considered by the Romans,) were the Suevi, the Saxons, and the Goths,
who may be best distinguished by the course of the rivers, which
flowed through the countries they inhabited. The whole of that
extensive country, afterwards called Ancient Saxony, and which lay
along the course and embouchures of the Elbe, the Eyder, the Ems and
the Weser, including the whole sea-coast with Jutland and Denmark, all
the Rhenish Netherlands with the Batavian shores, was inhabited by the
Saxons; a people (for it was only later their name was explained from
a peculiar national weapon, or species of sword,) attached to the
soil, and who were of all the Germanic tribes the least prone to
emigration; for, as mariners, they kept to the sea-coasts, and the
banks of rivers. It was only at the period when the tide of emigration
had reached its highest point that the Saxons, issuing from their
native seat, not only possessed themselves of, but as it were, peopled
anew, the great British Isle; and it is very possible that this not
widely dispersed, but closely connected low-German race, then
out-numbered all the other nations of Germany. It was on the banks of
the Upper Rhine and the Upper Danube that lay the original seat of the
Suevi, a race perhaps more mixed, who occur in history under the name
of the Alemanni, and were distinguished for a restless spirit of
adventure and migratory enterprize. The name of the Franks, a people
occupying so important a place in later history, denoted originally
rather a league than a particular nation; and as their geographical
seat lay between those of the Suevi and the Saxons, they were akin
in character and by descent to both those nations. In their manners
and mode of government they resembled the Alemanni; while in race and
language they were originally more nearly allied to the Saxons. If the
Franks are to be considered a distinct nation, it is the ancient Catti
or Hessians (who have ever been included among that people) that we
must regard as the main stock of the whole race.
But the second great primitive and leading race among the Germanic
nations were the Goths, a people whose territory spread from the
Scandinavian Peninsula, and the shores of the Baltic, along the whole
course of the Vistula, as far as the Black Sea. Their language, as it
exists in the yet extant Gothic bible of Ulphilas, is what we would
now call the high Dutch dialect; though its form is more ancient, and
is distinguished for a certain purity of structure, not without its
peculiar charm. This Gothic dialect is, in tone and form, less akin to
the Saxon and Scandinavian languages, except in so far as the branches
of a stem, the nearer we approach the roots, reveal more clearly their
common origin. In the Scandinavian North, the territories of these two
principal Germanic races, the Goths and the Saxons, were contiguous;
and, proceeding from this common source, the two nations branched out
into separate and various streams. Of a similar, or at least of a
kindred, race to the Goths, were the Burgundians and Vandals, who
afterwards founded the kingdoms of that name in Gaul and Spain.
Hereditary monarchy attained to a more settled form among the Goths
than among any other of the Germanic nations; and, divided between two
different dynasties, the Ostro-Goths were subject to the heroic family
of the Amali, and the Visi-Goths to that of the Balti. The Roman
historians of that age often speak of their martial courage and
magnanimity, as well as of their lofty and commanding stature.
The real emigration of the Northern tribes originated solely and
immediately with the Goths; and, in the first period, was not produced
by any commotion among the Asiatic nations, as was afterwards the
case. As early as the third century, the Goths took possession of the
countries situated on the Northern coast of the Euxine, and penetrated
into Greece as far as Athens. The Emperor Decius fell in the war
against them, and in the peace which they concluded with Aurelian,
they retained the further Dacia which had been previously surrendered.
They now became allies of the Romans, who were happy enough to
cultivate the relations of peace with them, and to recruit their
legions with the Gothic youth. A hundred years later, the Goths on the
death of their king Hermanric, were disturbed in their settlements
near the Black Sea by the Huns: a people who, according to the Chinese
annals, originally inhabited the Northern frontier of China towards
the Eastern parts of the Middle Asia, and who afterwards, bearing down
westward, took up their abode for a long time on the Eastern shores of
the Caspian, till at last they forced their way into the Caucasian
regions, and the territory of the Goths on the borders of the Black
Sea.
