rhetoric, of theology, and of chemi stry. This last embraced within its range the art and mystery of alchymy, an art which was not only at this time very passionately cultivated by the most learned men in the kingdom, but was also the subject of royal patronage and munificence. The sagacious and politic Edward I. seems to have been so far transported by his belief in the transmutation of metals, that he invited the famous Lully, one of the greatest philosophers of his time, into his dominions, and it was then currently believed, that the gold which was spent in fitting out an expedition to the Holy Land, had issued not from the Exchequer of the king, but from the laboratory of the philosopher. * The University of Oxford was possessed at this period of very high privileges. The jurisdiction of the civil magistrate did not extend over the immense body of ecclesiastical students; and the unpunished arrogance of these young clerks, as they were called, led frequently to serious commotions not only between the citizens and the University, but between the different sects and nations of the students themselves. Hostile banners were borne by the armies of the contending nations; the peaceful habit of the student, and the intellectual armour of Aristotle, were exchanged for more sanguinary weapons, and blood was spilt, and lives were lost, before these scholastic feuds could be appeased. † In the midst of these commotions, however, we know that philosophy and the sciences were very ardently cultivated, and Michael Scott acquired at this period that remarkable knowledge of the Latin and Arabic languages, which afterwards enabled him to become the translator of the works of Aristotle from the Arabic version of Avicenna and Averroes. After having completed his studies at Oxford, he repaired, according to the custom of that age, to the Univer sity of Paris. It is probable, that, in this celebrated seminary, he was a fellow-student with Roger Bacon. Bacon and Scott were born nearly a bout the same period, both studied at Oxford, both completed their academical education at Paris, and both were addicted to the same scientific pursuits. Such was the enthusiasm with which Michael Scott devoted himself, while at Paris, to the science of mathematics, that he became known there by the academic surname of Michael the Mathematician. † He applied himself also to the study of sacred letters and of divinity, and after having gained in these faculties a very high reputation, he received the degree of doctor in theology. § John Bacon-thorpius, an English Carmelite Friar, who made a great noise in his day, and obtained at Paris the pcmpous title of the Resolute Doctor, || and Prince of the Averroists, has distinguished Michael in one of his works ¶ as an eminent theologian. If we may judge from the works which he soon after gave to the world, this singular man had applied himself, during his academical career at Paris, not only to mathematics and theology, but in a particular manner to astrology, to chemistry, and to medicine. After having acquired at Paris this high reputation, he determined to continue his travels, and visited many foreign countries and learned Universities.** Amongst these he first sought. * Bacon was born in the year 1214, and according to Pitseus, p. 369, and died in the year 1284. Anthony Wood, however, who is a more valuable authority, asserts that the 1292 was the year of his death, Hist. Oxon. Lib. I. p. 79. Leland is guilty of a great mistake, when he states, that he died in the 1248, and Tanner has copied Leland's error. The learned Bulæus, the historian of the University of Paris, has celebrated him: in his Catalogue of Illustrious Academicians, under the name of "Michael Scotus, Cognomento Mathematicus." Bulæus, Vol. III. p. 701. Bulæus, Vol. III. p. 701. "Tandem factus Doctor Theologus magnum in ea Facultate nomen decusque sibi comparavit." Bulæus, Vol. III. p. 701. Bale, p. 136, Pitseus, p. 451. Naude Apologie pour les grands Personages soupconnées de magie, p. 496. ** Pitseus, p. 374. the far famed College of Padua, and such appears to have been the impression there created by his talents, that his essays in the science of judicial astrology were no longer, as in France, confined within the walls of the University; his fame became noised abroad, and he began to publish to the world those predictions of future events which were remembered in later times with awe and reverence in Italy. Villani, a historian, who wrote long after the reputed prophet was gathered to his fathers, records a prediction of Michael Scott's, which he declares had been rigidly fulfilled, and Dante has given him, in his character of a magician, a conspicuous place in his Inferno.t - From Italy, still untired in the pursuit of those limited stores of knowledge which the benighted state of philosophy afforded to the student of the thirteenth century, he made his way into Spain, then partly in the possession of the Arabians, but which, under these Mussulman conquerors, was at this time certainly the most enlightened portion of Europe. Here, that he might perfect himself in the knowledge of the language, and become acquainted with the philosophy of this remarkable people, he repaired to Toledo, of which the