Volume II Part 7 (2/2)

Thence he went to the University of Paris, where he took the degree of doctor of theology. He was familiar with Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic. Of mathematics he truly says that ”it is the first of all the sciences; indeed, it precedes all others, and disposes us to them.” In advance of his age, he denied the authority of Aristotle, and tells us that we must subst.i.tute that of experiment for it. Of his astronomical acquirements we need no better proof than his recommendation to Pope Clement IV. to rectify the Calendar in the manner actually done subsequently. If to him be rightly attributed the invention of spectacles, the human race is his debtor. He described the true theory of telescopes and microscopes, saying that lenses may be ground and arranged in such a way as to render it possible to read the smallest letters at incredible distances, and to count grains of sand and dust, because of the magnitude of the angle under which we may perceive such objects. He foresaw the greatest of all inventions in practical astronomy--the application of optical means to instruments for the measurement of angles. He proposed the propulsion of s.h.i.+ps through the water and of carriages upon roads by merely mechanical means. He speculated upon the possibility of making a flying-machine. Admitting the truth of alchemy, he advised the experimenter to find out the method by which Nature makes metals and then to imitate it. He knew that there are different kinds of air, and tells us that there is one which will extinguish flame. These are very clear views for an age which mistook the gases for leather-eared ghosts. He warned us to be cautious how we conclude that we have accomplished the trans.m.u.tation of metals, quaintly observing that the distance between whitened copper and pure silver is very great. He showed that air is necessary for the support of fire, and was the author of the well-known experiment ill.u.s.trating that fact by putting a lighted lamp under a bell-jar and observing its extinction.

[Sidenote: Is persecuted and imprisoned.] There is no little significance in the expression of Friar Bacon that the ignorant mind cannot sustain the truth. He was accused of magical practices and of a commerce with Satan, though, during the life of Clement IV., who was his friend, he escaped without public penalties. This pope had written to him a request that he would furnish him an account of his various inventions. In compliance therewith, Bacon sent him the ”Opus Majus” and other works, together with several mathematical instruments which he had made with his own hands. But, under the pontificate of Nicolas III., the accusation of magic, astrology, and selling himself to the Devil was again pressed, one point being that he had proposed to construct astronomical tables for the purpose of predicting future events.

Apprehending the worst, he tried to defend himself by his work ”De Nullitate Magiae.” ”Because these things are beyond your comprehension, you call them the works of the Devil; your theologians and canonists abhor them as the productions of magic, regarding them as unworthy of a Christian.” But it was in vain. His writings were condemned as containing dangerous and suspected novelties, and he was committed to prison. There he remained for ten years, until, broken in health, he was released from punishment by the intercession of some powerful and commiserating personages. He died at the age of seventy-eight. On his death-bed he uttered the melancholy complaint, ”I repent now that I have given myself so much trouble for the love of science.” If there be found in his works sentiments that are more agreeable to the age in which he lived than to ours, let us recollect what he says in his third letter to Pope Clement: ”It is on account of the ignorance of those with whom I have had to deal that I have not been able to accomplish more.”

[Sidenote: Minor alchemists of England, France, and Germany.] A number of less conspicuous though not unknown names succeed to Bacon. There is Raymond Lully, who was said to have been shut up in the Tower of London and compelled to make gold for Edward II.; Guidon de Montanor, the inventor of the philosopher's balm; Clopinel, the author of the ”Romance of the Rose;” Richard the Englishman, who makes the sensible remark that he who does not join theory to practice is like an a.s.s eating hay and not reflecting on what he is doing; Master Ortholan, who describes very prettily the making of nitric acid, and approaches to the preparation of absolute alcohol under the t.i.tle of the quintessence of wine; Bernard de Treves, who obtained much reputation for the love-philters he prepared for Charles V. of France, their efficacy having been ascertained by experiments made on servant-girls; Bartholomew, the Englishman who first described the method of crystallizing and purifying sugar; Eck de Sulzbach, who teaches how metallic crystallizations, such as the tree of Diana, a beautiful silvery vegetation, may be produced. He proved experimentally that metals, when they oxidize, increase in weight; and says that in the month of November, A.D. 1489, he found that six pounds of an amalgam of silver heated for eight days augmented in weight three pounds. The number is, of course, erroneous, but his explanation is very surprising. ”This augmentation of weight comes from this, that a spirit is united with the metal; and what proves it is that this artificial cinnabar, submitted to distillation, disengages that spirit.” He was within a hair's-breadth of antic.i.p.ating Priestley and Lavoisier by three hundred years.

