al intercommunication among men was secured. It culminated in
the modern newspaper, which daily gives its contemporaneous intelligence
from all parts of the world. Reading became a common occupation. In
ancient society that art was possessed by comparatively few persons.
Modern society owes some of its most striking characteristics to this
change.

EFFECTS OF MARITIME ENTERPRISE. Such was the result of bringing into
Europe the manufacture of paper and the printing-press. In like manner
the introduction of the mariner's compass was followed by imposing
material and moral effects. These were--the discovery of America in
consequence of the rivalry of the Venetians and Genoese about the India
trade; the doubling of Africa by De Gama; and the circumnavigation of
the earth by Magellan. With respect to the last, the grandest of
all human undertakings, it is to be remembered that Catholicism had
irrevocably committed itself to the dogma of a flat earth, with the
sky as the floor of heaven, and hell in the under-world. Some of the
Fathers, whose authority was held to be paramount, had, as we have
previously said, furnished philosophical and religious arguments against
the globular form. The controversy had now suddenly come to an end--the
Church was found to be in error.

The correction of that geographical error was by no means the only
important result that followed the three great voyages. The spirit of
Columbus, De Gama, Magellan, diffused itself among all the enterprising
men of Western Europe. Society had been hitherto living under the dogma
of "loyalty to the king, obedience to the Church." It had therefore been
living for others, not for itself. The political effect of that dogma
had culminated in the Crusades. Countless thousands had perished in
wars that could bring them no reward, and of which the result had been
conspicuous failure. Experience had revealed the fact that the only
gainers were the pontiffs, cardinals, and other ecclesiastics in Rome,
and the shipmasters of Venice. But, when it became known that the
wealth of Mexico, Peru, and India, might be shared by any one who had
enterprise and courage, the motives that had animated the restless
populations of Europe suddenly changed. The story of Cortez and Pizarro
found enthusiastic listeners everywhere. Maritime adventure supplanted
religious enthusiasm.

If we attempt to isolate the principle that lay at the basis of the
wonderful social changes that now too