But the
great migrations of the fourth century had destroyed the classical
world of the Mediterranean, and the Christian Church, which
was more interested in the life of the soul than in the life of the
body, had regarded science as a manifestation of that human arrogance
which wanted to pry into divine affairs which belonged
to the realm of Almighty God, and which therefore was closely
related to the seven deadly sins.
The Renaissance to a certain but limited extent had broken
through this wall of Mediaeval prejudices. The Reformation,
however, which had overtaken the Renaissance in the early 16th
century, had been hostile to the ideals of the ``new civilisation,''
and once more the men of science were threatened with severe
punishment, should they try to pass beyond the narrow limits
of knowledge which had been laid down in Holy Writ.
Our world is filled with the statues of great generals, atop
of prancing horses, leading their cheering soldiers to glorious
victory. Here and there, a modest slab of marble announces
that a man of science has found his final resting place. A thousand
years from now we shall probably do these things differently,
and the children of that happy generation shall know
of the splendid courage and the almost inconceivable devotion
to duty of the men who were the pioneers of that abstract
knowledge, which alone has made our modern world a practical
possibility.
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