[Sidenote: Augurelli, the poetical alchemist.] The alchemists of the sixteenth century not only occupied themselves with experiment; some of them, as Augurelli, aspired to poetry. He undertook to describe in Latin verses the art of making gold. His book, ent.i.tled ”Chrysopoeia,” was dedicated to Leo X., a fact which shows the existence of a greater public liberality of sentiment than heretofore. It is said that the author expected the Holy Father to make him a handsome recompense, but the good-natured pope merely sent him a large empty sack, saying that he who knew how to make gold so admirably only needed a purse to put it in.

[Sidenote: Basil Valentine introduces antimony.] The celebrated work of Basil Valentine, ent.i.tled ”Currus triumphalis Antimonii,” introduced the metal antimony into the practice of medicine. The attention of this author was first directed to the therapeutical relations of the metal by observing that some swine, to which a portion of it had been given, grew fat with surprising rapidity. There were certain monks in his vicinity who, during the season of Lent, had reduced themselves to the last degree of attenuation by fasting and other mortifications of the flesh.

On these Basil was induced to try the powers of the metal. To his surprise, instead of recovering their flesh and fatness, they were all killed; hence the name popularly given to the metal, antimoine, because it does not agree with the const.i.tution of a monk. Up to this time it had pa.s.sed under the name of stibium. With a result not very different was the application of antimony in the composition of printer's type-metal. Administered internally or thus mechanically used, this metal proved equally noxious to ecclesiastics.

[Sidenote: The new epoch.] It is scarcely necessary to continue the relation of these scientific trifles. Enough has been said to ill.u.s.trate the quickly-spreading taste for experimental inquiry. I now hasten to the description of more important things.

[Sidenote: Difficulty of treating it scientifically.] In the limited s.p.a.ce of this book I must treat these subjects, not as they should be dealt with philosophically, but in the manner that circ.u.mstances permit.

Even with this imperfection, their description spontaneously a.s.sumes an almost dramatic form, the facts offering themselves to all reflecting men with an air of surpa.s.sing dignity. On one hand it is connected with topics the most sublime, on the other it descends to incidents the most familiar and useful; on one hand it elevates our minds to the relations of suns and myriads of worlds, on the other it falls to the every-day acts of our domestic and individual life; on one hand it turns our thoughts to a vista of ages so infinite that the vanis.h.i.+ng point is in eternity, on the other it magnifies into importance the transitory occupation of a pa.s.sing hour. Knowing how great are the requirements for the right treatment of such topics, I might shrink from this portion of my book with a conviction of incapacity. I enter upon it with hesitation, trusting rather to the considerate indulgence of the reader than to any worthiness in the execution of the work.

In the history of the philosophical life of Greece, we have seen (Chapter II.) how important were the influences of maritime discovery and the rise of criticism. Conjointly they closed the Greek Age of Faith. In the life of Europe, at the point we have now reached, they came into action again. [Sidenote: Approach of the Age of Reason.] As on this occasion the circ.u.mstances connected with them are numerous and important, I shall consider them separately in this and the following chapter. And, first, of maritime enterprise, which was the harbinger of the Age of Reason in Europe. It gave rise to three great voyages--the discovery of America, the doubling of the Cape, and the circ.u.mnavigation of the earth.

[Sidenote: State of Mediterranean trade.] At the time of which we are speaking, the commerce of the Mediterranean was chiefly in two directions. The ports of the Black Sea furnished suitable depots for produce brought down the Tanas and other rivers, and for a large portion of the India trade that had come across the Caspian. The seat of this commerce was Genoa.

The other direction was the south-east. The shortest course to India was along the Euphrates and the Persian Gulf, but the Red and Arabian seas offered a cheaper and safer route. In the ports of Syria and Egypt were therefore found the larger part of the commodities of India. This trade centred in Venice. A vast development had been given to it through the Crusades, the Venetians probably finding in the transport service of the Holy Wars as great a source of profit as in the India trade.

