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292
RECENT TIMES.
the people were addressed, now found a rival, ready to
become, on occasion, an adversary. Liberal ideas here
found an ally, and the struggle against the hitherto dominant
authorities was carried on with serviceable weapons.
But. the fullest significance of printing was in aiding the
development of science ; for the acquisitions of the intellect
could now be made easily accessible and become the common
property of all. The study of the treasures of knowledge
handed down from ancient times incited to a critical
examination of their real foundation, and the special )
investigation required led to the correction of old errors
and the discovery of new facts.
The reformation of science thus effected forms, with the
corresponding change in religious and political life, the
most remarkable phenomenon of an age characterized by
the emancipation of individual opinion. These aims
received unexpected furtherance by the discovery of
America which at the end of the 15th century excited the
wonder and astonishment of mankind. A population was
there discovered like the inhabitants of Europe in bodily
form and in spiritual nature, together with a civilization
which bore many points of resemblance to the manners
and customs of the old world. Neither the Church nor
Antiquity had possessed any knowledge of these things,J
any more than of the fauna and flora of the new continent.
Disappointed in the two highest authorities known at that
time, thinkers and philosophers became suddenly independent
and compelled to trust to their own observations.
Some decades after the discovery of America the first circumnavigation
of the earth was made and with it incontestable
proof was furnished that the earth was round. The
Greek philosophers had already conjectured that its shape
was spherical and ARISTOTLE considered it as certain; but
LACTANTIUS and other Fathers of the Church * had contested
this view and declared it absurd. Their authority
sustained with this a serious defeat. The prestige of the
* O. PESCHEL op. cit. S*. 96 et seq.—W. WHEWELL op. cit. i, 226 et seq.