" (The Substance of Gothic, p. 69.)
Let us now make a general survey of Dante's century and then consider
the more particular events and circumstances of his environment.
It may be a surprise to you to know that there is a book entitled The
Thirteenth, the Greatest of Centuries by Dr. James J. Walsh, in its
fifth edition with a sale of 70,000 copies. He indeed is not the only
man of letters who signalizes that century for its greatness. To confine
the quotations to two writers well known in our day, I find that Fiske
in his Beginnings of New England says of the thirteenth century: "It was
a wonderful time but after all less memorable as the culmination of
medieval empire and medieval church than as the dawning of the new era
in which we live today." Frederic Harrison, in his Survey of the
Thirteenth Century says, "Of all the epochs of effort after a new life
that ... is the most spiritual, the most really constructive and indeed
the most truly philosophic. It had great thinkers, great rulers, great
teachers, great poets, great artists, great moralists, and great
workmen. It could not be called the material age, the devotional age,
the political age or the poetic age in any special degree. It was
equally poetic, political, industrial, artistic, practical, intellectual
and devotional.
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