Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/763

 The Wars of Religion 657 New Atlantis. It describes an imaginary state which some Euro- peans were supposed to have come upon in the Pacific Ocean. The chief institution was a " House of Solomon," a great laboratory for carrying on scientific investigation in the hope of discovering new facts and using them for bettering the condi- tion of the inhabitants. This House of Solomon became a sort of model for the Royal Academy, which was established in London some fifty years after Bacon's death. It still exists and still publishes its proceedings regularly. The earliest societies for scientific research grew up in Italy. Scientific Later the English Royal Society and the French Institute were founds! established, as well as similar associations in Germany* These were the first things of the kind in the history of the world. Their object was not, like that of the old Greek schools of philosophy and the medieval universities, merely to hand down the knowledge derived from the past, but to find out what had never been known before. We have seen how in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries new inventions were made, such as the compass, paper, specta- cles, gunpowder, and, in the fifteenth century, the printing press. But in the seventeenth century progress began to be much more rapid, and an era of invention opened, in the midst of which we still live. The microscope and telescope made it pos- sible to discover innumerable scientific truths that were hidden to the Greeks and Romans. In time this scientific advance produced a spirit of reform., also new in the world, and the sixth chapter of the following volume will be devoted to this. QUESTIONS Section i 09. What were the chief results of the Council of Trent.'^ Why did the Protestants refuse to take part in it .? Give an account of the life of Loyola. What were the objects of the Jesuit order.? What accusations did the Protestants bring against the society ? Section iio. What are your impressions of Philip II ? How did it come about that the Netherlands belonged to Spain.? Describe I