Knowledge advances with time and experience; perfection is not necessarily associated with antiquity; the latest comers have inherited from their predecessors and added new acquisitions of their own.

But Perrault has thought out the subject methodically, and he draws conclusions which have only to be extended to amount to a definite theory of the progress of knowledge.
A particular difficulty had done much to hinder a general admission of progressive improvement in the past.

The proposition that the posterior is better and the late comers have the advantage seemed to be incompatible with an obvious historical fact.

We are superior to the men of the dark ages in knowledge and arts.Granted.But will you say that the men of the tenth century were superior to the Greeks and Romans?
To this question--on which Tassoni had already touched--Perrault replies: Certainly not.

There are breaches of continuity.