e, and take up in their stead the only truth of which he
{488} felt certain, the truth of the Gospel? Such was his actual
procedure. "Does it not seem to you that we have rightly and
deservedly departed from the curiosity of all these men, so idle and
so full of error?" He confesses frankly that he can see no fruit or
utility for man in the teachings he has quoted. And he appeals for
his complete justification to Socrates, the wisest of the Greeks,
who in his day had adopted precisely the same stand. This and no
other is the argument and spirit of Eusebius.

_No Opposition to True Science_.--This was the temper, also, that
actuated the other Fathers named, Lactantius, Basil, and Augustine.
No doubt these men valued spiritual knowledge above material. But it
by no means follows from this that they undervalued Science. They
were scholars of extensive culture, Basil a graduate of Athens,
Augustine of Carthage, and Lactantius styled because of his
proficiency the Christian Cicero. They were well acquainted with the
learning of the Greeks. That they rebelled against the scientific
fantasies of the latter, is not a proof that they were hostile to
the advance of Science itself.

In the Imitation of Christ, Thomas a Kempis expresses a sentiment
quite similar to theirs. "Surely a humble husbandman that serveth
God, is better than a proud philosopher who, neglecting himself, is
occupied in studying the course of the heavens." Like the Fathers, a
Kempis had reason to be disgusted with the astronomy of his time,
for it was beginning to be impregnated again with the virus of
Astrology. By refusing to follow such pseudo-scientific teachings,
both a Kempis and the Fathers did a real if seemingly negative
service to the science of astronomy.

"He was born under a lucky star." Language of this sort, used now
only in pleasantry, recalls a form of superstition which was once
accepted seriously by all men throughout the civilized world. In
many a period, mankind has believed literally that the stars and
planets exercised a real influence in shaping human lives. And there
have been many epochs, ancient, medieval, and even modern, when
astrology, the telling of fortunes by the stars, was given a rank
among the learned professions.

Even now there occur occasional sporadic outbreaks of the same
superstition. Along with other quacks and necromancers, astrologers