ies. The principle of association was
learned. Combinations of masses took place. Free cities were
multiplied. A population of artificers, and small merchants, and free
farmers arose. They discussed their privileges, and asserted their
independence. Political liberty was born, and its invaluable blessings
were conceived, if they were not realized.

[Sidenote: Effects of Scholasticism.]

_And the intellectual state_ of Europe received an impulse as marked
and beneficent as the physical and social. The scholastic philosophy,
with its dry and technical logic, its abstruse formulas, and its
subtle refinements, ceased to satisfy the wants of the human mind, now
craving light and absolute knowledge in all departments of science and
philosophy. Like feudalism, it had once been useful; but like that
institution, it had also become corrupted, and an object of sarcasm
and mockery. It had trained the European mind for the discoveries of
the sixteenth century; it had raised up an inquisitive spirit, and had
led to profound reflections on the existence of God, on his attributes
and will, on the nature of the soul, on the faculties of the mind and
on the practical duties of life. But this philosophy became pedantic
and cold; covered, as with a funereal shade, the higher pursuits of
life; and diverted attention from what was practical and useful. That
earnest spirit, which raised up Luther and Bacon, demanded, of the
great masters of thought, something which the people could understand,
and something which would do them good.

In poetry, the insipid and immoral songs of the Provencal bards gave
place to the immortal productions of the great creators of the
European languages. Dante led the way in Italy, and gave to the world
the "Divine Comedy"--a masterpiece of human genius, which raised him
to the rank of Homer and Virgil. Petrarch followed in his steps, and,
if not as profound or original as Dante, yet is unequalled as an
"enthusiastic songster of ideal love." He also gave a great impulse to
civilization by his labors in collecting and collating manuscripts.
Boccaccio also lent his aid in the revival of literature, and wrote a
series of witty, though objectionable stories, from which the English
Chaucer borrowed the notion of his "Canterbury Tales." Chaucer is the
father of English poetry, and kindled a love of literature among his
isolated countrymen; and was one of the few men who, in the evening of
his days, looked upon the w