to clothe them with beauty. I admit that his message was delivered fantastically, that its method was impossible for ordinary men, but it was a message none the less. Its spirit was not forgotten. It created the great theologians of the succeeding age: it lies at the bottom of all that is loftiest in Dante: it inspired the art of Giotto. It went far to make all these men possible, because it prepared men's minds to understand their object, and sympathise with their efforts to set forth the unity yet variety of life. Be this as it may, there was ever after the time of Francis a constant endeavour to grasp human character with all its powers and capacities; and the scientific means towards this end was the study of classical literature. Italy gave itself to this object, and its separate states vied with one another in their zeal. Plato lamented that in his days the study of geometry was neglected because no state held it in sufficient repute. The Italian city communities were convinced that the pursuit of classical culture was an object of political importance. Scholars were esteemed as public benefactors; they enjoyed exceptional advantages; they were freely supplied with leisure for their studies; their lectures were crowded. It was as disgraceful for a man of position not to be a patron of scholarship, as it would be nowadays if he refused to subscribe to the local hospital; every one was bound to be interested in literature, and show his good taste by some addition to the beauty and enjoyment of the common life.
The band of scholars which was thus produced was divided into two great parties, a division which seems
