But the spread of printed
editions of the classics, and of large and well-arranged handbooks and
dictionaries, went far to free the people from the necessity of
personal intercourse with the humanists, and, as soon as they could be
but partly dispensed with, the change in popular feeling became
manifest. It was a change under which the good and bad suffered
indiscriminately.
The first to make these charges were certainly the humanists
themselves. Of all men who ever formed a class, they had the least
sense of their common interests, and least respected what there was of
this sense. All means were held lawful, if one of them saw a chance of
supplanting another. From literary discussion they passed with
astonishing suddenness to the fiercest and the most groundless
vituperation. Not satisfied with refuting, they sought to annihilate an
opponent. Something of this must be put to the account of their
position and circumstances; we have seen how fiercely the age, whose
loudest spokesmen they were, was borne to and fro by the passion for
glory and the passion for satire. Their position, too, in practical
life was one that they had continually to fight for. In such a temper
they wrote and spoke and described one another. Pog- gio's works alone
contain dirt enough to create a prejudice against the whole class--and
these 'Opera Poggii' were just those most often printed, on the north
as well as on the south side of the Alps.
Pages:
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317