Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/9

 subject of this book is the transition from the Classical to the Mediæval. It seeks to follow the changes undergone by classic thought, letters, and art, on their way to form part of the intellectual development of the Middle Ages, and to show how pagan tastes and ideals gave place to the ideals of Christianity and to Christian sentiments. The argument reaches backward to classic Greece and Rome and forward into the Middle Ages; but the discussion centres in the period extending from the fourth to the seventh century. This period was strikingly transitional in Italy and the western provinces of the Roman Empire; before it had passed, the various elements of classic culture had assumed the forms in which they were to make part of the intellectual life of the Middle Ages, and Christianity had taken on a mediæval character.

In considering the antecedents of the transition period it is necessary to look to Greek as well as Roman sources, to the East as well as to the West. But the West of Europe is the province of this book, and the discussion tends always to turn from the