the evidence of a fanciful and mystical turn of thought.[96\4] [Note 96\4: The plan which he has given, fol. 14, he has entitled "Ichnographia Fundamenti sacræ Ædis baricephalæ, Germanico more, à Trigono ac Pariquadrato perstructa, uti etiam ea quæ nunc Milani videtur." The work of Cesariano was translated into German by Gualter Rivius, and published at Nuremberg, in 1548, under the title of _Vitruvius Teutsch_, with copies of the Italian diagrams. A few years ago, in an article in the _Wiener Jahrbücher_ (Oct.-Dec., 1821), the reviewer maintained, on the authority of the diagrams in Rivius's book, that Gothic architecture had its origin in Germany and not in England.] We thus find erudition and mysticism take the place of much of that development of the architectural principles of the middle ages which would be so interesting to us. Still, however, these works are by no means without their value. Indeed many of the arts appear to flourish not at all the worse, for being treated in a manner somewhat mystical; and it may easily be, that the relations of geometrical figures, for which fantastical reasons are given, may really involve principles of beauty or stability. But independently of this, we find, in the best works of the architects of all ages (including engineers), evidence that the true idea of mechanical pressure exists among them more distinctly than among men in general, although it may not be developed in a scientific form. This is true up to our own time, and the arts which such persons cultivate could not be successfully {251} exercised if it were not so. Hence the writings of architects and engineers during the middle ages do really form a prelude to the works on scientific mechanics. Vitruvius, in his _Architecture_, and Julius Frontinus, who, under Vespasian, wrote _On Aqueducts_, of which he was superintendent, have transmitted to us the principal part of what we know respecting the practical mechanics and hydraulics of the Romans. In modern times the series is resumed. The early writers on architecture are also writers on engineering, and often on hydrostatics: for example, Leonardo da Vinci wrote on the equilibrium of water. And thus we are led up to Stevinus of Bruges, who was engineer to Prince Maurice of Nassau, and inspector of the dykes in Holland; and in whose work, on the processes of his art, is contained the first clear modern statement of the scientific principles of hydrostatics. Having thus explained both the obstacles and the prospects which the middle ages offered to the progress of science, I now proceed to the history of the progress, when that progress was once again resumed. {{253}} BOOK V. HISTORY OF FORMAL ASTRONOMY AFTER THE STATIONARY PERIOD.