General Survey -- The Part played in the Revival by the Chief Cities -- Preoccupation with Scholarship in spite of War and Conquest -- Place of the Humanists in Society -- Distributors of Praise and Blame -- Flattery and Libels -- Comparison with the Sophists -- The Form preferred to the Matter of Literature -- Ideal of Culture as an end in itself -- Suspicion of Zealous Churchmen -- Intrusion of Humanism into the Church -- Irreligion of the Humanists -- Gyraldi's 'Progymnasma' -- Ariosto -- Bohemian Life -- Personal Immorality -- Want of Fixed Principles -- Professional Vanity -- Literary Pride -- Estimate of Humanistic Literature -- Study of Style -- Influence of Cicero -- Valla's 'Elegantiæ' -- Stylistic Puerilities -- Value attached to Rhetoric -- 'Oratore' -- Moral Essays -- Epistolography -- Histories -- Critical and Antiquarian Studies -- Large Appreciation of Antiquity -- Liberal Spirit -- Poggio and Jerome of Prague -- Humanistic Type of Education -- Its Diffusion through Europe -- Future Prospects -- Decay of Learning in Italy 372 RENAISSANCE IN ITALY CHAPTER I THE MEN OF THE RENAISSANCE Formation of Conscious Personality in Italy -- Aristocracy of Intellect -- Self-culture as an Aim -- Want of National Architecture -- Want of National Drama -- Eminence of Sculpture and Painting -- Peculiar Capacity for Literature -- Scholarship -- Men of Many-sided Genius -- Their Relation to the Age -- Conflict between Mediæval Tradition and Humanism -- Petrarch -- The Meaning of the Revival begun by him -- Cosmopolitan Philosophy -- Toleration -- An Intellectual Empire -- Worldliness -- Confusion of Impulses and Inspirations -- Copernicus and Columbus -- Christianity and the Classics -- Italian Incapacity for Religious Reformation -- Free Thought takes the form of License -- Harmonies attempted between Christianity and Antique Philosophy -- Florentine Academy -- Physical Qualities of the Italians -- Portraits of Two Periods -- Physical Exercises -- Determination of the Race to Scholarship -- Ancient Memories of Rome -- The Cult of Antiquity -- Desire of Fame -- Fame to be found in Literature -- The Cult of Intellect -- The Cult of Character -- Preoccupation with Personal Details -- Biography -- Ideal Sketches -- Posthumous Glory -- Enthusiasm for Erudition -- Piero de' Pazzi -- Florence and Athens -- Paganism -- Real Value of Italian Humanism -- Pico on the Dignity of Man.