[418] For an account of the ancient bards of Gaul, see the Benedictine Hist. Lit. de la France, vol. i. part i. pp. 25–28. Those of Scotland are noticed in Barry's Hist. of the Orkney Islands, p. 89; and for a modern instance in the island of Col, near Mull, see Otter's Life of Clarke, vol. i. p. 307. As to the Irish bards in the seventh century, see Sharon Turner's Hist. of England, vol. iii. p. 571. Spenser's account of them in the sixteenth century (Somers Tracts, vol. i. pp. 590, 591) shows that the order was then falling into contempt; and in the seventeenth century this is confirmed by Sir William Temple; Essay on Poetry, in Temple's Works, vol. iii. pp. 431, 432. But it was not till the eighteenth century that they became extinct; for Mr. Prior (Life of Goldsmith, vol. i. pp. 36, 37) says, that Carolan, ‘the last of the ancient Irish bards,’ died in 1738. Without them the memory of many events would have been entirely lost; since, even at the end of the seventeenth century, there being no registers in Ireland, the ordinary means of recording facts were so little known, that parents often took the precaution of having the names and ages of children marked on their arms with gunpowder. See Kirkman's Memoirs of Charles Macklin, 8vo. 1799, vol. i. pp. 144, 145, a curious book. Compare, respecting Carolan, Nichols's Illustrations of the Eighteenth Century, vol. vii. pp. 688–694.

[419] On these Toolholos, as they are called, see Huc's Travels in Tartary, Thibet, and China, vol. i. pp. 65–67. Huc says, p. 67, ‘These poet-singers, who remind us of the minstrels and rhapsodists of Greece, are also very numerous in China; but they are, probably, no where so numerous or so popular as in Thibet.’

[420] On the bards of the Deccan, see Wilks's History of the South of India, 4to. 1810, vol. i. pp. 20, 21, and Transac. of the Bombay Soc. vol. i. p. 162. For those of other parts of India, see Heber's Journey, vol. ii. pp. 452–455; Burnes on the North-west Frontier of India, in Journal of Geog. Soc. vol. iv. pp. 110, 111; Prinsep, in Journal of Asiat. Soc. vol. viii. p. 395; Forbes's Oriental Memoirs, vol. i. pp. 376, 377, 543; and Asiatic Researches, vol. ix. p. 78. They are mentioned in the oldest Veda, which is also the oldest of all the Indian books. See Rig Veda Sanhita, vol. i. p. 158.

[421] See Burton's Sindh, p. 56, 8vo. 1851.

[422] Burton's Sindh, p. 59.

[423] Burnes's Travels into Bokhara, 8vo. 1834, vol. ii. pp. 107, 115, 116.

[424] Clarke's Travels, 8vo. 1816, vol. ii. p. 101.

[425] Compare Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, vol. ii. p. 304, with Bunsen's Egypt, vol i. p. 96, vol. ii. p. 92.

[426] I have mislaid my note on the bards of Western Africa, and can only refer to a hasty notice in Mungo Park's Travels, vol. i. p. 70. 8vo. 1817.

[427] Buchanan's Sketches of the North-American Indians, p. 337.

[428] Prescott's History of Peru, vol. i. pp. 31, 32, 117.

[429] Ellis, Polynesian Researches, vol. i. pp. 85, 199, 411; Ellis, Tour through Hawaii, p. 91. Compare Cook's Voyages, vol. v. p. 237, with Beechey's Voyage to the Pacific, vol. ii. p. 106. Some of these ballads have been collected, but, I believe, not published. See Cheever's Sandwich Islands, 8vo. 1851, p. 181.

[430] It is a singular proof of the carelessness with which the history of barbarous nations has been studied, that authors constantly assert rhyme to be a comparatively recent contrivance; and even Pinkerton, writing to Laing in 1799, says, ‘Rhyme was not known in Europe till about the ninth century.’ Pinkerton's Literary Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 92. The truth is, that rhyme was not only known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, but was used, long before the date Pinkerton mentions, by the Anglo-Saxons, by the Irish, by the Welsh, and, I believe, by the Brétons. See Mure's Hist. of the Literature of Greece, vol. ii. p. 113; Hallam's Lit. of Europe, vol. i. p. 31; Villemarqué, Chants Populaires de la Bretagne, vol. i. pp. lviii. lix. compared with Souvestre, les Derniers Bretons, p. 143; Turner's Hist. of England, vol. iii. pp. 383, 643, vol. vii. pp. 324, 328, 330. Rhyme is also used by the Fantees (Bowdich, Mission to Ashantee, p. 358); by the Persians (Transac. of Bombay Soc. vol. ii. p. 82); by the Chinese (Transac. of Asiatic Soc. vol. ii. pp. 407, 409, and Davis's Chinese, vol. ii. p. 269); by the Malays (Asiatic Researches, vol. x. pp. 176, 196); by the Javanese (Crawfurd's Hist. of the Indian Archipelago, vol. ii. pp. 19, 20); and by the Siamese (Transac. of Asiatic Soc. vol. iii. p. 299).

[431] The habit thus acquired, long survives the circumstances which made it necessary. During many centuries, the love of versification was so widely diffused, that works in rhyme were composed on nearly all subjects, even in Europe; and this practice, which marks the ascendency of the imagination, is, as I have shown, a characteristic of the great Indian civilization, where the understanding was always in abeyance. On early French historians who wrote in rhyme, see Monteil, Hist. des divers Etats, vol. vi. p. 147. Montucla (Hist. des Mathémat. vol. i. p. 506) mentions a mathematical treatise, written in the thirteenth century, ‘en vers techniques.’ Compare the remarks of Matter (Hist. de l'Ecole d'Alexandrie, vol. ii. pp. 179–183) on the scientific poetry of Aratus; and on that of Hygin, p. 250. Thus, too, we find an Anglo-Norman writing ‘the Institutes of Justinian in verse;’ Turner's Hist. of England, vol. vii. p. 307: and a Polish historian composing ‘his numerous works on genealogy and heraldry mostly in rhyme.’ Talvi's Language and Literature of the Slavic Nations, 8vo. 1850, p. 246. Compare Origines du Droit Français, in Œuvres de Michelet, vol. ii. p. 310.

[432] Mr. Ellis, a missionary in the South-Sea Islands, says of the inhabitants, ‘Their traditionary ballads were a kind of standard, or classical authority, to which they referred for the purpose of determining any disputed fact in their history.’ And when doubts arose, ‘as they had no records to which they could at such times refer, they could only oppose one oral tradition to another; which unavoidably involved the parties in protracted, and often obstinate debates.’ Ellis, Polynesian Researches, vol. i. pp. 202, 203. Compare Elphinstone's Hist. of India, p. 66; Laing's Heimskringla, 8vo. 1844, vol. i. pp. 50, 51; Twell's Life of Pocock, edit. 1816, p. 143.

