PHYSICAL AND MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES. 105

Its actual origin, it is difficult to discover; and it hasbeen traced by some to Arabia, by others to India .Gerbert certainly obtained a knowledge of it from theMoors. It is hardly possible for us to conceive the statein which every part of science dependent on numbersmust have been without it; or to imagine by what meansthe ancient astronomers got through their calculations.The single circumstance of the want of this system ofcomputation, would almost alone account for that ab-sence of the application of mathematics to physical sub-jects, which so unhappily characterises the science of theancients. Gerbert afterwards became pope, under thetitle of Silvester II .

In the eleventh century the example of Gerbert wasimitated by Adhelard, an English monk, who, for thesake of acquiring scientific information, travelled intoSpain and Egypt, and made himself master of the Arabic language. He turned this knowledge to account, bytranslating into Latin from the Arabic , the “ Elementsof Euclid.” This appears to have been the first trans-lation of Euclid known in Europe ; it, however, seemsto have excited little attention, and is said to remain inmanuscript at the present day. Another translation,likewise from the Arabic , made by Campanus about acentury later, was the first which acquired any celebrity:all the early printed editions are taken from his text.

Establishment of Universities.

The institution of universities is a most importantfeature in the history of the renovation of science. Itmay be traced with considerable certainty to the ele-venth century, though probably before that time someimperfect establishments of the kind were in existencein several parts of Europe . The only schools of learn-ing hitherto accessible were the monasteries. To someof these, and to the cathedral churches, schools wereannexed, in which the monkish literature and scienceof the times, such as it was, might be acquired.