PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE 449

The barbarians, while they destroyed much that was unten-
able in the older civilisation, also invigorated Europe with
fresh blood and ideas. Amidst the ' encircling gloom' of the
Dark Ages * The City of God * not merely endured but also
tamed and humanised the savages. The Moors, Aristotle,
Latin, tihe See of St. Peter, and the monastic orders, pre-
vented Europe from lapsing into utter barbarism; while
feudalism, the Knight-errantry of the Crusades, the medieval
gilds, and the widespread trade and intercourse proved the
veritable seeds of Europe's liberation from the shackles
of the past. Both the spirit of localism bred by the manor
and the gild, as well as the universalism of the Church and
commerce, were to yield place to the larger parochialism
of nation-states and the greater unity of our modem inter-
dependent world. Dynasticism was the parent of the former
and Renaissance the harbinger of the latter. Indeed, as
we remarked before, the Present is the child of the Past
and the parent of the Future.

Dynastic monarchism, the product and preserver of the
Old Order, could not preserve itsdf from the products of the
New Order. Both the Pope and the Potentates, the erstwhile
rivals for ascendancy in medieval Europe, found new rivals
in the Protestant movements and the rise of the democratic
spirit. There was a dual revolt: one against the autocracy
of the medieval Church, the other against the autocracy of
the equally medieval-minded monarchy. The ferment that
heralded the birth of our new world, however, has remain-
ed with us as a permanent invigorating (or is it inebriat-
ing?) dement to leaven modem life. Many things have
gone into its brew, out of which we may single out only
a few of the most important ingredients. In brief, the spirit
of exploration and discovery, the spirit of experimentalism
and earnest enquiry, unfettered by tradition or authority,