[433] The inspiration of poetry is sometimes explained by its spontaneousness (Cousin, Hist. de la Philosophie, II^e série, vol. i. pp. 135, 136); and there can be no doubt that one cause of the reverence felt for great poets, is the necessity they seem to experience of pouring out their thoughts without reference to their own wishes. Still, it will, I believe, be found, that the notion of poetry being a divine art is most rife in those states of society in which knowledge is monopolised by the bards, and in which the bards are both priests and historians. On this combination of pursuits, compare a note in Malcolm's Hist. of Persia, vol. i. p. 90, with Mure's Hist. of the Lit. of Greece, vol. i. p. 148, vol. ii. p. 228, and Petrie's learned work, Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, Dublin, 1845, p. 354. For evidence of the great respect paid to bards, see Mallet's Northern Antiquities, pp. 234–236; Wheaton's Hist. of the Northmen, pp. 50, 51; Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit. vol. i. p. 3; Warton's Hist. of English Poetry, 1840, vol. i. pp. xxvi. xl.; Grote's Hist. of Greece, vol. ii. p. 182, 1st edit.; and on their important duties, see the laws of Mœlmund, Villemarqué, Chants Populaires de la Bretagne, 1846, vol. i. pp. v. and vi.; Thirlwall's Hist. of Greece, vol. i. p. 229; and Origines du Droit, in Œuvres de Michelet, vol. ii. p. 372.

[434] Villemarqué, Chants Populaires, vol. i. p. lv.

[435] As to the general accuracy of the early ballads, which has been rashly attacked by several writers, and among others by Sir Walter Scott, see Villemarqué, Chants Populaires, vol. i. pp. xxv.–xxxi., and Talvi's Slavic Nations, p. 150. On the tenacity of oral tradition, compare Niebuhr's History of Rome, 1847, vol. i. p. 230, with Laing's Denmark, pp. 197, 198, 350; Wheaton's Hist. of the Northmen, pp. 38, 39, 57–59. Another curious illustration of this is, that several barbarous nations continue to repeat the old traditions in the old words, for so many generations, that at length the very language becomes unintelligible to the majority of those who recite them. See Mariner's Account of the Tonga Islands, vol. i. p. 156, vol. ii. p. 217, and Catlin's North-American Indians, vol. i. p. 126.

[436] That the invention of letters would at first weaken the memory, is noticed in Plato's Phædrus, chap. 135 (Platonis Opera, vol. i. p. 187, edit. Bekker, Lond. 1826); where, however, the argument is pushed rather too far.

[437] This inevitable decline in the ability of the bards is noticed, though, as it appears to me, from a wrong point of view, in Mure's Literat. of Greece, vol. ii. p. 230.

[438] Varro mentions forty-four of these vagabonds, who were all called Hercules. See a learned article in Smith's Biog. and Mythology, vol. ii. p. 401, 8vo. 1846. See also Mackay's Religious Development of the Greeks and Hebrews, vol. ii. pp. 71–79. On the relation between Hercules and Melcarth, compare Matter, Hist. du Gnosticisme, vol. i. p. 257, with Heeren's Asiatic Nations, vol. i. p. 295, 8vo. 1846. And as to the Hercules of Egypt, Prichard's Analysis of Egyptian Mythology, 1838, pp. 109, 115–119. As to the confusion of the different Hercules by the Dorians, see Thirlwall's Hist. of Greece, vol. i. p. 257; and compare p. 130.

[439] This appears to be the opinion of Frederick Schlegel; Schlegel's Lectures on the History of Literature, Edinb. 1818, vol. i. p. 260.

[440] The habit of generalizing names precedes that more advanced state of society in which men generalize phenomena. If this proposition is universally true, which I take it to be, it will throw some light on the history of disputes between the nominalists and the realists.

[441] We may form an idea of the fertility of this source of error from the fact, that in Egypt there were fifty-three cities bearing the same name: ‘L'auteur du Kamous nous apprend qu'il y a en Egypte cinquante-trois villes du nom de Schobra: en effet, j'ai retrouvé tous ces noms dans les deux dénombremens déjà cités.’ Quatremère, Recherches sur la Langue et la Littérature de l'Egypte, p. 199.

[442] On this confusion respecting Ragnar Lodbrok, see Geijer's History of Sweden, part i. pp. 13, 14; Lappenberg's Anglo-Saxon Kings, vol. ii. p. 31; Wheaton's Hist. of the Northmen, p. 150; Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 383; Crichton's Scandinavia, vol. i. p. 116. A comparison of these passages will justify the sarcastic remark of Koch on the history of Swedish and Danish heroes; Koch, Tableau des Révolutions, vol. i. p. 57 note.

[443] Prichard's Physical Hist. of Mankind, vol. iii. p. 273. The Norwegians still give to the Finlanders the name of Quæner. See Dillon's Lapland and Iceland, 8vo. 1840, vol. ii. p. 221. Compare Laing's Sweden, pp. 45, 47. The Amazon river in South America owes its name to a similar fable. Henderson's Hist. of Brazil, p. 453; Southey's Hist. of Brazil, vol. i. p. 112; M'Culloh's Researches concerning America, pp. 407, 408; and Journal of Geog. Soc. vol. xv. p. 65, for an account of the wide diffusion of this error.

[444] Sharon Turner (Hist. of England, vol. iv. p. 30) calls him ‘the Strabo of the Baltic;’ and it was from him that most of the geographers in the Middle Ages derived their knowledge of the North.

[445] ‘It was called in Finnish Turku, from the Swedish word torg, which signifies a market-place. The sound of this name misled Adam of Bremen into the belief that there were Turks in Finland.’ Cooley's Hist. of Maritime and Inland Discovery, London, 1830, vol. i. p. 211.

[446] The chronicler of his crusade says, that he was called Lion on account of his never pardoning an offence: ‘Nihil injuriarum reliquit inultum: unde et unus (i.e. the King of France) dictus est Agnus a Griffonibus, alter Leonis nomen accepit.’ Chronicon Ricardi Divisiensis de Rebus gestis Ricardi Primi, edit. Stevenson, Lond. 1838, p. 18. Some of the Egyptian kings received the name of Lion ‘from their heroic exploits.’ Vyse on the Pyramids, vol. iii. p. 116.

[447] See Price's learned Preface to Warton's History of English Poetry, vol. i. p. 21; and on the similar story of Henry the Lion, see Maury, Légendes du Moyen Age, p. 160. Compare the account of Duke Godfrey's conflict with a bear, in Matthæi Paris Historia Major, p. 29, Lond. 1684, folio. I should not be surprised if the story of Alexander and the Lion (Thirlwall's History of Greece, vol. vi. p. 305) were equally fabulous.

[448] The first missionary was Ebbo, about the year 822. He was followed by Anschar, who afterwards pushed his enterprise as far as Sweden. The progress was, however, slow; and it was not till the latter half of the 11th century that Christianity was established firmly in the North. See Neander's Hist. of the Church, vol. v. pp. 373, 374, 379, 380, 400–402; Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. vol. i. pp. 188, 215, 216; Barry's Hist. of the Orkney Islands, p. 125. It is often supposed that some of the Danes in Ireland were Christians as early as the reign of Ivar I.; but this is a mistake, into which Ledwich fell by relying on a coin, which in reality refers to Ivar II. Petrie's Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, p. 225; and Ledwich's Antiquities of Ireland, p. 159.

