The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-03-23
III. ROGER BACON

MEANWHILE the seeds OF the
1V1 new age were ripening every
where, and even in manastic cells
science, forgotten for a thousand
years, was coming to life again. The
same movement that brought the
towns and the cathedrals brought
industry and science: commerce
stimulated mathematics and as
tronomy, industry developed physics
and chemistry; and the gathering
of people together into larger ana
more varied communities brought
interplay of ideas, that elbow-rub-
bing of .dogmas, which proves so
fatal to inherited beliefs.
The picture of medieval science is
one of astrology struggling to be-
come astronomy. alchemy struggling
to become chemistry "fabli2uX' of
talking animals gradually develop
ing into biology. It was believed
that the position of the planets at
a mans birth determined his life
history; men studied the stars to
foretell human fates, and gazed into
crystals to see the future.
Professor Robinson points out how
many current adjectives carry on
the astrological tradition: disaS-
trous, which has the same meaning
and the same etymolOgy as i'll
starred; jovial, saturnine and mer-
curial, which ale taken from the
names of the planets; and even the
10 r
note a peculiar temperament.
Out Of these romantic begin
nings astronomy again took form;
in the pursuit of the will-o'-the-
wisps, men accumulated slowly a
better knowledge of the stars; be-
fore the end of the middle ages
astronomical tables were prepared
which improved upon those Of Pto-
lemy and the Moors.
Out of the crucibles of the al
chemists came that study of
elements which is at the basis of
modern chemistry; new dyes and
chemicals were discovered. which
began to reVolutionize industry; and
the quest for the transmutGtion Of
metals takes on little more dig
nifty in these days when radiation
changes one element into another,
and great chemists like William
Ramsey predict in the future the
/ transmutation of baser metals into
gold.
AT the same time the other
N sciences were finding them
selves. Marco Polo, in the thir-
teenth century, astounded Europe
with his travels to Pekin; the COM
ing of the compass not only bene-
fitted commerce, but renewed the ro-
nance of exploration; Italian sail
ors charted the Mediterranean bet
ter than ever before, and geogra-
pliers described Madeira. the Can
arv Islands, and even the Azores
(75O miles out in the Atlantic) be-
fore 1851.
PHYSICS contributed to the medi-
eval home the luXurieS of mirrors
and clocks, to the art Of killing it
contributed the new explosive called
gunpowder, and to the enlargement
of human sense it contributed the
lens, which would soon develop into
microscope and telescope, and re-
veal unexpected worlds to man.
Medicine was hindered by the dis
taste for dissection; but at Salerno,
Montpelier and Padua provision
was made for dissection under prop
er conditions, and surgery made
rapid advances. Henry of Monde
vile, in the fourteenth century, in
augurated antiseptic surgery; and
in the next century plastic surgery
grew to the point where new noses,
ears, lips and faces were provided
for those who could afford them.
Everywhere a new spirit was ap-
pearing in the cities and the schools,
new audacity in the face of every
dogma and every tradition. Over
the ignorance of the Middle Ages,
over the domination of the mind by
Anticipated thought, rises the SYM
bolic figure of Faust, Faust who has
learned the taste of knowledge, the
honey of w-discovered truth;
Faust the restless and Unsuitable
student, willing to sell even his soul
for knowledge. When such men, or
even such legends, could be, the
Middle Ages were moving to an end.
n Il
ONLY one man remains, and he
" is the most remarkable of all.
See him in his monastery cell; he
has retired there despite his goodly
share of worldly fortune, for only
there can he have the solitude and
peace Of research; but under his