were impossible to estimate; there is no method of determining the
specific gravity of such adventures: moreover we are now so well used to
the lights, bells, and soundings of the routes of scientific enquiry
that it is hard for us to realise the pain and peril of fogs and
contrary winds in voyages where were no such guides. Indeed no
exposition of defects of methods can explain false habits of thought
without a careful estimate of historical causes also, in what we may
call the embryology of thought; for at no time were right methods of
thought wholly wanting, or even wholly disregarded. But, as we approach
Harvey's own time, if on the one hand I have shown that Europe until he
came was not ready for him, on the other hand I trust I have made it
more easy to conceive the weight of the social systems, opinions, and
prejudices against which his gigantic effort was made. For, brilliant as
was the promise of the Renascence, yet in the time of Harvey, and in the
generation immediately before him, the decay of the scholastic methods
and the worldliness of the Church, which in the first half of the
sixteenth century had favoured the advance of secular culture, had led
to a reaction, not against Luther only but also against all liberal
learning and science. In the Vatican, in the Sorbonne, in the
Consistory, and even in the courts of justice it was proclaimed that as
these studies make government more difficult, it were ill to encourage
them! We have seen that the Faith, though undermined and no longer
catholic, was aroused, and was terrible still; orthodoxy was crushing
free thought in Italy; Alva was in Flanders, and had been visited by
Catherine de Medici at Bayonne; in France the ruthless religious wars
ended in the triumph of Rome; Europe was overrun by Dominicans and
Franciscans; Trent was long pregnant with anathema. Contrary sects alike
defied liberal culture; and four years before Harvey's birth the wolf,
hidden under another cloak, had torn Servetus--Servetus who shared with
Colombo the honour of preparing the way for the founder of modern
physiology. Even the genial conformist of the world, after his manner
when he is scared, had turned brutal; he felt that the old conceptions
upon which society was built for him, were suspected, and therewith
society itself beginning to crack and split, yet he did not see that now
by science only could society be recreated.
In Italy the Cinque Cento had taken its birth and nourishment chiefly
from Latin sources and tradition. It regarded symmetry of form and
rhetorical modes of passion; elegance was preferred to matter, and style
to knowledge. Such a culture had not the seeds of life in it; in the
middle of the sixteenth century its enthusiasms waned, its philosophy
fell into routine, its style into mannerism; but science, not
philosophy, not the Faith, was the heir of the Middle Ages. Science is
not of Latin but of Greek inheritance, its sources are Greek; and with
the westward swarm of the Greeks their older boons of eloquence and
beauty were rivalled by their newer gifts of scholarship and natural
knowledge. In France the leaders of this school were the Huguenots, the
flower of the nation; in the Catholic reaction of the sixteenth century
France scorched her own bloom, and Spain was blasted for ever. The
humanists, who at best were false friends of science and medicine, were
no longer powerful friends; their noble rage was suppressed by chill
penury, and many of the most learned and zealous of them were vagabonds
in Europe. Rhetoric, fine art, and even philosophy may flourish in
slavery, learning and science can breathe no air but that of freedom;
and freedom of learning was quenched in the blood of the Massacre of St
Bartholomew. In 1540 had been founded the Society of Jesus, which then
as now used science and learning, not as sources of truth or tests of
conduct, but as tactics; putting on indeed the habit of the scholar, but
only the more effectually to control research. Two years later the
Spanish Inquisition was set up in Rome; and its shadow fell even over
Venice, which abased itself to the imprisonment of Bruno. The great
Venetian printers, some time reduced to the publications of decadent
Averroism (p. 97), to avert bankruptcy had to print breviaries. Henry of
Navarre, deserting Du Plessis Mornay, D'Aubigné, and De Thou, turned not
only Roman Catholic but also ultramontane; and, if with his accession
the Terror had ceased, social and political ostracisms, tests, and
disabilities stifled all generous culture.