[449] Mr. Wheaton (History of Northmen, p. 60) says, that Sæmund ‘merely added one song of his own composition, of a moral and Christian religious tendency; so as thereby to consecrate and leaven, as it were, the whole mass of Paganism.’

[450] Wheaton's Hist. of the Northmen, pp. 89, 90; Mallet's Northern Antiquities, pp. 377, 378, 485; Schlegel's Lectures on the History of Literature, vol. i. p. 265. Indeed, these interpolations are so numerous, that the earlier German antiquaries believed the Edda to be a forgery by the northern monks,—a paradox which Müller refuted more than forty years ago. Note in Wheaton, p. 61. Compare Palgrave's English Commonwealth, Anglo-Saxon Period, vol. i. p. 135.

[451] As is evident from the conflicting statements made by the best orientalists, each of whom has some favourite hypothesis of his own respecting its origin. It is enough to say, that we have no account of India existing without Brahmanism; and as to its real history, nothing can be understood, until more steps have been taken towards generalizing the laws which regulate the growth of religious opinions.

[452] Dr. Prichard (Physical Hist. of Mankind, vol. iv. pp. 101–105) thinks that the Hindus have a history beginning B.C. 1391. Compare Works of Sir W. Jones, vol. i. pp. 311, 312. Mr. Wilson says, that even the genealogies in the Puranas are, ‘in all probability, much more authentic than has been sometimes supposed.’ Wilson's note in Mill's Hist. of India, vol. i. pp. 161, 162. See also his preface to the Vishnu Purana, p. lxv.; and Asiatic Researches, vol. v. p. 244.

[453] Journal of Asiatic Soc. vol. vi. p. 251; Herder, Ideen zur Geschichte, vol. iv. p. 70; Works of Sir W. Jones, vol. i. p. 104. I learn from a note in Erman's Siberia, vol. ii. p. 306, that one of the missionaries gravely suggests that ‘Buddhism originated in the errors of the Manichæans, and is therefore but an imitation of Christianity.’

[454] M. Bunsen says, that the Chinese have ‘a regular chronology, extending back 3,000 years b.c.’ Bunsen's Egypt, vol. i. p. 240. See also Humboldt's Cosmos, vol. ii. p. 475, vol. iv. p. 455; Renouard, Hist. de la Médecine, vol. i. pp. 47, 48; and the statements of Klaproth and Rémusat, in Prichard's Physical Hist. vol. iv. pp. 476, 477. The superior exactness of the Chinese annals is sometimes ascribed to their early knowledge of printing, with which they claim to have been acquainted in B.C. 1100. Meidinger's Essay, in Journal of Statistical Society, vol. iii. p. 163. But the fact is, that printing was unknown in China till the ninth or tenth century after Christ, and moveable types were not invented before 1041. Humboldt's Cosmos, vol. ii. p. 623; Transac. of Asiatic Society, vol. i. p. 7; Journal Asiatique, vol. i. p. 137, Paris, 1822; Davis's Chinese, vol. i. pp. 174, 178, vol. iii. p. 1. There are some interesting papers on the early history of China in Journal of Asiat. Soc. vol. i. pp. 57–86, 213–222, vol. ii. pp. 166–171, 276–287.

[455] ‘From the death of Alexander (323 b.c.) to the reign of Ardeshir Babegan (Artaxerxes), the founder of the Sassanian dynasty (200 a.d.), a period of more than five centuries, is almost a blank in the Persian history.’ Troyer's Preliminary Discourse to the Dabistan, 8vo. 1843, vol. i. pp. lv. lvi. See to the same effect Erskine on the Zend-Avesta, in Transac. of Soc. of Bombay, vol. ii. pp. 303–305; and Malcolm's Hist. of Persia, vol. i. p. 68. The ancient Persian traditions are said to have been Pehlvi; Malcolm, vol. i. pp. 501–505; but if so, they have all perished, p. 555: compare Rawlinson's note in Journal of Geog. Soc. vol. x. p. 82.

[456] On the antagonism between Mohammedanism and the old Persian history, see a note in Grote's Hist. of Greece, vol. i. p. 623. Even at present, or, at all events, during this century, the best education in Persia consisted in learning the elements of Arabic grammar, ‘logic, jurisprudence, the traditions of their prophet, and the commentaries on the Koran.’ Vans Kennedy on Persian Literature, in Transac. of Bombay Society, vol. ii. p. 62. In the same way the Mohammedans neglected the old history of India, and would, no doubt, have destroyed or corrupted it; but they never had anything like the hold of India that they had of Persia, and, above all, they were unable to displace the native religion. However, their influence, so far as it went, was unfavourable; and Mr. Elphinstone (Hist. of India, p. 468) says, that till the sixteenth century there was no instance of a Mussulman carefully studying Hindu literature.

[457] On the Shah Nameh, see Works of Sir W. Jones, vol. iv. pp. 544, 545, vol. v. p. 594; Mill's Hist. of India, vol. ii. pp. 64, 65; Journal of Asiatic Society, vol. iv. p. 225. It is supposed by a very high authority that the Persian cuneiform inscriptions ‘will enable us, in the end, to introduce something like chronological accuracy and order into the myths and traditions embodied in the Shah Nameh.’ Rawlinson on the Inscriptions of Assyria and Babylonia, in Journal of Asiat. Soc. vol. xii. p. 446.

[458] On the ignorance of the Greeks respecting Persian history, see Vans Kennedy, in Transac. of Soc. of Bombay, vol. ii. pp. 119, 127–129, 136. Indeed, this learned writer says (p. 138) he is ‘inclined to suspect that no Greek author ever derived his information from any native of Persia Proper, that is, of the country to the east of the Euphrates.’ See also on the perplexities in Persian chronology, Grote's Hist. of Greece, vol. vi. p. 496, vol. ix. p. 3, vol. x. p. 405; and Donaldson's New Cratylus, 1839, p. 87 note. As to the foolish stories which the Greeks relate respecting Achæmenes, compare Malcolm's Hist. of Persia, vol. i. p. 18, with Heeren's Asiatic Nations, vol. i. p. 243. Even Herodotus, who is invaluable in regard to Egypt, is not to be relied upon for Persia; as was noticed long ago by Sir W. Jones, in the preface to his Nader Shah (Jones's Works, vol. v. p. 540), and is partly admitted by Mr. Mure (History of the Literature of Ancient Greece, vol. iv. p. 338, 8vo. 1853).

[459] That is, to Easter Island, which appears to be its furthest boundary (Prichard's Phys. Hist. vol. v. p. 6); and of which there is a good account in Beechey's Voyage to the Pacific, vol. i. pp. 43–58, and a notice in Jour. of Geog. Society, vol. i. p. 195. The language of Easter Island has been long known to be Malayo-Polynesian; for it was understood by a native of the Society Islands, who accompanied Cook (Cook's Voyages, vol. iii. pp. 294, 308; and Prichard, vol. v. p. 147: compare Marsden's History of Sumatra, p. 164). Ethnologists have not usually paid sufficient honour to this great navigator, who was the first to remark the similarity between the different languages in Polynesia proper. Cook's Voyages, vol. ii. pp. 60, 61, vol. iii. pp. 230, 280, 290, vol. iv. p. 305, vol. vi. p. 230, vol. vii. p. 115. As to Madagascar being the western limit of this vast race of people, see Asiatic Researches, vol. iv. p. 222; Reports on Ethnology by Brit. Assoc. for 1847, pp. 154, 216, 250; and Ellis's Hist. of Madagascar, vol. i. p. 133.

