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HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE

Thus was preserved to us all the knowledge we nowpossess of those highly interesting records of ancientphilosophy, of which, in former sections, we have en-deavoured to give some account ; and thus, again, wasthe first impulse given to the further cultivation ofscience, and the wider extension of knowledge in mo-dern times. Those to whom we are indebted for therenovation of the sciences in the middle ages, commencedtheir labours with the careful study of antiquity : thisat once informed them of what had been effected before,and pointed out to them what remained to be done ;stimulated their curiosity, and inspirited their efforts topursue the enquiry; and supplied them with implementssufficiently powerful to enable them to conduct at leastthe commencement of the work with success. Of theindividuals who first took a share in the great work ofthe restoration of science we know little: few even oftheir names have been recorded. One of the most emi-nent was Gerbert, a monk of the Low Countries, wholived in the tenth century; he appears to have been giftedwith talents very much in advance of the age in whichhe lived. Impressed with an ardent desire to study thesciences, he found that so low was the state of barbarismand ignorance in which the monkish schools of Europe were then immersed, that he could acquire the inform-ation he sought nowhere but in the Moorish institutionsof Spain ; he here obtained a knowledge of ancientscience through the Arabic translations; and, returninginto France , composed several treatises which show anacquaintance with geometry and astronomy considerablyabove the usual standard of that age, and evincing afamiliarity with the works of Euclid, and the inventionsof Archimedes .

One of the most important services rendered by Ger-bert to the cause of useful knowledge, was the intro-duction of the Arabic numerals, or decimal notationPerhaps no single invention ever produced is at oncemore simple in its application, more refined in its prin-ciple, or of more universal value and utility than this,