rise of an independent learned class in western Europe. This came with the rise of the universities, to which we next turn, and out of which in time arose the future independent scholarship of Europe, America, and the world in general. We also discover a series of new movements, connected with the Crusades, the rise of cities, and the revival of trade and industry, all of which clearly mark the close of the dark period of the Middle Ages. We note, too, the evolution of new social classes--a new Estate--destined in time to eclipse in importance both priest and noble and to become for long the ruling classes of the modern world. We also note the beginnings of an important independent system of education for the hand-workers which sufficed until the days of steam, machinery, and the evolution of the factory system. The eleventh and twelfth centuries were turning-points of great significance in the history of our western civilization, and with the opening of the wonderful thirteenth century the western world is well headed toward a new life and modern ways of thinking. QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 1. Why is it that a strong religious control is never favorable to originality in thinking? 2. Show how the work of the Nestorian Christians for the Mohammedan faith was another example of the Hellenization of the ancient world. 3. Would it be possible for any people anywhere in the world today to make such advances as were made at Bagdad, in the late eighth and early ninth centuries, without such work permanently influencing the course of civilization and learning everywhere? To what is the difference due? 4. What were the chief obstacles to Europe adopting at once the learning from Mohammedan Spain, instead of waiting centuries to discover this learning independently? 5. Why did Aristotle's work seem of much greater value to the mediaeval scholar than the Moslem science? What are the relative values to-day? 6. Why should the light literature of Spain be spoken of as a gay contagion? Did this Christian attitude toward fiction and poetry continue long? 7. In what ways was the _Sic et Non_ of Abelard a complete break with mediaeval traditions? 8. How did the fact that Dialectic (Logic) now became the great subject of study in itself denote a marked intellectual advance? What was the significance of the prominence of this study for the future of thinking? 9. What was the effect on inquiry and individual thinking of the method of presentation used by Saint Thomas Aquinas in his _Summa Theologica_? 10. How do you explain the all-absorbing interest in scholasticism during the greater part of a century? 11. State the significance, for the future, of the revival of the study of Roman law: (a) intellectually; (b) in shaping future civilization. 12. How do you explain the Christian attitude toward disease, and the scientific treatment of it? Has that attitude entirely passed away? Illustrate.