In any case, the bare mention of the name of Aristotle
implies nothing in this connection. It was a popular synonym for
ancient learning. It was as often on the lips of Elizabethans as
Bacon's name is on the lips of men and women of to-day, and it would
be rash to infer that those who carelessly and casually mentioned
Bacon's name to-day knew his writings or philosophic theories at first
hand.
No evidence is forthcoming that Shakespeare knew in any solid sense
aught of philosophy of the formal scientific kind. On scientific
philosophy, and on natural science, Shakespeare probably looked with
suspicion. He expressed no high opinion of astronomers, who pursue
the most imposing of all branches of scientific speculation.
Small have continual plodders ever won,
Save base authority from others' books.
These earthly godfathers of heaven's light,
That give a name to every fixed star,
Have no more profit of their shining nights
Than those that walk, and wot not what they are.
(_Love's Labour's Lost_, I., i., 86-91.)
This is a characteristically poetic attitude; it is the antithesis of
the scientific attitude. Formal logic excited Shakespeare's disdain
even more conspicuously.
Pages:
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207