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Thomas Nelson
1853-1922 | Add | | | Title: | The Old Dominion  | | | | Published: | 2006 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | TO comprehend truly the achievement of
the settlement of Jamestown and what it
has signified to the world, and still signifies today,
if we but knew it, it is necessary to go back
among the forces that were at work in Western
Europe during the time when the Dark Ages
were giving way to the light of the New Learning.
Many forces combined to produce the results,
working with that patience which characterizes
the laws of Nature. The energies of
men had been engrossed by the exactions of
war, and of a civilization based on war. The
mind of man had been for ages monopolized
by war militant or spiritual. Person and intellect
alike lay under rule. Then gradually, after
long lethargy, men began to think. Historians
wrote; poets sang; statesmen planned; scientists
experimented. The mariner's compass, whether
brought by Marco Polo from the East, or invented
by the Neapolitan, Flavio Gioja, or by
some one else, came into use in Europe: other
nautical instruments were invented or improved.
Gunpowder was invented and gradually changed
the methods of war. The New Learning began
to sweep over Europe. The Art of printing
from movable types was invented. The ice was
broken up and the stream, long dammed, began
to flow. The Reformation came and men burst
the chains which had bound them. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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