"Go, tell the court it glows

And shines like rotten wood; Go, tell the church it shows

What's good, and doth no good: If church and court reply, Then give them both the lie.

"Tell potentates, they live

Acting by others' actions,

Not lov'd unless they give,

Not strong but by their factions:

If potentates reply,

Give potentates the lie.

"Tell men of high condition

That rule affairs of state, Their purpose is ambition, Their practice only hate; And if they once reply, Then give them all the lie.

Tell them that brave it most,

They beg for more by spending,

Who in their greatest cost,

Seek nothing but commending;

And if they make reply,

Then give them all the lie.

"Tell zeal it lacks devotion,

Tell love it is but lust, Tell time it is but motion,

Tell life it is but dust; And wish them not reply, For thou must give the lie.

"Tell age it daily wasteth,

Tell honour how it alters,
Tell beauty how she blasteth,
Tell favour how she falters;

And as they shall reply,
Give every one the lie.

"Tell wit how much it wrangles
In tickle points of niceness;
Tell wisdom she entangles
Herself in over wiseness:
And when they do reply,
Straight give them both the lie.

"Tell physic of her boldness, Tell skill it is pretension,

Tell charity of coldness,

Tell law it is contention;

And as they do reply,

So give them still the lie.

"Tell fortune of her blindness,

Tell nature of decay,

Tell friendship of unkindness,

Tell justice of delay;

And if they will reply,

Then give them all the lie.

"Tell arts they have no soundness,

But vary by esteeming;

Tell schools they want profoundness,

And stand too much on seeming:

If arts and schools reply,

Give arts and schools the lie.

"Tell faith it's fled the city,

Tell how the country erreth,
Tell manhood shakes off pity,
Tell virtue least preferreth *
And if they do reply,
Spare not to give the lie.

"So when thou hast, as I

Commanded thee, done blabbing, Although to give the lie

Deserves no less than stabbing; Yet stab at thee who will,

No stab the soul can kill."

* Virtue leads not to preferment.

CHAP. IX.

SCIENCE AND ITS MARTYRS.

THE history of science is similar to that of literature, and intimately connected with it. Its records show that many ancient nations had an extensive and reverential, if not absolutely accurate, scientific knowledge. Then came the dark ages of Europe, when distorted traditions and superstitions usurped the place of truth, and effectually blinded the eyes of those who, from leisure and station, might otherwise have engaged in useful inquiries into the wonders of the world around them. The Chaldeans of old knew something of the stars, and the Arabians added to that knowledge. The art of measuring time by a sundial was known to the Hebrews in the time of Hezekiah; and, far earlier, the annual inundations of the Nile, by compelling the Egyptians to measure their land after the waters had abated, gave rise to a knowledge of geometry. This introduced the study of arithmetic, which is the foundation of all the exact sciences. Mathematics and mechanics were carefully studied, and brought to great perfection by the Greeks. The ancients

seem to have divided knowledge into three parts – arithmetic, geometry, and dialectics or language.

Since the Christian era, the Arabians were, until the tenth century, the most literary and scientific people. To them modern Europe was indebted for numerals, chemistry, and improvements in architecture and poetry. They founded numerous schools in Spain, and established the earliest libraries. Their false religious faith, however, made the Christians receive their discoveries with dread and suspicion; and a long period of gross darkness prevailed, in which natural phenomena were regarded with mere stupid wonder by some, and with awe-stricken dread by others; and any attempt to understand those wonders was thought an unlawful study, and any successful knowledge a proof of magical power, justly subjecting its possessor to suspicion, hatred, and persecution.

The first man in England who dared to investigate nature, and introduce those laws we term science, was Roger Bacon (born 1214). He is the most memorable instance on record of a man living before his age, and becoming the servant, not of his contemporaries, but of posterity. He was intimately acquainted with geography and astronomy, and made many valuable discoveries in optics and chemistry; he, also, was not ignorant of the composition of gunpowder. This great

L