tiquity we shall have
occasion to refer to; so I have arranged some of them in chronological
order on page 4, and as a representative one I may specially emphasize
Archimedes, one of the greatest men of science there has ever been, and
the father of physics.

The only effective link between the old and the new science is afforded
by the Arabs. The dark ages come as an utter gap in the scientific
history of Europe, and for more than a thousand years there was not a
scientific man of note except in Arabia; and with the Arabs knowledge
was so mixed up with magic and enchantment that one cannot contemplate
it with any degree of satisfaction, and little real progress was made.
In some of the _Waverley Novels_ you can realize the state of matters in
these times; and you know how the only approach to science is through
some Arab sorcerer or astrologer, maintained usually by a monarch, and
consulted upon all great occasions, as the oracles were of old.

In the thirteenth century, however, a really great scientific man
appeared, who may be said to herald the dawn of modern science in
Europe. This man was Roger Bacon. He cannot be said to do more than
herald it, however, for we must wait two hundred years for the next name
of great magnitude; moreover he was isolated, and so far in advance of
his time that he left no followers. His own work suffered from the
prevailing ignorance, for he was persecuted and imprisoned, not for the
commonplace and natural reason that he frightened the Church, but merely
because he was eccentric in his habits and knew too much.

The man I spoke of as coming two hundred years later is Leonardo da
Vinci. True he is best known as an artist, but if you read his works you
will come to the conclusion that he was the most scientific artist who
ever lived. He teaches the laws of perspective (then new), of light and
shade, of colour, of the equilibrium of bodies, and of a multitude of
other matters where science touches on art--not always quite correctly
according to modern ideas, but in beautiful and precise language. For
clear and conscious power, for wide-embracing knowledge and skill,
Leonardo is one of the most remarkable men that ever lived.

About this time the tremendous invention of printing was achieved, and
Columbus unwittingly discovered the New World. The middle of the next
century must be taken as the real dawn of modern science; for the year
1543 marks the publication of the life-work of Cop