{73} On the far off plains of Bohemia, among the rugged mountains of the Tyrol, by Alpine torrents and in the valleys of Piedmont, as well as on the distant shores of England and Scotland, its words were carefully read and pondered. In size it was nearly equal to the New Testament, and by many of the humble classes it was revered as its equal in authority. Many of its truths were conveyed in the form of fable or parable. Historians generally write in the interest of some sect or party, and finding in it little to flatter the pride or vanity of man, have frequently passed it by in silence or have given it merely a passing notice, but it was evidently an instrument in the hands of God for awakening human intellect. Meanwhile the boundaries of human knowledge were greatly enlarged. Chemistry and medicine had taken their places as established sciences. Roger Bacon, who was born A. D. 1214, had already astonished the learned by his experiments and discoveries in optics, mathematics and chemistry. At the present time it is almost impossible to comprehend the difficulties and perils which then attended every step in experimental science. For example, in making some experiments on the properties of antimony, or stibium, as it was then called, it was found that when given to the swine in their food it increased their fatness with surprising rapidity. But when it was administered to some half-starved monks the poor fellows were every one killed. Hence the modern name of antimony, from _anti_, against, and _moine_, a monk. It may also be added that antimony, whether used as a medicine or in the composition of printer's type for the dissemination of truth is equally unhealthy for sectarian bigots of every description. Geographical knowledge had also been greatly extended. Adventurous merchants had sailed along both the eastern and western shores of Africa far south of the equator, for they discovered stars and constellations invisible in northern latitudes. The Azores and Canary Islands had been rediscovered after a lapse of more than a thousand years. Portuguese sailors had already made voyages to far off Iceland, the "Ullima Thule" of the ancients. With the exception of north-eastern Asia and southern Africa, the entire boundaries of the eastern continent were known. Marco Polo, in the {74} interests of Venetian commerce, had explored the vast regions of central Asia, and Moorish merchants of Tripoli, by means of caravans, had trafficked with the tribes of central Africa. The states of Europe had commenced to assume their modern forms; Portugal had become independent of Spain about A. D. 1139; Switzerland, under Rudolph of Hapsburg, became a distinct nationality in A. D. 1151; Ireland was subjugated by Henry II., of England, in A. D. 1172, and British constitutional government commenced by wresting the Magna Charta from King John, in A. D. 1215.