Latin conversation 254 CHAPTER X. MODERN LATIN POETRY. Epic poems on ancient history: The ‘Africa’ 258 Mythic poetry 259 Christian epics: Sannazaro 260 Poetry on contemporary subjects 261 Introduction of mythology 262 Didactic poetry: Palingenius 263 Lyric poetry and its limits 264 Odes on the saints 265 Elegies and the like 266 The epigram 267 CHAPTER XI. FALL OF THE HUMANISTS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. The accusations and the amount of truth they contained 272 Misery of the scholars 277 Type of the happy scholar 278 Pomponius Laetus 279 The Academies 280 PART IV. _THE DISCOVERY OF THE WORLD AND OF MAN._ CHAPTER I. JOURNEYS OF THE ITALIANS. Columbus 286 Cosmographical purpose in travel 287 CHAPTER II. NATURAL SCIENCE IN ITALY. Empirical tendency of the nation 289 Dante and astronomy 290 Attitude of the Church towards natural science 290 Influence of Humanism 291 Botany and gardens 292 Zoology and collections of foreign animals 293 Human menagerie of Ippolito Medici 296 CHAPTER III. THE DISCOVERY OF NATURAL BEAUTY. Landscapes in the Middle Ages 299 Petrarch and his ascents of mountains 301 Uberti’s ‘Dittamondo’ 302 The Flemish school of painting 302 Æneas Sylvius and his descriptions 303 Nature in the poets and novelists 305 CHAPTER IV. THE DISCOVERY OF MAN.--SPIRITUAL DESCRIPTION IN POETRY. Popular psychological ground-work. The temperaments 309 Value of unrhymed poetry 310 Value of the Sonnet 310 Dante and the ‘Vita Nuova’ 312