Evening Star Newspaper, January 27, 1929, Page 134

Bany ALcEMISTS -OF THE MIDDLE AGES SPENT THEIR LIVES TRYING TO DISCOVER A WAY To TURN BASE: METAL TOGOLD: = s THEY ALSO SOUGHT TO INVENT AN "ELIXIR OF LIFC WHICH WOULD REJUVENATE ALL WHO DRANK. [T AND MARE THEM LINE FOREVER. — ° HIGH LIGHTS Buring THE FIRST PART OF THE "MIDDLE AGES “LEARNING WAS CONFINED ALMOST ENTIRELY TO THE CLERGY. THIS STATE OF AFFAIRS WAS GENERAL THROUGHOUT EEUROPE, @oves oF TEACHERS AN SupENTS GATHERED AT PARIS, BOLOGNA (1TALY) AND OXFORD (ENGLAND), FROM THESE GROUPS GREW THE FIRST GREAT UNIVERSITIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. [MJOST OF THE OLD> SCHOLARS BELIEVED THAT THE WORKS OF ARISTOTLE REPRE- SENTED THE SuM TOTAL OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE , AND THEY STOUTLY DEFEND- ED THEIR 1DOL AGAINST THE CRITIC- I15M OF THE FEW WHO DECLARED THAT | MUCH REMAINED TOBE LEARNED . Bowr 1100 A.D: MANY MEN BEGAN TO DISPLAY A THIRST FOR KNOWLEDGE, THERE WERE FEW TEACHERS, AND EVERY WELL EDUCATED MAN WAS LIABLE TO BE BESIEGED BY A CRow > OF STu- DENTS EAGER TO LEARN = © Bost Books HAD BEEN WRITTEN 1M LATIN, THE LANGUAGE OF THE CHURCH. NoW THEY WERE TRANSLATED |NTO VARIOUS LANGUAGLES SO THAT THE FRENCH, TTALIANS AND ENGLISH COULD READ THEM IN THEIR OWN TONGUE, anc—mosr AMONG THE LATTER WAS ROGER BACON (1210-1293), ENGLISH FRANCISCAN MONK AND TEACHER AT OxFORD. A MAN FAR IN APDVANCE OF HIS TIMES IS VIEWS SOMETIMES GoT HIM INTO TROUBLE WITH HIS ORDER. Ve @ Er:v FEW PERSONS,- EVEN AMONG THE NOBILI Y,-CouLD READ AND WRITE, CLERKS " AND "SCRIVENORS” WERE EVERYWHERE IN DEMAND TO READ AND WRITE FOR THOSE WHO could> DO NEITHER, —— e E314E CHIEF SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE WAS THE WRITINGS OF ARISTOTLE, THE ANCIENT GREEK PHILOSOPHER AN SCIENTIST, WHICH HAD BEEN PRESERVED THROUGH THE DARK AGES BY THE MONKS, FOR A LONG TIME EVERYTHING ARISTOTLE HAD SAID WAS ACCEPTED AS TRUE, ¥ © McClur spacr Syndicate BacoN CLAMED THAT TRUTH Courp BEST BE REACHED BY SCIENTIRIC INVESTIGATION, AND PREDICTED THAT THE DAY WoulLp COME WINEN SEEMING MIRACLES WOULD BE WROUGHT BY PRACTICAL EXPERIMENTS, —« wo BOYS WITHMINGLED - CURIOSITY AND FEAR ARE SPYING ON THE OLD i ALCHCMIST AS HE MANKES @ H'S MYSTERIOUS GXPERI THEIR FACES ARE HIDDEN IN THE PICTURE | ——— ¢ CAN YOU FIND THEM ? [Boors WERE ScARCE. AT THAT TiME THEY HAD 70 BE LABORIOUSLY coPig) BY HAND FROM THE ORIGINAL MANU- SCRIPT, AND MANY MISTAKES WERE MADE BY THE COPYIST. MOST OF THE BOOKS OF THAT DAY DEALT WITH PHILOSOPHY, THEOLOGY AND LAW. flu‘nms MEN OF INQUIRING MINDS BEGAN TO MAKE EXPERIMENTS AND INVESTIGATIONS OF THEIR OWN. TN MANY CASES THE RESULTS OF TNEIR EXPERIMENTS BROUGHT THEM INTO CONFLICT WITH THE TEACHINGS OF ARISTOTLE, BJoME 650 YEARS AGo RoGeR BACON MADE THIS AMAZING PROPHECY —— . MACHINES FoR NAVIGATING ARE POSSIBLE WITHOUT ROWERS, so THAT GREAT SHIPS -~ GUIDED gY MAN MAY BE BORNE wiTy GREATER SPEED> THAN W THEY WERE FULL OF MEN. — LIKEWISE CARS MAY BE MADE SO THAT WITHOUT A DRALIGHT ANIMAL THEY MAY B MOVE]D- AN FLYING MACNINES ARE POSSIBLE, S0 THAT A MAN MAY SITIN ™HE MIDPLE TURNING SOME DEVICE BY WHICH ARTIFICIAL WINGS MAY BEAT THE AIR 1y THE MANNER. OFA RIYING BIRJ e