[Sidenote: Rivalry of Genoa and Venice.] Toward the latter part of the fourteenth century it became apparent that the commercial rivalry between Venice and Genoa would terminate to the disadvantage of the latter. The irruption of the Tartars and invasion of the Turks had completely dislocated her Asiatic lines of trade. In the wars between the two republics Genoa had suffered severely. Partly for this reason, and partly through the advantageous treaties that Venice had made with the sultans, giving her the privilege of consulates at Alexandria and Damascus, this republic had at last attained a supremacy over all compet.i.tors. The Genoese establishments on the Black Sea had become worthless.

[Sidenote: Attempt to reach India by the west.] With ruin before them, and unwilling to yield their Eastern connexions, the merchants of Genoa had tried to retrieve their affairs by war; her practical sailors saw that she might be re-established in another way. There were among them some who were well acquainted with the globular form of the earth, and with what had been done by the Mohammedan astronomers for determining its circ.u.mference by the measurement of a degree on the sh.o.r.e of the Red Sea. These men originated the attempt to reach India by sailing to the west.

[Sidenote: Opposition to this scheme.] By two parties--the merchants and the clergy--their suggestions were received with little favour. The former gave no encouragement, perhaps because such schemes were unsuited to their existing arrangements; the latter disliked them because of their suspected irreligious nature. The globular form had been condemned by such fathers as Lactantius and Augustine. In the Patristic Geography the earth is a flat surface bordered by the waters of the sea, on the yielding support of which rests the crystalline dome of the sky. These doctrines were for the most part supported by pa.s.sages from the Holy Scriptures, perversely wrested from their proper meaning. Thus Cosmas Indicopleustes, whose Patristic Geography had been an authority for nearly eight hundred years, triumphantly disposed of the sphericity of the earth by demanding of its advocates how in the day of judgment, men on the other side of a globe could see the Lord descending through the air!

Among the Genoese sailors seeking the welfare of their city was one destined for immortality--Christopher Columbus.

[Sidenote: Columbus, early life of.] His father was a wool-comber, yet not a man of the common sort. He procured for his son a knowledge of arithmetic, drawing, painting; and Columbus is said to have written a singularly beautiful hand. For a short time he was at the University of Pavia, but he went to sea when he was only fourteen. After being engaged in the Syrian trade for many years, he had made several voyages to Guinea, occupying his time when not at sea in the construction of charts for sale, thereby supporting not only himself, but also his aged father, and finding means for the education of his brothers. Under these circ.u.mstances he had obtained a competent knowledge of geography, and, though the state of public opinion at the time did not permit such doctrines to be openly avowed, he believed that the sea is everywhere navigable, that the earth is round and not flat, that there are antipodes, that the torrid zone is habitable, and that there is a proportionate distribution of land in the northern and southern hemispheres. [Sidenote: His argument for lands to the west.] Adopting the Patristic logic when it suited his purpose, he reasoned that since the earth is made for man, it is not likely that its surface is too largely covered with water, and that, if there are lands, they must be inhabited, since the command was renewed at the Flood that man should replenish the earth. He asked, ”Is it likely that the sun s.h.i.+nes upon nothing, and that the nightly watches of the stars are wasted on trackless seas and desert lands?” But to this reasoning he added facts that were more substantial. One Martin Vincent, who had sailed many miles to the west of the Azores, related to him that he had found, floating on the sea, a piece of timber evidently carved without iron.

Another sailor, Pedro Correa, his brother-in-law, had met with enormous canes. On the coast of Flores the sea had cast up two dead men with large faces, of a strange aspect. Columbus appears to have formed his theory that the East Indies could be reached by sailing to the west about A.D. 1474. He was at that time in correspondence with Toscanelli, the Florentine astronomer, who held the same doctrine, and who sent him a map or chart constructed on the travels of Marco Polo. He offered his services first to his native city, then to Portugal, then to Spain, and, through his brother, to England; his chief inducement in each instance being that the riches of India might be thus secured. In Lisbon he had married. While he lay sick near Belem an unknown voice whispered to him in a dream, ”G.o.d will cause thy name to be wonderfully resounded through the earth, and will give thee the keys of the gates of the ocean, which are closed with strong chains!” The death of his wife appears to have broken the last link which held him to Portugal, where he had been since 1470. One evening, in the autumn of 1485, a man of majestic presence, pale, care-worn, and, though in the meridian of life, with silver hair, leading a little boy by the hand, asked alms at the gate of the Franciscan convent near Palos--not for himself, but only a little bread and water for his child. This was that Columbus destined to give to Europe a new world.

