One instance, out of many in natural science, may suffice to convince the reader to what absurd and extravagant notions the mind can reconcile itself, when once permitted to rove into the regions of imagination, unrestrained by that strict and scientific method, so successfully pointed out by Lord Bacon, and which it is our present object to explain. Cosmas Indopleustes, who lived so late as the sixth century, affirmed that the earth was an oblong plane, surrounded by an impassable ocean; an immense mountain in the form of a cone, or sugar-loaf, placed in the north, was the centre around which the sun, moon and stars daily revolved the shape of this mountain, and the slanting motion of the sun, accounted for the variable length of the days, and the changes of the seasons. The heavens were supposed to be an immense arch, one side of which rested on the earth, and the other on two mighty pillars beyond the sea; under this vault a multitude of angelic beings were employed in guiding the motions of the stars. Such was the theory which gravely presented itself for adoption, seven or eight centuries later in the world than Euclid, Archimedes, and Apollonius!

Abundant instances of almost equal absurdity might be collected from the opinions of the ancients, on various other branches of science. Take, for example, the doctrine of sensation, or feeling, in what was called the Peripatetic school, so called from a word signifying to walk about, because it was customary for the disciples to study and dispute as they walked in the Lycæum, a place at Athens which was appropriated to their use. Of this school the founder was ARISTOTLE, a man of immense genius, who obtained the greatest popularity, and the most extensive influence over the opinions of mankind, of all the philosophers of antiquity, and who held the minds of men in a kind of intellectual bondage for about two thousand years. In the Peripatetic philosophy, what takes place in sensation was thus described: a sort of images, or, as they were termed, sensible species, that is, certain films of the shape of bodies, came off, it was said, from the objects of sense, and, arriving at the organs which were proper to them, were

admitted to the nerves, and by them conveyed to the brain : here these images were impressed, as the engraving of a seal on wax, and being now refined into what were called intellectual species, the whole business of sensation and perception was supposed to be accounted for. Thus, by, a jargon of words, were men taught to believe they understood the manner in which matter communicates with mind or spirit, and their operation upon each other, which all that has ever been said or written on the subject, shows to be inexplicable, and to be received simply as a fact in the constitution of sentient being.

Up to the time of Lord Bacon, Aristotle still maintained, in a very great degree, his dominion in the realms of philosophy a dominion which, at some periods, had been scarcely less absolute over the minds of men, and far wider and more lasting, than ever his renowned pupil Alexander was able to secure over their bodies. Possessed of a most acute and penetrating mind, and a singular talent for minute investigations, he was qualified, in this respect, for philosophical inquiries, far more that ordinary men. His writings in natural history, in particular, constitute a mass of physical and anatomical facts, which must have resulted from a course of very diligent observations. Neglecting, however, that rigid and exact practical method which is essential to all natural science, too much devoted to subtile distinctions of words, and too ambitious of gaining an ascendency over the opinions of mankind, he pronounced too boldly on nature's operations, and spent his energies too often in useless or obscure questions. In his desire to set up his own dogmas, in opposition to ancient opinions, he is sometimes guilty of misrepresenting the philosophers of a remoter antiquity; and he frequently veils himself in an obscure and unintelligible jargon. Lord Bacon describes his propensity to tyrannize over men's minds, by saying that," as though he had been of the race of the Ottomans, he thought he could not reign securely unless all his brethren were slain." Cicero, who seems to have had some respect for Aristotle's philosophy, acknowledges that, in his time, it was understood by very few even of the phi

losophers themselves. His Logic, which is peculiarly his own, is undoubtedly a great effort of human ingenuity; it consists in an analysis of that process of the mind, which, however rapid, and almost imperceptible, must take place in all sound and correct reasoning. It furnishes the model to which all such reasoning may be reduced, and serves as a test by which the justice of an argument may be tried, if it be ever necessary thus minutely to put down all the steps by which the conclusion is arrived at. In the discoveries of science, it can, of course, afford little or no assistance; and it was the mistaken attempt to employ it for this purpose, that so long excluded the proper method of entering on philosophical researches, and filled the minds of men with mere words and confused notions. Bacon's observations on this subject, in his Advancement of Learning, show that his frequent condemnations of the logical philosophers were levelled against the extravagant perversions of Aristotle's Dialectics, with which these schoolmen were chargeable, and to which Aristotle himself had led the way. His logic was the engine by which, for ages, the minds of men were bewitched, in a manner that was altogether extraordinary, and diverted from things themselves to mere words.

