THE THREE CAUSES OF CIVILIZATION.

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Passing from the geographical nature of the country, we come to the most important point of all for our object,―tli constitution of the primitive Germans. Before I attempt to portray it, I must refute a very common, but incorrect opinion. The primitive Germans are but too often described as mere savages. Some much-read authors are particularly fond of comparing them with the American Indians; with those savages, who on the first discovery of the new world, were not even acquainted with the use of iron; of whom many tribes were, and even still are, cannibals, and many others stand on the lowest scale of human nature, but just raised above the brute. Such false comparisons and exaggerated representations arise from historians starting with preconceived opinions, and still oftener from want of distinct ideas. In this case in particular, distinct ideas have been wanting as to the savage and civilized states. The essential points that concern us here are the following. It is chiefly by three great instruments and inventions that a people still living in the simplest social condition is rendered capable of civilization, and is raised to a higher grade: iron, the indispensable instrument of husbandry, and the first beginning of all art; money, the invisible bond between all civilized nations, however remote; and alphabetical writing, which places existing generations in communion with the past and the future. How these three great discoveries, very closely connected as they are with each other, the artificial use of iron, the acknowledgment of the value and unanimity as to the universal currency of the precious metals, and the introduction of alphabetical writing, how these arose among men, and how men came by them, that is an inquiry that would lead us very far. Let it suffice that we find these three great instruments and levers of human life, a little sooner or later, somewhat more or less perfectly developed, but yet universally disseminated, among all nations of Asiatic origin. The American savages, on the contrary, upon the discovery of the new world, were wholly destitute of them. It is self-evident, that with these great primary instruments were conferred the rudiments and first germ for all further progress in civilization, which then, slowly perhaps, but yet almost naturally and necessarily, must follow. Whether a people, acquainted with and possessing iron, money, and the art of writing, and yet living, as

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did the primitive Germans, in a state of manners, and under institutions very simple and natural, can be appropriately termed savages, is not worth disputing, as, after all, names are arbitrary. This, however, is certain, that nations, which possess iron, money, and the art of writing, are separated by an immeasurable gulf from those unacquainted with these things, and that we might almost say they form two totally different species of men, so infinitely great and so allpervading is the influence of these first of all discoveries. Hence the comparison of the primitive Germans with the American savages is peculiarly unfitting. Like the other northern nations, the Germans were acquainted with those rudiments of all higher civilized and social life. They possessed the lance, the sword, and the plough; the riches of their native mountains, it is true, were as yet unknown, and hence iron was rare and costly. Not every warrior had his coat of mail and helmet; the shield was usually of interwoven osiers only; while copper and stone, in some weapons, such as battle-axes, were substituted for iron. In their description of the German order of battle, the Romans tell us, that while the front ranks indeed were sufficiently provided with effective lances, the rear ranks were armed only with wooden javelins hardened in the fire. Iron weapons, moreover, were one of the objects most eagerly sought for by the Germans in their commercial dealings with the Romans; not, because they themselves did not understand the forging of arms from metals, but by reason of the rarity of iron. The thing itself, and not its greater or less extension, concerns us here. Even with the sword and plough alone a totally new form and system of life are introduced; further refinement and perfection in the art of iron, as civilization may be called, spring up of themselves in time. In this respect, perhaps, the various northern and Germanic tribes were not equally advanced. In the history of the Cimbri and Teutones, the Romans speak of a host of fifteen thousand horsemen fully equipped, and armed with coat of mail, helmet, and shield. They may possibly, from vanity, have exaggerated the number, but there is scarcely an imaginable reason for supposing them to have invented an armament of the kind for that army contrary to the truth. As these nations belonged to the interior and northerly part of Germany, nearer to the coast of the Baltic, it is possible, that there,

ANCIENT GERMAN COMMERCE.

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from the intercourse of the inhabitants with Sweden, which abounded in iron, this metal was not so rare, as in the western Rhine frontier of Germany, which the Romans, in the descriptions they give us, have almost exclusively in view.

From misunderstanding a passage in Tacitus, some have denied that the Germans were acquainted with the art of writing. It has, however, been incontrovertibly demonstrated, that the Scandinavian nations possessed a peculiar alphabet, in the Runic character, and it is equally certain, that several other Germanic races also originally used it. We may hence infer that the case was the same with the remainder; that writing was not so much in use as among the Romans or as in modern times, needs no comment, and if among one or two frontier-tribes, whose organization was wholly military, little or no traces of the art can be discerned, from that circumstance also no inference as to the whole nation can be drawn. In the same manner we may readily admit, that not only among the Germanic, but among all northern nations, money was rare; that most of them did not coin for themselves, but were content to use foreign coin.