The great University of Paris, which throughout the Middle Ages had been
the heart of Christendom, the centre of its life and heat, which in the
fourteenth century was at its splendid culmination, and which had
meddled with no feeble hand even in the State, was waning even in the
fifteenth century, when France was devastated by war and rapine and her
schools were emptied. This University, which had savagely condemned Joan
of Arc, and sent Nicholas Midi to preach a solemn sermon at the stake,
"pro Joannæ salutari admonitione et populi ædificatione," in the
sixteenth century came out of the religious wars stripped of its
endowments, and deserted by its students; its curriculum was crassly
conservative, its philosophy buckram, its theology a petrifaction; its
forty colleges were closed, grass grew in its courts, and its public
disputations were abased to the decorous apostasy of the freethinker.
Montpellier was dominated by realism (vitalism). Francis Bacon had done
better to have gone with Harvey to Padua; almost in the year of the
publication of the _De motu cordis_, the Parliament of Paris issued an
edict that no teacher should promulgate anything contrary to the
accepted doctrines of the ancients.
Such was the check which, after the death of Leo the Tenth, had befallen
liberal studies: no Bembo now secretly protected freethinkers; in
Central Europe the generous Maximilian the Second, who died in 1576
while counselling tolerance in religion to Henry the Third, was followed
by reactionary emperors. In England no doubt the sky was clearer; in the
Salamis of modern civilization the malign pretensions of Philip were
shattered, and the "spacious times of Elizabeth" were glorious in their
outburst of freedom, adventure, and culture, Medicine, however, sinking
in the sixteenth century, fell, in the seventeenth, into that reproach
which has become a byword. All superstition was not within the Faith.
When Harvey's discovery, like an earthquake, had broken up galenism and
other outworn sophistries, his masterly work stood forth not only
against long-winded dialectics on ars sphygmica, critical days,
coctions, derivatives, revulsives, and like abstractions bequeathed by
realism and uncritical subservience to texts, but also against a more
lurid background of folk superstitions--of vampires, witch-burning,
magic, cabbalism, astrology, alchemy, chiromancy, and water-casting. For
medicine, says Bacon, is associated with charlatanry as Aesculapius
with Circe. In physics, terrestrial and celestial, Galileo, persecuted
as he was, had some current with him and before him; Copernicus had
preceded him, Kepler was beside him: but in physiology the waters had
closed upon the path of Galen as upon the wake of a great ship; the
anatomists, themselves galenists, had given Harvey little help; and the
share of Servetus[76], Colombo, and Fabricius was but small in the
discovery of the central fact of the science, and of the method which
opened the way to Pecquet and Aselli, to Glisson, to Steno, to Wharton
and Willis, to Haller and Bernard. Harvey's discovery was the first step
to a transfiguration of medicine; and though after Harvey there arose
much false physiology and therewith again great floods of medical
sophistry, yet from his time medicine has had to reckon with physiology,
the only source of scientific nosology and therapeutics.
We celebrate the memory of great men in the certain hope that in their
children they will be born again.
APPENDIX.
ASTROLOGY.
Besides those greater preventions which lay in the very structure and
organised conceptions of society in the Middle Ages, the student of
natural science was thwarted also by many lesser, which could not find
place in this oration. Among the chief of these was judicial astrology,
which supplanted and degraded the art of medicine.
It is difficult to carry the imagination into a time when the heavens
were conceived as an animate and divine being[77], the heavenly bodies
as active and intelligent parts of it, and the whole set not in
illimitable space but around man and his home, and waiting upon him
(vid. p. 47); yet without such an effort we cannot realise the ancient
place and dominion of astrology. Such a possession when in its strength
must have enthralled the human mind; and it abode tenaciously with the
first scientific conceptions of celestial phenomena, even in the
thoughts of the enlightened. Tycho Brahe, for many years of his life,
was an adept; and even Kepler saw portents in the skies. When we read
the doctrines of Aristotle on the celestial beings, it is indeed
somewhat strange that upon him, upon Plato, and upon the Ionians, the
"judicia astrorum" had even less hold than the mythology: so truly
poised, even in the infancy of science, were the cosmic speculations of
this wonderful race. The Romans by their Etruscan tradition held to
astrology, chiefly derived from Chaldea and Egypt, and by them it was
mixed with grosser folk magic; yet even in Rome there were many to
repudiate it, not only such Grecian spirits as Cicero but also such
Romans as Juvenal; as in Harvey's time it was assailed by the irony of
Pascal and of La Fontaine. Even in the twelfth century John of Salisbury
had not failed to turn his light artillery upon astrology.
