European Identity - Individual, Group and Society - HumanitarianNet

EUROPE: MEANING AND MOTIVE 67such protests would do well to cast a glance back at the selfsameHumanist tradition, which could do with being updated; until thishappens though, let us get to work.EpilogueAlthough Humanism and freedom have been under siege for thelast quarter of a century, my recent experiences in Spain and in Europehave left me in no doubt as to the fact that the conservative andreactionary forces, which are so dominant today, will not last. There isso much in the way of human resources, public virtue and democraticmajorities —and I need look no further than my audience for proof—,all waiting for history to take a new turn in favour of a world made tosuit mankind. How long did it take for Francisco de Vitoria, Fray Luis deLeón, Don Gaspar de Jovellanos, Don Francisco Giner de los Ríos andthe Free Education Institution 22 and our republican heroines JimenaMenéndez Pidal, Federica Montseny, Clara Campoamor, Victoria Kentand so many other leading lights of Humanism to cross the desert?Who could say that they faltered in their belief even for an instant?Today, their memory beseeches you to fight for an education policyinspired by European Humanism, and I hope it will not do so in vain.22Cfr. Jiménez - Landi, A., La Institución Libre de Enseñanza y su ambiente, Madrid:Editorial Complutense, 1996; V. Cacho Viu, La Institución Libre de Enseñanza, Madrid:Ediciones Rialp, 1962; Elias Diaz, La Filosofía social del Krausismo (3 rd ed.), Madrid:Cuadernos para el Diálogo, 1973.