Hear how the youth talk, visit the centers of learning! Other names resound within the walls of the schools, there where we heard only those of St.Thomas, Suarez, Amat, Sanchez, [139] and others who were the idols of our times.

In vain do the friars cry out from the pulpits against our demoralization, as the fish-venders cry out against the cupidity of their customers, disregarding the fact that their wares are stale and unserviceable! In vain do the conventos extend their ramifications to check the new current.

The gods are going! The roots of the tree may weaken the plants that support themselves under it, but they cannot take away life from those other beings, which, like birds, are soaring toward the sky." The Sage spoke with animation, his eyes gleamed.
"Still, the new seed is small," objected Don Filipo incredulously.

"If all enter upon the progress we purchase so dearly, it may be stifled." "Stifled! Who will stifle it?
Man, that weak dwarf, stifle progress, the powerful child of time and action?
When has he been able to do so?
Bigotry, the gibbet, the stake, by endeavoring to stifle it, have hurried it along.

_E pur si muove_, [140] said Galileo, when the Dominicans forced him to declare that the earth does not move, and the same statement might be applied to human progress.