ism, its adoption by the 
age of faith, ii. 112. 
Overthrow of, in France, ii. 126. 
Superstitions, disappearance of, i. 255. 
Swammerdam applies dissection to 
the natural history of insects, ii. 
286. 
Sweden, change of level in, ii. 307. 
Sybaris, a luxurious Italiot city, i. 
128. 
Sylverius, Pope, deposed by the Em- 
peror's wife, Theodora, i. 354. 
Sylvester, a Benedictine monk, in- 
vents the organ, i. 437. 
Sylvester II., Pope, is believed to have 
made a speaking head, ii. 115. 
Symmachus, Senator, falls a victim 
to the wrath of Theodoric, the 
Gothic king, i. 353. 
" Syntaxis," the great work of 
Ptolemy, i. 203. 
Syphilis, moral state of Europe indi- 
cated by the spread of, ii. 231. 
Syria, importance of conquest of, to 
the Arabs, i. 335. 
Tacitus, his testimony to the depraved 
state of Roman morality, i. 254. 
Tarasius created Patriarch by Irene, 
i. 420. 
Tarik lands at Gibraltar, so called in 
memory of his name, ii. 29. 
Tartars, why they prefer a milk diet, 
i. 27. 
Tartarus, one of the two divisions of 
hell, according to Anaximenes, i. 
36. 
Taxation, amount of Roman, i. 251. 
Taylor, Jeremy, his testimony as to 
the authority of the Fathers, ii. 
225. 
Telescope, invention of, ii. 261, 380. 
Temperature, life can only be main- 
tained within a narrow range, 
i. 7. 
Templars, apostasy, arrest, and 
punishment of, ii. 90, 91, 92. 
Tensons, or poetic disputations, origi- 
nated among the Arabs, ii. 34. 
Tertullian, his letter to Scapula, i. 
275. 
Denounces the Bishop of Rome as 
a heretic, i. 291. 
Denies the Scripture authority for 
certain observances, i. 358. 
His impression of the personal ap- 
pearance of the Saviour, i. 361. 
Testimony, human, value of, ii. 119. 
Tetractys, the number "ten," why 
so called, i. 114. 
Tezcuco, description of, ii. 178. 
Thabor, mysterious light of, ii. 59. 
Thales, philosophy of, i. 95. 
Thaumasius, the name of Ammonias 
changed to, i. 322. 
Theatre, the English, ii. 245. 
Thebit Ben Corrah determines the 
length of the year, ii. 41. 
Theodora, Empress, restores image- 
worship, i. 421. 
Theodoric, the Ostrogoth, effect of the 
conquest of Italy by, i. 353. 
The change in his policy, i. 353. 
Theodorus, Bishop his tongue cut 
out, i. 378. 
Theodosius, Emperor, fanaticism of, i. 
312. 
His cruel vengeance at Thessalonica, 
i. 313. 
His acts, i. 317. 
Orders the Serapion to be torn 
down, i. 319. 
Theodosius, an Alexandrian geometri- 
cian, i. 204. 
Theon, an Alexandrian geometrician, 
and father of Hypatia, i. 204, 
322. 
Theophilus, Archbishop of Alexandria, 
his character, i. 317. 
Cause of his umbrage at the 
Serapion, i. 318. 
Persecutions of, i. 319. 
Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, first 
introduced the word "Trinity," 
i. 273. 432 
INDEX. 
Theophilus, Emperor, image-worship 
restored at his death, i. 421. 
His surly and insolent reply to Al- 
maimon, ii. 40. 
Theosis, its meaning as employed by 
John Erigena, ii. 9. 
Therapeutae, early Egyptian hermits, 
i. 424. 
Thermotics, science of heat, ii. 383. 
Thessalonica, massacre at, i. 313. 
Thomas a Kempis, the reputed author- 
of " The Imitation of Christ," ii. 
196. 
Thought, confounded with sensation 
by Democritus, i. 125. 
Variation of human, ii. 205. 
Thucydides, his secret disbelief of the 
Trojan war, i. 49. 
Thuringians converted in the seventh 
and eighth centuries, i. 365. 
Tides and currents explained on the 
theory of gravitation, ii. 371. 
Time, nothing absolute in, i. 17. 
Torricelli, weight of atmosphere 
understood before, ii. 47. 
Hydrostatics created by, ii. 285. 
Constructs the barometer, and de- 
monstrates the pressure of the 
air, ii. 390. 
Toscanelli, a Florentine astronomer, 
and friend of Columbus, ii. 
160. 
Constructs his gnomon in the 
Cathedral of Florence, ii. 255. 
Tours, battle of, i. 368. 
Trade-wind, under the dominion of 
law, i. 4. 
Transformation, the world is under- 
going unceasing, i. 59. 
Transitional forms, nature of, i. 12. 
Transmigration of souls, the Veda 
doctrine of, i. 61. 
