183. John of Salisbury, Historian. -- The prudence he reveals in constructing his philosophy is worthy of remark. He tries to verify every statement before accepting it as true. He goes back to the sceptics of antiquity, not to shut himself up with them in doubt, but to make himself all the more sure of what he will take for truth.^{1} The views of all his distinguished contemporaries were likewise eagerly sought by him, and their opinions noted and discussed. The curriculum of his scholastic career, as described by himself in the Metalogicus,^{2} gives us a very full tableau of the schools of the twelfth century and constitutes one of the most precious sources we have of the history of ideas in that age. His careful inquiries about the opinions of others are a dominating feature of all his work and mark him out as the chief historian of the philosophy of his time.

{1} Polycrat., vii., 1-6.

{2} ii., 10 and 17.