race, which we may again meet with under the appellation of Sclavonians. Adverting to the German nations, M. Herder traces the fource of their military fpirit, their ardour, and their fuccefs. In the most ancient hiftory of the Germans, therefore, it is neceffary to guard ourfelves against any partial attachment to a favourite fpot for our modern conftitution; with this the ancient Germans had no concern; they followed the courfe of a different ftream of nations. Weftward they preffed on the Belgians and Gael, till they had feated themselves in the midst of other tribes: they paffed eastward as far as the Baltic; and when this put a stop to their progrefs and their plunder, as its fandy coafts were unable to fupport them, they naturally turned fouthward, the first opportunity, into countries that had been evacuated. Hence many of the nations, that invaded the Roman empire, had previously dwelt on the fhores of the Baltic: but these were only the more barbarous, whofe refidence there was by no means the occafion of the fhock that was given to the power of Rome. This we muft feek at a greater diftance, in the Afiatic country of Mungalia for there the western Huns were preffed upon by the Igurians and other nations; in confequence they croffed the Wolga, fell upon the Alans on the Don, and the great kingdom of the Goths on the Black Sea, and thus many fouthern German nations, the Oftrogoths and Vifigoths, Vandals, Alans, and Suevi, were fet in motion, and the Huns followed them. With the Saxons, Franks, and Burgundians, the cafe was different; as it was with the Heruli, who long ferved in the Roman armies, as heroes that fold their blood for pay. : • We muft likewife take care not to ascribe fimilar manners, or a like degree of civilization, to all thefe people, as appears from the difference of their conduct towards the nations they conquered. The favage Saxons in Britain, the roaming Alans and Suevi in Spain, conducted themselves not as the Oftrogoths in Italy, or the Burgundians in Gaul. The tribes that had long dwelt on the Roman frontiers, near their colonies and places of trade, in the west or fouth, were more mild and polifhed, than thofe who came from the barren fea-coafts, or from the forefts of the north: hence it would be arrogance if every horde of Germans were to ascribe to itself, for instance, the mythology of the Scandinavian Goths. How far did not these Goths advance? and in how many ways was not this mythology afterwards refined? The brave primitive German, perhaps, can claim nothing but his Theut or Tuifto, Mann, Hertha, and Wodan, that is, a father, a hero, the earth, and a general.' P. 480. The Sclavonians once poffeffed the vaft territory from the Don to the Elbe, and from the Adriatic to the Baltic Seas. They are reprefented as peaceful cultivators, occupying the land which others had left, and with little fpirit or inclination for conqueft, not greatly inclined to make a fteady and active refiftance. The Franks, the Danes, and the Germans, contributed to ruin their establishments, and circumfcribe their limits, and they now calmly cultivate a fine country from the Don to the Muldaw, and from the Adriatic to the Carpathian Mountains. The foreign races in Europe complete the author's view of modern nations. A new In the extenfive migrations from the mountains of Afia to the north and weft, different tribes fucceffively occupied the countries on each point, without any bond of union, without civilifation, without literature, except what they borrowed from the east, or neceffity compelled them to invent. inftrument of civilifation, a new bond of union was required, and this inftrument, this link, was Chriftianity. The feventeenth book is therefore devoted to an examination of the origin and progrefs of the Chriftian religion. M. Herder explains the fimple unadorned form of real Chriftianity, and foon proceeds to speak of its progress in the Eaft, in the Grecian and Roman provinces. Thefe fteps we cannot follow; but what relates to the progrefs of Christianity in the Eaft is the mott novel, and the most interesting part. In our author's opinion it gave a new fpirit to the doctrines of Budha and Fo; and, if it did not eftablish the fect of the Bonzes, the monastic fyftem of the Lamas and Telapoins, it at least added to the fervor and ftability of fuch inftitutions. The Neftorian bishop of Afia may have been the Prefter John of the travellers in the middle ages; and from his afhes the Lama of Thibet, with an indolence and inactivity of a more fouthern climate, may have arifen. Before M. Herder inveftigates the progrefs of Christianity among barbarous nations, he confiders thortly their fituation from the period when they obtruded themfelves forcibly on the notice of the more fouthern nations. He first speaks of the