teaching of the 12th and 13th centuries is not yet clear, and Dr Thorndike was perhaps ill-advised to enter on it. Wright's reason for dating the treatise of Neckham is obviously bad, and any argument based on it fails. The Boethian translations were available from the earliest days of scholasticism, but the first book translated from the Arabic seems to have been the 'Posterior Analytics,' and Neckham describes the alteration in teaching of the Paris doctors when this book reached them. Gerard of Cremona also translated the 'Physics,' the 'De Celo et Mundo,' the 'De Generatione,' and three books of the 'Meteorics,' the fourth having already been translated from the Greek, and, as he died in 1187, they must have been available long before the end of the century. Morley, an English pupil at Toledo, who wrote an introductory treatise to science, quotes them as well as the 'De Sensu et Sensato,' and probably brought them to England. The tract attributed by Prof. Haskins to Neckham, who died in 1217, would seem to show that the 'Metaphysics' and 'De Anima' were also available to English students, though not yet formally made the subject of study. In Paris the 'Metaphysics' made such an impression that in 1210 they were suppressed and ordered to be burnt. This probably refers to the 'Vetus Metaphysica,' which consisted of the first three books and some chapters of the fourth. For some years the Physics' were also banned, only the Dialectics' and 'Ethics' being taught, but in a few years the whole body of Aristotle was in the hands of students. Dr Thorndike rather misrepresents Bacon as saying that the introduction was due to Michael Scott in 1230; what Bacon did say was that he came bringing some parts of Aristotle's 'Naturalia' and 'Metaphysics' with authentic comments-a very different thing. Scott, who was employed at the court of the Emperor Frederick, translated the 'De Animalibus' of Aristotle and the summary of Avicenna, and his works are often associated in manuscripts with the works of this last and of Averroes, which may be the 'Authentic Expositions of Bacon. Another translator and commentator of Aristotle was the mysterious Alfred the Englishman, who wrote early in the century.

The 13th century at its full was an age of intellectual Vol. 240.-No. 477.

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giants. They shrank from no labour, however stupendous; they shirked no problem, however thorny; they surveyed the whole universe and sought to bring it within the range of a single formula. The period in which three such men as Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, and Roger Bacon were adding to the world's knowledge simultaneously can at best be equalled only by Athens at her prime. Dr Thorndike gives an ample account of the scientific work of Albert and Thomas, and though the reader will no doubt be surprised at his drastic treatment of Bacon, there is something to be said in extenuation. Doubtless Aristides was over-praised, and certainly Roger Bacon has had much attributed to him for which he would never have claimed credit, and he has been quite unduly put forward as the only representative of science in an age of dark ignorance. We now know that he was, though in the forefront of the battle, but one of many who were seeking the truth by interrogating Nature; that though he urged it with more force than others, he was not the first to use the word 'experiment.' The real excellence of Dr Thorndike's work on this century is his account of the lessknown writers and of the anonymous treatises of the century—one of which, the 'Secretum Philosophorum,' has just been shown by Mrs Singer and Miss Anderson to be most probably the work of Peter PeregrinusBacon's friend. At any rate, the well-known treatise on the magnet is merely extracted from this work and provided with a separate introduction.

In this century, too, magic was finally separated from science. Astrology and alchemy, hitherto closely allied, went their several ways. It was not till the middle of the 14th century that men of science became convinced of the futility of alchemy, and the triumph of the Copernican theory had only just destroyed belief in astrology. But in this 13th century the first European book on magic, 'Picatrix,' was published. While it reproduces much of the old natural magic, it lays emphasis on incantations, necromancy, waxen images, and ritual of all sorts. The account of it given by our author is quite full enough; it is the real parent of all the late mediæval books of necromancy and grimoires, and its influence is felt to-day in quarters where knowledge of

it has died out. The vague generalities and windy mysticism of the charlatan Papus on which Mr Waite has wasted so much labour, are themselves but an excrescence on the evil root of the obscene blasphemies of the 17th and 18th centuries, growing in madness and vileness as it was driven into secrecy.