But to assume that they were altogether unacquainted with the value of money, would be repugnant to the whole history of ancient commerce, which even in very early times spread from the Black Sea, along the rivers that flow into it, far into the innermost north. If the Germans, especially in their dealings with Roman traders, often preferred bartering wares to taking money, they were actuated by the same motive as in preferring the older coins, namely, the fear of being cheated in the value of the newer ones, which were often lighter, and with which, at all events, they were less familiar. We must in general be careful to remember that the ancient authors, in their descriptions of the Germans, were only too fond of contrasting the simplicity of this life of nature with the corrupt manners of degenerate Rome. Thus, when they speak of the repugnance of the primitive Germans to enclosed dwelling-places and towns, we must not take this literally, as if no towns at all existed among them, but merely thereby understand their greater rarity. For the most part, indeed, each house was erected singly; even their congregation in villages did not then take place as in modern times. The Romans themselves, notwithstanding, speak of German forts, that

were strong enough to necessitate a siege; such as that in which Arminius besieged his father-in-law Segest, with whom he was at war. They refer to many places, which, from the whole context, are clearly seen to be towns; one of the ancient geographers even gives a long list of Germanic towns. It is not always possible now to determine the precise site of these towns, nor to establish in detail the credibility of all such accounts; yet on the whole, the matter is the more remarkable, as these accounts are known to have been derived from the reports of traders who carried on commerce with the interior northern parts of Germany. This is a confirmation of what many other proofs render probable, that the interior of Germany, unknown as it was to the Romans, may have been infinitely more civilized than the frontier tribes, whose organization was altogether military. With these almost exclusively were the Romans acquainted, and after them they drew their picture of the whole nation.

Hence in the contrasts between Germanic simplicity and Roman corruption, which the ancient writers are so fond of, we cannot take every word literally; we must make allowance for rhetorical antitheses and expressions. With moderns, on the other hand, filled with a preconceived idea of Germanic barbarism, it is not uncommon to portray things in a manner absolutely repugnant to the most distinct accounts of the ancients. Thus painters and sculptors, when they take their subjects from the early history of Germany, are in the habit of presenting us with half-naked figures enveloped in the undressed skins of animals. This is not accordant with the descriptions of the ancients.

The primitive Germans were clad in furs and linen; it was not till later, that they became acquainted with cloth, and learned to manufacture it; cotton fabrics were not at that time generally used even by southern nations, and silk was still less known. The manufacture of linen was already so widely spread and perfected in primitive Germany, that it formed a staple article of its trade. The white garment of the women, which left the neck and in great part the arm uncovered, was ornamented with a purple stripe. Besides a close fitting under-garment covering the whole body, the men were attired, not in undressed skins of animals, but in fur dresses.

This we learn from the circumstance, related by the

CLOTHING OF THE GERMANS.

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historians, that among the rich this dress was ornamented with narrow strips made from the expensive skins of rare animals found in the extreme north. Painters and sculptors, therefore, should not distort the simplicity of this costume, primitive as it may be, into a caricature of repulsive rudeness, nor represent German princes and heroes, if they must do so at all, as the Kamschatcans are portrayed to us in books of travels.

The barbarous custom, habitual among almost all savage nations, of burning or cutting in upon the face or body all sorts of strange and terrific figures, and the finding a certain beauty, grace, and dignity in such disfigurement, were ever unknown to the Germans. Their simple ornament consisted, especially among the women, in giving a fair colour to the hair by artificial means, if they had it not from Nature. With the men, their arms were the object most prized; their shields were blazoned with various symbols, the houses also were painted with the liveliest colours. The helmet, too, whenever any could afford one, was decorated with ornaments, and a buck's horn silver-mounted, and converted into a drinkingcup, was, as a trophy of the chase, prized higher than if it had been made entirely of silver.

The ancient historians thought it worth while to preserve these slight traits of a remarkable people, and I have here endeavoured to collect them into one picture.

LECTURES II. & III.

ON THE GERMANS.

TOGETHER with the perfection of the useful arts, there is one thing decisive as to the higher or lower degree of culture of ancient and simple nations; namely, their poetry. What is not poetry-what does it not contain for such races living in closer communion with nature? It contains their history, their faith, the sum of their limited knowledge, their whole view of this world and the next. It is the joy and soul of their life, the universal mind of a whole generation. Hence it is to be regarded as a great advance in historical science, that we have begun in recent times thoroughly to combine the exami