IX. DUCTION OF THE SCIENCES. Hence, when their caliphs directed their ardent minds CHAP. to intellectual studies, they passed by the poets, the historians, and the orators of the pagan classics, as INTROwell as the disputatious Christian fathers. From the intensity of their bigotry, influenced insensibly to ARABIAN themselves by a taste derived from their ancient Sabaism," they fixed their attention on those parts of Grecian knowlege-the mathematical and astronomical works, which had been composed principally at Alexandria during that bright period in the history of Egypt, which arose from the Grecian dynasty of the Ptolemies, and afterwards. Almost obsolete in Greece itself, they had never been appropriated by Rome. To the rest of the world they were as little known as to our ancient satirist, who, in his Piers Plouhman, converts Ptolemy and the philosophers into poets. But of all the subjects of Grecian knowlege, these works were the only writings that could interest an Arabian mind, because pure from all idolatrous contamination. Led, like all the East, to admire till they venerated the stars,19 the quick and 17 Al Bategnus, who made two astronomical tables, and wrote on the Lib. Quad. of Ptolemy, and de astrorum ortu, and de conjunctionum tempore, and died in 929, was even then a professed Sabæan, or star worshipper. Casiri, Bib. 343. So Thabet Ben Corah, born 835, one of their great mathematicians and astronomers, was of the Sabeau religion. lb. 386. 18 Meny proverbis ich myghte have And poetes to preoven hit; Porfirie and Plato; Aristotle, Ovidius, and ellevene hundred, Tullius, Ptolemæus; ich can uat telle bere naines ; Vis. Piers Plouhman. 19 One of our Syrian travellers, Mr. Wood, said, he found himself in the night so struck with the beauty of the firmament, that he could hardly suppress a notion, that these bright objects were animated beings of some high order, and were shedding important influence on this earth. From this effect upon himself, he was sure that at all times the minds of men, in these countries, must have had a tendency to that species of superstition.-Dr. W. Hunter's Lecture, p. 10. VI. ENGLAND. Almamon's ment of knowlege. BOOK piercing intellects of the Arabs, fastened on astronomy as their favorite study, and soon revived those LITERARY geometrical sciences with which it was connected. HISTORYOF ALMAMON, inspired with this taste, sent to the Grecian emperor for the books of science which the encourage Greeks had written. He collected them also from Persia, Egypt, and Syria; from Chaldea and Armenia. He inquired around him for men able to translate them; he incited his subjects to study; he pursued it himself, and was fond of being present at the discussions of the learned whom he had assem bled, and whom he had patronized.20 Perhaps no country ever witnessed such a sudden acquisition of knowlege as was produced by his exertions. In this he was more fortunate than Alfred. The efforts of our venerable king left but a faint impression upon his nation; while Almamon's example was prolific of imitators; and yet the Saxon mind was as active and as able as the Arabian. The difference may be ascribed to the subjects of their study: Alfred had nothing but the Latin literature to impart; Almamon diffused the true sciences, to whose improvement there was no limit; whose diffusion was connected with the best interests of mankind. On the Arabian of natural philosophy. It has been from the cultivation of the sciences cultivation that are most intimately connected with natural philosophy, and from those pursuits which began the experimental study of it, that the Arabians have so much benefited mankind. The progress of the human mind at that time wanted, as we have remarked, an intellectual nation, which would separate the 20 See Abul. Pharag. 160 & 161, where he mentions the astronomers who flourished in the reign of Almamon; and see also Leo Afer de Me dicis et Philosoph. Arab. c. 1. printed in Fabric. Bib. Græc. t. 13. p. 261 CHAP. IX. DUCTION SCIENCES. science of Greece and Rome from their rhetoric and mythological poetry, and dropping the latter, would exclusively cultivate all that was valuable in the INTROformer. The Arabs, under their new tenets, were OF THE precisely the people to effectuate this, and were the ARABIAN only people who could then have accomplished it. To them we are indebted for the revival of natural, and for the rise of experimental philosophy. It will not be uninteresting to trace, more precisely, the reasons why the Arabs so far surpassed the Grecians in these studies, as they have equally operated since to make England and Europe transcend them in the same paths. It has been a matter of surprise to the inquisitive, that