Or we might follow several of
the early scholars and humanists in their passionate chasings
across Europe, in and out of obscure monasteries, to recover the
lost MSS of the classics: might tell, for instance, of Pope
Nicholas V, whose birth-name was Tommaso Parentucelli, and how he
rescued the MSS from Constantinople and founded the Vatican
Library: or of Aurispa of Sicily who collected two hundred and
thirty-eight for Florence: or the story of the _editio princeps_
of the Greek text of Homer. Or we might dwell on the awaking of
our literature, and the trend given to it, by men of the Italian
and French renaissance; or on the residence of Erasmus here, in
this University, with its results.
VII
But I have said enough to make it clear that, as we owe so much
of our best to understanding Europe, so the need to understand
Europe lies urgently to-day upon large classes in this country;
and that yet, in the nature of things, these classes can never
enjoy such leisure as our forefathers enjoyed to understand what
I call the soul of Europe, or at least to misunderstand it _upon
acquaintance.
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