It was only now, when the minds of the German tribes of the West were
at the same time rising to a higher and higher pitch of excitement,
and the old Empire of Rome was on every side crumbling into ruins,
that the tide of Northern emigration burst out in all its full and
fearful violence. In the first irruptions, the names of the different
tribes, as well as of their leaders, were almost all without exception
German; but now we meet with many foreign names, which discover not
only the Asiatic Huns, but the Sclavonian, and even perhaps,
occasionally, the Finnish tribes, that were undoubtedly then
intermingled with the Goths in the vast empire of the latter. For
fifty years after the first invasion, the Huns remained at peace in
their new settlements between the Theiss and the Danube, nor did they
disturb the Roman Empire till the time of Attila. The Goths offered to
defend the frontier against these barbarians, and received in return
the province to the south of the Danube.
The Goths readily embraced Christianity; but they received it in the
Arian form; for at the time when religious instructors and the Gothic
bishop Ulphilas were sent from Constantinople, the Arian party had the
ascendancy in that capital. This circumstance had afterwards the most
fatal influence on the destinies of the Roman Empire; for one of the
chief causes of its downfal was this new contest in religious matters.
It was on this very account the second conquest of Rome by the Vandal
King Genseric was attended with far more devastation than the first
under the Visi-Goth King Alaric; for the former persecuted the
Catholic church with all the animosity of an Arian. The Goths were not
animated by feelings of hostility towards the Romans; but were rather
disposed to admire the excellence and superiority of their
civilization. When the Emperor Valens perished in the Gothic war,
which Roman treachery had occasioned, Theodosius contrived to conclude
an advantageous peace with this people, when they stood at the very
gates of Constantinople, took forty thousand of their troops into his
pay, and renewed the armed confederacy of the Goths which Constantine
had formed. When the Gothic prince Athanaric had contemplated with
astonishment the pomp and splendour of Constantinople, and had
conceived sentiments of respect for the personal character of
Theodosius; the Goths, moved by the representations of their prince,
declared to Theodosius that as long as he lived, they wished to have
no other king but himself. But the case was altered under the sons of
Theodosius; and, to defend themselves from this people, these princes
knew no other expedient than to let loose on Italy these barbarians,
and to divert and point the storm of invasion towards that quarter.
This policy produced the expedition of the Visi-Goth King Alaric to
Rome, and the first conquest of the eternal and seven-hilled city.
The disputes between Rome and the new Byzantine court did not a little
contribute to the downfal of the Roman Empire; and the dexterity, or
rather craftiness, which the politicians of Constantinople displayed
on this, as on many other occasions, was often attended with
consequences the most ruinous to Italy. As the universal empire of
Rome had grown out of civil war, so it was undermined and ruined more
by internal discord and corruption, than by the power of the Goths; a
nation with whom the Romans might easily have contracted relations of
amity, and induced to fraternize, and become by degrees one people
with themselves; and indeed, at various periods, the policy of the
better Emperors had prepared the way for such an union. As, of all the
Germanic nations, the Goths were the most powerful; and as their
assistance would have enabled the Romans to resist all the other
tribes; such an alliance, as I here speak of, would have accomplished
by pacific means the purpose of the great Northern migration, namely,
the union of the sound, vigorous, native spirit of the Germans with
the civilization of the Romans (then indeed sunk to the lowest state
of debasement), and whose polity and public life Christianity itself
was unable totally to regenerate. And thus a long intermediate period
of conflict and confusion would have been rendered unnecessary.
