In order to
traverse this long interval intelligently, I will sketch certain great
movements, tracing the currents of Greek thought, setting forth in their
works the lives of certain great leaders, until we greet the dawn of our
own day.
After flowing for more than a thousand years through the broad plain of
Greek civilization, the stream of scientific medicine which we have
been following is apparently lost in the morass of the Middle Ages; but,
checked and blocked like the White Nile in the Soudan, three channels
may be followed through the weeds of theological and philosophical
speculation.
SOUTH ITALIAN SCHOOL
A WIDE stream is in Italy, where the "antique education never stopped,
antique reminiscence and tradition never passed away, and the literary
matter of the pagan past never faded from the consciousness of the more
educated among the laity and clergy."(3) Greek was the language of South
Italy and was spoken in some of its eastern towns until the thirteenth
century. The cathedral and monastic schools served to keep alive the
ancient learning. Monte Casino stands pre-eminent as a great hive of
students, and to the famous Regula of St. Benedict(4) we are indebted
for the preservation of many precious manuscripts.
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