Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/156

136 transition from the Middle Ages to the Modern World, or to dwell on the spirit of the time which witnessed the liberation of reason and gave rise to that passionate recognition of humanity—that escape, "at first hesitating and then triumphant, from a circumscribed life of ecclesiastical tradition into "joyous freedom and unfettered spontaneity." It is not the intellectual side of the New Birth that concerns us here: there was movement everywhere, affecting every sphere of life. The awakening of the nation meant new energy in every department—an energy that was daily gaining strength under Tudor rule. A new England was shaping itself—Englishmen had broken with tradition; they questioned where once they were dumb; they were filled with new hopes, new desires, new ideas. But if men were thirsting after a wider knowledge, they were still as boisterous and merry as in the olden times; if they were ready to educate their children more effectually, they were still keen on festivities, shows, masques, revels, public processions and tournaments; if they reasoned within themselves on matters of State and reform, they were just as unreasoning as heretofore on matters of dress. Thus the age that saw the great Reformation