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HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE

culations, which alone they might have failed to acquire,and occasioned the more rapid promulgation of someknowledge at least of his discoveries among all classes.

Hence we may, even upon so slight a comparison,clearly perceive one ground of distinction, in this, thatin the one instance the heretical poison was likely to bebut little diffused, and that in a comparatively neutral-ised form, and only among those who were most securefrom its bad effects: in the other, it threatened toinfect the whole body of the people; and its noxiousinfluence was enabled to spread through all the ramifi-cations of society. But it was the spirit and mannerin which the subject was taken up, the keen and power-ful sarcasms, the uncompromising appeal to the un-biassed judgment, the rejection of the trammels of au-thority, and unrestrained boldness, whether in attackor defence, which mainly distinguished the obnoxiousparty.

In truth, the maintenance of Aristotle ’s doctrines bythe church simply as abstract tenets, was, after all, buta point of secondary consideration. They did, indeed,afford support to the scholastic system of the theologians,but they had another more important practical use;their great value to the Romish hierarchy was, as aux-iliaries to the spiritual tyranny they sought to exercise.The main beauty of Aristotle ’s philosophy, in their eyes,was, that it exhausted the whole subject of which ittreated, and reduced it to a perfect system; so that nonew discoveries could possibly add any thing to it.

To accustom their disciples, then, to this species ofphilosophy, and to instil carefully into their minds theutter falsity of all other kinds, had, of course, an ob-vious and invaluable application in bringing them intointellectual bondage ; destroying even the inclination toattempt new enquiries in any subject ; and habituatingthem to submit, without question, to a fixed and unal-terable system. Hence the extreme importance of re-pressing all infractions of this discipline, as extin-guishing every disposition to freedom of thought.