Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/78

 66 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE paniment of the zither. He was a profound and tho- rough student of philosophy, and his philosophical writings are remarkable for the sharpness of their defi- nitions and the clearness of their language. He was also conversant in natural history and medicine, and in the last years of his life he turned to the study of Hebrew, gave instruction in this language to several gifted youngsters, and completed a translation of the Psalms from the original text. But his chief power lay not so much in his compre- hensive knowledge and acquirements as in his personal labours and his unremitting exertions for the revival of classic literature. He effected in this respect for Ger- many what Petrarch accomplished for Italy. He was the first to publish in Germany a life of that great Italian Humanist. ' We are indebted to Petrarch,' he says, ' for the intellectual culture of our century. All ages owe him a debt of gratitude — antiquity for having rescued its treasures from oblivion, and modern times for having founded and revived culture, which he has left as a precious legacy to future ages.' There were several points of resemblance between these two men. Like Petrarch, Agricola was possessed of a continual desire to travel, and he had the same horror of public posts ; he wished only for a life of undisturbed study and freedom to sow the seeds of his new culture. Like Petrarch, too, he was an ardent lover of the Fatherland, and he strove ever to strengthen the German nation in the consciousness of its own worth and importance. But in his profound Christian conception of the whole of life, and in the purity of his morals, he far sur- passed the founder of the Italian school of Humanists. ' Therein,' says Wimpheling, ' lies Agricola's true