Non-Fiction Narration
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Vocal Characteristics
Language
EnglishVoice Age
Middle Aged (35-54)Accents
North American (General) North American (US General American - GenAM)Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
Chapter 33 a truly new age. If you could talk to a gentleman from the time of the Turkish siege, there would be many things about him that would surprise you the way he spoke and the many Latin and French words he used. His elaborate and convoluted turns of phrase and habit of dipping in Latin quotations that neither you nor I could place and his grand and solemn bows. You would, I think, suspect that beneath that venerable wig was someone with a large appetite for good food and fine wines. And if you will forgive me for mentioning it, you could hardly fail to notice that beneath the fancy lace, the embroidery and the silk, this pranked, perfumed and powder gentlemen stank because he hardly ever washed. But nothing could prepare you for the shock you would have if he were to begin to air his views. All Children should be thrashed. Young girls no more than Children should be married, and two men they barely know a peasant's lot is to toil and not complain. Beggars and tramps should be whipped and put in chains in the marketplace for everyone to mock. Thieves should be hanged and murderers publicly chopped into pieces, which is, and the other harmful sorcerer's that infest the country should be burnt. People of different beliefs should be persecuted, treated as outcasts or thrown into dark dungeons. A comet seen recently in the sky must mean bad times ahead as protection against the coming plague, which has already claimed many victims in Venice, it would be sensible toe wear, a red armband. And finally, Mr So and So an English friend has an excellent and well established business selling Negroes from Africa to America as slaves, a brain wave of that most worthy gentleman. Since, as we all know, American Indian convicts don't take well to manual labor. And you would hear these opinions not only from the mouth of some course or uncouth fellow, but from the most intelligent and pious people in all walks of life and from all nations Onley after 1700 did things gradually change. The widespread and terrible suffering that Europeans endured during the wretched wars of religion had made some people wonder if it was really right to judge someone by his or her religious belief. Was it not more important to be a good and honest human being. Would it not be better if people got on with one another, regardless of any differences of opinion or belief that they might have better if they respected one another and tolerated each other's convictions? This was the first and most important idea that the people who thought about such things now voiced the principle of tolerance. Only in matters of religion could there be differences of opinion. No rational person could dispute the fact that two plus two makes four therefore reason or sound common sense, as they also termed it, is what can and should unite all men in the realm of reason. You can use arguments to convince others of the rightness of your opinions, whereas another's religious beliefs being beyond rational argument should be respected and tolerated. And so reason was the second most important thing to these people. Clear and reasoned, thinking about mankind and nature were rediscovered in the works of the ancient Greeks and Romans and in those of the Florentines during the time of the Renaissance. But more than anywhere else, it was to be found in the works of men like Galileo, who had boldly set out to investigate the magic of nature's mathematical formulas. Differences of belief played no part in these things. There was only experiment and proof. Reason alone could explain the appearance of nature and the workings of the universe, reason which is given an equal measure to all mankind the world over.