university was then highly celebrated, especially for the cultivation of the occult sciences. This was a line of study which, from the part he had already assumed as a magician and a prophet in Italy, must have been peculiarly agrecable to him, but it was by no means exclusively pursued. On the contrary, he began and concluded at Toledo a work, which, if we consider the period when it was written, was certainly of an uncommon and laborious nature, a translation from the Arabic into Latin of Aristotle's nineteen books on the History of Animals. § At the head of the Saracenic philosophy at this period was placed the famous Averroes, the father of the sect of the Averroists, remarkable for his voluminous commentaries upon . the works and passionate adherence to the doctrines of Aristotle. It is not improbable, that the high reputa tion which Michael brought into Spain, assisted by a congenial passion in both for the same studies, may have led to a meeting between Aver roes and the Scottish Wizard; besides, Averroes was an inhabitant of Cordova, which had been long, in the fame and the numbers of its philosophers, historians, and poets, the first city in Spain, and it is difficult to be lieve, that Michael should have left Toledo without visiting the most learned man of the most learned university in the country. If these two remarkable men did meet, the translation from Aristotle may have been undertaken at the request of his Arabian disciple. But this is entirely conjectural, and is not supported by any direct authority. Be this as it may, the learned of the western world were now made ac quainted, for the first time, in a Latin translation, with any considerable work of the great founder of the Pe ripatetic school, but the time was now at hand when Aristotle was destined to find an illustrious patron, and Michael Scott to become an instrument of a still more general dissemination of his writings. This patron was the Emperor Frederic the Second, who, although engaged in those projects of ambition which brought him into the eye of the world chiefly in the character of a conqueror, had yet found leisure to devote himself to science and philosophy, and was then universally regarded as the most learned prince in Europe. + Frederic was not only himself a scholar and an author. He was a munificent supporter of letters. He had founded many new schools • Casiri, Vol. 1. p. 184. + Henry, Hist. Vol. VIII. p. 221. See Menckenius, Biblioth. Viror. Militia ac scriptis illustrium, p. 203. Cuspispeaks of him: nianus in libro de Cæsaribus, p. 419, thus "Multarum linguarum peritus ac simul eruditus. Latinam, Græ Saracenicam, Gallicam, et Germanicam, linguam optime callens." Frederic wrote a work De Arte Venandi cum Avibus, which Arnoldus calls "præclarum monumentum eruditionis singularis et rari ingenii." cam, throughout his dominions, and had restored to splendour many academies which had fallen into decay; he encouraged the resort of the most cele brated scholars to his court, and that these learned men might derive their philosophical opinions from the purest sources, he now determined to procure correct and genuine translations of Aristotle, the father of philosophy. The great difficulty was to find scholars who were ready and able to become labourers in this great undertaking. For its accomplishment, to use an expressive legal phrase, there was no copia peritorum. The only man in Europe who had already translated a part of Aristotle was Michael Scott, and we need not wonder that we soon find him at the imperial court, promoted to the office of Astrologer to Frederic, and occupying the first place amongst the scholars to whom he entrusted his new design. One great difficulty presented itself, a difficulty which, as far as accuracy is to be regarded as the first requisite in a translation, ought to have appeared insuperable. A Greek author was to be translated, and the translators were ignorant of the Greek language, which was then almost wholly extinct in the west of Europe. Recourse was, therefore, to be had to the Arabic versions of Aristotle, which had been made by the Mahometan philosophers of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and from these was to be completed, under the eye of the Emperor, this new Latin translation, intended to enlighten and improve the philosophic world of the thirteenth century. A singular history might be written, (and how large a portion in the moral history of our species would it embrace!) of the fate and fortunes of the philosophy of the Stagirite, of the many barbarous doctrines it has inculcated, and more barbarous languages in which it has spoken through the long period of the middle ages, till we arrive at the brilliant æra of its revival in the Peripatetic school of Italy. The atteinpt of Frederic forms a middle and prominent æra in the annals of the Aristotelian philosophy, and, indeed, in the history of human knowledge. From the seventh to the twelfth century, letters were in the lowest state of decline, and during those forgotten ages which preceded the rise of the scholastic philosophy, nothing could be more deplorable than the thick darkness which overspread the face of Europe. But philosophy and literature, in their exile from the