[460] Also the seat of the Tagala language; which, according to William Humboldt, is the most perfect of all the forms of the Malayo-Polynesian. Prichard's Physical Hist. vol. v. pp. 36, 51, 52.

[461] Marsden's History of Sumatra, p. 281. De Thou (Hist. Univ. vol. xiii. p. 59) supposes that the Javanese did not become Mohammedans till late in the sixteenth century; but it is now known that their conversion took place at least a hundred years earlier, the old religion being finally abolished in 1478. See Crawfurd's Hist. of the Indian Archipelago, vol. ii. p. 312; Low's Sarawak, p. 96; and Raffles' Hist. of Java, vol. i. pp. 309, 349, vol. ii. pp. 1, 66, 254. The doctrines of Mohammed spread quickly; and the Malay pilgrims enjoy the reputation, in modern times, of being among the most scrupulously religious of those who go to the Hadj. Burckhardt's Arabia, vol. ii. pp. 96, 97.

[462] The Javanese civilization is examined at great length by William Humboldt, in his celebrated work, Ueber die Kawi Sprache, Berlin, 1836. From the evidence supplied by some early Chinese writings, which have only recently been published, there are good grounds for believing that the Indian Colonies were established in Java in the first century after Christ. See Wilson on the Foe Kue Ki, in Journal of Asiat. Soc. vol. v. p. 137; compare vol. vi. p. 320.

[463] Crawfurd's Hist. of the Indian Archipelago, vol. ii. p. 297. Compare with this the exactness with which, even in the island of Celebes, the dates were preserved ‘before the introduction of Mahomedanism.’ Crawfurd, vol. i. p. 306. For similar Footnote: instances of royal genealogies being obscured by the introduction into them of the names of gods, see Kemble's Saxons in England, vol. i. pp. 27, 335.

[464] Asiatic Researches, vol. x. p. 191, vol. xiii. p. 128. In the Appendix to Raffles' Hist. of Java, vol. ii. p. cxlii., it is said, that ‘in Bali not more than one in two hundred, if so many, are Mahomedans.’ See also p. 65, and vol. i. p. 530.

[465] Indeed, the Javanese appear to have no other means of acquiring the old Kawi traditions than by learning them from natives of Bali. See note to an Essay on the Island of Bali, in Asiatic Researches, vol. xiii. p. 162, Calcutta, 1820, 4to. Sir Stamford Raffles (Hist. of Java, vol. i. p. 400) says, ‘It is chiefly to Bali that we must look for illustrations of the ancient state of the Javans.’ See also p. 414.

[466] Respecting the corruption of Druidical traditions in Gaul by Christian priests, see Villemarqué, Chants Populaires de la Bretagne, Paris, 1846, vol. i. pp. xviii. xix.

[467] The injury done to the traditions handed down by Welsh and Irish bards, is noticed in Dr. Prichard's valuable work, Physical Hist. of Mankind, vol. iii. p. 184, 8vo, 1841. See also Warton's Hist. of English Poetry, vol. i. p. xxxvii. note.

[468] See the remarks on Beowulf, in Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit. vol. i. p. 7, 8vo, 1842. See also pp. 13, 14: and compare Kemble's Saxons in England, vol. i. p. 331.

[469] Talvi's Language and Literature of the Slavic Nations, 8vo, 1850, p. 231. The Pagan songs of the Slovaks, in the north-west of Hungary, were for a time preserved; but even they are now lost. Talvi, p. 216.

[470] The monkish chroniclers neglected the old Finnish traditions; and allowing them to perish, preferred the inventions of Saxo and Johannes Magnus. Prichard's Physical Hist. vol. iii. pp. 284, 285.

[471] For an instance in which the monks have falsified the old Icelandic traditions, see Mr. Keightley's learned book on Fairy Mythology, 8vo, 1850, p. 159.

[472] The Rev. Mr. Dowling, who looks back with great regret to this happy period, says, ‘Writers were almost universally ecclesiastics. Literature was scarcely anything but a religious exercise; for everything that was studied, was studied with a reference to religion. The men, therefore, who wrote history, wrote ecclesiastical history.’ Dowling's Introduction to the Critical Study of Ecclesiastical History, 8vo, 1838, p. 56; a work of some talent, but chiefly interesting as a manifesto by an active party.

[473] Thus, for instance, a celebrated historian, who wrote at the end of the twelfth century says of the reign of William Rufus: ‘Ejusdem regis tempore, ut ex parte supradictum est, in sole, luna, et stellis multa signa visa sunt, mare quoque littus persæpe egrediebatur, et homines et animalia submersit, villas et domos quamplures subvertit. In pago qui Barukeshire nominatur, ante occisionem regis sanguis de fonte tribus septimanis emanavit. Multis etiam Normannis diabolus in horribili specie se frequenter in silvis ostendens, plura cum eis de rege et Ranulfo, et quibusdam aliis locutus est. Nec mirum, nam illorum tempore ferè omnis legum siluit justitia, causisque justitiæ subpositis, sola in principibus imperabat pecunia.’ Rog. de Hoveden Annal. in Scriptores post Bedam, p. 268. See also the same work, pp. 356–358; and compare Matthæi Westmonast. Flores Historiarum, part i. pp. 266, 289, part ii. p. 298.

[474] Even the descriptions of natural objects which historians attempted in the Middle Ages, were marked by the same carelessness. See some good observations by Dr. Arnold, on Bede's account of the Solent Sea. Arnold's Lectures on Modern History, pp. 102, 103.

[475] In Le Long's Bibliothèque Historique de la France, vol. ii. p. 3, it is said, that the descent of the kings of France from the Trojans was universally believed before the sixteenth century: ‘Cette descendance a été crue véritable près de huit cents ans, et soutenue par tous les écrivains de notre histoire; la fausseté n'en a été reconnue qu'au commencement du seizième siècle.’ Polydore Vergil, who died in the middle of the sixteenth century, attacked this opinion in regard to England, and thereby made his history unpopular. See Ellis's Preface to Polydore Vergil, p. xx. 4to, 1844, published by the Camden Society. ‘He discarded Brute, as an unreal personage.’ In 1128, Henry I., king of England, inquired from a learned man respecting the early history of France. The answer is preserved by an historian of the thirteenth century: ‘Regum potentissime, inquiens, sicut pleræque gentes Europæ, ita Franci a Trojanis originem duxerunt.’ Matthæi Paris Hist. Major, p. 59. See also Rog. de Hov. in Scriptores post Bedam, p. 274. On the descent of the Britons from Priam and Æneas, see Matthæi Westmonast. Flores Historiarum, part i. p. 66. Indeed, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, their Trojan origin was stated as a notorious fact, in a letter written to Pope Boniface by Edward I., and signed by the English nobility. See Warton's Hist. of English Poetry, vol. i. pp. 131, 132; and Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors, vol. i. p. 185.

