[82] “The Intellectual Development of Europe,” Vol. II., Chap. II. By John William Draper, M.D., LL.D. New York: Harper & Brothers; “History of Civilization in England,” Vol. II., Chap. I. By Henry Thomas Buckle. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1864.
Two leading causes contributed to reduce the people of Europe during the Middle Ages to a state of moral obliquity, intellectual torpor, and physical incapacity—the repressive force of authority and the atrocious philosophy of contempt of man formulated by Machiavelli. The one forbade scientific investigation, the other strangled the spirit of invention in the grip of enforced ignorance. Authority chilled courage, and contempt withered hope. Italy governed the world, and her rule consisted of a menace and a sneer. Under this régime of cruelty and cynicism man shrunk into a state of moral cowardice and intellectual lethargy.
The political maxims which bear the name of Machiavelli were not invented by him. When he formulated them, in 1513, they had been in force in Italy a thousand years. These maxims explain the fact of the existence of a period of the world’s history known as “the Dark Ages.” The chief of them divides the human race into three classes, the members of the first of which understand things by their own natural powers; the second when they are explained to them; the third not at all. The third class embraces a vast majority of men; the second only a small number; the first a very small number. The first class is to rule both the other classes, the second by craft and duplicity, the third by authority, and, that failing, by force. Other maxims assume the despicable character of all men, and justify falsehood, duplicity, cruelty, and murder, in the ruling class. A single proposition shows the infamy of the whole system, namely, “There are three ways of deciding any contest—by fraud, by force, or by law, and a wise man will make the most suitable choice.”[83] These are maxims not of civilization but of barbarism. They involve a state of slavery, and where slavery exists the useful arts decline, and ultimately perish. And so it was in the Middle Ages.
[83] “The Prince,” Chap. XVIII. By Niccolo Machiavelli.
Several great events led to the emancipation of the people of Europe from the joint reign of authority and contempt. The learning of the Jews and Saracens—their knowledge of the arts and sciences—gradually spread, and occupied the minds of cloistered students, giving to them an intellectual impulse. The Crusades, pitiful and prolific of horrors as they were, shed a great light upon Europe. They brought the men of the West face to face with a practical progressive civilization—a civilization that “filled the earth with prodigies of human skill.” The Crusaders were told that they would be led against hordes of barbarians. What astonishment must have seized them when they stood under the walls of Constantinople and beheld its splendors! Nor was their surprise less, doubtless, in the character of the foe they encountered. They had expected to meet with treachery and cruelty; they found chivalry, courtesy, and high culture.[84]
[84] “The Intellectual Development of Europe,” Vol. II., pp. 135, 136. By John William Draper, M.D., LL.D. New York: Harper & Brothers.
These surprises and contrasts profoundly impressed the Crusaders, and they returned to Europe relieved of many illusions, and notably of the fallacy that the wealth of Eastern princes was destined to supply the waste of their own squandered estates. They returned, too, to find a new civilization in process of development. Two hundred years of comparative freedom from the repressive force of feudalism changed the face of the country and the character of its people. During the absence of the nobles, in the Holy Land, a middle class sprung into existence, possessing the qualities which always distinguish that class—thrift and prudence. The mortgaged estates of the Crusaders had fallen partly into their hands, and partly into the hands of the Crown. Towns had sprung up, and a commercial class and a manufacturing class had been formed. The artisan became a factor in the social problem. He offered his wares to the lords and ladies of the castles, and they bought themselves poor. As Emerson says, “The banker with his seven per cent. drove the earl out of his castle.” In the eleventh century nobility was above price, in the thirteenth it was for sale, and soon afterwards it was offered as a gift.
The invention of printing, the art preservative of all arts, removed the seal from the lips of learning. The desire to conceal is no match for the desire to print. Thenceforth, through the medium of types, the voice of genius was destined to reach to the ends of the earth; and, more important still, every discovery in science, and every invention in art, became the sure heritage of future ages.
The discovery of America was the crowning act of man’s emancipation. In sweeping away the last vestige of the theory on which patristic geography was based, Columbus freed mankind. In the cry of “land ho!” with which he greeted the new continent, he sounded the death-knell of intellectual slavery. His was the last act in a series of acts which struck off the shackles of thought, and let in upon the long night of the Middle Ages the clear light of day. Leonardo da Vinci took up the interrupted work of Archimedes, and the science of mechanics made rapid progress. At last it was correctly observed that “experiment is the only interpreter of nature,” and the development of natural philosophy began. Bruno was still to be burned, and Galileo imprisoned. But the persecutors of those great men were no longer moved by mere blind zeal. They believed and trembled, and in seeking to drown the truth in the blood of the votaries of science, they rendered it more conspicuous. By the light of the flames which consumed the body of the too daring philosopher a thousand scientists studied the stars, the earth, and the air.
The invention of printing paralyzed authority, and the discovery of America gave wings to hope. A few manuscripts could be locked in vaults or burned, but millions of books must inevitably, ultimately, find their way to the people. Books were, therefore, the sure promise of universal culture—the precursor of the common school. The discovery of another continent startled the people of Europe from the deep sleep of a thousand years, and sent a fresh current of blood surging through their veins. It seemed like a sort of new creation, and appealed powerfully to the imagination. And it is always the imagination that “blazes” the path to glorious achievements. It is through the imagination that men are moved to “crave after the unseen,” and through the imagination that the human mind becomes big with “bold and lofty conceptions.” A new world having been discovered by one man, it was natural that all men should be put upon inquiry. Hence the era of investigation, the resulting discoveries of science, and their innumerable applications, through the useful arts, to the fast multiplying needs of man.