ii CONCLUSION 355 



thought and of liberty, and it is still an active force. 

 Human nature has not yet lost the tendency to rest 

 calmly in its "habit of believing," to shut itself up in 

 its finite world, refusing either to look abroad, or to 

 look at itself from an external point of view ; it is still 

 apt to think " geocentrically," to take its molehills for 

 mountains, while " underlooking," if the term may be 

 allowed, the real mountains that are before it, to hold 

 doggedly to one contrary, reject utterly the other, 

 whereas the truth always lies in their unity. To these 

 recurring foibles of humanity, and more especially, 

 perhaps, of philosophic humanity, the fresh and 

 vigorous writings of the Dominican monk and martyr 

 of the sixteenth century will ever form a healthy 

 counterpoise. 



