THE BOOK-MEN. 479 



China and Japan (a most wonderful feat in those days), and, on his 

 return, writes an account of his travels ; and his book, at a later day, 

 serves (among other things) to induce the discovery of America by 

 Columbus. 



We now enter the fourteenth century, and amid the many practical 

 consequences of the dissemination of knowledge from its original 

 source, the book-men and philosophers, we might, unless we consider 

 the necessity of the case, lose sight of the starting-point. In Spain, 

 Alfonso the Wise gives his people the laws of the Seven Partides, 

 compiled by philosophical jurisconsults from the Roman law. In 

 France, the States-General, or Grand Parliament, is convoked by 

 Philip le Bel, and, after him, Louis X makes the Parliament a per- 

 manent institution for the sanction of all laws. By-and-by the serfs 

 and peasantry acquire their freedom and gain many valuable rights 

 not, however, without insurrection and bloodshed. Marcel in Paris 

 and the Jacquerie in the provinces strike for liberty. In England the 

 Commons assert their privileges : no money to government without 

 their consent ; the concurrence of the Commons with the Lords neces- 

 sary for all laws ; and the right of inquiry and impeachment by the 

 Commons established. In Switzerland, William Tell leads his coun- 

 trymen to victory and national independence and republican institu- 

 tions. In Italy, the mariner's compass is invented by Gioja de Amalfi. 

 Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch, those first lights of the dawn of polite 

 literature, compose their beautiful romances and poems. In Germany 

 clocks are invented, and Schwartz first puts gunpowder, invented by 

 Roger Bacon, to practical use, and some scientific mechanic builds 

 the first paper-mill. Previously manuscripts were all written on parch- 

 ment. These were magnificent results, taking place in the midst of 

 terrible persecution ; but we understand it all when we know that in 

 spite of every obstacle and opposition the book-men had, in this and 

 the preceding centuries, unceasingly labored amid the capricious favors 

 and disfavors of princes and kings to establish libraries, schools, and 

 universities everywhere. They succeeded admirably, and every gen- 

 eration saw the increase of the number of those to whom the benefits 

 of education had been communicated. Notwithstanding the fears of 

 despots, the trial by ordeal began to fall into disrepute, the influence 

 of the principles of the laws of ancient Rome as Christianized by Jus- 

 tinian was felt. 



At last we reach the glorious fifteenth century, ever memorable for 

 the invention of printing and the discovery of America. Why was 

 printing' invented ? Because the demand for books had directed in- 

 ventive genius to seek a substitute for the laborious and costly process 

 of copying. Guttenberg, the inventor, was himself a lover of books 

 and a scientific mechanic. Why was America discovered ? Because 

 schools of mathematics, astronomy, and navigation had been estab- 

 lished at Genoa, in one of which Columbus was educated. Thence, 