This art of forecast naturally attached itself closely to that of
medicine; and in its decrepitude still it clung to medicine like a
parasite. And as parasites in the field of pathology, so astrology
brought with it other noxious superstitions and follies even worse than
itself. In England it survived till the witty attack of Swift killed
Partridge and astrology together; yet to this day many of its notions
are embedded in our common speech.
Ptolemy among his good services did one ill to mankind by his
_Tetrabiblon_ or "Quadripertit," an astrological treatise which was
current with the Almagest in the Western Schools. This authoritative
treatise, together with the Aristotelian conception of the heavens, gave
to astrology the aspect of a regular science with its own principles and
methods; a science admired and even courted by princes. As Frederick
the Second and Charles the Fifth would learn of the stars the moment to
take the field against their foes, so the medieval physician sought
their countenance in the letting of blood or in the exhibition of a
clyster or emetic. The Church, abhorring all concurrent dominion, and
justly abhorring this bondage of the judgment of God and of the will of
man, almost alone withstood the astrologer. If the doctors of theology
did not know how to deny the power of the stars in the material cosmos,
they vehemently denied it in the world of the spirit. "Et ideo pro certo
tenendum est," says Aquinas, "grave peccatum esse circa ea quæ a
voluntate hominis dependent judiciis astrorum uti." Of the priestly
assailants of astrology, the most attractive to us for his wit, sagacity
and sound knowledge, was Nicholas Oresme, sometime Bishop of Lisieux
(died 1382), translator of the _Ethics_ and other Aristotelian
treatises, as he is portrayed for us by Hauréau (_Dict. des Sciences
philosophiques_, art. Oresme) and M. Charles Jourdain. The fun of the
thing is that the outspoken Oresme was the counsellor, the friend, and
even the tutor of that notable astrologer Charles the Fifth; a story as
honourable to the prince as to the subject. As Charles issued from the
chambers of his astrologers the discourses of Oresme must have made him
a little uncomfortable, especially when Oresme records the misfortunes
of astrologising captains, such as Alphonso king of Castille, of whom,
says he, I have heard nothing notable except that he cast horoscopes,
was unfortunate in war, and neglected his kingdom; or such again as
James the king of Majorca, a passionate astrologer, who on the dictation
of the stars made a sortie against Peter of Aragon, and never came back
again. It is all very well, says Oresme, for kings to know somewhat of
the noble science of astronomy, but they must be content to hear of it
in talk with sages, and not to spend upon the stars time and care which
they should devote to the interests of their people. "Mesmement tele
chose (astrology, necromancy, geomancy and "quelconques tels ars") est
plus périlleuse à personnes d'estat, comme sont princes et seigneurs
ausquelz appartient le gouvernement publique. Et pour ce ay je composé
ce livret en françois afin que gens lais le puissent entendre, desquels,
si comme j'ay entendu, plusieurs sont trop enclins à telles fatuités. Et
autres fois ay je escript en latin de ceste matière" etc. In spite of
the Bishop of Lisieux, astrology at the end of the fourteenth century
reached the summit of its influence and popularity. In the course of his
argument Oresme gives an admirable account of the nature of
hallucination and the parts it may play in perverting knowledge; not
only so but he explains also the fallibility of the normal senses in
respect of organic defects, of media, of false inference, of
association, of imposition of the imagination, and so forth. Under such
circumstances, he says, a mystic might conceive himself to have been
visited by an angel!
FOOTNOTES:
[1] To bring the oration within the time allotted, this portion, and
the paragraphs on astrology added as an appendix, were omitted. For
the same reason the paragraphs on scepticism (p. 82) were also omitted
but by inadvertence have held their continuity in the text. It is
customary to print the text as delivered; and this must be my excuse
for the cumbrous apparatus of notes, much of which might have been
taken into an enlarged text. The notes are necessary to fortify
statements which orally may pass, but do not satisfy a reader.