The Buddhist doctrine ef, i. 71. 
The Pythagorean doctrine of, does 
not imply the absolute immorta- 
lity of the soul, i. 117. 
Plato's doctrine of, i. 156. 
Transmission, hereditarv, nature of, 
ii. 333. 
Transmutation of metals, i. 406. 
Transmutation of species, doctrine of, 
has met with opposition, ii. 328. 
Transubstantiation, a twin-sister of 
transmutation, i. 407. 
The doctrine of, first attacked by 
the new philosophers, ii. 9. 
The Italian doctrine of, rejected by 
the German and Swiss reformers, 
ii. 210. 
Tribonian suspected of being an 
atheist, i. 359. 
Trinitarian disputes had their start- 
ing point in Alexandria, i. 191. 
Trinity, the Indian doctrine of, i. 
64. 
The Egyptian doctrine of, i. 91. 
Is assumed in the doctrine of Nu- 
menius, i. 211. 
The word does not occur in the 
Scriptures, i. 273. 
Triumvirate, the First, usurps the 
power of the senate and people, 
i. 248. 
Trojan war, various views enter- 
tained about, i. 50. 
Horse, superstitious notions of the 
tools with which it was made, i. 
51. 
Troubadours use the Langue d'Oc in 
the north of France, ii. 60. 
Trouveres use the Langue d'Oil in 
the south of France, ii. 60. 
Tupac Yupanqui, Inca, quoted, ii. 
183. 
Turkish invasion, effect of, ii. 110. 
Turks, their origin and progress, ii. 
105. 
Tutching, his severe and prolonged 
punishment, ii. 244. 
Tycho makes a new catalogue of the 
stars, ii. 284. 
Tympanum, its function, i. 5. 
Types, Platonic, i. 152. 
Tyre, fall of, i. 80. 
Tyrians, their enterprise, i. 45. 
Ulphilas invents an alphabet for the 
Goths, i. 367. 
" Unam Sanctam," the bull of, issued 
by Pope Boniface, ii. 83. INDEX. 
433 
Under-world, primitive notions re- 
specting, i. 39. 
Undulatory theory of light, ii. 381. 
Uniformity, doctrine of, ii. 323. 
Unity of mankind, i. 10. 
Religious, implies tyranny to the 
individual, ii. 227. 
Universe, unchangeability of, taught 
by Anaxagoras, i. 108. 
Its magnitude, ii. 292, 335. 
Unreliability of sense, Zeno's illustra- 
tion of, i. 123. 
Urban II. institutes the Crusades, ii. 
20. 
Urban VI., his cruelty to his cardinals 
and bishops, ii. 96. 
Valentinian issues an edict denouncing 
the contumacy of Hilary, i. 300. 
Is aNicenist, i. 311. 
Valerius, Count, the Pelagian question 
settled through his influence, i. 
294. ' 
Vallisneri, an Italian geologist of the 
eighteenth century, ii. 315. 
Vandal attack, i. 327. 
Vandals converted in the fourth cen- 
tury, i. 365. 
Van Helmont introduced the theory 
of vitality into medicine, ii. 285. 
Variation of organic forms, i. 8. 
Man not exempt from law of, i. 
10. 
Human, best seen when examined 
on a line of the meridian, i. 11. 
The political result of human, i. 
11. 
Varolius, a distinguished anatomist, ii. 
284. 
Varro, Terentius, his scepticism, i. 
257. 
Vasco de Gama doubles the Cape of 
Good Hope, ii. 167. 
Vatican library founded by Nicholas 
V., ii. 111. 
Vedaism, the adoration of nature, its 
doctrines, i. 58. 
Its changes, i. 64. 
Vedic doctrines, minor, i. 62. 
Venice, commercial rivalry between 
Genoa and, ii. 158. 
Takes the lead in the publication of 
books, ii. 199. 
Venus, light of the planet, ii. 304. 
Verona, Fracaster wrote on the petri- 
factions found at, ii. 315. 
The first geological museum esta- 
blished at, ii. 3S0. 
Vesicles, nerve, structure and func- 
tions of, ii. 347. 
Victor, Bishop of Rome, requires ths 
Asiatic bishops to conform to his 
view respecting Easter, i. 291. 
Victor III. denounces the life of Pope 
Benedict IX. as foul and exe- 
crable, i. 381. 
Vienne, Council of, ii. 89. 
Vieta improves algebra, and applies 
it to geometry, ii. 284. 
Vigilius purchases the Papacy for two 
hundred pounds of gold, i. 354. 
Vinci, Leonardo da, his contributions 
to science, ii. 268. 
First asserts the true nature of 
fossil remains, ii. 314, 390. 
Compares the action of the eye to' 
that of a camera obscura, ii. 
380. 
Virgin Mary, worship of, i. 296. 
Various art types of the, i. 361. 
