growing out of date. Plato was extolled at
the expense of Aristotle. Greek, and even Hebrew, was eagerly sought
after. Latin itself was assuming another aspect; the Renaissance Latin
is classical Latin, whilst Mediaeval Latin is dog-Latin. The physical
universe now began to be inquired into with a perfectly fresh
interest, but the inquiries were still conducted under the aegis of the
old habits of thought. The universe was still a system of mysterious
affinities and magical powers to the investigator of the Renaissance
period, as it had been before. There was this difference, however; it
was now attempted to _systematize_ the magical theory of the universe.
While the common man held a store of traditional magical beliefs
respecting the natural world, the learned man deduced these beliefs
from the Neo-Platonists, from the Kabbala, from Hermes Trismegistos,
and from a variety of other sources, and attempted to arrange this
somewhat heterogeneous mass of erudite lore into a system of organized
thought.

The Humanistic movement, so called, the movement, that is, of revived
classical scholarship, had already begun in Germany before what may be
termed the _sturm und drang_ of the Renaissance proper. Foremost among
the exponents of this older Humanism, which dates from the middle of
the fifteenth century, were Nicholas of Cusa and his disciples,
Rudolph Agricola, Alexander Hegius, and Jacob Wimpheling. But the new
Humanism and the new Renaissance movement generally throughout
Northern Europe centred chiefly in two personalities, Johannes
Reuchlin and Desiderius Erasmus. Reuchlin was the founder of the new
Hebrew learning, which up till then had been exclusively confined to
the synagogue. It was he who unlocked the mysteries of the Kabbala to
the Gentile world. But though it is for his introduction of Hebrew
study that Reuchlin is best known to posterity, yet his services in
the diffusion and popularization of classical culture were enormous.
The dispute of Reuchlin with the ecclesiastical authorities at Cologne
excited literary Germany from end to end. It was the first general
skirmish of the new and the old spirit in Central and Northern Europe.

But the man who was destined to become the personification of the
Humanist movement, us the new learning was called, was Erasmus. The
illegitimate son of the daughter of a Rotterdam burgher, he early
became famous on account of his erudition, in spite of the adverse
circumstances o