by the kindred nations of the Goths, of a Burgundian kingdom in eastern Gaul, a Visigothic in western Gaul and Spain, and a Vandal one in Africa; of Attila, bred himself among the Goths, and achieving his victories for the most part by Gothic-German tribes, and of the terror he struck into Italy and Gaul by his immense hordes; of the great Theodoric, and his subsequent reign in Italy, glorious and wise as that of the best of the Roman emperors,-the history of all these events and personages is in itself very remarkable. But as these kingdoms rapidly passed away, the events we have thus summed up are not, on the whole, so important as the character of the Gothic nation, and the relations of its conquests and sway to the great interests of mankind, and to the progress or retrogression of civilization, a subject on which we shall now proceed to offer a few necessary remarks.

LECTURES IV. & V.

ON THE GOTHS AND THE MIGRATION OF NATIONS TILL

CHARLEMAGNE.

THAT, from the invasions of the Gothic nations, from the conquests of Alaric, and yet more from the expeditions of Attila, Rome, as well as many of the provinces, endured most of the evils that attend on wars, cannot be doubted. But when on this account the German conquerors are accused of having destroyed the civilization of the ancient world, the charge is not only exaggerated, but unfounded and unjust. In the descriptions of modern historians, whose imagination has been filled with ideas of universal desolation and destruction, the calamities attendant upon the first convulsions of those times appear very different from what they do when we consult ourselves the pages of contemporaries and eye-witnesses. Many of these, and especially several of the early Christian writers, judge even favourably of the Germans, of their humane modo of carrying on war, and their love of justice. From these opinions, and from other traits, we may presume that the German party in the Roman empire was particularly strong among the Christians. The mutual repugnance between Christian and heathen revived upon those

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great changes with redoubled strength. The heathens thought they could trace the cause of Rome's downfal to the abandonment of the ancient gods; to the omission, prevalent for some time, of offering them sacrifice. The Christians, on the other hand, referred to the humanity in the mode of carrying on hostilities then practised, in comparison with the ancient system of warfare, as a proof of the beneficial influence of Christianity, for the Goths were at that time Christians.

Even on their first appearance the Goths showed themselves not only a brave and victorious people, but even to a surprising degree more civilized than the earlier-known Germanic nations on the Rhenic frontier were at that time. The readiness of the Goths to receive the doctrines of Christianity, and the rapid diffusion of it among them, may with reason be cited as a proof of their civilization, and capacity for civilization. For among them Christianity was not introduced by force, as happened afterwards among other German nations, or by the sudden conversion of a sovereign, whose example then carried the whole nation along with him; but the faith was diffused among them in the same manner as it was in the beginning, and always should be, viz. by missions and by the influence of the doctrine. We know as little in detail of the circumstances under which Christianity became so universally spread in a short space of time among all the Gothic nations, as of the establishment, step by step, of their great kingdom on the Black Sea. Not those Gothic tribes only who were settled in the Roman empire, but also those that inhabited the Austria of the present day, were Christians. Even among the Thuringians, the remotest Gothic nation towards the interior and north-west of Germany, was Christianity, if not universally established, yet known and diffused; while in the north the Saxons remained for several centuries longer ignorant of and disinclined to its doctrines. This rapid and universal spread of Christianity amongst all the Gothic nations is also a proof of the internal communication among them, and of an effective, universal, national connection of the whole Gothic race.

The influence of Christianity upon national relations will be best illustrated by an example, which will at the same time place vividly before us the manners of the time. When the gates of Rome were opened to the armies of Alaric, the

Gothic soldiers entering dispersed themselves through the town, and some fell to plundering. One of them found some gold and silver vessels at the house of a Christian woman; she told him they belonged to the holy apostle Peter, and had been given to her to keep for the church; he might now do with them what he thought proper. This the Goth reported to the king. Alaric immediately despatched a party to the house to secure the precious vessels, and had them solemnly conveyed back to the Basilica. The Christian Romans, delighted at this proof of clemency, attended the procession and chanted the ecclesiastical hymns customary on such festive occasions. The heathens likewise followed, in the hope of obtaining greater safety. The Gothic warriors, astonished at this unexpected spectacle, joined also in the procession, and thus a common faith diffused sentiments of peace, and set limits to the rage of war.

