103 



lence and barbarism jolunged the world in a new dark- 

 less. False literature is even worse than ignorance, as it 

 is Averse to Wander out of the way, than to remain still 

 in one place. Then monkish rhymes, quibbles, false elo- 

 quence and barbarous conceits, prevailed together with go- 

 thic architecture. But, according to the perpetual bal- 

 ance which is kept lip in human things, by the tendency 

 which alwaj's urges and actuates the race of man to ame- 

 liorate their condition, evils always bring with them the 

 source of their own correction. The tyranny of supersti- 

 .tion was speedily felt, and men grew impatient under the 

 yoke, and struggled to break their bonds. Here the very 

 ignorance of the times, and the prevalence of superstition, 

 began to furnish a new incentive and theme, to some, at 

 leastj of the^ne arts; namely, poetry and eloquence. The 

 Italian writers, about the thirteenth century, began to 

 descant with freedom, on the corruptions of the church: 

 the study of words gave place to that of things. 



The philosophical discoveries of the Bishop of Spala- 

 tro began to expaxid tire human mind: philosophy en- 

 lightened letters; lettei's ornamented philosophy ; truth arose 



on 



over the Rubicon. Fitzstepheii, who lived in the reign of Henry II., alludes 

 to a passage in the larger history of Sallust.§ It appears also, from the writ- 

 ings of Petrarch, that he was acquainted with some of the works of Cicero, 

 .which have since perished: it must have been through the ignorance and want 

 of taste of the monks. We have an account, from some late travellers, of the 

 gross ignorance of the monks of Patmos, and their disregard of the remains 

 of antiquity which they possess. 



') See Hume'i History of England, Vol. II'. p. 249, and Mfinthly Magazine. 



