Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/186

168 solidum naturaliter oontento disertationis prodromus," a work which at once attracted wide attention. The ideas presented were, however, vastly beyond the comprehension of his contemporaries, and they were not accordingly sufficiently appreciated. Not before a century later were his ideas again taken up and the study of geognosy continued on the foundation he had laid. As indicated by the title "Prodromus," the work was intended simply as a forerunner of a more elaborate work, which was never published, although the author had nearly finished it. The reason was, doubtless, that his religious and theological meditations became so absorbing that he found time for nothing else. In 1670 he returned to Denmark on the invitation of Frederik III, but as the king died shortly afterward Stensen went back to Florence. The minister of state Griffenfeldt succeeded in inducing him to come once more for a brief period to Denmark, and from 1672 to 1674 he conducted the anatomical department of the Copenhagen University; then he was again drawn back to Italy, where in 1675, he was consecrated as a Catholic priest. Henceforth he devoted himself exclusively to the service of the church and became wholly lost to science. In 1677 the pope appointed him bishop in partibus, and soon afterward apostolic vicar for northern Germany and Denmark. In this capacity he died in Schwerin in 1686.

This brief notice of the most prominent scholars of this period may suffice to show that although there was, generally speaking, a certain sluggishness in the intellectual life of that age, there were still produced, even in the strictly scientific field, works that were of no small importance. It is only to be regretted that the literature more and more abandoned the people and became the exclusive possession of the learned. It was reserved for a later time to make accessible to the people the results with which science had been enriched during this period and the importance of popularizing knowledge