[476] The general opinion was, that Brutus, or Brute, was the son of Æneas; but some historians affirmed that he was the great-grandson. See Turner's Hist. of England, vol. i. p. 63, vol. vii. p. 220.

[477] In the Notes to a Chronicle of London from 1089 to 1483, pp. 183–187, edit. 4to, 1827, there is a pedigree, in which the history of the bishops of London is traced back, not only to the migration of Brutus from Troy, but also to Noah and Adam. Thus, too, Goropius, in his history of Antwerp, written in the sixteenth century: ‘Vond zoowell de Nederlandsche taal als de Wysbegeerte van Orpheus in de ark van Noach.’ Van Kampen, Geschiedenis der Letteren, 8vo, 1821, vol. i. p. 91; see also p. 86. In the thirteenth century, Mathew Paris (Historia Major, p. 352) says of Alfred, ‘Hujus genealogia in Anglorum historiis perducitur usque ad Adam primum parentem.’ See, to the same effect, Matthæi Westmonast. Flores Historiarum, part i. pp. 323, 324, 415. In William of Malmesbury's Chronicle (Scriptores post Bedam, p. 22 rev.) the genealogy of the Saxon kings is traced back to Adam. For other, and similar, instances, see a note in Lingard's History of England, vol. i. p. 403. And Mr. Ticknor (History of Spanish Literature, vol. i. p. 509) mentions that the Spanish chroniclers present ‘an uninterrupted succession of Spanish kings from Tubal, a grandson of Noah.’

[478] Monteil, in his curious book, Histoire des divers Etats, vol. v. p. 70, mentions the old belief ‘que les Parisiens sont du sang des rois des anciens Troyens, par Paris, fils de Priam.’ Even in the seventeenth century this idea was not extinct; and Coryat, who travelled in France in 1608, gives another version of it. He says, ‘As for her name of Paris, she hath it (as some write) from Paris, the eighteenth king of Gallia Celtica, whom some write to have been lineally descended from Japhet, one of the three sons of Noah, and to have founded this city.’ Coryat's Crudities, 1611, reprinted 1776, vol. i. pp. 27, 28.

[479] ‘Erat ibi quidam Tros nomine Turonus Bruti nepos…. De nomine ipsius prædicta civitas Turonis vocabulum nacta est; quia ibidem sepultus fuit.’ Galfredi Monumet. Hist. Briton. lib. i. cap. xv. p. 19. And Mathew of Westminster, who wrote in the fourteenth century, says (Flores Historiarum, part i. p. 17): ‘Tros nomine Turnus…. De nomine verò ipsius Turonorum civitas vocabulum traxit, quia ibidem, ut testatur Homerus, sepultus fuit.’

[480] ‘On convient bien que les Troyens de notre Troyes sont du sang des anciens Troyens.’ Monteil, Divers Etats, vol. v. p. 69.

[481] Monconys, who was in Nuremberg in 1663, found this opinion still held there; and he seems himself half inclined to believe it; for, in visiting a castle, he observes, ‘Mais je ne sçai si c'est un ouvrage de Néron, comme l'on le dit, et que même le nom de Nuremberg en vient.’ Voyages de Monconys, vol. iv. p. 141, edit. Paris, 1695.

[482] ‘Deinceps regnante in ea Jebusæo, dicta Jebus, et sic ex Jebus et Salem dicta est Jebussalem. Unde post dempta b littera et addita r, dicta est Hierusalem.’ Matthæi Paris Historia Major, p. 43. This reminds me of another great writer, who was one of the fathers, and was moreover a saint, and who, says M. Matter, ‘dérive les Samaritains du roi Samarius, fils de Canaan.’ Matter, Hist. du Gnosticisme, vol. i. p. 41.

[483] ‘Humber rex Hunnorum … ad flumen diffugiens, submersus est intra ipsum, et nomen suum flumini reliquit.’ Matthæi Westmonast. Flores Historiarum, part i. p. 19.

[484] These two opinions, which long divided the learned world, are stated in Le Long, Bibliothèque Historique de la France, vol. ii. pp. 5, 49.

[485] See a curious allusion to this in De Thou, Hist. Univ. vol. viii. p. 160; where, however, it is erroneously supposed to be a Russian invention.

[486] ‘The Silesians are not without voluminous writers upon their antiquities; and one of them gravely derives the name and descent of his country from the prophet Elisha.’ Adams's Letters on Silesia, p. 267, Lond. 8vo, 1804.

[487] In 1608, Coryat, when in Zurich, was ‘told by the learned Hospinian that their city was founded in the time of Abraham.’ Coryat's Crudities, vol. i. Epistle to the Reader, sig. D. I always give the most recent instance I have met with, because, in the history of the European intellect, it is important to know how long the spirit of the Middle Ages survived in different countries.

[488] They were ‘seuls enfants légitimes’ of Abraham and Sarah. Monteil, Divers Etats, vol. v. p. 19.

[489] Mathew Paris, who is apprehensive lest the reputation of Sarah should suffer, says, ‘Saraceni perversé se putant ex Sara dici; sed veriùs Agareni dicuntur ab Agar; et Ismaelitæ, ab Ismaele filio Abrahæ.’ Hist. Major, p. 357. Compare a similar passage in Mezeray, Histoire de France, vol. i. p. 127: ‘Sarrasins, ou de la ville de Sarai, ou de Sara femme d'Abraham, duquel ils se disent faussement légitimes héritiers.’ After this, the idea, or the fear of the idea, soon died away; and Beausobre (Histoire Critique de Manichée, vol. i. p. 24) says: ‘On dérive vulgairement le nom de Sarrasins du mot arabe Sarah, ou Sarak, qui signifie effectivement voleur.’ A good example of a secular turn given to a theological etymology. For a similar case in northern history, see Whitelocke's Journal of the Swedish Embassy, vol. i. pp. 190, 191.

[490] Early in the fourteenth century, this was stated, in a letter to the Pope, as a well-known historical fact. See Lingard's Hist. of England, vol. ii. p. 187: ‘They are sprung from Scota the daughter of Pharaoh, who landed in Ireland, and whose descendants wrested, by force of arms, the northern half of Britain from the progeny of Brute.’

[491] Mr. Wright (Narratives of Sorcery, 8vo, 1851, vol. i. p. 115) says, ‘The foundation of the city of Naples upon eggs, and the egg on which its fate depended, seem to have been legends generally current in the Middle Ages;’ and he refers to Montfaucon, Monumens de la Mon. Fr. vol. ii. p. 329, for proof, that by the statutes of the order of the Saint Esprit, ‘a chapter of the knights was appointed to be held annually in castello ovi incantati in mirabili periculo.’

[492] ‘The order of Saint Michael, in France, pretends to the possession of a regular descent from Michael the Archangel, who, according to the enlightened judgment of French antiquarians, was the premier chevalier in the world; and it was he, they say, who established the earliest chivalric order in Paradise itself.’ Mills's Hist. of Chivalry, vol. i. pp. 363, 364.