Sueves, Vifigoths, Alans, and Vandals. The establishment of the Gothic kingdom in Spain is boldly as well as accurately delineated, and the fource of the connection between the civil and religious powers, or more properly between defpotifm and fuperftition, well explained. The remains of the Vandals paffed into Africa, and flourished only during the fhort and victorious reign of Genferic. The Oftrogoths and Lombards are next mentioned, and to the latter is attributed the establishment of the feudal system in its greatest extent. As their country will now perhaps affume a new and more permanent form under the name of the Cifalpine republic, we may be indulged in tranfcribing our author's account of its earlier fiate. Hence (upon the death of the Lombard monarch Alpoin) arofe fix and thirty dukes, and the first Lombard-German conftitution in Italy was established. For when the nation, compelled by neceffity, again elected a king, every powerful feudatory for the most part acted as he pleased. Often the king was even deprived of the choice of these ; and at last his power of ruling and employing his vassals depended folely on his precarious perfonal authority. Thus arofe the dukes of Friuli, Spoleto, and Benevento; who were foon followed by others: for the country abounded with cities, in which here a duke, there a count, could eftablifh himself. Thus, however, the kingdom of Lombardy was enfeebled, and could have been much more eafily extirpated than that of the Goths, had Conftantinople poffeffed a Juftinian, a Belifarius, and [or] a Narfes. Yet even in this feeble state it was capable of deftroying the remains of the exarchate; though its own fall was prepared by it. The bishop of Rome, who wifhed only for a weak and divided government in Italy, beheld the Lombards too powerful and too near. Having no longer any affiftance to expect from Conftantinople, Stephen croffed the mountains; flattered Pepin, the ufurper of the crown of the Franks, with the honour of being a protector of the church; anointed him legitimate king of France; and accepted as a reward the five cities, even previous to the commencement of the campaign, in which they were to be conquered, and the exarchate, yet to be taken from the Lombards. Charlemagne, the fon of Pepin, completed his father's work: and fubdued, with his overwhelming power, the Lombard kingdom. In recompenfe he was created, by the holy father, patrician of Rome, and protector of the church, and proclaimed and crowned emperor of the Romans, as if by the inspiration of the fpirit. The effect of this proclamation on Europe in general will hereafter appear: to Italy the confequence of this masterly caft of the fisherman's net was the irreparable lofs of the Lombard kingdom. During the two centuries of its continuance, it had promoted the population of the ravaged and exhaufted country; it had diffufed fecurity and happinefs through the land, by means of Germanic order and equity; while every state was permitted either to adopt the Lombard laws, or to retain its own. The jurifprudence of the Lombards was concife, methodical, and effective: their laws remained in force long after their kingdom was deftroyed. Even Charlemagne, by whom it was overturned, still allowed them to be valid, only with additions of his own. In feveral parts of Italy they continued to be the common law, in conjunction with the Roman; and found admirers and expofitors, even when the Juftinian code became paramount at the command of the emperor.' P. 535. Since the time of Charlemagne, who added' Lombardy to his poffellions, and tranfinitted it as an hereditary portion to his children; fince the Roman imperial title, too, unfortunately came into Germany, and this poor land, throughout which uniformity of fen timent could never prevail, had to draw with Italy in the dangerous harnefs of numerous and various feudal bands; and before an emperor had recommended the written law of Lombardy, and added it to the Juftinian code; the conftitution, that formed its bafe, was certainly not calculated for the advantage of many districts, bare of towns, and poor in arts. Owing to the ignorance and prejudices of the times, the law of the Lombards at length paffed for the general feudal law of the empire: and thus thefe people ftill furvive in their cuftoms, which, properly speaking, were raked out of their ashes to be condensed into laws. The state of the church, likewife, was much affected by this conftitution. At first the Lombards, as well as the Goths, were Arians but when Gregory the Great fucceeded in bringing over queen Theodolinda, the mufe of her nation, to the orthodox faith, the zeal of the new converts foon difplayed itself in good works." Kings, dukes, counts, and barons, emulated cach other in building convents, and endowing the