west, found a retreat at the Mahomedan courts of Bagdat and Cordova. To Arabia and to Spain, where the precious sparks of science were still preserved, was Frederic, the great literary patron of the thirteenth century, obliged to turn his eyes, when he thought of reviving the school of Aristotle, and it will be necessary for a few moments to consider the condition of the scientific world of Arabia, that we may be able to discover the extent of the obligation which is due by Europe to the scheme of the Emperor, and to the efforts of Michael Scott. We know that the arms of the Arabian Califs had triumphed over the liberties of Greece, in the beginning of the seventh century, when as yet unvisited by any love of literature or passion for philosophy, the Commanders of the Faithful permitted to their followers only two subjects of study, the sword and the Koran. At this period the fate of letters and philosophy was truly disastrous. They had been banished with violence from their ancient and chartered seats amongst the Christians, and they were expelled by religion and by state policy from the dominions of the Califs. Even the use of the Greek language was abolished by a royal decree of Walid, the predecessor of Almansor, † and from the period of the seventh century till the days of Alraschid, no book written in Greek was to be found throughout the wide extent of the Arabian empire. But the very measure which had been intended to extinguish became the cause of the revival of the Grecian philosophy. In consequence of this public proscription of their original language, the works of a few Greek authors were translated into Syriac or Arabic, and after this moral eclipse which overspread the world of science and philosophy during the seventh and eight centuries, a more auspicious dawning began to be perceived upon the acces Brucker, Vol. III. p. 700. + Brucker, Vol. III. p. 22. . sion of the house of the Abassides. Almansor, the second Calif of this race, was himself a theologian and an astronomer; high rewards were promised by him to those learned men who should translate into Arabic the writings of the Greeks upon philosophy, astronomy, or the mathematics, and old Homer, destined ever to be the last forgotten in the wreck and the first to be remembered in the revival of letters, again raised his head and sung the story of Troy in a Syrian translation. + The Arabian philosophers appear to have been still too ignorant of the Greek tongue to accomplish the wishes of the Calif, but his Christian subjects of Syria were familiar with this noble language, and they immediately began to translate the Greek writers, not into the Arabic, but into the Syriac. These efforts of Almansor were ardently seconded by his successor, the well known Haroun Alraschid, whose munificent patronage was especially extended to poetry, and who, in the words of an Arabic historian, never walked abroad without a hundred wise men in his train. But the ardour and universality of Arabian genius, and all the enthusiastic generosity of Arabian patronage, were not seen in their full glory till the Califate of Almamon, son of Alraschid,§ and the Augustus of the East. On the accession of this prince, a few Greek authors had been already translated into the Syriac, the vernacular language of his capital of Bagdat, but these were little studied by the Arabians, and the Calif having called a solemn assembly of the wisest doctors in his dominions, commanded them to recite the names of the most celebrated Greek, Persian, Chaldean, and Egyptian writers on philosophy and Brucker, Vol. III. p. 20. Theophilus quidam Christianus Arabs, ex secta Maronitica homo elegantiori literatura imbutus, duos Homeri libros de excidio urbis Ilii e lingua Græca in Syriacam verterat. Abulfaraius Dynast. IX. p. 148, quoted in Brucker, Vol. III. p. 23. See also on the subject of these Syriac versions of the Greek writers, Renaudot de version. Arab. Fabricii Bib. Græca, Tom. I. p. 814. Also Fabricii Bibliotheca Græca, Tom. XII. p. 246. Elmacin, Hist. Saracenica, B. ii. c. 6. p. 120. § Casiri, Vol. I. p. 239. Brucker, Vol. III. p. 34. the various arts and sciences. Emis'saries were then dispatched to Syria, Armenia, and Egypt, negotiations were opened with the princes in whose dominions the envied volumes were to be found, the treasures of the Calif were willingly expended in the purchase of immense bales of science and philosophy, and the camels of the desert groaned in their way to Bagdat beneath the unwonted weight of Aristotle, Galen, and Hippocrates. It is a remarkable circumstance, that it was amongst the Christian Arabs,* of whom a body composed of converts from the different tribes had separated themselves from the followers of the prophet, and seized some strong fortresses near Hiram, that there now arose the two greatest revivers of Greek literature, John Mesue of Damascus, and Honainus ben Isaac. Mesue, who was physician to the Emperor, was commanded to superintend and direct the labours of that association of learned inen, to whom the translation of the Greek authors was committed ; but it is to Honain ben Isaac, whose knowledge of the language, and acquaintance with the philosophy of Greece, is universally allowed to have been profound, that