[493] The etymology of Tartars from Tartarus is ascribed to the piety of Saint Louis in Prichard's Physical History, vol. iv. p. 278; but I think that I have met with it before his time, though I cannot now recover the passage. The earliest instance I remember is in 1241, when the saint was twenty-six years old. See a letter from the emperor Frederick, in Matthæi Paris Historia Major, p. 497: ‘Pervenissent dicti Tartari (imo Tartarei),’ &c; and on the expression of Louis, see p. 496: ‘Quos vocamus Tartaros ad suas Tartareas sedes.’ Since the thirteenth century, the subject has attracted the attention of English divines; and the celebrated theologian Whiston mentions ‘my last famous discovery, or rather my revival of Dr. Giles Fletcher's famous discovery, that the Tartars are no other than the ten tribes of Israel, which have been so long sought for in vain.’ Memoirs of the Life and Writings of William Whiston, p. 575. Compare, on the opinions held respecting the Tartars, Journal Asiatique, I^e série, vol. vi. p. 374, Paris, 1825.

[494] Peignot (Dict. des Livres, vol. ii. p. 69, Paris, 1806) says, that Rigord, in his history of Philip Augustus, assures his readers ‘que depuis que la vraie croix a été prise par les Turcs, les enfans n'ont plus que 20 ou 23 dents, au lieu qu'ils en avaient 30 ou 32 auparavant.’ Even in the fifteenth century, it was believed that the number of teeth had diminished from 32 to 22, or at most 24. See Sprengel, Hist. de la Médecine, vol. ii. pp. 481, 482, Paris, 1815. Compare Hecker on the Black Death, pp. 31, 32, in his learned work, Epidemics of the Middle Ages, published by the Sydenham Society.

[495] In the sacred books of the Scandinavians, pork is represented as the principal food, even in heaven. See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 105. It was the chief food of the Irish in the twelfth century: Ledwich, Antiquities of Ireland, Dublin, 1804, p. 370; and also of the Anglo-Saxons at an earlier period: Turner's Hist. of England, vol. iii. p. 22. In France it was equally common, and Charlemagne kept in his forests immense droves of pigs. Note in Esprit des Lois, in Œuvres de Montesquieu, p. 513. In Spain those who did not like pork were tried by the Inquisition as suspected Jews: Llorente, Hist. de l'Inquisition, vol. i. pp. 269, 442, 445. Late in the sixteenth century, there was a particular disease, said to be caused by the quantity of it eaten in Hungary. Sprengel, Hist. de la Médecine, vol. iii. p. 93; and even at present, the barbarous Lettes are passionately fond of it. Kohl's Russia, pp. 386, 387. In the middle of the sixteenth century, I find that Philip II., when in England, generally dined on bacon; of which he ate so much, as frequently to make himself very ill. See Ambassades de Messieurs de Noailles en Angleterre, vol. v. pp. 240, 241, edit. 1763. The ambassador writes, that Philip was ‘grand mangeur oultre mesure,’ and used to consume large quantities ‘de lard, dont il faict le plus souvent son principal repas.’ In the Middle Ages, ‘les Thuringiens payaient leur tribut en porcs, la denrée la plus précieuse de leur pays.’ Œuvres de Michelet, vol. ii. p. 389.

[496] Sismondi (Hist. des Français, vol. vii. pp. 325, 326) passes a high eulogy upon him; and Mosheim (Ecclesiast. History, vol. i. p. 313) says: ‘Among the historians (of the thirteenth century), the first place is due to Mathew Paris; a writer of the highest merit, both in point of knowledge and prudence.’

[497] Matthæi Paris Historia Major, p. 362. He concludes his account by saying, ‘Unde adhuc Saraceni sues præ cæteris animalibus exosas habent et abominabiles.’ Mathew Paris obtained his information from a clergyman, ‘quendam magni nominis celebrem prædicatorem,’ p. 360. According to Mathew of Westminster, the pigs not only suffocated Mohammed, but actually ate the greater part of him: ‘In maxima parte a porcis corrosum invenerunt.’ Matthæi Westmonast. Flores Historiarum, part i. p. 215.

[498] By a singular contradiction, the African Mohammedans now ‘believe that a great enmity subsists between hogs and Christians.’ Mungo Park's Travels, vol. i. p. 185. Many medical authors have supposed that pork is peculiarly unwholesome in hot countries; but this requires confirmation: and it is certain, that it is recommended by Arabian physicians, and is more generally eaten both in Asia and in Africa than is usually believed. Comp. Sprengel, Hist. de la Médecine, vol. ii. p. 323; Volney, Voyage en Syrie, vol. i. p. 449; Buchanan's Journey through the Mysore, vol. ii. p. 88, vol. iii. p. 57; Raffles' Hist. of Java, vol. ii. p. 5; Ellis's Hist. of Madagascar, vol. i. pp. 201, 403, 416; Cook's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 265; Burnes's Travels into Bokhara, vol. iii. p. 141. As facts of this sort are important physiologically and socially, it is advisable that they should be collected; and I therefore add, that the North-American Indians are said to have ‘a disgust for pork.’ Journal of the Geog. Society, vol. xv. p. 30; and that Dobell (Travels, vol. ii. p. 260, 8vo, 1830) says, ‘I believe there is more pork eaten in China than in all the rest of the world put together.’

[499] This idea, which was a favourite one in the Middle Ages, is said to have been a Rabbinical invention. See Lettres de Gui Patin, vol. iii. p. 127: ‘que Mahomet, le faux prophète, avait été cardinal; et que, par dépit de n'avoir été pape, il s'étoit fait hérésiarque.’

[500] See the ample details in Matthæi Westmonast. Flores Historiarum, part i. pp. 86, 87; and at p. 88, ‘Judas matrem suam uxorem duxerat, et quòd patrem suum occiderat.’

[501] This took place in the year 798. Matthæi Westmonast. Flores Historiarum, part i. p. 293. The historian thus concludes his relation: ‘Et statutum est nunc quòd numquam extunc manus Papæ ab offerentibus deoscularetur, sed pes. Cùm ante fuerat consuetudo quòd manus, non pes, deoscularetur. In hujus miraculi memoriam reservatur adhuc manus abscissa in thesauro lateranensi, quam dominus custodit incorruptam ad laudem matris suæ.’

[502] ‘… Ita ut Nero se puero gravidum existimaret…. Tandem dolore nimio vexatus, medicis ait: Accelerate tempus partus, quia languore vix anhelitum habeo respirandi. Tunc ipsum ad vomitum impotionaverunt, et ranam visu terribilem, humoribus infectam, et sanguine edidit cruentatam…. Unde et pars illa civitatis, ut aliqui dicunt, ubi rana latuerat, Lateranum, à latente rana, nomen accepit.’ Matthæi Westmonast. part i. p. 98. Compare the account given by Roger of Hoveden, of a woman who vomited two toads. Script. post Bedam, p. 457 rev. In the Middle Ages there were many superstitions respecting these animals, and they appear to have been used by heralds as marks of degradation. See Lankester's Memorials of Ray, p. 197.

