471. Conclusions. -- The conflict between philosophers and scientists in the seventeenth century did not really touch the substance of scholasticism, but only secondary points and side issues. But the misunderstanding was, in the circumstances, inevitable: and it lasts down to the present day. The scientists and scholastics of three hundred years ago are responsible for it: the scientists tried to fell the giant oak on the plea that it bore some rotten branches on its crown; the philosophers foolishly shrank from touching its hoary brow, lest by removing a withered twig they might deprive it of its life.

Scholasticism succumbed for want of men, not for want of ideas.