which the monarch did not respect in his cultivated slaves. Unchanged as if he had been yet in his Salic land, and unskilled in the attainments which the subjugated Romans present to him, the Frank remains true to the laws which made him victorious, too proud and too wise to receive the instruments of his happiness from the hands of those who were themselves unfortunate. Over the mounds where the pride of Rome lies in ashes, he stretches his nomadic tent, brandishes the iron spear, his highest property, over the vanquished soil, plants it before the judgment-seats, and even Christianity, if it will enchain the savage, must gird on the terrific sword.

And now let all foreign influences withdraw from the Child of Nature. The communications between Byzantium and Marseilles, between Alexandria and Rome, are thrown down; the timid merchant flies towards his home, and the stranded ship lies dismantled on the shore. A waste of flood and mountain, a night of barbarous manners, welter before the entrance to Europe; the whole continent is closed round on every side.

A lasting, severe, and remarkable conflict now begins ;-the rude German spirit struggles with the allurements of a new clime, with new passions, with the quiet power of example, with the remnants of conquered Rome, which in his new fatherland still ensnare him with a thousand nets;-and woe to the successor of a Clodian, who, seated upon Trajan's throne, imagines himself a Trajan. A thousand blades are drawn to call the Scythian desert to his remembrance. Hard is the contest between arrogance and freedom, between insolence and firmness; craft endeavours to ensnare wisdom; the dreadful law of mere force is re-established; and for centuries long the heated steel will not cool. A heavy night that obscures every sense, hangs over Europe, and a few sparks of light fly up, only to render the surrounding darkness more fearfully apparent. Eternal Order seems to have fled from the superintendence of the world, or, while pursuing a remote purpose, to have left the present race to its own guidance. But mother alike of all her children, she in the meanwhile protects unresisting Impotence at the foot of the Altar; and against a danger from which she cannot exempt it, she strengthens the heart with the faith of resignation. Manners she entrusts to the shelter of a barbarous Christianity, and permits an immature race to lean upon this tottering crutch, which for a stronger generation she will break in pieces. But in this protracted strife, States and Citizens become equally excited; the German Spirit defends itself powerfully against the close ensnaring despotism which crushed the

too easily wearied Roman; the fountain of freedom gushes forth in a living stream;-unconquered and secure, the later generation arrives at that better era, where, brought thither by the joint labour of fortune and of man, the light of thought and the power of determination, Insight and Heroism shall at last be united together. While Rome yet produced her Scipios and Fabii, the sages were denied her, who might have shown an aim to their virtue;-when her sages flourished, despotism had devoured its victim, and the benefit of their appearance was lost on an enervated age. Grecian virtue, too, reached not down to the brilliant times of Pericles and Alexander, and when Haroun taught his Arabs to think, the glow of their bosoms had already grown cold. It was a better genius that watched over modern Europe. The long military training of the middle ages had given to the sixteenth century a healthy powerful population, and had raised up able warriors to combat in the cause of Reason, who now displayed her banner.

In what other part of the earth has the head inspired the heart with ardour, and Truth * nerved the arm of the brave?— Where otherwise is the prodigy to be seen of the syllogisms of peaceful enquiries, becoming the watchwords in sanguinary battles, of the voice of self-love being silent against the power of conviction, of man, at last, making what is noblest in his estimation, also dearest to him? The loftiest exertions of Greek and Roman virtue had never overstepped the limits of civil duty, never, or only in one solitary sage, whose name is the greatest reproach of his time: the greatest sacrifice which the nation in its heroic age ever offered, was offered to the fatherland. It is only at the end of the middle ages that a devotion is recognised in Europe, which sacrifices even country itself to a higher divinity. And why is this phenomenon only seen here, and even here only once? Because only in Europe, and there only at the conclusion of the Middle Ages, the energy of Will encountered the light of Understanding, here only a still masculine race is delivered up to the arms of Wisdom.

Throughout the whole province of history, we perceive the development of States and the development of minds to observe a very different law of progress. States are annual plants which blossom in a short summer, and from fullness of juice soon

Or what man held to be Truth. It is scarcely necessary to premise, that we do not here refer to the value of the acquisition which may be made, but only to the labour of the undertaking,—to the industry, not the produce. Whatever it may be for which men struggle, it is still a conflict of Reason, for it is only through Reason that man has become conscious of his right to that for which he combats, and it is for this right alone that he desires to fight.

hasten into corruption. Cultivation is a plant of slow growth, only brought to maturity by a favourable sky, many cares, and a long series of springs. And why this difference? Because States are upheld by Passion, which finds a spark to fire it in every human breast; Cultivation by Understanding, which is only developed by extraneous assistance, and fortunate discoveries, which time and accident slowly bring about. How frequently will the one plant bloom and wither, before the other once ripens! How difficult it thus becomes, for States to wait for Cultivation, that tardy Reason may meet with early-blooming Freedom! Once only in the whole history of the world, has Providence laid down to herself this problem, and we have seen how she has solved it. Through the long strife of the middle ages, she kept the political life of Europe fresh and vigorous, until at last the materials were brought together, for carrying the moral life to its full development.*

Europe alone possesses States which are at once enlightened, civilized, and unsubdued; everywhere else, barbarism dwells with freedom, and slavery with cultivation. But Europe too has alone struggled through ten warlike centuries, and it was only the devastation of the fifth and sixth centuries that could bring about this belligerent period. It is not the blood of their ancestors, nor the qualities of their race, that has preserved our forefathers from the yoke of bondage, for their equally freeborn brethren the Turcomans and the Mantschouans have bent their necks under despotism. It is not the European soil or sky which has saved them from this fate, for on the same soil, and under the same sky, Gaul and Briton, Etrurian and Lusitanian, have borne the chains of Rome. The sword of the Vandals and Huns, that without forbearance mowed down the nations

