INTRODUCTION 



author of popular treatises of zoology, which are also 

 called Bestiaries, or books of beasts. Here it was told 

 how the lion sleeps with open eyes, how the crocodile 

 weeps when it has eaten a man, how the elephant has 

 but one joint in its leg and cannot lie down, how the 

 pelican brings her young- back to life by sprinkling 

 them with her own blood. The emblems of the 

 Bestiaries supplied ornaments to mediaeval sermons ; 

 as late as Shakespeare's day poetry drew from them no 

 small part of her imagery ; they were carved on the 

 benches, stalls, porches, and gargoyles of the churches. 



In the last years of the tenth century A.D. faint signs 

 of revival appeared, which became distinct in another 

 hundred years. From that day to our own the progress 

 has been continuous. 



Revival of Knowledge. 



By the thirteenth century the rate of progress had 

 become rapid. To this age are ascribed the introduc- 

 tion of the mariner's compass, gunpowder, reading 

 glasses, the Arabic numerals, and decimal arithmetic. 

 In the fourteenth century trade with the East revived ; 

 Central Asia and even the Far East were visited by 

 Europeans ; universities were multiplied ; the revival 

 of learning, painting, and sculpture was accomplished 

 in Italy. Engraving on wood or copper and printing 

 from moveable types date from the fifteenth century. 

 The last decade of this century is often regarded as the 

 close of the Middle Ages ; it really marks, not the 

 beginning, but only an extraordinary acceleration, of 

 the new progressive movement, which set in long 

 before. To the years between 1490 and 1550 belong 

 the great geographical discoveries of the Spaniards in 

 the West and of the Portuguese in the East, as well 

 as the Reformation and the revival of science. 



