o close for ages that path in science
which above all others leads to discoveries of value--the experimental
method--and to reopen that old path of mixed theology and science which,
as Hallam declares, "after three or four hundred years had not untied
a single knot or added one unequivocal truth to the domain of
philosophy"--the path which, as all modern history proves, has ever
since led only to delusion and evil.(273)

(273) For the work of Aquinas, see his Liber de Caelo et Mundo, section
xx; also Life and Labours of St. Thomas of Aquin, by Archbishop Vaughn,
pp. 459 et seq. For his labours in natural science, see Hoefer, Histoire
de la Chimie, Paris, 1843, vol. i, p. 381. For theological views of
science in the Middle Ages, and rejoicing thereat, see Pouchet, Hist.
des Sci. Nat. au Moyen Age, ubi supra. Pouchet says: " En general au
milieu du moyen age les sciences sont essentiellement chretiennes,
leur but est tout-a-fait religieux, et elles sembent beaucoup moins
s'inquieter de l'avancement intellectuel de l'homme que de son salut
eternel." Pouchet calls this "conciliation" into a "harmonieux ensemble"
"la plus glorieuse des conquetes intellectuelles du moyen age." Pouchet
belongs to Rouen, and the shadow of the Rouen Cathedral seems thrown
over all his history. See, also, l'Abbe Rohrbacher, Hist. de l'Eglise
Catholique, Paris, 1858, vol. xviii, pp. 421 et seq. The abbe dilates
upon the fact that "the Church organizes the agreement of all the
sciences by the labours of St. Thomas of Aquin and his contemporaries."
For the complete subordination of science to theology by St. Thomas, see
Eicken, chap. vi. For the theological character of science in the
Middle Ages, recognised by a Protestant philosophic historian, see the
well-known passage in Guizot, History of Civilization in Europe; and
by a noted Protestant ecclesiatic, see Bishop Hampden's Life of Thomas
Aquinas, chaps. xxxvi, xxxvii; see also Hallam, Middle Ages, chap. ix.
For dealings of Pope John XXII, of the Kings of France and England, and
of the Republic of Venice, see Figuier, L'Alchimie et la Alchimistes,
pp. 140, 141, where, in a note, the text of the bull Spondet paritur is
given. For popular legends regarding Albert and St. Thomas, see Eliphas
Levi, Hist. de la Magie, liv. iv, chap. iv.

The theological path thus opened by these strong men became the main
path for science during ages, and it led the world ever further
and further from any fr