Note 182 — Chapter XIII · THE RISE OF MODERN FREETHOUGHT—(Continued)

When the total intellectual life of a nation falls ever further in the rear of the world’s movement, even the imaginative arts are stunted. Turkey excepted, the civilized nations of Europe which for two centuries have contributed the fewest great names to the world’s bead-roll have been Spain, Austria, Portugal, Belgium, and Greece, all noted for their “religious unity.” And of all of these Spain is the supreme instance of positive decadence, she having exhibited in the first half of the sixteenth century a greater complex of energy than any of the others.182 The lesson is monumental.