[2] The "humoral doctrine" is imperfectly known. The four _elements_
are earth, water, air, fire; the four _qualities_ are hot, cold,
moist, dry; the four _humours_ are blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black
bile. By permutation of these were obtained the endless elaborations
of the galenist doctrine which for many centuries blinded Europe not
to the truth only, but also to the clinical and physiological methods,
example, and attainments of Galen himself.
[3] "Nec ullum satis validum imperium erat coercendis seditionibus
populi, flagitia hominum ut cæremonias deum protegentis." Tac. Ann.
III. 60.
[4] It must not be supposed that the idealism of Plato and the
mysticism of the East were alike, or even akin. Plato was a Greek; his
mind, as we appreciate such qualities, was sane and lucid: he had no
yearning whatever for absorption in the Infinite; but rather, like
Aristotle, for a noble life.
[5] "Oftener on her knees than on her feet
Died every day she lived."
Macbeth IV. 3.
[6] I see in recent reports of Egyptian exploration that at
Oxyrhynchus Plato was represented with curious persistence by the
Phædo and the Laches; and these treatises appear in the early Fayyum
papyri.
[7] A few axioms, collected from the physical and metaphysical
treatises (perhaps by Cassiodorus from Boetius), were current from an
early date. The translations of Boetius must for a time have lain in
some neglect?
[8] Alcuin had but a translated abridgment or summary of the
Categories, attributed to Augustine; and in a MS. of the tenth century
we find no more than this. Boetius' full translation of the Categories
was not current till the end of this century, when all the logic of
Aristotle was in the hands of the doctors. In the earlier Middle Ages,
as in the writings of John of Salisbury and of William of Conches, we
hear even more of Boetius than of the master himself. Virgil, Seneca
and Cicero also were the sources of much of the culture of this
period. Alcuin was a grammarian; he taught from Priscian and Donatus,
improved the eighth century Latin, and probably made Virgil and Cicero
known in Gaul and Britain. He knew but little Greek, as we infer from
his quotation of the names of the Categories. Erigena knew more Greek
and carried some of it to the Court of Charles the Bald. See note 2,
p. 65. Alcuin probably did not visit Ireland. Boetius had translated
also both Analytics and the Topics.
[9] Yet Roger Bacon seems to have apprehended both progress and the
relativity of truth. Before Newman, he declared that God makes no full
revelation but gives it in instalments; and in another passage he
speaks of the judgments of Aristotle, and of other great teachers,
"secundum possibilitatem sui temporis ... aliud tempus fuit tunc, et
aliud nunc est"--a remarkable saying. Of the Saints he says "they had
their time, we have our own." Vid. also note, p. 80.
[10] Modern French historians do us the honour of annexing our heroes;
in respect of the scholars of the Middle Ages M. Charles Jourdain has
set, or followed, this example. John of Salisbury, that charming child
of renascence, born out of due time, was first claimed as a Frenchman;
then, as this "provenance" becomes untenable, he, and others, are
called "Anglo-French." The University of Paris in the XIIth century
was no more France than Rome was Italy. In our sedentary arable life
we do not realise the nomad habits of our forefathers. Edward the
First would inhabit six distant castles in less than as many weeks;
indeed Great Britain itself was then no island. The heroes, nay the
armies, of Froissart's Story fly about the world in their seasons like
migrating birds. All keen scholars of the West went to the University
of Paris, the daughter of kings and popes, and the intellectual centre
not of a strip of kingdom between Anjou and the Empire, but of Europe
itself. And of the scholars of Paris, Englishmen were, we hear, the
most turbulent, but the boldest in argument and the most greedy of
learning; this last character perhaps it is that now-a-days looks
least English. Kuno Fischer admires the procession of great Englishmen
down the highway of medieval thought, from Erigena to Francis Bacon.
John was born at Salisbury, spent thirteen of his early years at the
University of Paris, the best of them in the stormy service of Thomas
Becket, and but the last five as Bishop of Chartres. We do not call
Lanfranc an Englishman, nor even Adrian the Fourth an Italian.
