Introduction.
2
was any sudden breach of the continuity of in the Revival. There had been an awakEuropean in the time of of education on the subject ening that there
life
Charlemagne
and the
twelfth century
had
University
familiarised
movement of the
men's minds with the
re-discussion of old problems.
Ancient Greek learning
some time been
influencing the leaders of
had
also for
thought through the Latin translations from the Arabic.
This return of the soul of
man
to Reality
the
at-
tempt to penetrate to the truth of things through the hardened crust of verbalism and dogma was, it seems to me, the true characteristic of the revival.
For the
now
dry bones of Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric, was substituted the living substance of thought,
and the
intel-
lectual gymnastic of the schools gave place to the free
mind once more
play of
contact with nature. realism
The
the realism, that
is
to bring itself into
striving
revival
was thus a return to
to say, of the thought of
man
exercised directly on the things that pertain to humanity.
The
classical writers of
Greece and
Rome
were, in
those days, almost the sole exponents of the new life, and the alliance in them of truth and felicity of per. ception with beauty of expression so captivated the
minds of the learned men of
all
civilized
countries
they surrendered to them their own individualBeauty of expression was regarded as inseparity. The former able from truth and elevation of thought. that
was held
to be the guarantee of the latter.
ment soon shared the
fate of all enthusiasms.
The moveThe new
form was worshipped as the old had been, and to it the spirit and substance were subordinated. Style became