The Sleepwalkers (47 page)

It
is
a
curious
fact
that
the
Arab-Judaic
tenure
of
this
vast
body
of
knowledge,
which
lasted
two
or
three
centuries,
remained
barren;
whilst
as
soon
as
it
was
reincorporated
into
Latin
civilization,
it
bore
immediate
and
abundant
fruit.
The
heritage
of
Greece
was
obviously
of
no
benefit
to
anybody
without
some
specific
receptiveness
for
it.
How
this
readiness
to
rediscover
its
own
past,
and
be
fertilized
by
it,
as
it
were,
arose
in
Europe
is
a
question
that
belongs
to
the
field
of
general
history.
The
slow
increase
in
security,
in
trade
and
communications;
the
growth
of
towns
and
the
development
of
new
crafts
and
techniques;
the
invention
of
the
magnetic
compass
and
the
mechanical
clock,
which
gave
man
a
more
concrete
feeling
of
space
and
time;
the
utilization
of
water
power,
and
even
the
improved
harnessing
of
horses,
were
some
of
the
material
factors
which
quickened
and
intensified
the
pulse
of
life
and
led
to
a
gradual
change
in
the
intellectual
climate,
a
thaw
in
the
frozen
universe,
a
diminution
of
apocalyptic
fear.
As
men
ceased
to
blush
at
the
fact
of
having
a
body,
they
also
ceased
to
be
frightened
of
using
their
brains.
It
was
still
a
long
way
to
the
Carthesian
cogito
ergo
sum
.
But
at
least
the
courage
was
reborn
to
say:
sum,
ergo
cogito
.

The
dawn
of
this
early,
or
"first"
Renaissance
is
intimately
connected
with
the
rediscovery
of
Aristotle
–
more
precisely,
of
the
naturalistic
and
empirical
elements
in
him,
of
that
side
of
Aristotle
which
is
averted
from
his
twin
star.
The
alliance,
born
of
catastrophe
and
despair,
between
Christianity
and
Platonism,
was
replaced
by
a
new
alliance
between
Christianity
and
Aristotelianism,
concluded
under
the
auspices
of
the
Angelic
Doctor,
Thomas
Aquinas.
Essentially,
this
meant
a
change
of
fronts
from
the
negation
to
the
affirmation
of
life,
a
new,
positive
attitude
to
Nature,
and
to
man's
striving
to
understand
nature.
Perhaps
the
greatest
historical
achievement
of
Albert
the
Great
and
Thomas
Aquinas
lies
in
their
recognition
of
the
"light
of
reason"
as
an
independent
source
of
knowledge
beside
the
"light
of
grace".
Reason,
hitherto
regarded
as
ancilla
fidei
,
the
handmaid
of
faith,
was
now
considered
the
bride
of
faith.
A
bride
must,
of
course,
obey
her
spouse
in
all
important
matters;
nevertheless,
she
is
recognized
as
a
being
in
her
own
right.

Aristotle
had
not
only
been
a
philosopher,
but
also
an
encyclopaedist
in
whom
a
little
of
everything
could
be
found;
by
concentrating
on
his
hard-headed,
down-to-earth,
non-Platonic
elements,
the
great
schoolmen
brought
back
to
Europe
a
whiff
of
the
heroic
age
of
Greece.
They
taught
respect
for
"irreducible
and
stubborn
facts";
they
taught
"the
priceless
habit
of
looking
for
an
exact
point
and
of
sticking
to
it
when
found.
Galileo
owes
more
to
Aristotle
than
appears
on
the
surface
...:
he
owes
him
his
clear
head
and
his
analytic
mind."
²

By
using
Aristotle
as
a
mental
catalyzer,
Albert
and
Thomas
taught
men
to
think
again.
Plato
maintained
that
true
knowledge
could
only
be
obtained
intuitively,
by
the
eye
of
the
soul,
not
of
the
body;
Aristotle
had
stressed
the
importance
of
experience
–
empiria
–
as
against
intuitive
aperia
:

"It
is
easy
to
distinguish
those
who
argue
from
fact
and
those
who
argue
from
notions...
The
principles
of
every
science
are
derived
from
experience:
thus
it
is
from
astronomical
observation
that
we
derive
the
principles
of
astronomical
science."
³

The
sad
truth
is
that
neither
Aristotle
himself,
nor
his
Thomist
disciples,
lived
up
to
their
lofty
precepts,
and
as
a
result
scholasticism
went
into
decline.
But
during
the
honeymoon
period
of
the
new
alliance,
all
that
mattered
was
that
"the
philosopher"
(a
title
for
which
Aristotle
acquired
the
exclusive
monopoly
among
the
schoolmen),
had
upheld
the
rationality
and
intelligibility
of
Nature;
that
he
made
it
a
duty
of
man
to
take
an
interest
in
the
world
around
him
by
observation
and
reasoning;
and
that
this
fresh,
naturalistic
outlook
freed
the
human
mind
from
its
sickly
infatuation
with
the
Neoplatonic
Weltschmerz
.