CHAPTER III THE RENAISSANCE I. THE NIGHT, THE DAWN, AND THE PROMISE OF THE DAY THE romance of the recovery of man's intellectual heritage lost at the beginning of the Dark Ages, the re-birth - the Renaissance - of his mind and soul, and his restoration to the full stature of a man, is the story that will engage us here. The progress of man toward liberty of thought and soul and conscience, freedom of body and action, is a long journey in which the Prehistoric and the Classic Ages, the Dark, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance are mere steps, mere phases of a single onward movement by no means yet concluded. From our modern vantage ground we may watch the slow advance of civilized man, bearing the precious seeds of that culture which lifts him above the beast, come out of the dim East and moving ever Westward reach the waters of the vast and lovely Mediterranean, pause in Greece and add art, philosophy, and science to the store of treasure, pass on and reach at last that beautiful peninsula we know as Italy, dowered with a soft and kindly climate, diversified by magnificent mountain ranges, hillsides for vine and olive, fertile plains for tillage and for pasture, lakes of unbelievable beauty, with long coasts as natural ramparts or offering hospitable havens for the boats of fisher and trader; and near a ford in the River Tiber marked by seven low hills a city born that first became the mistress of all Italy and later of the then known world. The genius of this Roman people, essentially practical, constructive, executive, military, political, brought order and a stern peace to the warring, semi-barbarous tribes scattered through the land. Roads were built, and cities, and water was brought to refresh them for many miles over hill and plain. Trade prospered, agriculture flourished, and Italy waxed fat and rich under the Roman Peace. The Mediterranean world had grown rich in things other than material. The garnered wisdom of the ages, the literature, the philosophy, the science, and the art of Asia, of Egypt, of Greece, and of Rome were the most precious part of the freight the Romans, as the vanguard of civilization, bore with them to the far places of the earth. To the north of Italy, lurking in the German forests or grazing their herds on the wide steppes of Eastern Europe, half frozen in their fens, clad in skins, brutal, savage, covetous, mischievous and destructive as monkeys, loving rapine and bloodshed for their own sake, roamed the Goths, the dreadful Vandals, and the still more fearful Huns. From time to time they descended upon the smiling southlands, snatching at what they had neither the wit nor the industry to produce, and at last, in the fifth century, when the strong Roman arm which had held them back grew weaker, they burst upon the South. They knew nothing of the intellectual treasures, the art of a thousand years, that made the true wealth of Italy. They wanted the dark-skinned women with their lustrous eyes, they coveted the gold and gems and rich stuffs and arms, the smooth wines and the fiery, the luscious fruits, the good food and the warmth and the goodly sun of the South. Heaps of slain men, ravished women, butchered babies, the smoke of burnt fields, orchards, vineyards, homesteads, villages, cities, marked their path. What they thought of value they carried off, what they could not bear away they destroyed. The laborer in his hut, the rich merchant, the leaders of public life, the savant, the artist, all were killed or fled the country. The libraries containing the learning of the antique world went up in smoke. The priceless works of art which filled the palaces and villas of the patricians were given to the torch, defiled, defaced, overturned and trodden into |