laity, the ftudy of the common law was laid afide at Oxford and at Cambridge; and the profeffors of it, being driven from these feats of learning, came to London, and erected an university of a new kind; a juridical univerfity, in the inns of court and chancery, where exercises were performed, lectures were read, and degrees conferred.

Among the princes of this period, Henry the Second and Richard the Firft are the moft entitled to diftinction in a hiftory of literature. Henry is celebrated by Leland as a fcholar, and Richard is known to have been a famous Troubadour. The fong which was compofed by him, during his imprisonment in Auftria, has obtained him a place in the Catalogue of Royal Authors.

From the reign of Alfred, through a fucceffion of feveral centuries, we meet with few literary characters excepting divines and hiftorians: but as we advance in the period we are treating of, we behold fome faint glimmerings of the philofophical and other fciences. The glimmerings, indeed, are very faint: nevertheless, the appearance of them is extremely pleafing, and we cannot avoid hailing the leaft dawn of twilight with joy, after being involved in a long and gloomy night.

We have already remarked, that the civil and canon laws were principal objects of attention. As to the civil law, though the monks were very fond of it, the prefent æra did not afford any fuch confiderable proficients in the Roman code, as to merit particular notice. With refpect to the canon law, Alexander Hales, who obtained the title of the Irrefragable Doctor, was famous in his day; and it would be easy to specify other perfons that were celebrated on the fame account, were it worth while to bring names into public view, which have defervedly funk into oblivion..

Nor was the English jurifprudence entirely difregarded: for Bracton, who was a judge in Henry the Third's reign, and probably chief juftice, compofed an excellent treatise upon the laws, called Brito, which has always been held in the highest esteem. Becton, alfo, wrote a book De Legibus Anglicanis, which was vaftly serviceable to Edward the First, the Juftinian of England, and to the whole nation:

and,

and, that we may not fpeedily have occafion to resume the fubject, we shall here mention the Fleta, another old law performance, which is in great credit even at prefent, and is ftudied along with Bracton, by-thofe who defire to have thorough knowledge of our ancient customs, ftatutes, and

conftitution.

Towards the clofe of the period before us, there was a confiderable tendency to the ftudy of philofophy, geometry, and phyfic. The weltern world had, for ages, utterly neglected all fcience of this kind; but it now began to pay a little regard to thefe important matters; and the fources from which it drew its first acquaintance with them were not, as might naturally be expected, the writings of the Greeks and the Romans, but the works of the Arabians. After the Saracens had eftablished large kingdoms in the Eaft, and brought them to a ftate of fecurity, magnificence, and refinement, they applied themfelves to the arts of peace, and to the cultivation of knowledge. The objects that more particularly engaged their attention, were the mathematics, aitronomy, medicine, and chemistry. Hiftory and poetry were, likewife, in much esteem with them; and the latter they carried to a high degree of perfection. So ardent was their defire of improvement, that they tranflated the principal authors of Greece into their own tongue, and, for several hundred years, were the only people among whom fcience greatly flourished. There were, indeed, no small remainders of literature, at Conftantinople, and the adjacent places; but they lay concealed under the depreffion of the Byzantine empire, and produced no extenfive or general effects.

From Babylon and Egypt, where learning was chiefly culti vated, it spread weftward, following the career of the Saracen conquefts, and, at length, fettled in Spain, under the protection of the Moorish princes, whofe courts were adorned with men of eminence in various branches of knowledge, and especially in natural philofophy, phyfic, and geometry. The studies of the Arabians gradually made their way from Spain into France, and from France into England. To them we are indebted for the admirable and ufeful method of reckoning numbers

numbers by cyphers; and, for a long time, almoft the only. acquaintance we had with the works of the Greeks and Romans, was drawn through the medium of their tranflations. This was the cafe with refpect to Ariftotle, who was only known in the western kingdoms of Europe, by the means of an Arabic verfion; and who, by being abfurdly fet up as the standard of truth, became, in fact, the fource of still farther ignorance; an ignorance the more dangerous, and the more hard to be rooted out, as it carried with it a falfe appearance of science, reafoning, and wisdom.