* Freedom and Culture, although so inseparably united in their highest fulfilment, and only through such union capable of perfection, are yet as difficult to combine in their progressive stages. Peace is the condition of Culture, but there is nothing more dangerous to freedom than Peace. All the polished nations of Antiquity purchased the bloom of their improvement at the price of their freedom, because they owed their peace to oppression. And therefore their improvement itself led to their ruin, for out of the corruptible had it arisen. If the new race was to be spared this sacrifice, i. e. if Freedom and Culture were to unite together under its auspices, it was necessary that it should obtain its peace in a quite different way than through despotism. No other way was possible but that of Law, for man while still free can create that for himself. But he can only be determined to that course through insight and experience either of the use of Law, or of the evil consequences of its opposite. The first, however, pre-supposes that which is now for the first time to occur and be maintained, so that it is only through the evil consequences of lawlessness, that he can be determined to the formation of Law. Lawlessness, however, is only of very short duration, and passes with rapid transition into arbitrary power. Before Reason could have discovered Law, Anarchy would long have ended in Despotism. In order therefore that Reason may find time to create Laws for itself, Anarchy must be prolonged; which has happened in the Middle Ages.

of the West, and the powerful race of men which re-filled the well-cleared stage, and came out unsubdued from a struggle of ten centuries, these are the creators of our present happiness; and thus we recognise again the Spirit of Order in the two most terrible phenomena which history exhibits.

We offer no excuse for this long digression. The great epochs of history connect themselves too closely together, to make it possible to explain one without the others, and the event of the Crusades was only the beginning of the solution of a problem which the migration of nations presents to the philosopher of history.

It is in the thirteenth century that the genius of the world, assiduously labouring in darkness, draws aside the curtain to reveal a part of his work. The dark cloud-curtain which for a thousand years hung over the horizon of Europe now divides, and a brighter sky looks through. The combined evils of Spiritual uniformity, and political division, the hierarchy and the feudal system, completed and perfected in the course of the eleventh century, must even in their monstrous birth prepare a termination for themselves in the mad intoxication of the Holy Wars.

A fanatical zeal breaks out anew in the imprisoned West, and the adult son steps forth from his paternal house. Astonished, he contemplates himself among new nations; by the Thracian Bosphorus he rejoices in his freedom and courage; at Byzantium blushes for his uncultivated taste, his ignorance, his barbarism; and in Asia is horror-struck at his poverty. What he took from thence and brought home with him, the annals of Europe testify; what he took there and left behind him, the history of the East, if we had one, would show us. But does it not seem as if the heroic spirit of the Franks had breathed a transient life into expiring Byzantium? Unexpectedly she revives with her Comnenas, and re-invigorated by the short visit of the Germans, proceeds henceforth with a more dignified step towards her dissolution.

Behind the Crusader, the merchant builds his bridges, and the re-discovered bond between the East and West, feebly supported amid the whirl of warfare, is strengthened and perpetuated by the more powerful tie of commerce. The Levantine ship salutes her well-known waters again, and her rich cargo rouses longing Europe to industry. Soon will she throw aside. the uncertain guidance of Arcturus, and with a sure rule within herself, venture with confidence over unvisited seas.

The wants of Asia follow the European to his home;-but here his forests no longer acknowledge him for their lord, and

other banners float above his castles. Impoverished at home, that he might glitter on the shores of the Euphrates, he at last gives up his adored idol of independence, and his evil sovereignty, and permits his bondsmen to recover the rights of nature by purchase. He now willingly presents his arm to the chain, which adorns him indeed, but at the same time tames the hitherto untameable. The majesty of kings is established, while the serfs of the soil grow into men; and from out the sea of desolation, a new fruitful land rises up triumphant over misery -the Community of Citizenship.

He alone, who had been the soul of the whole undertaking, and who had caused all Christendom to labour for his aggrandizement, the Roman hierarch, saw his expectations baffled. The pursuit of a phantom in the East caused him to lose a real crown in the West. His strength lay in the impotence of kings; -anarchy and civil war were the inexhaustible armoury from which he drew his thunder. Even now he hurls it forth, but he is met by the increased power of royalty. No Anathema, no heaven-closing Interdict, no absolution from sacred obligations, will now dissolve the salutary bonds which knit the subject to his lawful ruler. In vain does his impotent fury war against Time, which first raised up his throne, and now drags him from it. From superstition was this bugbear of the middle ages produced, through discord it became great; so feeble were its roots; so rapidly and frightfully had it grown in the eleventh century,―no age of the world has seen its like. Who could conceive that the enemy of the holiest freedom, would become an instrument in aiding the cause of liberty? As the quarrel between the kings and nobles becomes inflamed, he throws himself between the unequal combatants, and holds back the perilous decision, until in the Third Estate, a better combatant grows up to supply the place of the creature of the moment. Nourished on confusion, he now pines away amid order; product of darkness, he vanishes from the light. But did the dictator disappear who sped to the aid of fallen Rome against Pompey? Or Pisistratus who separated the factions of Athens? Rome and Athens passed out of civil war into slavery, modern Europe into freedom. Why was Europe the more fortunate ? Because here that was accomplished by a fleeting phantom, which there was done by an abiding power,-because here alone an arm was found, powerful enough to hinder oppression in others, but too weak to practise it itself.

How differently does man sow, from the manner in which fortune permits him to reap!-In order to chain Asia to the footstool of his throne, the Holy Father delivers a million of