If the consequence of this was an increase in royal power, the kings were among those who had greatness thrust upon them, rather than achieving it for themselves.

{6} They were but the symbols of the new, proudly conscious nation, and the police commissioners of the large bankers and traders.
[Sidenote: Individualism] The reaction of nascent capitalism on the individual was no less marked than on state and society, though it was not the only cause of the new sense of personal worth.

Just as the problems of science and of art became most alluring, the man with sufficient leisure and resource to solve them was developed by economic forces.

In the Middle Ages men had been less enterprising and less self-conscious.

Their thought was not of themselves as individuals so much as of their membership in groups.