for nearly 5000 years before the Arabs distinguished themselves, the ancient world should have so little advanced these branches of our richest knowlege. But this did not so much arise from an indifference to the subject, nor from any insensibility to its importance; but was principally occasioned by two circumstances, very natural to their chronological position in human existence; the fewness of their scientific observations, and the erring notions which prevailed on the causing principles of material nature. As in every art, so in every science, the facts or phenomena of which it consists, and from which it has been built up into a fabric of reasoned knowlege, must gradually, slowly, and successively occur; and until a sufficient and varied number have occurred, their mutual relations, connexions, dependencies, agencies and consequences, can be neither traced nor explained, nor any rational system be erected to combine and apply them. Causes of its slow among the advance ancients. BOOK VI. On every topic, the darkness in every mind is at first absolute and universal; a few enlightened spots LITERARY begin to appear, which assist others to arise; more HISTORY OF luminous points accrue, and from the progressive illu ENGLAND. mination the horizon of our knowlege enlarges; curiosity then awakens; the eye that was contented to observe, is interested to explore, and the judgment proceeds to class and connect the insulated phenomena, which have fixed its attention and excited its activity. The subject of inquiry then assumes the form of a science; and from the casual events and appearances which satisfied anterior times, the philosopher advances to a vigilant inspection of nature, for the purpose discovering her secret laws, and of multiplying his experience of their continual operations. of In this sketch, we see the regular and historical progress of natural philosophy. We live in the last period, and are therefore studying nature with that intense scrutiny, which the accumulated facts and reasonings of the preceding ages have qualified us to exert. The ancients belonged to the prior epochs of human existence, when the phenomena were but beginning to display themselves, or to interest the human attention. They noted and thought much on what occurred; but their experience was too small to enable them to reason justly, and to discern the relations of nature; and their speculations were too chimerical and uncertain to become popular. Mankind can easier discern absurdity than discover truth; and nothing permanently interests which is felt to be delusive. A succession of time could alone cure this defect. But that the ancient mind began early to reason on IX. INTRO DUCTION OF THE SCIENCES. nature, appears from the cosmogonies" it attempted; CHAP. which are the earliest subjects of human inquiry that are noticed in the history of human philosophy. Before Thales, and afterwards," nature was intently studied by many, and theories were repeatedly made ARABIAN to account for her operations. In supposing that natural philosophy was not attended to, we confound too much the success of the inquiry with its pursuit. Compared with our multifarious knowlege, little was correctly understood in the ancient world; but its curiosity and efforts to know, must not be measured by their failure. Almost Almost every Grecian philosopher studied nature, meditated on her phenomena, and attempted to elucidate her laws. All that Egypt or the East attained, was learnt and remembered; and it is hardly possible to read the physical works of Aristotle, without perceiving that great labor had been exerted, that much information had been collected, and that as much was really done as diligent observation and careful reasoning could in those days, and with their inferior experience, and under the want of those good systems which the multiplied facts of future ages supplied, be expected to effect. mistakes on the causes The great impediment and discouragement to this Ancient study among the ancients, were their mistakes and intellectual confusion about the causation of things. It was natural that in studying nature the ancient mind should have been early drawn to the consideration of causation. We cannot avoid thinking of it; 21 See Diog. Laert. and Fab. Bib. Græc. v. 1. "The physical works of Aristotle shew us how much others before him had studied natural philosophy. He quotes frequently Empedocles. The Etrurians also diligently observed nature; (Diod. Sic. 1. 5) and taught a remarkable cosmogony. It limits the duration of the universe to 12,000 years, of which, the first 6000 preceded the formation of man, and the latter 6000 are now concluding. Suid. Voc. Tyr. Plect. Sylla. of things. |