church with ample additions to its patrimony. The church of Rome enjoyed poffeffions of this kind from Sicily to Mount Cenis. For as the fiefs of temporal lords were hereditary, why should not those of the spiritual be the fame, who had to provide for an eternity of fucceffors? Every church acquired with its patrimony fome faint for a protector; and men had continually to gain the favour of this patron, as an interceffor with God. His image and his relics, his festival and his prayers, worked miracles; thefe miracles produced fresh prefents; fo that what with the continual gratitude of the faint, on the one hand, and that of the feudatories, their wives, and children, on the other, there was no fuch thing as ftriking a balance of the account. The feudal conftitution itself paffed in fome measure into the church. For as the duke took precedence of the count, the bishop who fat by the duke's fide would maintain precedence of a count's bishop: thus the temporal dukedom became the diocese of an archbishop; the bithops of fubordinate cities were converted into fuffragans of a fpiritual duke. The wealthy abbots, as fpiritual barons, endeavoured to withdraw themselves from the jurifdiction of their bishops, and render themselves independent. The bifhop of Rome, who thus became a fpiritual emperor, or king, willingly allowed this independance, and prepared the principles, which the falfe Ifidorus' afterwards publicly established for the whole catholic church. The numerous festivals, acts of devotion, maffes, and offices, demanded a multitude of clerical functionaries: the treasures of the church, and facerdotal garments, which were fuited to the barbarian taste, required their facriftan; the patrimonial poffeffions, their rectors; all ultimately terminating in a fpiritual and temporal patron, a pope and emperor; fo that church and state rivalled each other in one feudal conftitution. The fall of the Lombard kingdom was the bath of a pope, and with him of a new emperor, whence the whole conftitution of Europe affumed a new form. For the face of the world is not changed by conqueft alone; but still more by new views of things, by new difpofitions, laws, and rights.' P. 537. The history of the Allemans, Burgundians, and Franks, is a fketch only, but a mafterly one, and traces the origin of their monarchy till it attained a vaft unwieldly magnitude under Charlemagne. The kingdoms of the Saxons, Normans, and Danes are defcribed with equal fpirit. From the piracies of thofe adventurers arofe the early naval power of the northern nations, and, from the energy infuted by the mixture of other nations, and the fpring imparted by the fpirit and example of fucceffive conquerors, M. Herder derives the peculiar excellence of the British character. A short account of the northern kingdoms and Germany, and a general view of the inftitution of the German principalities in Europe, conclude the eighteenth book. In this part of the work we perceive the luminous compreffion, and often the philofophic energy of Gibbon, whom our author highly praifes, and whofe opinions he frequently adopts. The cry against this work,' he adds in a note, as if the author were an enemy to the Chriftian religion,. feems to me unjuft, for Gibbon has fpoken of Chriftianity, as of other matters in his hiftory, with great mildness.' The Romish hierarchy, its policy, its effects and influence on political states, and the progrefs of literature and commerce, are next confidered. Thefe lead the author to the Arabs, who, in the last departments, had a great influence on Europe in the middle ages, and, by developing the faculties of the human mind, on the Hitory of Man, The fpirit of commerce and the taste of chivalry had equal effect in divefting the mind of thofe favage notions which war alone infpires. On the latter fubject, our author's light fketch, for it can afpire to no more, is highly interefting. The croifades, which have been supposed a powerful engine in enlightening the rude warrior, and expanding the untutored mind, had, in M. Herder's opinion, but a partial effect. It was one of the impulfes, either collateral or oblique, which, at the fame time, concurred to give new energy and activity to the views and exertions of Europeans, and was affifted by commerce, by chivalry (the parent rather than the offspring of the croifades), the progrefs of arts and sciences, the emancipation of cities, &c. It is perhaps, as our author alleges, a mere phantom of the brain to frame one prime fource of events out of feven diftinct expeditions, undertaken in a period of two centuries, by different nations, and from various motives, folely because they bore one common name.' Leaving therefore thefe fuppofed caufes, our author ultimately looks for the modern improvements of the human race in the |