any other such combined expression, he still could not have completely
got at the delicacy of the hue; he might, perhaps, have indicated its
kind, but not its tenderness; but by taking the rose-leaf as the type
of the delicate red, and then enfeebling this with the violet gray he
gets, as closely as language can carry him to the complete rendering of
the vision although it is evidently felt by him to be in its perfect
beauty ineffable."

These examples of Dante's interest in scientific observation prove his
fitness to be considered a representative of his age in its love for
science. Instead, however, of proposing Dante as a typical example of
the experimental inquiry of his age--you may say that he is _sui
generis_--I shall call forth other witnesses.

First let Albertus Magnus speak. He was distinguished as a theologian
and philosopher and was also renowned as a scientist. In his tenth book
after describing all the trees, plants and herbs then known, he says:
"All that is here set down is the result of our own observation or has
been borrowed from others whom we have known to have written what their
personal experience has confirmed, for in these matters, experience
alone can give certainty (_experimentum solum certificat in talibus_)."

We may be sure that such an investigator showing in his method a
prodigious scientific progress was on the line so successfully followed
by modern natural philosophy. This conclusion is confirmed by evidence
from his other books showing that he did a great deal of experimental
work, especially in chemistry. In his treatise De Mineralibus, Albertus
Magnus keen to observe natural phenomena, enumerates different
properties of natural magnets and states some of the properties commonly
attributed to them.