equal to the ancients, Hakewill signalises Sir Philip Sidney,
Spenser, Marot, Ronsard, Ariosto, Tasso (Book iii. chap. 8, Section
3).]

One of the arguments which he urges against the theory of
degeneration is pragmatic--its paralysing effect on human energy.
"The opinion of the world's universal decay quails the hopes and
blunts the edge of men's endeavours." And the effort to improve the
world, he implies, is a duty we owe to posterity.

"Let not then the vain shadows of the world's fatal decay keep us
either from looking backward to the imitation of our noble
predecessors or forward in providing for posterity, but as our
predecessors worthily provided, for us, so let our posterity bless
us in providing for them, it being still as uncertain to us what
generations are still to ensue, as it was to our predecessors in
their ages."

We note the suggestion that history may be conceived as a sequence
of improvements in civilisation, but we note also that Hakewill here
is faced by the obstacle which Christian theology offered to the
logical expansion of the idea. It is uncertain what generations are
still to ensue. Roger Bacon stood before the same dead wall.
Hakewill thinks that he is living in the last age of the world; but
how long it shall last is a question which cannot be resolved, "it
being one of those secrets which the Almighty hath locked up in the
cabinet of His own counsel." Yet he consoles himself and his readers
with a consideration which suggests that the end is not yet very
near." [Footnote: See Book i. chap. 2, Section 4, p. 24.] It is
agreed upon all sides by Divines that at least two signs forerunning