148 SCIENCE AND THE HUMAN MIND 



not unnatural association of this progress with the 

 achievements of the past few hundred years. Looking 

 back to the mediaeval times, it was impossible not 

 to realize the immense step forward taken by the 

 visible world of societies and nations in a compara- 

 tively short space of time. What was more natural 

 to eager minds and generous impulses than first to 

 imagine and then to believe that the process of develop- 

 ment might be extended throughout the whole social 

 body, that it needed but opportunity to enable all 

 men to enter upon, share in and profit by the new 

 inheritance ? 



Nowadays we know more about the limitations of the 

 human mind, and we are perhaps more apt to dwell 

 on them and on its imperfections than to dream of 

 any yet unrevealed possibilities. To us, the marvellous 

 epoch of the Renaissance is best interpreted as the 

 first coming into free action of the intellectual forces 

 of the Northern race ; we share in the early triumphant 

 breaking forth of the vanguard ; we stand astonished 

 at the extent of the conquest ; we examine critically 

 the details of the sober settlement. But as we read 

 history, as we study more closely the great men of this 

 great period, we realize that in truth but certain 

 small sections of the social structure were affected, 

 that only a very small and carefully prepared pro- 

 portion of the whole population took active part in 

 providing the festival. Of all the countries of Europe, 

 five or six alone Italy, France, Germany, England, 

 the Low Countries and for a short time Spain con- 

 tributed appreciably to the intellectual sum total of 

 the Renaissance. Again, in each country, the chief 

 centres of activity are often obvious to us ; and in 



