Liberal Education. 265 



was carried on as keenly as that of the other. 

 For a long time there could be no better or more 

 profitable study than that of ancient literature. 

 Before a new career of progress could be inaugu- 

 rated, old forgotten acquisitions must be recovered 

 and earnestly studied in the light of new political, 

 social, and intellectual circumstances. Accord- 

 ingly, in those days there were classical scholars 

 of gigantic calibre. From the fifteenth to the 

 seventeenth century we have the names of Eras- 

 mus, Budseus, the Scaligefs, Grotius, Reuchlin, 

 Salmasius, Casaubon, Lipsius, Selden, Bentley, and 

 Huet, representatives of a mighty and astonishing 

 style of scholarship, which doubtless, from the 

 absence of the proper social conditions, will never 

 be seen again. Philosophers, like Bacon, Des- 

 cartes, and Leibnitz, bent upon mastering the sum 

 of human knowledge, could do no better than to 

 read with critical eyes the writings of Plato and 

 Aristotle. In light literature, as represented by 

 Rabelais, Montaigne, Ben Jonson, and Burton, 

 classical learning was equally conspicuous. And 

 in social intercourse Latin, and to some extent 

 Greek, held the place since usurped by French 

 and other modern tongues. While modern lan- 

 guages were but little studied, the common dia- 

 lect of educated Europeans was formed by the 



