THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT IN ENGLAND, 



295 



says, the man to whom we are most indebted for the 

 systematic historical and artistic study of this remarkable 

 country; whose mind has better than any other succeeded 

 in representing to itself the natural and ideal features of 

 that country and that bygone race, and who has drawn in 

 his writings a series of pictures, reproducing that past 

 glory in unequalled perfection. In tracing the begin- 

 nings of the modern science of archaeology or historical 

 geography, he assigns to England and Englishmen a fore 

 most place as pioneers. " In England there was no medi 

 a;val tradition which suggested expeditions to the East, 

 nor did there exist any external occasion or public inter- 

 est, but it was a free and purely human attraction which 

 led Britons to the classical soil, and private means have 

 made all the sacrifices that were required in order to 

 satisfy a craving of the soul.^ . 



England became the 



ed in that valuable collection, ' Al- 

 terthum und Gegenwart,' 3 vols., 

 Berlin, 1882 and 1889. In the re- 

 discovery of the countries of ancient 

 civilisation, Italians made the be- 

 ginning with Cyriacus of Ancona 

 (from 1412 to 1442). Then follow 

 the French Jacob Spon of Lyons, 

 a German by birth, being among 

 the earliest (1675). The generation 

 that succeeded the age of Scaliger 

 produced the first maps of Greece 

 (Paulmier). Then follows England, 

 where the name of Arundel has ac- 

 quired a doubtful celebrity through 

 that wholesale acquisition of an- 

 cient relics which Mr (afterwards 

 Sir William) Petty and John Evelyn 

 carried on in his name in Greece 

 and Asia Minor. It is interesting 

 to note here the position that Ger- 

 many holds in the growing science 

 of archaeology, of which Winckel- 

 mann may be considered the foun- 

 der. " The Germans possessed no 



advantages and resources bj' which 

 they could take part in the con- 

 test of nations over the rediscovery 

 of the countrie? of ancient histoiy. 

 . . . Whilst in Italy it was national 

 feeling, in France political relations 

 with the East, in England the love 

 of collecting and travelling common 

 among the aristocracy, which estab- 

 lished the connection of the Old 

 World with the New, in Germany 

 it was the workroom of the profes- 

 sor " (Curtius, loc. cit., vol. ii. p. 229). 

 ^ E. Curtius, loc. cit., vol. ii. p. 226. 

 " In the year 1742 Stuart and 

 Revett wandered among the ruins 

 of Rome, and recognised that in 

 its relics they beheld only later and 

 degenerate forms of ancient art. 

 Six years later they set sail for 

 Greece. It was, after Cyriacus of 

 Ancona and Jacob Spon of Lyons, 

 the third journey of exploration ; 

 but it was the first in scientific im- 

 portance" (p. 227). 