During the troubles which followed the first conquest of Rome by
Alaric, the Romans invoked from Africa the aid of Genseric, King of
the Vandals,--a prince who both as a warrior, and as a ruler, was far
more cruel than Alaric, and who every where spread terror on his
march. Jealous and suspicious of the Goths, he invited into Italy
Attila, with all the nations which his martial prowess had subjected
or attached to his authority, and occasioned the expedition of the
latter into the West, where, in the great battle on the banks of the
Marna, the Goths constituted the main portion of both the contending
armies. The Huns and some other of the invading nations were still
Pagans; and the history of that age amply demonstrated that wars are
ever more destructive in proportion as the armies are more numerous,
the throng of armed multitudes more dense, and the nations composing
them more various and dissimilar. Still the general oppression,
anarchy, desolation, and misery, in those times, are not to be traced
solely to wars and battles; for, during the most flourishing and
civilized ages of ancient Rome, wars were almost perpetually waged,
and were generally more, and certainly not less, bloody and
destructive than the present. The Bishop of Rome contrived to avert
the torrent of hostilities from his capital, and the city was spared.
On the death of Attila, the Huns ceased to be formidable; for the
power of that prince, which depended far less on their numbers, than
on his own military prowess and glory, perished at once with him.
Odoacer, Prince of the Heruli and Rugians, (nations also Gothic) was
called to the Empire of Rome from the banks of the Danube. From his
conquest dates the downfal of the Western Empire, and the last Roman
youth who was yet dignified with the name of emperor, was called
Romulus, 1228 years after the first Romulus,--the founder of the
eternal city--a city which after it had lost its outward and political
power, became the centre of a vast sacerdotal dominion, and again
occupied in succeeding times a mighty and important place in history.
When the sway of the Heruli became an object of detestation in Rome
and Italy, the Greek Emperor Zeno, in a formal document, conferred on
the Ostro-Goth King Theodoric, who had been educated at
Constantinople, the dominion of Italy; and the latter, after his
victory over Odoacer, assumed the Roman purple, in lieu of the Gothic
dress. He was highly esteemed in Rome, and by all the Germanic
nations; his name, like that of Charlemagne after him, was celebrated
in the heroic songs of the Germans, while political writers and
historical critics commend alike his talents and his virtues. His rule
was generous and noble; he loved and honoured the arts and sciences
which his age still possessed, and the last of Roman writers,
Cassiodorius and Boethius, were the ornaments of his reign. Factions
which arose on the death of this great prince, and a crime perpetrated
on the relics of his house,[4] afforded the active Emperor of the
East, Justinian, an opportunity to re-establish the Greek sway in
Italy, by means of his successful General, Belisarius. Military
commanders like Belisarius, and some worthier and more enterprizing
princes on the throne of Byzantium, as well as that systematic course
of policy I have before described, maintained the Byzantine Empire;
while Rome itself was ruined, and Italy fell under the dominion of the
Lombards, who succeeded the Goths, and were succeeded in their turn by
the Franks--under whom the Roman Empire of Germany was re-established,
and Rome became, and continued, united with that empire during the
middle ages, though for the most part only in name.
This rapid but faithful sketch of the migration of the Northern
nations seemed necessary to enable us to form a right opinion on this
subject. For this period, which laid the mighty foundation on which
the whole Teutonico--Romanic structure of the institutions, laws,
manners, languages, opinions, and even the peculiar imaginative
character of modern European nations, has been raised, has not always
been fully understood, or justly appreciated by many writers, either
led away by a partial enthusiasm for the antique, or enthralled by
modern opinions and prejudices--writers who wish to trace in all parts
of creation, and even in universal history, the same dead uniformity
and monotony of plan. It is by no means common to meet with an
Historical inquirer, possessing a flexibility of fancy, a justness of
feeling, and a soundness and correctness of judgment, capable of
transporting him into the remote ages of history, and the mythic
antiquity of nations. But in the present instance, and throughout the
whole of this chaotic epoch, when the old fictions of the Titanic wars
appear to be actually realized, and when the marvellous of events and
sentiments is to be found in the obscure and meagre chronicles of that
age, which often unite fragments of popular mythology and Pagan
tradition, with real historic incidents; it is perhaps still more
difficult to form an accurate judgment, and to discriminate between
