The breadth of the 17th century was an era of both bloody conflict and monumental revelation. Amid these turbulent events stepped forward such brave souls as Galileo, Isaac Newton, Gottfried Leibniz, William Bradford, Pocahontas, Miguel de Cervantes, René Descartes, and Thomas Hobbes, who imparted their wisdom upon society, whether the world was prepared to hear it or not. For such trying times the scientific philosopher Francis Bacon said reassuringly, “The monuments of wit survive the monuments of power.”