[503] ‘… Ego Turpinus in valle Caroli loco præfato, astante rege,’ &c. De Vita Caroli Magni, p. 74, edit. Ciampi.

[504] Turner (History of England, vol. vii. pp. 250–268) has attempted to prove that it was written by Calixtus II.; but his arguments, though ingenious and learned, are not decisive. Warton (Hist. Eng. Poetry, vol. i. p. 128) says it was composed about 1110.

[505] The pope ‘statuit historiam Sancti Caroli descriptam a beato Turpino Remensi Archiepiscopo esse authenticam.’ Note in Turner, vol. vii. p. 250.

[506] In his famous Speculum, ‘il recommande spécialement les études historiques, dont il paraît que la plupart de ses contemporains méconnaissaient l'utilité; mais lorsqu'il indique les sources où il puisera ce genre d'instruction, c'est Turpin qu'il désigne comme le principal historien de Charlemagne.’ Histoire Littéraire de la France, vol. xviii. p. 474, Paris, 1835, 4to; see also p. 517; and on its influence in Spain, see Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature, vol. i. pp. 222, 223.

[507] Caroli Magni Historia, edit. Ciampi, pp. 3–5.

[508] ‘… Muri collapsi funditus corruerunt.’ De Vita Caroli, p. 5. On this, Ciampi, in his notes on Turpin, gravely says (pp. 94, 95): ‘Questo fatto della presa di Pamplona è reso maraviglioso per la subitanea caduta delle mura, a somiglianza delle mura di Gerico.’ This reminds me of a circumstance mentioned by Monconys, who, on visiting Oxford in 1663, was shown a horn which was preserved in that ancient city, because it was said to be made in the same way as that by which the walls of Jericho were blown down: ‘Les Juifs tiennent que leurs ancêtres se servirent de pareilles pour abbattre les murailles de Jérico.’ Voyages de Monconys, vol. iii. p. 95, edit. Paris, 1695.

[509] De Vita Caroli, cap. v. pp. 11, 12; is headed ‘De ecclesiis quas Carolus fecit.’

[510] ‘Gigas nomine Fenacutus, qui fuit de genere Goliat.’ De Vita Caroli, p. 39.

[511] ‘Vim xl. fortium possidebat.’ p. 39.

[512] ‘Erat enim statura ejus quasi cubitis xx., facies erat longa quasi unius cubiti, et nasus illius unius palmi mensurati, et brachia et crura ejus quatuor cubitorum erant, et digiti ejus tribus palmis,’ p. 40.

[513] De Vita Caroli, p. 40.

[514] Ibid. pp. 43–47.

[515] De Vita Caroli, p. 52. On the twelve peers of Charlemagne, in connexion with Turpin, see Sismondi, Hist. des Français, vol. v. pp. 246, 537, 538, vol. vi. p. 534.

[516] The Welsh, however, accused Gildas of having thrown his history ‘into the sea.’ Palgrave's Anglo-Saxon Commonwealth, vol. i. p. 453. The industrious Sharon Turner (Hist. of England, vol. i. pp. 282–295) has collected a great deal of evidence respecting Arthur; of whose existence he, of course, entertains no doubt. Indeed, at p. 292, he gives us an account of the discovery, in the twelfth century, of Arthur's body!

[517] In Turner's Hist. of England, vol. vii. pp. 269, 270, it is said to have appeared in 1128; but Mr. Wright (Biog. Brit. Lit. vol. ii. p. 144) seems to have proved that the real date is 1147.

[518] Geoffrey says, ‘A Gualtero Oxinefordensi in multis historiis peritissimo viro audivit’ (i.e. ille Geoffrey) ‘vili licet stylo, breviter tamen propalabit, quæ prœlia inclytus ille rex post victoriam istam, in Britanniam reversus, cum nepote suo commiserit.’ Galfredi Monumetensis Historia Britonum, lib. xi. sec. i. p. 200. And in the dedication to the Earl of Gloucester, p. 1, he says, ‘Walterus Oxinefordensis archidiaconus, vir in oratoria arte atque in exoticis historiis eruditus.’ Compare Matthæi Westmonast. Flores Historiarum, part i. p. 248.

[519] Galfredi Historia Britonum, pp. 3, 4.

[520] ‘Erat tunc nomen insulæ Albion, quæ a nemine, exceptis paucis gigantibus, inhabitabatur…. Denique Brutus de nomine suo insulam Britanniam, sociosque suos Britones appellat.’ Galf. Hist. Britonum, p. 20.

[521] ‘In tempore ejus tribus diebus cecidit pluvia sanguinea, et muscarum affluentia; quibus homines moriebantur.’ Hist. Brit. p. 36.

[522] ‘Advenerat namque ex partibus Hibernici maris inauditæ feritatis bellua, quæ incolas maritimos sine intermissione devorabat. Cumque fama aures ejus attigisset, accossit ipse ad illam, et solus cum sola congressus est. At cum omnia tela sua in illam in vanum consumpsisset, acceleravit monstrum illud, et apertis faucibus ipsum velut pisciculum devoravit.’ Hist. Brit. p. 51.

[523] The particulars of the intrigue are in Galf. Hist. Brit. pp. 151, 152. For information respecting Merlin, see also Matthæi Westmonast. Flores Historiarum, part i. pp. 161, 162; and Naudé, Apologie pour les Grands Hommes, pp. 308, 309, 318, 319, edit. Amsterdam, 1712.

[524] Hist. Britonum, pp. 167–170; a brilliant chapter.

[525] ‘Sed et plures capiebat quos semivivos devorabat.’ Hist. Brit. p. 181.

[526] ‘Hic namque ex barbis regum quos peremerat, fecerat sibi pelles, et mandaverat Arturo ut barbam suam diligenter excoriaret, atque excoriatam sibi dirigeret: ut quemadmodum ipse ceteris præerat regibus, ita quoque in honorem ejus ceteris barbis ipsam superponeret.’ Galf. Hist. Brit. p. 184.

[527] ‘It was partly, perhaps, the reputation of this book, which procured its author the bishopric of St. Asaph.’ Life of Geoffrey of Monmouth, in Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit. vol. ii. p. 144, 8vo, 1846. According to the Welsh writers, he was Bishop of Llandaff. See Stephens's Literature of the Kymry, 8vo, 1849, p. 323.

[528] Mr. Wright (Biog. Brit. Lit. vol. ii. p. 146) says: ‘Within a century after its first publication, it was generally adopted by writers on English history; and during several centuries, only one or two rare instances occur of persons who ventured to speak against its veracity.’ And Sir Henry Ellis says of Polydore Vergil, who wrote early in the sixteenth century, ‘For the repudiation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's history, Polydore Vergil was considered almost as a man deprived of reason. Such were the prejudices of the time.’ Polydore Vergil's English Hist. vol. i. p. x. edit. Ellis, 1846, 4to. See also, on its popularity, Lappenberg's Hist. of the Anglo-Saxon Kings, vol. i. p. 102. In the seventeenth century, which was the first sceptical century in Europe, men began to open their eyes on these matters; and Boyle, for example, classes together ‘the fabulous labours of Hercules, and exploits of Arthur of Britain.’ Boyle's Works, vol. iv. p. 425.

