In previous chapters we have seen how the Arabs, inspired with an extraordinary zeal for acquiring knowledge of the different sciences, devoted time and money freely, throughout a period of several centuries, to the accomplishment of this purpose. They were fired with ambition to become a great nation, and their studies of the world’s history taught them that the ancient Greeks had accumulated in their literature vast stores of the very knowledge which they were so anxious to acquire. Accordingly all their energies were directed toward converting these stores from the Greek into their own language, the Arabic. This widespread eagerness of the nation, at a given period of its history, to improve itself intellectually is spoken of as the Arabic Renaissance, and, at the time which I am now about to consider, the movement had practically come to a standstill. A short time, however, before this occurred, the physicians of Italy and of the more northerly countries of Western Europe began to show a similar desire to add to their medical literature; and their first step, like that of the Arabs four or five centuries earlier, was directed to the work of translating Arabic medical treatises into debased Latin, which was the language commonly employed by the learned during the Middle Ages. The knowledge which they desired to acquire could not at that time be obtained in any other way, for nobody was acquainted with the Greek language, and, besides, Greek originals had not yet been brought into Western Europe. These first evidences of the Renaissance in that part of the world were not confined to physicians; they were to be found in every walk of life. The development of the movement reminds one of what takes place near the sea coast, where a period of heat and calm is suddenly broken by the appearance of a few gentle puffs of wind, which are quickly succeeded by the full force of a steady and refreshing sea-breeze. In like manner feeble indications of the coming movement appeared in Italy, France, Germany and even England, and these were soon followed by unmistakable evidences that a genuine Renaissance of widespread proportions had begun. It was as if a great awakening had taken place among the nations which had for centuries lain dormant; an awakening which was followed by a desire to lay aside the trivial pursuits in which they had so far been engaged, and to attain those results which were, later on, to excite the wonder and admiration of the world. Such were, for example, the development of the art of printing with movable types; the discovery of America; the production of such clever painters, sculptors, engravers, workers in metal, etc., as Michael Angelo, Raphael, Albrecht Dürer, Benvenuto Cellini, Rembrandt, and literally scores of others of nearly equal merit; the development of a Shakespeare, a Milton and a Dante in the field of literature; the production of a Luther, a man who had the courage to