In the modern age, humanism has been the major driving force in social change. With a missionary fervor rivalling Christianity and Islam, humanism has captured men and institutions all over the world, and much in our world today is a product of humanism.
In a study of The Renaissance in Perspective, Philip Lee Ralph (St. Martin’s Press, 1973), commented on the humanists’ hope: “Together with other thinkers of the age, Erasmus, More, and Machiavelli shared a conviction that, without any change in human nature or any drastic altering of institutions, the political order could be made to serve desirable human ends.” Ralph rightly calls attention to Machiavelli’s “most remarkable quality,” his belief that “splendid opportunities lie at hand, waiting to be seized upon” (pp. 75–76).