[Sidenote: Is confuted by the Council of Salamanca.] In extreme poverty, he was making his way to the Spanish court. After many wearisome delays his suit was referred to a council at Salamanca, before which, however, his doctrines were confuted from the Pentateuch, the Psalms, the Prophecies, the Gospels, the Epistles, and the writings of the fathers--St. Chrysostom, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. Gregory, St.

Basil, St. Ambrose. Moreover, they were demonstrably inconsistent with reason; since, if even he should depart from Spain, ”the rotundity of the earth would present a kind of mountain up which it was impossible for him to sail, even with the fairest wind;” and so he could never get back. The Grand Cardinal of Spain had also indicated their irreligious nature, and Columbus began to fear that, instead of receiving aid as a discoverer, he should fall into trouble as a heretic. [Sidenote: Queen Isabella adopts his views.] However, after many years of mortification and procrastination, he at length prevailed with Queen Isabella; and on April 17, 1492, in the field before Granada, then just wrenched from the Mohammedans by the arms of Ferdinand and Isabella, he received his commission. With a n.o.bleness of purpose, he desired no reward unless he should succeed; but, in that case, stipulated that he should have the t.i.tle of Admiral and Viceroy, and that his perquisite should be one tenth of all he should discover--conditions which show what manner of man this great sailor was. [Sidenote: The expedition prepared.] He had bound himself to contribute one-eighth to the expenses of the expedition: this he accomplished through the Pinzons of Palos, an old and wealthy seafaring family. These arrangements once ratified, he lost not a moment in completing the preparations for his expedition. The royal authority enabled him to take--forcibly, if necessary--both s.h.i.+ps and men. But even with that advantage he would hardly have succeeded if the Pinzons had not joined heartily with him, personally sharing in the dangers of the voyage.

[Sidenote: The voyage across the Atlantic.] The sun, by journeying to the west, rises on India at last. On Friday, August 3, 1492, the weary struggles and heart-sickness of eighteen years of supplication were over, and, as the day was breaking, Columbus sailed with three little s.h.i.+ps from Palos, carrying with him charts constructed on the basis of that which Toscanelli had formerly sent, and also a letter to the Grand Khan of Tartary. On the 9th he saw the Canaries, being detained among them three weeks by the provisioning and repairing of his s.h.i.+ps. He left them on September 6th, escaping the pursuit of some caravels sent out by the Portuguese government to intercept him. He now steered due west.

Nothing of interest occurred until nightfall on September 13th, when he remarked with surprise that the needle, which the day before had pointed due north, was varying half a point to the west, the effect becoming more and more marked as the expedition advanced. He was now beyond the track of any former navigator, and with no sure guide but the stars; the heaven was everywhere, and everywhere the sea. On Sunday, 16th, he encountered many floating weeds, and picked up what was mistaken for a live gra.s.shopper. For some days the weeds increased in quant.i.ty, and r.e.t.a.r.ded the sailing of the s.h.i.+ps. On the 19th two pelicans flew on board. Thus far he had had an easterly wind; but on September 20th it changed to south-west, and many little birds, ”such as those that sing in orchards,” were seen. His men now became mutinous, and reproached the king and queen for trusting to ”this bold Italian, who wanted to make a great lord of himself at the price of their lives.”

On September 25th Pinzon reported to him that he thought he saw land; but it proved to be only clouds. With great difficulty he kept down his mutinous crew. On October 2nd he observed the seaweeds drifting from east to west. Pinzon, in the Pinta, having seen a flight of parrots going to the south-west, the course was altered on October 7th, and he steered after them west-south-west; he had hitherto been on the parallel 26 N. On the evening of October 11th the signs of land had become so unmistakable that, after vesper hymn to the Virgin, he made an address of congratulation to his crew, and commended watchfulness to them.

[Sidenote: Discovery of America.] His course was now due west. A little before midnight, Columbus, on the fore-castle of his s.h.i.+p, saw a moving light at a distance; and two hours after a signal-gun was fired from the Pinta. A sailor, Rodrigo de Triana, had descried land. The s.h.i.+ps were laid to. As soon as day dawned they made it out to be a verdant island.

There were naked Indians upon the beach watching their movements. At sunrise, October 12, 1492, the boats were manned and armed, and Columbus was the first European to set foot on the new world.

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