Page:Jesuit Education.djvu/68

48 tion in the classics is followed by a solid course of philosophy, mathematics, and natural sciences. Thus the shortcomings of both systems are effectively obviated.

Both terms: "renaissance" and "humanism", are apt to be misunderstood. If "humanism" means the true perception of man's nature and destiny, or truly humane feelings towards fellow-man and active humanitarian interest in his welfare, then the Middle Ages knew and practised humanism. Thus understood it is in no way different from the sublime principles laid down by the most humane of all teachers, the God-man Jesus Christ. If, however, it signifies a view of life and mankind which recognizes nothing but the purely natural man, which finds in the purely human its highest ideals and rejects the relation to the vision of a future beyond this life, then it was foreign to the medieval mind, as it is foreign to Christianity. For the religious, supernatural element was central in medieval life. If "Revival of Learning" is meant to imply that the ancient classics were altogether unknown during the Middle Ages, it is a wrong conception. But should the word designate a more extensive study, and, above all, a more enthusiastic interest in classical learning which developed even into excessive admiration for antiquity, it is correctly applied to the period closing the Middle Ages.

At the time when scholasticism flourished most, Dante in his grand poem, which has been styled a "Poetical Summa Theologiae", represents the harmonious combination of scholastic and classic learn-