THE DARK AGES.--The Dark Ages is a name often applied by historians to
the Middle Ages, a term comprising about 1,000 years, from the fall of
the Roman Empire in the fifth century to the invention of printing in
the fifteenth. The period is called "dark" because of the generally
depraved state of European society at this time, the subservience of
men's minds to priestly domination, and the general indifference
to learning. The admirable civilization that Rome had developed and
fostered, was swept out of existence by the barbarous invaders from
Northern Europe, and there is no doubt that the first half of the
medieval era, at least, from the year 500 to 1000, was one of the most
brutal and ruffianly epochs in history. The principal characteristic
of the middle ages were the feudal system and the papal power. By
the first the common people were ground into a condition of almost
hopeless slavery, by the second the evolution of just and equitable
governments by the ruling clashes was rendered impossible through the
intrusion of the pontifical authority into civil affairs. Learning
did not wholly perish, but it betook itself to the seclusion of the
cloisters. The monasteries were the resort of many earnest scholars,
and there were prepared the writings of historians, metaphysicians and
theologians. But during this time man lived, as the historian Symonds
says, "enveloped in a cowl." The study of nature was not only ignored
but barred, save only as it ministered in the forms of alchemy and
astrology to the one cardinal medieval virtue--- credulity. Still the
period saw many great characters and events fraught with the greatest
importance to the advancement of the race.


THE GREATEST DEPTH OF THE OCEAN NEVER MEASURED.--The deepest verified
soundings are those made in the Atlantic Ocean, ninety miles off the