2 72 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



industrial groups of manor and guild, the crusades, the pilgrimages, the 

 friars, the cathedrals, and the great ideals of the church and of chivalry, 

 were recognized as important in human history, though different from 

 the thoughts and doings of men before or since. The expression " medi- 

 eval civilization " was now introduced alongside of "ancient civiliza- 

 tion" and "modern civilization," while the phrase "dark ages" was 

 restricted to the early middle ages while the barbarian invasions were 

 going on. Indeed, a recent writer on the history of education wittily 

 states that successive investigations keep pushing the "dark ages" so 

 much further and further back that they will probably ultimately cover 

 no time whatever. 



There was, then, civilization, if not natural science, in the middle 

 ages. But it would be leaving a wrong impression to imply that medi- 

 eval civilization was something quite distinct from ancient or modern 

 civilization. The fact is, and after all it is just what one would naturally 

 expect, that medieval civilization was in large measure a combination of 

 ancient and modern elements. Much it inherited ; much it originated ; 

 and much it passed on. Moreover, the middle ages really belong partly 

 to ancient and partly to modern times. This principle is now being largely 

 accepted even in high-school teaching and text-books. The year course 

 in ancient history is carried down to Charlemagne, while medieval and 

 modern history are united as a single year's work. In the museums of 

 Europe, too, no great gap is observed between the middle ages and the 

 renaissance, but objects are usually classified together under one caption 

 as of both those periods. 



It is very difficult to separate history into distinct periods, yet there 

 is considerable reason for regarding Charlemagne, towering as he did 

 seven feet tall and fighting a campaign every season for over forty years, 

 as the last great landmark of ancient times. With all his vigor he caused 

 little or no permanent progress. He failed to drive the Mohammedans 

 from Spain; under his successors the Northmen and other invaders 

 broke up his empire. But when the Northmen, after their wonderful 

 expansion in all directions from Greenland to the Mediterranean and 

 from Eussia to North America, had settled down in Normandy, Eng- 

 land, Sicily and elsewhere; when they had with amazing rapidity 

 adapted and improved upon such civilization as they found still existing 

 in their new homes ; when the Arabs had brought from the East to Spain 

 the material civilization of the Orient and the intellectual treasures of 

 the Greek genius; and when the men of the north, either as peaceful 

 traders and pilgrims or warlike crusaders, had visited Spain, Constan- 

 tinople and the Holy Land ; the wheels of progress started moving with 

 a new alacrity and things began to hum. Once again, as had happened 

 before in the Mediterranean Basin, the races of the north descended 

 upon and fused with those of the south, and the east passed on to the 

 west the torch of civilization. 



