"It is hard to find a whole age to imitate, or what century to propose for our example. Some have been far more approvable than others: but virtue and vice, panegyrics and satires, scatteringly to be found in all history, sets down not only things laudable but abominable; things which should never have been, or never have been known. So that noble patterns must be fetched here and there from single persons rather than whole nations, and from whole nations rather than any one."—Sir Thomas Brown.
"Always with a change of era, there had to be a change of practice and outward relations brought about, if not peaceably, then by violence, for brought about it had to be; there could be no rest come till then. How many eras and epochs not noted at the moment, which, indeed, is the blessedest condition of epochs, that they come quietly, making no proclamation of themselves, and are only visible long after. A Cromwell Rebellion, a French Revolution, striking on the horologe of time, to tell all mortals what a clock it has become, are too expensive, if one could help it."—Thomas Carlyle.
"Stand up: I myself also am a man."—Acts x. 26.
PART THIRD.
LEO X.—AGE OF SCIENTIFIC INVENTION.
CHAPTER I.
LITERATURE.
The fall of the western empire was a strange phenomenon. The Roman people did not only abandon the government in its struggles against the barbarous invaders, but when left to themselves, did not attempt any resistance on their own behalf. During the whole protracted conflict, the nation endured all the scourges of war, devastation, and famine, and suffered an entire change in its character and condition, without acting, remonstrating, or even appearing. Their passive submission to inevitable destiny at the great crisis of changeful progress was most complete.
We do wrong to regard the middle age as a blank in human history, a useless void between the refinement of antiquity and the freedom of modern times. No vital element of civilization actually died, though all may have fallen into deep sleep, from which they awoke in a wonderful and sublime manner after a thousand years. The substantial portion of antique knowledge and civilization never was forgotten, nor was its better spirit disused, but through subsequent and superior invention has re-appeared in many of the best and noblest productions of modern genius. The fullness of creative fancy characterized the period between the Trojan adventurers and the times of Solon and Pericles, the fountain-head of that variety, originality, and beauty, which marked the unrivaled productions of a later era. What that primary growth was to the richest harvest of Greece, the early centuries of mediæval literature were to all the diversified wealth of modern Europe. The frigid tempestuousness of winter essentially precedes the silent process of vernal vegetation, just as spring must go before the rich maturity of autumnal fruit. When the sources of life were drying up in the immense body of Rome, the fountain of northern energy broke upon the mighty colossus, whose head was still of iron, though its feet were of clay. It fell for its own good and the welfare of the human race; for the sap of a loftier development was so to imbue it, that soon it should be created anew, full of a diviner strength and nobler life. The two opposing poles thus came into a needful contact with each other, and, by means of the elemental struggle occasioned by the civilization of the one, and the barbarism of the other, a happy equilibrium was established between both. The rugged North has always redeemed the effete South, and, by a succession of such amalgamations, secured to humanity perpetual improvement. It is only in this way that new races are assimilated to the old and raised above their level. The inert principle of barbarism at least possesses granite strength, to sustain the active element of civilization and bear it forward. An armful of green fuel thrown upon a dying fire, seems to quench it in clouds of smoke; but soon the moisture is evaporated, the fibres kindle to living flames, and the hearth glows with a purer and more grateful brightness than before.
The Middle Ages, according to the ordinary use of the term, comprise a thousand years, and extend from the invasion of France by Clovis, to that of Naples by Charles VIII. But in the sense of our own designation, the age of Leo X. includes that period, and just so much additional time as was requisite to the full expansion of the mediæval spirit, when it was superseded by another age as unlike its predecessor as this is different from the two which in succession went before. We should guard against exaggerating the influence of the Germanic invasions, lest we assign an accidental character to the temporal condition of the times under review. The invasions themselves were a necessary result of the final extinction of Roman domination. In our late sketch of the progressive greatness of that power, we saw that the Roman empire was bounded on one side by the great oriental theocracies, too remote and uncongenial for incorporation; and westward, by hunting or shepherd hordes, who, not being settled nations, could not be effectually subdued. The process of invasion was gradual as that of conquest, though its apparent success could not be permanent till the vigor of the Roman heart was exhausted. The incorporation of barbarians in the imperial armies, and the abandonment of certain provinces, on condition that new invaders should be kept in check, prepared the way for that radical and marked transition which was consummated in the fifth century. The age of martial force was superseded by the age of scientific invention; an age full of military activity in its first centuries, but which essentially changed its character as the civilized world assumed its new position. It almost immediately lost its offensive attitude, and exercised those defensive functions which so strongly characterized feudal life. Political dispersion soon prevailed over the preceding system of concentration; and this afforded both motive and scope for the direct and special participation of individuals, rather than the thorough subordination of all partial movements to the absolute direction of centralized authority.