atricelli in the middle ages had
loudly expressed their belief that the fatal gift of a Roman emperor had
been the doom of true religion. It wanted nothing more than the voice of
Luther to bring men throughout the north of Europe to the determination
that the worship of the Virgin Mary, the invocation of saints, the
working of miracles, supernatural cures of the sick, the purchase of
indulgences for the perpetration of sin, and all other evil practices,
lucrative to their abettors, which had been fastened on Christianity,
but which were no part of it, should come to an end. Catholicism, as
a system for promoting the well-being of man, had plainly failed in
justifying its alleged origin; its performance had not corresponded to
its great pretensions; and, after an opportunity of more than a
thousand years' duration, it had left the masses of men submitted to
its influences, both as regards physical well-being and intellectual
culture, in a condition far lower than what it ought to have been.

CHAPTER XI.

SCIENCE IN RELATION TO MODERN CIVILIZATION.

Illustration of the general influences of Science from the
history of America.

THE INTRODUCTION OF SCIENCE INTO EUROPE.--It passed from
Moorish Spain to Upper Italy, and was favored by the absence
of the popes at Avignon.--The effects of printing, of
maritime adventure, and of the Reformation--Establishment of
the Italian scientific societies.

THE INTELLECTUAL INFLUENCE OF SCIENCE.--It changed the mode
and the direction of thought in Europe.--The transactions of
the Royal Society of London, and other scientific societies,
furnish an illustration of this.

THE ECONOMICAL INFLUENCE OF SCIENCE is illustrated by the
numerous mechanical and physical inventions, made since the
fourteenth century.--Their influence on health and domestic
life, on the arts of peace and of war.

Answer to the question, What has Science done for humanity?

EUROPE, at the epoch of the Reformation, furnishes us with the result of
the influences of Roman Christianity in the promotion of civilization.
America, examined in like manner at the present time, furnishes us with
an illustration of the influences of science.

SCIENCE AND CIVILIZATION. In the course of the seventeenth century a
sparse European population bad settled along the western Atlantic coast.
Attracted by the cod-fishery of Newfoundland, the