e martyred John Huss
had little about them that was beneficial.

The great moral school of the Middle Ages was the institution of
chivalry, which existed to animate and cherish the principle of honour.
To this a strong religious flavor was superadded, perhaps by the
Crusades. To valour and devotion was added the law of service to
womanhood, and chivalry may fairly claim to have developed generally the
three virtues essential to it, of loyalty, courtesy, and liberality.
Resting, however, as it did on the personal prowess and skill of the
individual in single combat, the whole system of chivalry was destroyed
by the introduction on an extensive scale of the use of firearms.

We turn lastly to the intellectual improvement which may be referred to
four points: the study of civil laws the institution of universities;
the application of modern languages to literature, and especially to
poetry; and the revival of ancient learning. Education may almost be
said to have begun with the establishment of the great schools by
Charlemagne out of which sprang the European universities. For a long
time of course all studies were dominated by that of theology, and the
scholastic philosophy which pertained to it. Barren as these pursuits
were, they kept alive an intellectual activity which ultimately found
fresh channels. The Romance languages developed a new literature first
on the tongues of the troubadours and then in Italy--the Italy which
gave birth to Dante and Petrarch. It was about the fourteenth century
that a new enthusiasm was born for the study of classical authors,
though Greek was still unknown. And the final and decisive impulse was
given when the invention of printing made the great multiplication of
books possible.

* * * * *

STANLEY LANE-POOLE

Egypt in the Middle Ages

Stanley Lane-Poole, born on December 18, 1845, studied Arabic
under his great-uncle, Lane, the Orientalist, and, before
going up to Oxford for his degree, began his "Catalogue of
Oriental Coins in the British Museum," which appeared in
fourteen volumes between 1875 and 1892, and founded his
reputation as the first living authority on Arabic
numismatics. In 1883, 1896, and 1897 he was at Cairo
officially employed by the British Government upon the
Mohammedan antiquities, and published his treatise on "The Art
of the Saracens in Egypt" in 1886, in which year