to indicate the beginning of modern times.

Contrast between the Spirit of the Renaissance and of the Middle
Ages.--One of the most important intellectual movements of the world
is known as the Renaissance or Revival of Learning. This movement
began in Italy about the middle of the fourteenth century and spread
slowly westward. While Chaucer's travels in Italy; and his early
contact with this new influence are reflected in his work, yet the
Renaissance did not reach its zenith in England until the time of
Shakespeare. This new epoch followed a long period, known as the
Middle ages, when learning was mostly confined to the church, when
thousands of the best minds retired to the cloisters, when many
questions, like those of the revolution of the sun around the earth or
the cause of disease, were determined, not by observation and
scientific proof, but by the assertion of those in spiritual
authority. Then, scientific investigators, like Roger Bacon, were
thought to be in league with the devil and were thrown into prison. In
1258 Dante's tutor visited Roger Bacon, and, after seeing his
experiments with the mariner's compass, wrote to an Italian friend:--

"This discovery so useful to all who travel by sea, must remain
concealed until other times, because no mariner dare use it, lest he
fall under imputation of being a magician, nor would sailors put to
sea with one who carried an instrument so evidently constructed by
the devil."

Symonds says: "During the Middle Ages, man had lived enveloped in a
cowl. He had not seen the beauty of the world, or had seen it only to
cross himself and turn aside, to tell his beads and pray." Before the
Renaissance, the tendency was to regard with contempt mere questions