Lynn Thorndike

"s throve at the s of kings, and sometimes their advice was taken even by him whose very act was held to be under special divine direction. It would be a great mistake to think that the astrologer was maintained for the amusement of king and court, like the . His utterances were taken most seriously, and the principles of his art were so generally accepted as to become the commonplaces of the thought and the conversation of daily life. In 1305, for instance, who certain s urged to return to Rome, they reminded him that every planet was most powerful in its own house."

"Instead of describing the personal appearance of the general and statesman, , in his biography of that worthy, Plutarch referred his readers to a bronze statue of him at Rome opposite the . But to-day the statue has disappeared, and the same is true of most of the manners and customs of the distant past, which were once too familiar for historians to think it worth while to mention them to their readers."

"There is no more familiar, and possibly no more important, figure in the history of Latin learning during the twelfth century that Peter Abelard who flourished at its beginning. His career, as set forth in his own words, illustrated educational conditions in at that time. His brilliant success as a lecturer on logic and theology at Paris reveals the in embryo. His pioneer work, ', set the fashion for the standard method of presentation employed in ."

"Many accept the date, July 19, 4241, for the origin of the . The s had a day of twenty-four hours, a month of thirty days, and a year of three hundred and sixty-five days made up of twelve months and five extra days which were regarded as unlucky. The division of the month into three ten-day periods seems traceable to the . Their year began on what for us would be July 19, when the star or first appeared on the eastern horizon simultaneously with the rising sun. This was furthermore about the time of the which meant so much to the prosperity of the land."