In confequence of the taste that had been introduced by converfing with the works of the Saracens, we find feveral. of the learned perfons who flourished in our country during this æra, applying themfelves to different parts of natural knowledge. Henry of Huntingdon, the hiftorian, wrote upon herbs, fpices, and gems: Walter Morgan treated on birds and animals, in verfe: Ferenham attached himfelf to botany, and ftudied Hippocrates, Diofcorides, and Galen, with great care. Medicine, likewife, began to be cultivated about the fame time. Alured English was author of a performance on the motion of the heart, and is otherwife celebrated by the incomparable Roger Baton, as a happy tranflator from the learned languages. John Egidus, or Giles, became famous for his fkill in phyfic, was profeffor of that art at Paris, and compofed Obfervationes de re Medica, and de Prognofticis. Richard English obtained a confiderable reputation, both in his own day and afterwards, by his Treatifes de Signis Prognofticis, and de Urinis; by his anatomy, in which he copied Galen: and by his Correctorium Alchymice. With regard to philofophy in general, Athelard, a follower of Ariftotle, wrote de Naturis Rerum, and tranflated from the Arabic, a book intitled, Erith Elcharetmi, and Euclid's Geometry. Grofteft, whom we fhail hereafter have occafion more particularly to enlarge upon, feemed to make all nature the fubject of his enquiries: and fuch was the defire of Daniel Morley for improvement in knowledge, that he went to Toledo, to acquaint himself with the Arabian mathematics. Roger of Hereford drew up a theory of

the

the planets; and Ofburn of Canterbury, and Walter of Evesham, were the authors of differtations upon mufic. The works of thefe feveral perfons were, no doubt extremely defective with refpect to truth, method, and style; but yet they evince, that a more ardent zeal for fcience began to prevail among the clergy, than had been experienced for many centuries. It is much to be lamented that this zeal was not directed by more found principles of wisdom, tafte, and judgment.

Nor did the feverer ftudies alone engage the attention of this æra. Farther efforts, and comparatively not inconfiderable ones, were made towards an advancement in the politer arts of poetry and rhetoric. Thele efforts did not take place in our own language, but in the Latin tongue; a circumstance conformable to what happened at the real revival of learning, a little before the Reformation. The regard which was row paid to the Mufes, had a very dif ferent original from what had been the cafe with relation to, philofophy, and feems to have fprung from the crufades. The crufades had given rife to bold, adventurous, and heroic exploits, which had a natural tendency to inflame the imaginations of men. The enterprifes against the Mohammedans were, likewife, in a religious view, eftcemed the most honourable and meritorious of all undertakings. It is no wonder, therefore, that perfons of genius and leifure fhould be animated with the ambition of tranfmitting them with renown to pofterity. Accordingly, in Italy, they were the fubjects of the nobleft performances which that country has produced: and though our own nation was not equally happy in the compofitions it brought forth, yet its voice was not filent in the praifes of those who had fought against the infidels. Thus Richard, a canon of the Auftins, celebrated the expedition of Richard Cœur de Lion to the Holy Land: William de Canno engaged in the fame caufe: but the best poet of his age was Jofeph Ifcan, who wrote two poems, one entitled de Bello Trojano, founded on Dares Phrygius; and another called Antiocheis; relating to the war wherein the prince juft mentioned fo greatly fignalised his valour. From the fpecimens we have feen of

Iican's

Ifcan's works, it appears that his verfification was vastly fuperior, in purity, elegance, and harmony, to that of the generality of his contemporaries; and that he was a man of real abilities, who would have fhone with diftinguished luftre in more enlightened and polished times. He was, indeed, the miracle of his age in claffical compofition.

The crufades were not the only things which excited the attention of the Mufes. John of Salisbury, William of Ramley, Richard Pluto, Mauritius Fordanus, and archbifhop Langton, dedicated their talents to feveral other fubjects. Henry of Huntingdon, though chiefly known as an hiftorian, diftinguifhed himself as a Latin poet. William of Malmsbury had a genius for poetry, as well as for hif tory; and Geoffrey of Monmouth, however cenfurable on account of his fabulous narrations, is entitled to applause as a polite fcholar. His Latin ftyle rifes far above mediocrity, and his poem on Merlin is much commended by Leland. Walter Mapes, archdeacon of Oxford, was the Anacreon of the age. His vein was feftive and fatirical; and his wit was frequently levelled against the corruptions of the clergy. Alexander, Neckham to the character of a divine, philofopher, and moralift, added that of a gram-. marian, a philologift, and a poet.

Befides the performances ih verfe, there were fome attempts in profe towards an improvement in polite literature. Laurence of Durham we have spoken of before. Gualterus de Vinofalvo was an eminent rhetorician in his time, and wrote on the art of fpeaking. John Bafinge deferves to be recorded with peculiar honour. So great was his defire to perfect himself in the Greek language, then scarcely known in the western parts of Europe, that he travelled to Athens for that purpofe Having accomplished his icheme, he returned back to England, full of an ardent zeal to promote the fame kind of learning among his countrymen which he had himself acquired with fo much labour. With this view, he tranflated into Latin a grammar, which was entitled by him, the Donatus of the Greeks. In other refpects, likewife, he was a mighty encourager of the Greek tongue. He brought over with him fome curious 1783. manuscripts

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