PHYSICAL AND MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES, 101

have hardly got rid of the traces of it from some of ouralmanacs.

Science in Europe in the Middle Ages.

During the middle ages in Europe , the cultivation ofscience had sunk to its lowest ebb. Not only was thereno original energy displayed in enlarging the stores ofknowledge, but there did not exist even the desire toretain what had been already known. There were nowriters able to add to the stock of information, and fewreaders even capable of informing themselves of whattheir predecessors had done. The records of ancientlearning and philosophy were a sealed book, from thetotal ignorance which prevailed of the Greek language;and though there existed a few Latin versions, or rathercompendiums, of one or two of the treatises of Aristotle ,and perhaps of some other works of science, eitherderived from the oriental translations, or possibly fromthe remains of the literature of the Roman empire, yetthese were little read, and still less appreciated or un-derstood. The little knowledge which existed was con-fined exclusively to the clergy and the monks ; and if,in any instance, this extended to more than what barelysufficed for the discharge of their ecclesiastical functions,the cases were rare exceptions. The only philosophyprofessed was an adherence to the dogmas of Aristotle ;and, probably, this profession was made by numberswho knew no more of his opinions than a few technicalphrases, and little of bis works except their titles.

The monastic establishments were, however, the sanc-tuaries which afforded an asylum to learning, such as itwas ; and, unquestionably, whatever remains of ancientliterature have been preserved to us, we owe to them.

In ages like those of w-hich we are speaking, whennothing but universal barbarism, tumult, and bloodshedprevailed around, the monasteries were generally heldsacred by all parties ; and amidst the ignorance whichextended without, the more powerfully did superstitionh 3