[529] Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit. vol. ii. p. 156; Turner's Hist. of England, vol. vii. p. 282.

[530] According to Mr. Wright (Biog. Brit. vol. ii. p. 439), it was translated through the medium of Wace. But it would be more correct to say, that Layamon made the absurdities of Geoffrey the basis of his work, rather than translated them; for he amplifies 15,000 lines of Wace's Brut into 32,000 of his own jargon. See Sir F. Madden's Preface to Layamon's Brut, 8vo, 1847, vol. i. p. xiii. I cannot refrain from bearing testimony to the great philological value of this work of Layamon's, by the publication of which its accomplished editor has made an important contribution towards the study of the history of the English language. So far, however, as Layamon is concerned, we can only contemplate with wonder an age of which he was considered an ornament.

[531] Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit. vol. ii. pp. 151, 207; Hallam's Literature of Europe, vol. i. p. 35.

[532] Of which Froissart is the earliest instance; since he is the first who took a secular view of affairs, all the preceding historians being essentially theological. In Spain, too, we find, late in the fourteenth century, a political spirit beginning to appear among historians. See the remarks on Ayala, in Ticknor's Hist. of Spanish Lit. vol. i. pp. 165, 166; where, however, Mr. Ticknor represents Froissart as more unworldly than he really was.

[533] On this, Arnold says, truly enough, ‘Comines's Memoirs are striking from their perfect unconsciousness: the knell of the Middle Ages had been already sounded, yet Comines has no other notions than such as they had tended to foster; he describes their events, their characters, their relations, as if they were to continue for centuries.’ Arnold's Lectures on Modern History, p. 118. To this I may add, that whenever Comines has occasion to mention the lower classes, which is very rarely the case, he speaks of them with great contempt. See two striking instances in Mémoires de Philippe de Comines, vol. ii. pp. 277, 287, edit. Paris, 1826.

[534] He says, that a field of battle is ‘un des accomplissemens des œuvres que Dieu a commencées aucunes fois par petites mouvetez et occasions, et en donnant la victoire aucunes fois à l'un, et aucunes fois à l'autre: et est cecy mystère si grand, que les royaumes et grandes seigneuries en prennent aucunes fois fins et désolations, et les autres accroissement, et commencement de régner.’ Mém. de Comines, vol. i. pp. 361, 362. Respecting the wanton invasion of Italy, he says, that the expedition might have been easily ruined if the enemy had thought of poisoning the wells or the food: ‘mais ils n'y eussent point failly, s'ils y eussent voulu essayer; mais il est de croire que nostre sauveur et rédempteur Jésus-Christ leur ostoit leur vouloir.’ vol iii. p. 154. So, he adds, p. 155, ‘pour conclure l'article, semble que nostre seigneur Jésus-Christ ait voulu que toute la gloire du voyage ait esté attribuée à luy.’ Compare the Institutes of Timour, p. 7; an instructive combination of superstition and ferocity.

[535] ‘Mais mon advis est que cela ne se fait que par disposition divine; car quand les princes ou royaumes out esté en grande prospérité ou richesses, et ils ont mesconnoissance dont procède telle grâce, Dieu leur dresse un ennemi ou ennemie, dont nul ne se douteroit, comme vous pouvez voir par les rois nommez en la Bible, et par ce que puis peu d'années en avez veu en cette Angleterre, et en cette maison de Bourgogne et autres lieux que avez veu et voyez tous les jours.’ Mém. de Comines, vol. i. pp. 388, 389. See also his remarks on the Duke of Burgundy, vol. ii. p. 179; and in particular, his extraordinary digression, livre v. chap. xviii. vol. ii. pp. 290–298.

[536] Dr. Lingard (Hist. of England, vol. i. p. 357) says, ‘From the doctrine of a superintending providence, the piety of our ancestors had drawn a rash but very convenient inference, that success is an indication of the Divine will, and that, of course, to resist a victorious competitor, is to resist the judgment of heaven:’ see also p. 114. The last vestige of this once universal opinion is the expression, which is gradually falling into disuse, of ‘appealing to the God of Battles.’

[537] See Guizot, Civilisation en Europe, p. 166; the best passage in that able, but rather unequal work: ‘Parcourez l'histoire du v^e au xvi^e siècle; c'est la théologie qui possède et dirige l'esprit humain; toutes les opinions sont empreintes de théologie; les questions philosophiques, politiques, historiques, sont toujours considérées sous un point de vue théologique. L'église est tellement souveraine dans l'ordre intellectuel, que même les sciences mathématiques et physiques sont tenues de se soumettre à ses doctrines. L'esprit théologique est en quelque sort le sang qui a coulé dans les veines du monde européen jusqu'à Bacon et Descartes. Pour la première fois, Bacon en Angleterre, et Descartes en France, ont jeté l'intelligence hors des voies de la théologie.’ A noble passage, and perfectly true: but what would have been the effect produced by Bacon and Descartes, if, instead of living in the seventeenth century, they had lived in the seventh? Would their philosophy have been equally secular; or, being equally secular, would it have been equally successful?

[538] Compare Biog. Univ. vol. xliii. p. 577, with Montucla, Hist. des Mathématiques, vol. i. p. 678.

[539] Naudé mentions, that in France it drove many persons almost mad: ‘In Gallia parum afuit quin ad insaniam homines non paucos periculi metu (diluvium) adegerit.’ Bayle, in voce Stofflerus, note B.

[540] ‘Nam Petrus Cirvellus Hispanorum omnium sui temporis doctissimus, cum theologiæ, in almo Complutensi gymnasio, lectoris munere fungeretur, et vero multos, ut ipsemet inquit, fluviis vel mari finitimos populos, jam stupido metu perculsos, domicilia ac sedes mutare vidisset, ac prædia, supellectilem, bonaque omnia, contra justum valorem sub actione distrahere, ac alia loca vel altitudine, vel siccitate magis secura requirere, sui officii esse putavit, in publica illa consternatione, quam de nihilo excitare persuasum non habebat,’ &c. Bayle, note B.

[541] Ibid.

[542] In addition to the account in Bayle, the reader may refer to Biog. Univ. vol. iii. p. 88, vol. xxxi. p. 283, vol. xliii. pp. 577, 578; Sprengel, Hist. de la Médecine, vol. iii. p. 251; Delambre, Hist. de l'Astronomie du Moyen Age, Paris, 1819, 4to, p. 376; Montucla, Hist. des Mathématiques, vol. i. p. 622; Dict. Philosoph., article Astrologie, in Œuvres de Voltaire, vol. xxxvii. pp. 148, 149.

[543] This history of the golden tooth is partly related by De Thou: see his Hist. Univ. vol. xi. pp. 634, 635. And on the controversy to which it gave rise, compare Hist. des Oracles, chap. iv., in Œuvres de Fontenelle, vol. ii. pp. 219, 220, ed. Paris, 1766; Sprengel, Hist. de la Médecine, vol. iii. pp. 247–249; Biog. Univ., vol. xx. p. 579.