92 PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



vated Greeks to Italy. The refugees brought over the 

 only kind of wealth they could carry Greek books the 

 works of the dramatists, the works of poetry, history, juris- 

 prudence, philosophy, and science of the ancient Greeks,* 

 which, together with the discovery of numerous specimens 

 of statuary and architecture, revealed the whole civilisation 

 of the ancient world. The second event was the invention 

 of PRINTING (1453), the weighty and momentous conse- 

 quences of which were probably never equalled by any other 

 single event in the records of mankind. Its two immediate 

 effects were, first, the cheapening of books and their multi- 

 plying to infinity; and, second, the substitution of reading 

 for pulpit teaching. The priest ceased to be the sole 

 instructor of the people. All men could now imbibe infor- 

 mation and learning from their authentic sources. Printing 

 propagated the works of antiquity throughout the West. 

 The study and imitation of those precious monuments, as 

 -eminent writers have pointed out, were to precede original 

 inspiration. But the universal resurrection of ancient litera- 

 ture, received everywhere with enthusiasm, at once exercised 

 a paramount influence upon the genius of Europe. For 

 gradually, Roman jurisprudence replaced feudal law, Greek 

 and Latin poetry replaced sacred poetry, the philosophers 

 replaced the Fathers of the Church, free inquiry shared with 

 religious ideas imperial authority over the mind, the ideas 

 of political government of the ancient world replaced theo- 

 cratical and feudal notions. The work of the age is to 

 have created general interests and general notions which 

 affected nations and governments alike. The Revival era 

 hastened the dawn of great monarchies in the political 

 world, and hastened the immense expansion of commerce 

 and industry in the social world, whilst in the religious 

 sphere it caused the growth of freedom of conscience which 

 brought in the REFORMATION, and in the moral sphere it 

 caused that growth of literature, rationalism, and science 

 which resulted in the CLASSIC SCHOOL. This school was 



* The Greek refugees did not bring books only, they brought over 

 their own culture as well, and they became teachers and expounders, thus 

 giving momentum to the strength of progress. 



