Thy Whe^l," all are delineated. The last mterview be- 

 tween Arthur and Gruinevere m worthy of both story and 

 Btory-t-eller ; and the passing of Arthur, though ^^-ell known, 

 compelra. quotation. The King^, addressing Bedivere, saye: — - 



"I have lived my life, and that which I have done 

 . May He within Himself make pure I But thou, 

 If thou shouldst never see my face again, 

 Pi'ay for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer 

 Than this world dreams of. Wherefore let thy voice 

 E-ise like a fountain for me night and day. 

 For what are men better than sheep or goats 

 That nouiish a blind life within the brain, 

 If, knowing God, they .lift not hands of prayer 

 Both for themselves and those who call them friend? 

 For so the whole round eaii;h is every way , 

 Bound by gold chains about the feet of God." 



And thus passed Arthur the king, 

 "To where beyond these voices there is peace." 



But change is inseparable from mundane affairs, and 

 a change came over Europe at the close of the middle ages. 

 That is a vague period sometimes dated at about 1453, the 

 year in which Constantinople was stormed by the Turks. 

 Such an event, however, is but a convenient reckoning 

 ix)int, as transitions of the Renaissance were neither simul- 

 taneous throughout Evu'ope, nor were they sudden. The 

 dawn had long been breaking. Like the slow, unceasing 

 alteration in a living being, if hardly perceptible, the 

 change was nevertheless, organic, not to be prevented, and 

 increasing. The temi "renaissance," in a restricted sense, 

 sometimes denotes the revival of classical learning in Eu- 

 rope. And this, though hj no. means the only change 

 the name implies, was one of importance. Pope Nicholas 

 V. before 1455 gathered into the Vatican library five thous- 

 and manuscripts, and is said to have been engaged on A 

 translation of Homer in his last illness. Petrarch and \m 



