Galileo,  to  his  English  contemporaries,  is  '  the  Italian
star-wright'

III.
The  genius   of  youthfulness,   renascent,   not  new-
born, was  dominant  in  that  age,     Adam  stepped  forth
again  in   Eden,  gazed  with  bold  eyes  upon  the  earth
and  stars,  felt  himself  master  there,  plucked  fruit  from
the  forbidden  tree.     But  though  still  young,  though
'  bright  as  at  creation's  day,'  this  now  rejuvenescent
Adam  had  six  thousand    centuries    of  conscious    life,
how  many  countless  centuries  of  dim  unconscious  life,
behind    him !       Not   the    material    world  alone,    not
the   world    of  his    unquenchable   self  alone,    not   the
world  of  inscrutable  futurity  alone,  but,  in  addition  to
all  this,  a  ruinous  world  of  his  own  works  awaiting
reconstruction  lay  around  him.     The  nations  moved
'  immersed  in  rich  foreshadowings  '  of  the  future,  amid
the  dust  of  creeds  and  empires,  which  crumbled  like
'  the  wrecks  of  a  dissolving  dream.'    Refreshed  with  sleep,
the  giant  of  the  modern  age  rose  up  strong  to  shatter
and  create.     Thought  and  action  were  no  longer  to  be
fettered.     Instead  of  tradition  and  prescription,  passion
and  instinct  ruled  the  hour.    Every  nerve  was  sensitive
to  pleasure  bordering  on  pain,  and  pain  that  lost  itself
in  ecstasy.     Men  saw  and  coveted  and  grasped  at  their
desire.     If  they  hated,  they  slew.     If  they  loved  and
could  not  win,  again  they  slew.      If  they  climbed  to
the  height  of  their  ambition  and  fell  toppling  down.
3°  SHAKSPERE'S  PREDECESSORS.
they  died  with  smiles  upon  their  lips  like  Marlowe's
Mortimer.:

Weep  not  for  Mortimer,
That  scorns  the  world,  and,  as  a  traveller.
Goes  to  discover  countries  yet  unknown.
