Introduction: The Seeds of Enlightenment

This chapter locates the seeds of the Enlightenment among the humanist authors of the Renaissance. Tracing their germination through the Reformation, it notes that they found the most fertile conditions in countries in Western Europe and sprouted most readily there, whereas they fell on more stony ground in countries further east and south. During the seventeenth century, the first buds of Enlightenment thought burst open in countries along the North Atlantic rim: in the Netherlands, England, Scotland, and along the eastern coastline of North America. Here Enlightenment ideas supported the establishment of a republic devoted to the ideas that human beings as endowed with Reason and with Rights—including the Right to life, liberty, and property—and the idea that human History describes a progressive evolution of knowledge, freedom, and happiness.