The philosophy of Aristotle, which it would be foreign to the purpose of this treatise more than to characterize generally, without entering into its details, obtained the same credit at Rome, under the Cæsars, which it had already acquired in Greece; being patronized by both Julius and Augustus. Towards the close of the fifth century, the influence of Aristotle began to prevail over that of Plato in the Christian world. After considerably declining during the sixth century, it again revived; and in another century it had gained such an ascendency, that Aristotle seems to have been every where triumphant. Glosses, paraphrases, summaries, arguments, and dissertations on his works, were composed without end, as if to make "darkness visible." Many of the inhabitants of the West learned Arabic in order to read a translation of them in that language. The Latin tongue was made another medium of their circulation, and they were read in most

parts of the known world. Men were every where taught to believe in matter, form, and privation, as the origin of all things; that the heavens were self-existent, incorruptible, and unchangeable; and that all the stars were whirled round the earth in solid orbs! Aristotle's works were the great text-book of knowledge, and his logic was the only weapon of truth. Men's minds, instead of simply studying nature, were in an endless ferment about occult qualities and imaginary essences; little was talked of but intention and remission, proportion and degree, infinity, formality, Squiddity, individuality, and innumerable other abstract notions. The Latin tongue, which was employed by these scholastics, was converted into a barbarous jargon, which a Roman would not have understood; and, in the end, the most sectarian bitterness was produced, sometimes ending in bloody contests. In the midst of these disputes, Aristotle was still the grand authority. Christians, Jews, and Mahometans, united in professing assent to the great lawgiver of human opinions: not Europe alone, but also Africa and Asia, acknowledged his dominion; and while his Greek originals were studied at Paris, translations were read in Persia and at Samarcand.

The rage for disputation, which now began to prevail in consequence of the spread of this philosophy, induced the council of Lateran, under Pope Innocent III., to proclaim a prohibition of the use of the physics and metaphysics of Aristotle; but, awful as were then the thunders of the Vatican, they were not mighty enough to dethrone him from that despotism over men's minds, which, by long custom, had now rendered itself almost omnipotent. The passion for the Aristotelian subtilties had become so general, that, notwithstanding Pope Innocent's decree, it was soon found necessary to favor publicly, in some degree at least, the study of their author; and, accordingly, his Dialectics, Physics, and Metaphysics, were received into the university of Paris by an express statute to that effect. In England, his doctrines were cherished with as great an eagerness as elsewhere. From about the end of the twelfth century, the very name of Aristotle operated like a charm ;

his writings had obtained universal circulation, and, in some of the universities of Europe, statutes were framed which required the professors to promise, on oath, that, in their public lectures on philosophy, they would follow no other guide!

From this period till the close of the sixteenth century, though the authority of Aristotle still continued in the schools, the minds of men were gradually preparing to shake off his yoke, and a more propitious era was fast approaching. The revival of learning in the fifteenth century, the invention of the art of printing, and the reformation, had done much to prepare the world for that new light which was afterwards to be cast over the fields of science, hitherto covered with darkness, and peopled only with airy and delusive phantoms. A few distinguished men-as John of Salisbury, Gros-tête, bishop of Lincoln, Roger Bacon, Ludovicus Vives, and others-had taught mankind that neither the decrees of the Vatican, nor those of the Grecian schools, were incapable of being resisted. Gilbert had successfully investigated the laws of magnetic attraction, and furnished an excellent specimen of reasoning from experiment. In opposition to the system that was held by Aristotle and his followers, which made the earth the centre of the universe, Copernicus had revived the ancient Pythagorean doctrine of the earth's motion round the sun, and had discovered the true theory of the planets. Galileo, Kepler, Gassendi, and others who lived at the same time with Bacon, were acquiring a well-earned fame by their improvements in geometry and physics; and the whole world of science already sighed to be redeemed from the darkness of the middle ages, and the bondage of the schools. Martin Luther, who had been taught the philosophy of Aristotle in his youth, had expressed his contempt for its vanities, and rejected it with indignation. Ramus, also, had attacked the existing opinions at Paris, and disputed publicly against Aristotle's doctrines in the university of that city. Like many other honest followers of truth, however, in this wretched world, which has always loved darkness rather than light, he suffered severely for his boldness. As a