this, engaged in deep astrological study; but it is not so generally known that besides the occult sciences already named, men engaged in the mystic study of star-polygons and magic squares. "The pentagramma gives you pain," says Faust to Mephistopheles. It is of deep psychological interest to see scientists, like the great Kepler, demonstrate on one page a theorem on star-polygons, with strict geometric rigour, while on the next page, perhaps, he explains their use as amulets or in conjurations.[1] Playfair, speaking of Cardan as an astrologer, calls him "a melancholy proof that there is no folly or weakness too great to be united to high intellectual attainments."[26] Let our judgment not be too harsh. The period under consideration is too near the Middle Ages to admit of complete emancipation from mysticism even among scientists. Scholars like Kepler, Napier, Albrecht Duerer, while in the van of progress and planting one foot upon the firm ground of truly scientific inquiry, were still resting with the other foot upon the scholastic ideas of preceding ages.
VIETA TO DESCARTES.
The ecclesiastical power, which in the ignorant ages was an unmixed benefit, in more enlightened ages became a serious evil. Thus, in France, during the reigns preceding that of Henry IV., the theological spirit predominated. This is painfully shown by the massacres of Vassy and of St. Bartholomew. Being engaged in religious disputes, people had no leisure for science and for secular literature. Hence, down to the time of Henry IV., the French "had not put forth a single work, the destruction of which would now be a loss to Europe." In England, on the other hand, no religious wars were waged. The people were comparatively indifferent about
