TRANSFORMATION OF THE MEDIAEVAL MAN. The fourteenth century was a period
of still more rapid change and transformation. New objects of interest
were coming to the front, and new standards of judgment were being
applied. National spirit and a national patriotism were finding
expression. The mediaeval man, with his feeling of personal
insignificance, lack of self-confidence, "no sense of the past behind him,
and no conception of the possibilities of the future before him," [2] was
rapidly giving way to the man possessed of the modern spirit--the man of
self-confidence, conscious of his powers, enjoying life, feeling his
connection with the historic past, and realizing the potentialities of
accomplishment in the world here below. It was the great work of the
period of transition, and especially of the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries, to effect this change, "to awaken in man a consciousness of his
powers, to give him confidence in himself, to show him the beauty of the
world and the joy of life, and to make him feel his living connection with
the past and the greatness of the future he might create." [3] As soon as
men began clearly to experience such feelings, they began to inquire, and
inquiry led to the realization that there had been a great historic past
of which they knew but little, and of which they wanted to know much. When
this point had been reached, western Europe was ready for a revival of
learning.

THE BEGINNINGS IN ITALY. This revival began in Italy. The Italians had
preserved more of the old Roman culture than had any other people, and had
been the first to develop a new political and social order and revive the
refinements of life after the deluge of barbarism which had engulfed
Europe. They, too, had been the first to feel the inadequacy of mediaeval
learning to satisfy the intellectual unrest of men conscious of new
standards of life. This gave them at least a century of advance over the
nations of northern Europe. The old Roman life also was nearer to them,