ch in their turn became
causes of revolution: the rise of the bourgeoisie, of nationalism, and
of individualism.

[Sidenote: The bourgeoisie]

Just as the nobles were wearing away in civil strife and were seeing
their castles shot to pieces by cannon, just as the clergy were wasting
in supine indolence and were riddled by the mockery of humanists, there
arose a new class, eager and able to take the helm of civilization, the
moneyed men of city and of trade. _Nouveaux riches_ as they were, they
had an appetite for pleasure and for ostentation unsurpassed by any, a
love for the world and an impatience of the meek and lowly church, with
her ideal of poverty and of chastity. In their luxurious and leisured
homes they sheltered the arts that made life richer and the philosophy,
or religion, that gave them a good conscience in the work they loved.
Both Renaissance and Reformation were dwellers in the cities and in the
marts of commerce.

[Sidenote: National states]

It was partly the rise of the third estate, but partly also cultural
factors, such as the perfecting of the modern tongues, that made the
national state one of the characteristic products of modern times.
Commerce needs order and strong government; the men who paid the piper
called the tune; police and professional soldiery made the state, once
so racked by feudal wars, peaceful at home and dreaded abroad. If the
consequence of this was an increase in royal power, the kings were
among those who had greatness thrust upon them, rather than achieving
it for themselves. {6} They were but the symbols of the new, proudly
conscious nation, and the police commissioners of the large bankers and
traders.

[Sidenote: Individualism]

The reaction of nascent capitalism on the individual was no less marked
than on state and society, though it was not the only cause of the new
sense of personal worth. Just as the problems of science and of art
became most alluring, the man with sufficient leisure and resource to
solve them was developed by economic forces. In the Middle Ages men
had been less enterprising and less self-conscious. Their thought was
not of themselves as individuals so much as of their membership in
groups. The peoples were divided into well-marked estates, or classes;
industry was co-operative; even the great art of the cathedrals was
rather gild-craft than the expression of a single genius; even learning
was the joint property of universities, not