dmire the self-devotion which
leads their former brother to carry his advocacy of Christianity into
what he regards as the most promising school of Hinduism. With this
explanation I proceed to the treatment of my subject.

* * * * *

In the fifteenth century the European world was intellectually born
again. The barbarian Goths and Vandals had put an end to the Roman
Empire, and learning had taken refuge in the monasteries. Even that
learning had become ecclesiastical. Precious manuscripts of the Greek
classics had their original writing wiped off to make room for monkish
homilies. The people were in ignorance and were ruled by the priests.
But the Crusades had brought about a new intercourse between the West
and the East. The fall of Constantinople sent Greek books and Greek
scholars to Venice and to Rome. Greek art inspired Michelangelo and
Raphael. A great wave of enthusiasm for the new learning swept over
Europe. The printing-press multiplied copies of the old literature
and put them in the hands of the poor. It was the precursor of a new
civilization, and because it was a new birth of thought, we call
it the Renaissance.

The Renaissance, however, needed another factor to complement it. Not
merely intellect was sleeping, but also man's moral nature. Conscience
and will required new stimulus. Religious reformation was necessary as
much as intellectual revival. Greek books brought with them the vice, as
well as the art, of the East. Renaissance without Reformation produced
the Borgias and their unspeakable wickedness. Erasmus without Luther
would never have saved Europe from ruin. It was the new view of Christ
that showed men their sins, brought repentance and hope, purified
literature, gave power to social truth, and united with the new learning
to make possible our modern civilization. It was a triumph of
Christianity over the powers of darkness, for Christianity involves both
Renaissance and Reformation.

A similar intellectual change has been coming over the Eastern world,
and has been awakening the slumbering nations. Who would have foretold a
half-century ago that Turkey and Persia, Japan and China, would now have
constitutional governments and legislative assemblies? The world has
moved very fast during the past decade. Modern inventions have given new
wings to thought, the nations have been coming to self-consciousness,
freedom is in the air, even war is teaching the absurdit