the elements of truth and falsehood. As we cannot figure to ourselves
such a state of anarchy, we are unable to comprehend it. We should
bear in mind how often in nature the fairest bloom of vegetation, and
the richest fullness of organic life, spring out of a state of
confusion and chaos, when the elemental powers, after a long strife
and conflict, settle at last into a state of harmonious equipoise,
unite and fructify, and in some creative moment, when the struggle of
labour is over, give birth to new and more beautiful forms of
existence. Ancient Egypt was indebted for its fertility to the
periodic inundations of the Nile, which, had they not been provided
against by mounds and dams, would have occasioned the utmost
desolation. Nay, doth not this earth we inhabit, and which nourishes
us, with all that fair and blooming vegetation spread over its
surface, with all that boundless wealth and variety of animal life,
and with all the civility and refinement of man's existence, whose
abode it constitutes; doth not this earth, I say, teeming as it doth
with fertility and life, rest on the gigantic remains of a primitive
world submerged by the old floods, and which was often torn, convulsed
and rent asunder by the eruptions of subterraneous fire? Well, the
migration of the Northern nations brought about a sort of chaotic
struggle between the various elements of society--it was a new Ogygean
inundation of nations in the historical ages--but it laid the fruitful
soil--the historical foundation of a new moral and intellectual form
of life. This vast flux and reflux of nations, rolling in incessant
waves from the East to the West, and from the North to the South, and
back again to the East and to the North, this emission of immense
armies issuing in all directions from a common centre, and returning
again to that centre from every side--all this vast movement must be
looked upon as a strife and contention between the elemental powers of
human society. The first effect, indeed, of such a strife of nature's
elements let loose is to destroy, or at least, to impair all existing
organic forms; and it must be confessed, this wild and protracted
state of confusion and anarchy does not present the most pleasing and
auspicious aspect to the eye of the historical observer. With respect
to the latter circumstance, we must recollect that the extremely slow
progress, and often unexpected delays, in the advancement of human
society, correspond not always, and indeed rarely, to our wishes and
expectations; while, on the other hand, there are epochs in history,
when we are amazed by the sudden out-burst of the most extraordinary
events, and when a great splendour of moral and intellectual life
surprises us of a sudden, like a bright morning in Spring. In other
words, there is a strong, wise and Fatherly hand which guides and
conducts the destinies of individuals, as well as the march of
society, and the course of ages; or as the Scripture, with touching
simplicity, saith, "the Father hath reserved times unto himself;" and
Time in his march keepeth not pace with the rapidity of our desires,
nor moveth according to our views and hopes. But whatever may be, if I
may so speak, the fearful tardiness, wherewith the views of Providence
over the destinies of the human race are accomplished;--a tardiness,
whereof man has to bear the greatest blame; or whatever may be, if I
may so say, the long delays of divine justice--the procrastination of
the period of grace;--it cannot be doubted that the general result of
the great Northern migration was most salutary, and that that mixture
of the Germanic tribes with the degenerate population of Rome--that
alliance between the healthy, vigorous, and native intellectual energy
of Germany, and the rapidly decaying civilization of Rome, were
productive of the mightiest and most beneficial consequences. Whoever
doubts the truth of this observation, may cure his scepticism by
comparing the splendour, activity and variety in the political and
intellectual existence of the modern European states, that have sprung
out of this union of the Germanic and Romanic nations, with the dull
monotony, the thorough moral and intellectual stupor which prevailed
in the later Byzantine Empire.
But I have more than once observed that, independently of that
progressive power of reason, inherent in all the forms and departments
of human activity; and independently of the operations of Divine
Providence, which form that high mysterious chain of unity which links
together the different periods of man's social progress;
independently, I say, of all these, there is a law of nature--a high,
and secret principle of nature, presiding over the life and growth of
human society--which, if kept in due subordination to the higher
principle of Providence, will not be found incompatible with it. The
prevalence of this law of nature may be clearly traced in the history
of mankind, and even in that of particular nations, when their social
progress is not impeded or interrupted by violent or irregular causes.
