JOHN REUCHLIN. PART THE FIRST. INTRODUCTORY VIEW OF THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN REUCHLIN. THE middle ages were neither so dark nor barbarous as many pretend. Those who are best acquainted with the history and progress of literature, are agreed that many noble and splendid scholars existed at every period, from the fourth to the fourteenth century, who laboured indefatigably in the pursuit of truth. Such men, in their sequestered studies, continued to carry forward the great work of human enlightenment-and often anticipated the so-called discoveries of modern times, with a skill that excites astonishment, and a courage that demands admiration. These were the true heroic ages of intellectual resurrection. The master minds that flourished in them won every fragment of the religion and philosophy they sought, by dint of toils and sufferings, which litterateurs of these days can hardly imagine. Alone in the stern solitudes of their own genius, or attached to secret societies, ecclesiastical or theosophical, they pursued the lingering traces of eternal |