CHAPTER III
WHAT AND HOW THEY STUDIED AT THE UNIVERSITIES. [33]
Education of the Middle Ages usually ridiculed. Ignorance of critics. Scholastics laughed at by those only who know them, but at second hand. "Logic, ethics and metaphysics owe to scholasticism a precision, unknown to the ancients themselves" (Condorcet.) Teaching methods. Scholarly interests quite as in our own day. Magnetism in literature. A magnetic engine. Aquinas and the indestructibility of matter and the conservation of energy. Roger Bacon's four grounds of human ignorance. Prophecy of explosives for motor purposes. Correction of the calendar. Contributions to optics. Experiment as the basis of scientific knowledge. Whewell's appreciation. Albertus Magnus and the natural sciences Humboldt's praise for his physical geography. Contributions to botany. Declaration with regard to foolish popular notions. The {xviii} great group of scientific men at the University of Paris. Robert of Sorbonne's directions how to study. Education of the heart as well as the head.