In the middle ages 95

to his calling; and this devotion was such that every

artisan was, or might become, an artist. The dis-

tinction between artes liberales and artes mechani-

cae did not rest upon any superiority of the artistic

activity as such, but upon the difference in the pro-

cesses employed; both were possessed of the ratio

artis in like manner.""" Furthermore, we must bear

in mind that the contemporaries of an artistic apo-

gee do not realize the significance of the develop-

ment witnessed by them ; theories always come later

than the facts which they are meant to explain. In

any event, we should note how large and human is

the philosophical conception of art in the Middle

Ages; there is no work of man which it cannot

clothe in the royal mantle of beauty.

It remains only to mention the last order of stud-

ies which is placed above philosophy, and which cor-

responds, in the comparison that we have been mak-

ing, to the highest part of the structure, to the apex

of the pyramid. This is theology, doctrinal and

mystical.'^ The part relating to doctj'ines is an ar-

rangement of dogmas founded upon the Christian

revelation, and we shall see later" that it takes a

double form, — being both scriptural and apolo-

getical.

Theology aside, this classification of human

2oa "Nec oportet, si liberales artes sunt nobiliores, quod magis eis

conveniat ratio artis." Summa Theol., la 2ae, q. LVII, art. 3, inВ»fine.

21 For its place in the general scheme see above, p. 85.

22 See ch. VII,

90 PHILOSOPHY AND CIVILIZATION

knowledge is Aristotelian in origin. The Aristo-

telian spirit appears not only in the very notion of

"science," which aims at unity; but also in the rela-

tion between the particular sciences and philos-

ophy. Since the latter rests upon the former, it re-

mains in permanent contact with the facts; indeed,

it is anchored to the very rocks of reality. The

abundant harvest of facts, supplied by Greeks and

Arabians, was enriched by fresh observations in

physics (in the modern sense of the word), chem-

istry (elementary), botany, zoology and human

physiology. Moreover, Thomas Aquinas and God-

frey of Fontaines and others borrowed material

from the special sciences which were taught in the

other university faculties, notably from medicine

and from law (civil and canon). Facts about na-

ture and about the physical and social man, — in-

deed, observations from all sources — are called

upon to supply materials for the synthetic view of

philosophy. They all claim with Dominicus Gun-

dissalinus, that there is no science which may not

contribute to philosophy. Nulla est scientia quae

non sit aliqua philosophiae pars.^^ Scholastic phi-

losophy is thus a philosophy based upon science,

and it is perhaps not superfluous to observe that

we are now more than ever returning to these con-

ceptions.

But in order to appreciate at their true worth the

23 Be divisione Philosophiae, Prologus, p. 5, edit. Baur (Baiim-

ker's-Beitrcige, IV, 2-3).