ternal fondness. Man now beholds a brother in his fellow-man. He despises not the love of freedom and of country, those mighty levers of Paganism; but they are comprehended in the one feeling of love to his Creator, which embraces that of freedom, country, state, mankind.

I have already stated, that this change could only have been effected by gradual advances, and not by sudden transition. In the middle ages, we even meet with appearances which cause a fear lest mankind might retrograde: yet these are but appearances. Amidst blood and tears, the genius of mankind struggles onward for perfection; and there is no rest, still less can there be return. We often find that the first ten centuries of the Christian era are termed the dark ages, and described as having been plunged in barbarism; an opinion which, to me, appears questionable, inasmuch as, from century to century, we perceive the light of higher cultivation, slowly and faintly indeed, but increasingly, brightening above the ruins of Roman grandeur. The northern hordes, who rushed from their forest haunts, to the destruction of the old world and the foundation of the new, were assuredly barbarians, as compared with the sensual, enervated, but refined Romans; yet the influence of Christianity imperceptibly softened their primitive rudeness, and, in the cultivation which succeeded it, we have an instance, that the harder the material, the more highly it may be polished.

The elements of the Roman character, as far as

they could be conveyed by language, laws, and some scanty relics of science and art, passed into the political and civil life of the new adventurers, and had no small influence on the culture of the western states. We now see the youth stand forward, having laid aside whatever is boyish. We frequently find him misguided by overpowering feeling,-led astray by passion; but this serves only as a preparatory struggling for his inward and outward improvement, and his better nature always gains the ascendancy within him.

We may here comprehend all the western nations under one view, taking them as a collective people; for, with the exception of the Slavonians, the descent of these different nations is, more or less, in common; and this proceeding will be further justified by the similarity of character prevailing among them, and by the analogous course of their moral and political improvement. I have no wish to deny the peculiar character of every nation; but the general family likeness, if I may so call it, among the western peoples of German origin, still remains, and for the purpose of our present consideration, their history is one and the same. Poetry and chivalry, feudalism and hierarchy, crusades and the reformation, are historical subjects, which, with all the occidental peoples, are represented by similar features and influences. A chord struck at one extremity of Europe resounded through the whole of western Christendom; and thus the Christian doctrine pervaded those nations with a

consciousness of their being united in relation to the Deity.

I have above pointed out the preponderance of feeling, as characteristic of the middle ages; but, gentlemen, you must not conceive that fancy and intellect, the leading features of the classical age, had been wholly extinguished. In the history of the world, no nation passes away without transmitting its spiritual treasures to the succeeding; and thus every period receives the spiritual state of that which has gone before it, and reflects in the present the character of the past. This will not be always equally perceptible;-times of disturbance, of great national commotion arise, and, apparently, have an injurious effect on the intellectual progress of mankind: yet these mental exercises serve as useful preparatives for the arts of peace. In the hands of Providence, war is a powerful means for the propagation of intellectual culture among men. War gave Greek cultivation to the Romans, and war subjected German barbarians to the civilizing influence of their vanquished foes. The crusades roused Europe from its torpor to a new and active life; and we may safely assert, that the thirty years' war completed the reformation. In itself, war is unquestionably an evil; but Providence sends it, like the tempests, to purify the air, and to prevent the more fatal evils of enervation and torpor. If, then, during the great wars among mankind, mental culture be apparently suspended, we should regard this as a state prepara

tory to the highest efforts; for in the calm, succeeding these national storms, we often see that arts and sciences flourish in a degree proportionate to the apparent oblivion into which they had fallen during the strife. In the youth of mankind, during the middle ages, fancy and intellect were subservient to feeling, which was expressed by faith. I have no wish to be thought the unqualified eulogist of the middle ages; I acknowledge the dark side of this period, and its many deficiencies: but the freshness of youthful life, the great activity among all classes, and the flourishing state of poetry and art, cannot be denied, though they are too often treated by the moderns with unmerited contempt. The views, customs, manners, laws, and constitution of the old world had passed over to the new, where they became amalgamated with those of the northern nations; and the historical observer seems to discover an unknown region, where he beholds, in utter amazement, the motley appearances of the middle ages, especially as they stand forth after the destruction of Rome. The sphere of mankind appears to be entirely changed. It is no longer the horizon of a child;-new elements appear;-honour, love, and faith, constitute the character of a period to which modern times have rightly given the denomination of romantic. It is in this romantic period that we find the three forms, chivalry, hierarchy, and the minne-song,-forms, which lend to this remarkable epoch the beautiful colours in which we see it brighten. We see chivalry and

hierarchy, the forms of honour and of faith, existing as worldly empire and spiritual dominion, for a time in peace with each other, but at length coming into passionate contact; and their strife is the great and important historical event, round which the whole life and activity of the middle ages are found to revolve. Such a strife, considered in itself, and without reference to political consequences, must have a deep interest for the historical observer; but how is such interest heightened, when we reflect that the development of the various forms of civil society, and also the poetical character of the middle ages, can be explained only by watching the course of this contention! A mediatrix between the two opposing elements stands Poetry, subservient to, and reconciling, both. How this is to be understood I purpose to show by a few explanatory remarks.

Christianity, as has been remarked, could not revive, in the enervated Romans, that exalted national feeling, by which they had attained to such power and grandeur. On the contrary, through its cosmopolitan tendency, it accelerated that extinction of the exclusive Roman mind, which was finally consummated by Constantine, when he removed the seat of empire from Rome. The preservation of a Roman people was no longer the question: the sole object was the foundation of an imperial throne, with a corresponding dominion; and it is clear, that the annihilation of this colossal power, in all the nations of the then known world, contributed greatly to the