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 Now we come to a very different part of history, the period when our own modern world began to be born. It was a dreadful period because the breaking up of the old ideas of religion, of geography and of trade was accompanied by great suffering to many classes and by the loss of many noble lives of those who clung to the old ideas. Yet it was also a splendid period because of the close union and understanding between the new Tudor kings and their people; because England armed herself to face dangers from foreign foes so resolutely that, at the end of it, she was the first sea-power in the world. And it was a time in which England produced a series of really great men in every walk of life. Men's minds were stirred up to think, and so the men with the greatest minds came to the front;