[11] The name Realism has been improperly used--improperly because
previously engaged--to signify the conception of an objective world,
from the play of which our impressions arise, and of which our
impressions are, if not likenesses, at any rate symbols, as opposed to
the name "Idealism" which, with a like violence, has been turned to
signify the conception that the universe of things is but a picture
produced by the evolution of the phenomena of consciousness. The
proper names for these opposite conceptions are of course Noumenalism
and Phenomenalism. Realism proper as a habit of thought, whatever may
have been its provisional uses, is now a mischievous habit;
noumenalism is a harmless amusement.
[12] Roscellinus, the Roger Bacon of the eleventh century, learned,
rebellious, lucid and heroic, withstood the Church for philosophy as
did Bacon in the thirteenth for natural science. It would seem that in
heroism at any rate Abélard was below his master.
[13] Vid. p. 50.
[14] The opponents of the theory of the Mass are apt to charge the
Roman Church with the proposition that therein the elements are
changed into "real" flesh and blood. In the nineteenth century, as in
the thirteenth, this Church has not, I believe, determined whether the
"real" substance be corporeal or incorporeal, separable or inseparable
from the sensible properties of things; whether in a word it be
something or, as many of us would say, nothing at all. Spinoza
regarded "substance" as intelligent and extended.
[15] Thus it was difficult to claim his authority for one side or the
other. The metaphysical treatises were not known till the later part
of the twelfth century. (See p. 75, note 2.) At the outset of the
Physics Aristotle discusses what nature is in itself, and defines
first elements; in the Second Analytics on the other hand, although
thinking of science as deductive and expository, he strongly opposes
the primary existence of ideas, though these are predicable of many
individuals. By excess of logical formations, the division of
properties, the use of such terms as "[Greek: genê hypokeimena]," &c.
&c., he laid himself open to misconception, and so was readily
platonised by his commentators. It would seem indeed that for
Aristotle universals were not merely propositions obtained by negation
of individual variations, but something more active. A [Greek: noêsis]
became somehow a [Greek: poiêsis]; e.g. "[Greek: hê dêmiourgêsasa
physis]." His position may be appreciated briefly thus:--In the
Categories Aristotle speaks of individuals as primarily existent,
while in Met. Z, and elsewhere, the primary existent is the form. The
inconsistency is, however, more apparent than real; for in the
Categories it is the individual so far as he represents his natural
kind which is primarily existent, whilst the form which in the
Metaphysics is primarily existent occurs only in the individual. This
terse appreciation is one of my many debts to Dr Jackson.
[16] It were almost to be desired, for our own lucidity, that we could
get rid of the words cause and law, and use language significant of
order only. Aristotle's influence has weighed heavily in favour of
studying "Causes" rather than sequences; thus it is hard to clear our
own minds, and impossible to clear the minds of our pupils, of a
genetic notion of causation--that an effect comes, as it were, from
the womb of its causes. Even Ockham taught as if causes contained
their effects. Mr Marshall (West. Rev. loc. cit.) is of opinion that
Roger Bacon by his "non oportet causas investigare" intended to
confine scientific thought to the relations of phenomena.
[17] As St Anselm put it, "Participatione speciei plures homines sunt
unus homo." Out of humanity individual men proceed.
[18] Vid. p. 32, note.
[19] Erigena, "the miracle of the Holy Ghost"; a figure of almost
mythical grandeur, arising in the far west, full of new learning, of
lyric enthusiasm, and heroic courage. He did not protest, with St
Columba, against the Papacy only; he protested against authority, and
he protested against mighty ignorance; neither of which should
withstand the persuasion of right reason. "Ratio immutabilis ... quæ
... nullius auctoritatis adstipulatione roborari indiget." His works
were proscribed and burned.
[20] The one, to which alone Parmenides and Melissus attributed
existence, was a material although an incorporeal unity. We must
beware of accepting "matter" in the current dualist sense; for
Aristotle himself [Greek: hylê] was hardly distinguishable from
[Greek: dynamis].