Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

PREFACE.

THE Works of John of Salisbury have never before been collected together, nor have they ever until now, either wholly or in part, been printed in this country. Yet the writer was without doubt superior to all his contemporaries, and his Works are by far the most valuable compositions which have come down to us, from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

John, surnamed of Salisbury, perhaps from the place of his birth, must have been born about the year 1120, for he says somewhere in his Works that he was admodum adolescens in 1136. Some have supposed from a passage", where he calls himself Parvus, that his real surname was Petit, or Small, but the passage See vol. ii. p. 37. 1. 14. of this edition.

[ocr errors]

is ambiguous, and the inference consequently doubtful.

We know scarcely any thing of John's life, beyond what he tells us in his own writings. In the 10th chapter of the second book of his Metalogicus, he gives us the following short account of his education. When I was a very young man, I went to study in France, the second year after the death of that lion in the cause of justice, Henry king of England. There I sought out that famous teacher and Palatine Peripatetic philosopher, who at that time presided at Mont St. Geneviève, and was the subject of admiration to all men. At his feet I received the first rudiments of this art, and shewed the utmost avidity to pick up and store away in my mind all that fell from his lips. When, however, much to my regret, Abelard left us, I attended Master Alberic, a most obstinate Dialectician, and unflinching assailant of the Nominal Sect. Two years I stayed at Mont St. Geneviève, under the tuition of Alberic and Master Robert de Melun,

[blocks in formation]

if I may so term him, not from the place of his birth, for he was an Englishman, but by the surname which he gained by his successful conduct of his schools. One of these teachers was scrupulous even to minutiæ, and every where found some subject to raise a question; for the smoothest surface presented inequalities to him, and there was no rod so smooth that he could not find a knot in it, and shew how it might be got rid of. The other of the two was prompt in reply, and never for the sake of subterfuge avoided a question that was proposed; but he would choose the contradictory side, or by multiplicity of words would shew that a simple answer could not be given. In all questions, therefore, he was subtle and profuse, whilst the other in his answers was perspicuous, brief, and to the point. If two such characters could ever have been united in the same person, he would be the best hand at disputation that our times have produced. Both of them possessed acute wit, and an indomitable perseverance, and I believe they would have turned out great and distinguished men in Physical Studies, if they had supported themselves on the great base of Literature, and more closely followed the tracks of the ancients, instead of

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

taking such pride in their own discoveries. All this is said with reference to the time during which I attended on them. For one of them afterwards went to Bologna, and there unlearnt what he had taught: on his return also, he untaught it: whether the change was for the better or the worse, I leave to the judgment of those who heard him before and after. The other of the two was also a proficient in the more exalted Philosophy of Divinity, wherein he obtained ac distinguished name. With these teachers I remained two years, and got so versed in common places, rules and elements in general, which boys study, and in which my teachers were most weighty, that I seemed to myself to know them as well as I knew my own nails and fingers. There was one thing which I had certainly attained to, namely, to estimate my own knowledge much higher than it deserved. I fancied myself a sciolist, because I was ready in what I had been taught. I then, beginning to reflect and to measure my strength, attended on the Grammarian William

de Conches, during the space of three years;

and read much at intervals: nor shall I ever regret the way in which my time was then

« PoprzedniaDalej »