MENTAL LIFE 



results were at first restricted to narrow fields, and were 

 mostly lost during the Middle Ages. Modem civiliza- 

 tion rose to importance about the end of the fifteenth 

 century, when the invention of printing had made pos- 

 sible the spread of knowledge far and wide, the dis- 

 covery of America and circumnavigation of the globe 

 had widened the horizon, and the Copemican system 

 had demolished the error of geocentricism. Then began 

 the many-sided growth of civilization which has reached 

 so marvellous a height in the nineteenth century through 

 the extraordinary development of science. Then at 

 last free reason could triumph over the prevailing me- 

 diaeval superstition. 



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