It is true that the opinion of many contemporaries is more unfavourable to particular German tribes; they paint the calamities of those wars in gloomier colours. It would, however, be difficult to cite from the historical authorities for the times of this great northern migration, which we are apt to consider an epoch of unceasing devastation, even one single act, which for real, genuine barbarism may be compared with the systematic cruelty and devastation of which the Romans were often guilty. Their treatment of Tarentum, of Carthage, of Corinth, where they destroyed the most beautiful ancient monuments and works of art (not to speak of many others of the most splendid cities of antiquity), occurred, too, at times which we regard as civilized, and comparatively as the most flourishing and the best of ancient Rome!

It is undeniable that during the Gothic wars many monuments of art perished. The same things occurred long before during the internal commotions under the emperors, and even in the time of the republic, before conquests by the Germans were even thought of. From the ignorance of such subjects prevalent among the multitude in all times, even the most civilized, it is an inevitable circumstance in every war that the monuments of antiquity and of art are not all preserved, as we might wish; not to speak of other unhappy chances of destruction. It is well known that the destruction of many ancient objects of art is to be ascribed to a very different

CONDUCT OF THE GOTHS IN ROME.

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time and cause. When Christianity became the predominant religion, when many heathen temples were suddenly converted into Christian churches, it may have easily happened that this, like every great change, however beneficial, worked out by the hands of man, was attended by a false zeal. This have doomed to destruction many images of gods, that we are now accustomed to regard as sacred objects of art, but which at that time, for the great bulk of heathens, were objects of a very different kind of veneration, and for that very reason were held in horror by the Christians. If, moreover, we judge less from an exclusive predilection for the fine arts, and look more to the whole range of human culture, we cannot deny that the writings and scientific knowledge of the Romans must have attracted the attention of the Germans infinitely more than their statues. And this was abundantly the case. In this respect, the charge that the Germans destroyed the ancient intellectual culture is particularly unjust and unfounded. The Roman and the Grecian intellect had been indeed long extinct; how then could the Germans destroy what was no longer in existence? Where at that time were writers of any real distinction; where any Roman literature or learning at all to be found, except among the great ecclesiastical writers of the fourth and fifth centuries? The whole inheritance of the better literature and knowledge of the Romans remained at that time almost exclusively in the hands of the Christian clergy. The Germans, far from destroying or undervaluing this inheritance of knowledge and literature, at once Christian and Roman, received it with the greatest reverence: preserved, diffused, and, as far as the times permitted, even augmented these literary treasures. The cultivation of the soil, the material well-being of the country, were so little destroyed by the Germans, that, in the reign of Theodoric, agriculture, under the fostering care of the new government, began quickly to flourish again, and, in a short time, Italy required no longer any importation of corn.

The diversity we have mentioned, in the opinion of contemporaries, as to the system of conquest adopted by the Germanic nations, their conduct and character, is a confirmation of what we have before remarked, that there were two parties at that time in the Roman empire; one favourably

disposed, and the other hostile, to the Germans. Besides the evident predilection of several Christian writers, and of many influential Christians in general, it may be inferred from many circumstances, that there was less repugnance to the Germans in the Western, than in the Greek empire. This is not perhaps to be altogether ascribed to the influence of Stilico, that German, who at the commencement of the Gothic wars, as chief functionary of the empire, guided the helm of the state under Honorius. This circumstance may be explained by the old and very frequent commercial and colonial intercourse existing between the Germans and the Western Romans still more by the difference of character between the Greeks and the Romans. At this time, as in antiquity, the Greeks, in learning, acuteness, subtlety, and artificial polish of mind, indisputably surpassed the Romans, as well as all other European nations. The vulgar portion among the Greeks were extremely conceited, and vain of these advantages, even in the elder and better times, and infinitely more so in their then state of degeneracy. They despised and hated all who were not of their nation, the more strongly, the deeper they were themselves sunk in degeneracy, and reduced to a state of ignominious dependence and degradation. The Romans, on the contrary, had been early taught to prize other virtues and qualities more influential in real life, far higher than all the feats of intellect, that displayed the utmost acuteness in the most exquisite of languages, or reached the highest refinement in the recreative arts. Hence, from their homelier and severer view of life, and of the dignity of man, they may well have formed a very different and far more favourable judgment of the Germans, as they then were, than did the Greeks.

We must not attribute an un-Roman sentiment, or a want of patriotism, to those Christians who were more favourably disposed towards the Germans. There was no question of a rooting out of the Roman language and manners, such as perhaps Attila alone meditated, but merely of a change, that had been long recognised as necessary, in the institutions of state and in the government. These in fact were growing more and more paralyzed, till they almost ceased to act, long before Germanic rule was substituted in their place. If the Christians saw in this dominion, as was undoubtedly the case, the only means of health and safety for the state, and eagerly