316 A BRIEF SURVEY OF HUMAN HISTORY

it is well to recapitulate some of the outstanding tendencies
of the Medieval times which already indicated the trans-
formation that was to follow.

We cannot too often emphasise the continuity of human life
and civilisation. There are no chasms in human progress.
It is one long march from the primitive to the modern cul-
ture. The past never completely dies; it grows through
the present into the future. The process may be sometimes
slow, sometimes even disturbed, but never suspended. Like-
wise its pace is on occasions considerably quickened, as dur-
ing the fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. Hence what
appears to be a revival is not exactly a re-birth. There
was in the New1 Age much that was old, but not necessarily
like the reprint of an old edition of a book. Rather, it
was the promise of childhood being fulfilled in maturity.
We have witnessed how the legacies of Egypt and the Orient
supplied the foundations of Greek civilisation and the Greeks
inspired the Romans to enrich their own with the peculiar
creations of the Hellenic genius. Similarly the Medieval
civilisation rested upon the relics of the Roman Empire and
culture. The barbarians who appeared to overthrow these
in the Dark Ages did not really destroy everything. They
only cut down the tares and weeds and stimulated a fresh
growth. For instance, under the aegis of the Church and
monasteries -Latin continued to be universally studied and
Roman Law survived the fall of the Empire which had
promulgated it. Medieval European society was a com-
pound of Latin and Teutonic elements.

The birth of Islam m, the seventh century and its west-
ward movement introduced another new dement into
European civilisation. Though the Moors and Saracens were
regarded as the enemies of Christendom they proved to be1
the saviours' and preservers of the Graeco-Roman culture.