st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

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210 ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS.
meant here to repeat the arguments that were brought
forward in the chapter specially devoted to this
subject. The reader will form his own judgment of
the character of Damascenus by help of the materials
before him. I am not aware of any more serious
charge that can be brought against him than what
has been adverted to a tendency to over-credulity
and superstition; and having given
its full promi
nence to these traits in his character,
it is a more
pleasing task to recapitulate briefly the services he
has rendered to religion and learning.
As a preserver of ancient learning, in an age and
country when all the monuments of it seemed in
peril of destruction before the advancing host of
Islam, the world will ever be indebted to him. As
has been seen,
it is not certain what amount of
Aristotle he was acquainted with. 1 But he has left
one treatise distinctly based on the "Categories;
and the title of another, Virtute et Vitio," as
well as the general nature of 2
it, seem to point to the
Virtutibus et Vitiis," formerly ascribed to the
same author. In what he has left on the subject of
this now
natural science, if we may dignify it by
ambitious title, he may possibly have derived his
knowledge from the
caelo,"
or the Almagest
1
See on this subject the essay of M. Renoux :
dialectica Santi Joannis Damasceni," 1863, p. 30, and the
references there given.
2
This, and the "De
companion piece, octo Spiritibus
nequitke," appear to be only fragments of a connected treatise.
In their present form they possess no great merit. See Perrier s
essay : "Jean Damascene, sa vie et ses ecrits," 1862, p. 14.
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