And in following the current of events in History, the historical
observer can accurately distinguish the different periods of national
developement--the first period of artless, yet marvellous,
childhood--the next of the first bloom and flush of youth--later, the
maturer vigour and activity of manhood--and at last the symptoms of
approaching age, a state of general decay, and second childishness.
This energy of nature, which, together with the other, higher and
divine principle of human destiny, is inherent in mankind, displays
itself even in the sphere of intellect, and particularly in the
flourishing eras of art and science. It is even still more, or at
least quite as, perceptible in those creative moments already
described, of a new, though perhaps, at first, a chaotic epoch of
human society: so far, at least, as those plastic, eventful moments
are not the mere offspring and counterfeit production of revolutionary
violence--but have issued from the very well-spring of nature. When
the latter is the case, it will be found that the whole tendency of
these periods of extraordinary ferment in society is conducive to the
extension of the divine principle, and to the promotion of the views
of Providence, as was eminently the case in the era of the great
Northern migrations; an era, when a catastrophe, at first the most
appalling, led to the further triumph of Christianity, which conferred
on those robust, Northern children of nature the high consecration of
an empire, which thereby, in its ulterior progress, far outshone the
Roman, or any other old Pagan domination. But unquestionably the two
conflicting elements in that eventful period, which contained the
first germs of all modern civilization--the free-born energy of
Germanic nature, and the Romanic refinement, science, and language,
were happily blended and harmonized by the Christian religion only,
which on that account must be regarded as the all-connecting bond--the
one all-animating principle of social life in modern ages. But without
that new element of vital power furnished by the Northern emigrations,
Christianity alone would not have regenerated the degraded people of
Rome, nor have restored its intellectual energy, then sunk to too low
a state of debasement. Above all, the primitive, innate, and deeply
rooted corruption of the Roman government was beyond the power of
remedy, and could only be removed by time.
The evils of the age were indeed, universal; for, even in the bosom of
Christianity, discord had broken out; and where even faith was
preserved in its purity, there, to use the expression of Holy Writ,
"much of first love was gone." But for this, the influence of
Christianity on the Roman empire, and the Roman world, would have been
far more extensive; and a miraculous cure would have been wrought on
the moral distempers of society, as on the physical diseases of
individuals. And as holy hermits were often able to command the
elements of nature and the savage beasts of the desert; so a divine
power, by its mild, conciliating, prompt and effective influence would
in the first moment have allayed the wild jar and strife of the
social elements. But these effects were accomplished only by slow
degrees, by the soothing influence of time, and by the gradual
infusion of the spirit of Christianity into the human mind.
The progressive corruption and ever growing disorders of the Roman
world were productive of consequences in some degree important to
Christianity, particularly in relation to after-ages. To forsake and
renounce that world of cruelty and vice, that kingdom of
dissimulation, that age of confusion and barbarism, and to seek by
preference an abode and asylum in the wilderness, in the neighbourhood
of lions and other savage animals of the desert, required no
extraordinary impulse of Christian feeling, and scarcely more than a
high effort of human courage. And thus in that convulsed period of the
Roman Empire, and under the accurst domination of its last tyrants,
Christian anchorets peopled the solitudes of Thebais,--those solitudes
where the old pyramids and other monuments of hoar antiquity still
speak in mute signs to the traveller, their grave and earnest
language. Self-contemplation did not shut up these Christian
anchorites within a narrow and egotistical sphere of thought, as is
the case with the Indian recluse, who, to outward appearance, leads
the same mode of life. As the primitive Christians evinced the power
of faith and charity by deeds and in sufferings, in words and in works
of manifold kinds; so prayer was to these solitaries the inward porch
of a new and invisible world--a real business of life, and a bond of
the closest and tenderest connection, whereby, though separated from
the world, they remained, even at the remotest distance, intimately
united with all who, like themselves, were firmly united to God.