Visconti, Barnabas, irreverence of, ii. 
95. 
Visigoths, spread of, through Greece, 
Spain, Italy, i. 300. 
Vision, correct ideas respecting, ii. 
380. 
Vitello publishes a treatise on optics 
in the sixteenth century, ii. 255. 
Vocabulary, Indo-Germanic, i. 32. 
Volcanoes, ii. 301. 
Volta, indebtedness of chemistry to, 
ii. 391. 
Voltaic electricity, ii. 377. 
Voyages, minor, ii. 174. 
Vulgate becomes the ecclesiastical 
authority of the West, i. 306. 
Jealous fears of Rome respecting 
depreciation of the authority of 
ii. 195.. 434 
INDEX. 
Wales, South, thickness of coal- 
bearing strata in, ii. 308. 
Walter the Penniless, one of the first 
Crusaders, ii. 22. 
ar, effect of, on the low Arab class, 
i. 339. 
Moral state of Europe indicated by 
the usages of war, ii. 232. 
War system, Roman, i. 250. 
Water, importance of, in Egypt, i. 96. 
The curious treatise of Zosimus on 
the virtues and composition of, 
i. 408. 
Physical and chemical relation of, 
ii. 372. 
Watt, James, has revolutionized the 
industry of the world, i. 387. 
His discovery of the constitution of 
water, ii. 340. 
His invention of the steam-engine, 
ii. 385. 
Week, origin of the, i. 403. 
Weeping statues, held in supersti- 
tious veneration by the vulgar, 
i. 51. 
Western Empire becomes extinct, i.351. 
Westphalia, Peace of, the culmination 
of the Reformation, ii. 212. 
Whewell, his testimony to the incom- 
parable merit of Newton's 
" Principia," ii. 275. 
Wickliffe translates the Bible, ii. 99. 
The revolt of, ii. 148. 
William of Champeaux opens a school 
of logic in Paris, ii. 14. 
William, Lord of Montpellier, his 
edict respecting the practice of 
medicine, ii. 123. 
William de Nogaret assists King 
Philip against Pope Boniface IL, 
ii. 84. 
Also against the Templars, ii. 91. 
William de Plaisian prefers a long 
list of charges against Pope 
Boniface, ii. 84. 
Willis, his researches on the brain 
and nervous system, ii. 286. 
Winking pictures held in supersti- 
tious veneration by the vulgar, 
i. 51. 
Witchcraft, introduction of European, 
ii. 115. 
Women, condition of, in India, i. 63. 
"Sub-introduced," i. 359. 
Exerted extraordinary influence in 
the conversion of Europe, i. 365. 
Woodward improves mineralogy, ii. 
286. 
World, to determine the origin and 
manner of production of, the 
first object of Greek philosophy, 
i. 217. 
Hindu doctrine of the absorption of, 
i. 226. 
Moral, is governed by principles ana- 
logous to those which obtain in 
the physical, i. 348. 
Expected end of, i. 377. 
Anthropocentric ideas of the begin- 
ning of, ii. 297. 
Worlds, infinity of, ii. 292. 
Succession of, ii. 336. 
Worms, synod of, ii. 18. 
Xantippe, the wife of Socrates, her 
character unfairly judged of, i. 
147. 
Xenophanes, the representative of a 
gn?at philosophical advance, i. 
118. 
Xerxes, his exploits exaggerated, i, 
130. 
Ximenes, Cardinal, burns Arabic 
manuscripts, ii. 177. 
Year, length of, determined by Al- 
bategnius and Thebit Ben Corrah, 
ii. 41. 
Yezed, Khalif, origin of Iconoclasm 
imputed to, i. 417. 
Yolinda de Lusignan, Frederick com- 
pelled to marry her by Hono- 
rius III., ii. 67. 
York, Archbishop of, excommunicated, 
ii. 75. 
Yucay, the site of the national palace 
of Peru, ii. 182. 
Zachary, Pope, enters into an alliance 
with King Pepin, i. 370. INDEX. 
435 
Zarynh, the musician, honour paid 
him by the Khalif Abderrahman, 
ii. 34. 
Zedekias, physician to Charles the 
Bald, fabulous story of, ii. 120. 
Zehra, splendour and magnificence of 
the palace and gardens of, ii. 32. 
Zemzen, a well, one of the fictions of 
popular Mohammedanism, i. 345. 
Zeno the Eleatic, the doctrines of 
Parmenides carried out bv, i. 
122. 
Zeno the Stoic, rival of Epicurus, i. 
182. 
Ziska, John, desecration of the body 
of, ii. 149. 
Zosimus, Pope, annuls the decision of 
Innocent I., and declares the 
opinion of Pelagius to be ortho- 
dox, i. 294. 
Zosmus the Panopolitan, describes 
the process of distillation, i. 408. 
Zuinglius, the leader of the Swiss Re- 
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