Excerpt from Passages From the History of Liberty It is hardly necessary to explain the connection between the Passages, drawn all from one great stream of History, which are contained in this little volume. The efforts of the first Italian Reformers, here, of course, very briefly sketched, are illustrations of the isolation and travail of the Dark Ages. Wycliffe's work was a work of national principles, just beginning, in his time, to be acknowledged by his country of England. Savonarola's reforms express the desires for peace and purification, which were in all true hearts, during a period of so much strife and so many stains, as that period of transition from the Middle Ages to our Modern Times. The Castilian war is one among numerous histories concerning the same desires for juster principles and larger life, as they were in many places forced into struggles, tumultuous and unavailing. Without turning away from abstract truths, that are vigorous and beautiful to all who have open souls, we may be glad to seek the greater power and completer beauty which belong to human examples. We begin with things individual to end with things general, and all our Cathedrals must be built up, column by column, stone by stone. It is after such simplest purposes that these passages are here put together. Although neither many in number, nor full in detail, they may nevertheless be as clear, separately, as a single diminutive volume can be made to comprehend. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.