But other speculative minds of the age, though less audacious, were equally inspired by the idea of freely interrogating nature, and were all engaged in accomplishing the programme of the Renaissance--the vindication of this world as possessing a value for man independent of its relations to any supermundane sphere.

The raptures of Giordano Bruno and the sobrieties of Francis Bacon are here on common ground.

The whole movement was a necessary prelude to a new age of which science was to be the mistress.
It is to be noted that there was a general feeling of complacency as to the condition of learning and intellectual pursuits.

This optimism is expressed by Rabelais.

Gargantua, in a letter to Pantagruel, studying at Paris, enlarges to his son on the vast improvements in learning and education which had recently, he says, been brought about.