of the sea was on the ancient world; a heart of oak
and triple bronze was needed to venture on the ocean, and its
annihilation was one of the blessings of the new earth promised by the
Apocalypse. All through the centuries Europe remained sea-locked,
until the bold Portuguese mariners venturing ever further and further
south along the coast of Africa, finally doubled the Cape of Good
Hope--a feat first performed by Bartholomew Diaz in 1486, though it was
not until 1498 that Vasco da Gama reached India by this method.

Still unconquered lay the stormy and terrible Atlantic,

"Where, beyond the extreme sea-wall,
and between the remote sea-gates,
Waste water washes, and tall ships founder,
and deep death waits."

But the ark of Europe found her dove--as the name Columbus
signifies--to fly over the wild, western {11} waves, and bring her news
of strange countries. The effect of these discoveries, enormously and
increasingly important from the material standpoint, was first felt in
the widening of the imagination. Camoens wrote the epic of Da Gama,
More placed his Utopia in America, and Montaigne speculated on the
curious customs of the redskins. Ariosto wrote of the wonders of the
new world in his poem, and Luther occasionally alluded to them in his
sermons.

[Sidenote: Universities]

If printing opened the broad road to popular education, other and more
formal means to the same end were not neglected. One of the great
innovations of the Middle Ages was the university. These permanent
corporations, dedicated to the advancement of learning and the
instruction of youth, first arose, early in the twelfth century, at
Salerno, at Bologna and at Paris. As off-shoots of these, or in
imitation of them, many similar institutions sprang up in every land of
western Europe. The last half of the fifteenth century was especially
rich in such foundations. In Germany, from 1450 to 1517, no less than
nine new academies were started: Greifswald 1456, Freiburg in the
Breisgau 1460, Basle 1460, Ingolstadt 1472, Treves 1473, Mayence 1477,
Tuebingen 1477, Wittenberg 1502, and Frankfort on the Oder 1506. Though
generally founded by papal charter, and maintaining a strong
ecclesiastical flavor, these institutions were under the direction of
the civil government.

In France three new universities opened their doors during the same
period: Valence 1459, Nantes 1460, Bourges 1464. These were all placed
under the ge