[3] Letter of Peter Martyr, Dec. 26, 1515.
[4] The extermination of the red man in North America is the most conspicuous case recorded in history. Australia and Tasmania furnish examples on a smaller scale.
[5] Le Théâtre d'Agriculture, 1600.
PERIOD II
1661-1740
Characteristics of the Period.
In Western Europe this was a time of consolidation succeeding to one of violent change. Religious wars gave place to dynastic and political wars. In France the tumults of the preceding hundred years sank to rest under the rule of a strong monarchy; order and refinement became the paramount aims of the governing classes; literature, the fine arts, and the sciences were patronised by the Court. Other nations imitated as well as they could the example of France. Learning was still largely classical, but the anti-scholastic revolt, which had first made itself felt three hundred years earlier, steadily gained ground; Descartes, Newton, and Locke were now more influential than the Aristotelians. This was an age of new scientific societies (Royal Society, Academy of Sciences of Paris, Academia Naturæ Curiosorum, etc.).