Arabia then acknowledged, and Europe still owes, the deepest obligations. Honainus was a Christian Arab physician, a poet and an orator. He delivered prelections upon the Greek language, composed poems both in Greek and in Arabic, and was a most voluminous writer on medical subjects. But encouraged by the ardour and munificence of Almamon, he soon devoted himself wholly to translation; under his instructions a band of eminent disciples arose, who emulated the example of their master, and from this school issued those translations of the Greek philosophers and mathematicians, which have assisted the lahours, and called forth the admiration, of our most eminent modern scholars. To Honainus, therefore, with peculiar propriety, was committed the task of Brucker, Vol. III. p. 28. Brucker, Vol. III. p. 35. Such modern Oriental scholars as Casiri and Renandot have been forward to acknowledge the deep acquaintance of Honainus with the Greek literature, Fabricii Biblioth. Græca, Lib. II. c. 4. p. 861. Casiri, Vol. I. p. 240. making the first Arabic translation of Aristotle, and if we are to believe an Eastern biographer, we are indebted for this great undertaking to an extraordinary nocturnal vision, in which the Stagirite himself appeared under the form of a venerable old man, and revealed his great and forgotten name to the Commander of the Faithful. This version of the father of the Peripatetic school, by the unwearied diligence of Honainus, and the co-operation of many learned men who assisted him, was soon brought to a conclusion, † an event which, in its effects upon the future history of philosophy, was deeply felt, and which, when we regard it with all its train of fatal and of favourable consequences, it is difficult to say whether we ought to condole with, or to congratulate mankind. To Honainus we also owe a translation of the works of Plato, Galen, and Hippocrates. The example of the Calif himself, who was passionately addicted to the study of the Aristotelian philosophy, and also deeply versed in the science of mathematics and astronomy, had a very general effect upon the character of his subjects," and of his successors;"§"a rich and flourishing harvest of science and erudition, to use the words of the great historian, of philosophy, was seen waving in every corner of the Saracen dominion," and no mosque was founded, no temple dedicated to the Prophet, which could not boast of its accompanying school, where the principles of science and philosophy were promulgated to crowds of willing and enthusiastic disciples. But Almamon, although almost in every respect a liberal and enlightened Prince, was, in one great feature of his character, an Arab at heart. He early cherished an idea of the exclusive superiority of his own language to every other in the world, and it is deeply to be regretted that he was led by this foolish prejudice to destroy, as soon as they were translated, the invaluable Greek originals of those very works, whose shadows in their Arabian copies he kept with superstitious care.' These early and generous efforts of philosophy, which began in the eighth and ninth centuries under Almansor, Alrashid, and Almamon, were seconded by the patronage, and often by the example, of a long line of Mussulman Frinces, and the schools of Bagdat, Cufa, and Bassora, continued to flourish, and science and literature to distinguish themselves amongst the Arabians by many splendid exertions, till the seminaries of learning were swept from their foundations, and the Eastern muses driven into hopeless banishment, by the invasion of Tamerlane in the fourteenth century.+ When the Arabians were making this remarkable progress in the East, the rest of Europe was comparatively dark and ignorant, but that revolution which gave to the empire of Arabia a Sultan of the house of the Abassades, produced soon in a very distant quarter the most important etfects, and from the collisions of civil faction a spark was struck which rekindled the flame of science and philosophy in the West. Abdalrahman, a prince of the house of the Ommiades, having, in the wreck of his family, escaped to Spain, displayed the standard of rebellion, and, by his bravery and his talents, at length succeeded in establishing in that country an independent dominion. The Califate of Cordova became, under the two successors of Abdalrahman, in power and in magnificence, a rival of that of Bagdat, and those causes which had already created so ardent a passion for learning in the dominions of the parent state, appeared to have produced a similar and almost simultaneous effect within the distant territories of the revolted province. In the cultivation of the va rious branches of human knowledge, in the foundation of schools, the endowment of colleges, and the munificent patronage of letters, and in affording, by their own example, the highest encouragement to the poet, the historian, and the philosopher, the Califs of Spain were nowise inferior • Abi Osbaia, quoted in Brucker, Vol. to their brethren of Bagdat. It was III. p. 35. Casiri, Vol. I. p. 304. Casiri, Vol. I. pages 302, 238, 234. § Brucker, Hist. Phil. p. 38. Vol. III. VOL. VI. See an Arabian writer, Genzi, quoted in Brucker, Vol. III. p. 38. Brucker, Vol. 111. p. 42, 3 R |