"It is possible that the men of the Renaissance were less capable of seeing history as the ascent of the human race, or... the successive centuries as... advancing, than even their medieval predecessors... What they saw behind them... were the peaks of classical antiquity... the summit of human reason... reached by the Greeks and since lost, the ideal for the return of which they... were engaging their finest endeavors. ...[T]hey were governed by... a static outlook... and... a theory of decadence... under a [cyclic] system. ...{T]ime and the course of history were not considered to be... generative of anything. ...[N]o conception of a world expanding to ever grander things, to an expanding future ..."
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The Origins of Modern Science
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