The 'Golden Bough' has taught us the meaning and importance of magic in the earlier stages of human culture. It showed us man as recognising the uniformity of the processes of Nature, but always hoping to obtain control over them by some means or other, understood or otherwise. Sir James Frazer's theories on this point have received abundant confirmation since they were first formulated, and we are now able to trace in the first magician not only the first man of science and the first priest, but the first organiser of labour. Magic offered man powers outside his own limitations, physical or intellectual-power to predict the future, or cure diseases, or ruin his enemies, or become invisible. When students questioned the authority of its offers and began to put them to the proof of experiment, its credit was doomed, for magic is founded on authority; belief in the absolute uniformity of Nature slew it, for magic believes that this uniformity can be interfered with and altered by words and acts. But the power of magic on our minds is still strong, though it has retreated into the unconscious in many of us. Superstition still governs the enormous majority of mankind, and we may be tempted to measure the amount of magic in present civilisation by the standard of Plotinus:

'He who yields to the charms of love and family affection or seeks political power or aught else than Truth and true beauty, or even he who searches for beauty in inferior things; he who is deceived by appearances, he who follows irrational inclinations, is as truly bewitched as if he were the victim of magic and goetia so-called. The life of reason is alone free from magic.'

ROBERT STEELE.

Art. 6.-THE NEW PAN-GERMANISM.

6

JUST as the Southern Cross is the symbol of the tropical sky, so the 'hooked cross' (Hakenkreuz) may be regarded as the most significant star of the German political sky, and also, in a slightly different degree, of the GermanAustrian sky also. It is the sign under which the new national movement of those countries struggled and hoped for victory. Their supporters call themselves officially National Socialists'; but are usually known from their symbol as 'hooked crusaders' (Hakenkreuzer). In their origin, as in their tendencies, the movement reminds us of the Fascism of Italy, which developed out of the old Irredenta. In the same way, National Socialism in Germany has developed from the old Pan-Germanism. That this analogy may be the better understood I will describe briefly the transition of Irredentism to Fascism.

The Italian Irredentists attained their goal, not by their own strength, but through foreign aid and the overthrow of the Hapsburg dynasty with the annexation of all its coveted territories, and not only those inhabited by Italians. With the realisation of this dream the purpose of their existence was ended. Their leaders saw the danger of becoming superfluous and being obliged to vanish from the political stage when their rôle of Deliverers' was played out. To be sure, there still were territories beyond Austria which they would gladly have 'delivered '-Corsica, Nice, Tessin (Ticino), Malta-but of those they dared not think, as they happened to belong to the very States which had helped them to the rich booty won through the World War, or else they belonged to States which formed a political Nolime-tangere, such as Switzerland with Tessin. So for the time being, at least, they were obliged to leave those countries 'undelivered' and to discover a new aim. The conjunction of circumstances was favourable to them as though the movement, which they and their predecessors for nearly a century had fostered with all the instruments of Nationalism, had been robbed of its goal, at the same time the impulse it had quickened continued and demanded an outlet the more urgently as the results of the war had given a fresh impetus to the

national spirit of Italy. Thus it was necessary to turn the stream of Irredentism into another channel, as Mussolini, the former Socialist, realised with masterly skill. If, earlier, the goal of the national movement had been the Terra irredenta' in Austria, it became now the rulership of Italy; and if the means to the end had been war against Austria-Hungary, the struggle was now to be against Social Democracy, which threatened increasingly the whole public life of Italy. And as once the inflamed masses had hurled themselves upon Austria, so now, under Mussolini's inspired leadership, they hurled themselves upon their former comrades and at the first attack overthrew. If we keep in mind this origin and development of Italian Fascism, we shall recognise the remarkable analogy between it and the progress of National Socialism.

In the same way, after the war the Pan-German party saw itself deprived of its earlier aims, though for a very different reason; if Irredentism had reached its goal, Pan-Germanism had not, and for an incalculable time dared not even anticipate that event. For to plant the flag of Pan-Germanism on the bloody ruins of the Hohenzollern empire, and to cry aloud the old slogan of a 'greater Germany,' would have been an act of folly too great to be committed even by the most bigoted PanGermanist. Different as the causes of sudden change might be, the results were the same in both countries; neither possessed a further raison d'être, and as with the Irredentists, so, also, the Pan-Germans found, after the loss of their goal, the same old impulse which sought another outlet. In both cases the chosen followers were forced to turn the stream into another channel without losing sight of the old ideals.

It is true that in one particular the two parties differed conspicuously as Germany possessed no Mussolini; and, so far, none of the many who have felt themselves called upon to fill the rôle of leader, have in the least degree reflected the brilliance of Italy's strong man. However, even without such a political impressario the new tide flowed on; and, as often in political life, it was the worst enemies of German Nationalism who helped its course. It may seem paradoxical, but is none the less true, that it was the Allied representatives at Paris