The Renaissance—the rebirth of man’s mind—blasted the rule of the [mystics]
sky-high, setting the earth free of [their] power. The liberation was not
total, nor was it immediate: the convulsions lasted for centuries, but the
cultural influence of mysticism—of avowed mysticism—was broken. Men could
no longer be told to reject their mind as an impotent tool, when the proof of
its potency was so magnificently evident that the lowest perceptual-level
mentality was not able fully to evade it: men were seeing the achievements of
science.