SKETCHES OF THE PROGRESS OF FREEDOM. A great step in the progress of freedom was taken during the fifteenth century, in consequence of a sudden and rapid growth of interest in classic literature. A region of thought, wholly outside of Christian influence, and illuminated by authors whose originality had not yet been equalled and whose love of liberty can never be surpassed, was thrown open to men and women who had hitherto read scarcely any books not written in support of popes and kings. Study of the Latin classics had been much encouraged during the latter half of the fourteenth century by Petrarch and Boccaccio. Italy soon abounded in scholars who were busy in expounding and translating the ancient masterpieces. Many books by Cicero, Tacitus, Lucretius and other great thinkers, were unearthed in monastic libraries, where the amount of ancient literature which was preserved was small in proportion to what had perished needlessly, or been wantonly destroyed. Little was known about Greek in western Europe except by isolated students like Heloise and Bacon before the closing years of the fourteenth century, when the language of Plato and Aristotle was taught in Florence. Many manuscripts of the great |