Page:The Hunterian Oration, delivered before the Royal College of Surgeons ... February 14, 1817 (IA b22009358).pdf/25

17 amongst those of the highest rank in society many could not write their names.

A spirit of inquiry however now began to arise, and, in the course of the fifteenth century, the grand discovery of the art of print- ing was made, by means of which the learning of the Ancients became diffused over Europe. The learned languages were studied with zeal; and the cultivation of science in general was prosecuted with an ardour highly honourable to the age. Universities, Academies, and Societies of learned men, were established in most of the countries of Europe, under the protection of their respective governments. In England, two venerable institutions of this kind had been founded some centuries before, from whence have issued men whose profound erudition