pears to have been at first sight; for though a man thrown into the water commonly sinks at first to the bottom, yet as they tied him about with large cords, "and withs," he sometimes swam on the surface spite of his teeth. This kind of proof indeed, as well as that of boiling water, was only for persons of inferior rank. Others handled hot iron, or put their hands into a red-hot gauntlet, or walked blindfold over burning ploughshares. If at the end of certain days there remained any marks of the fire on the hands or feet, the accused were judged guilty; if not, he was acquitted. There is reason to think that, notwithstanding they took all possible precaution, they also had recourse to certain preservatives against the effects of fire, and perhaps the same that mountebanks in our times make use of as oft as they amuse the people with spectacles of the same kind. Besides this, men who were accustomed to hard labour, to the toils of hunting, and constant handling of arms, had rendered their skins so thick and callous, that they could not easily be hurt; and as for the ladies, they were generally allowed champions to undergo the trial for them. The proof by fire, or fiery-ordeal, seems to have been more in use afterwards, and founded upon a different train of reasoning; for in things of this nature, we must not expect such rude minds to act very consistently.

As for the ceremonies which accompanied these kinds of proof, the cases in which they were appointed, and the other minute circumstances, they varied in different times and places and as imitation and habit perpetuate customs long after the causes of them have ceased, the ordeal was practised during many ages by men, who doubtless believed nothing about the genii presiding over the several elements, or the other doctrines of the ancient religion*. I shall not enter on the minute history of the ordeal, &c., which was not peculiar to the ancient Danes, and may be found described in other books. I thought proper only to mark the connection be

* Thus long after Christianity was established among the Anglo-Saxons, king Edward the Confessor (a reputed saint) is said to have put his mother to the proof of the burning ploughshares. And even down to our own times, the watery ordeal, or proof by swimming, has been employed by the vulgar for the trial of witchcraft, whenever they could find means to put it in practice.-P.

+ Vid. Wormius in Monum. Danic. lib. i. c. 2, and Steph. Stephanius in his Notes on Saxo Grammaticus.

tween them and the doctrines of that religion, which I described in the preceding chapters: a connection which has been seldom attended to, and which shows that it is only for want of studying mankind that they appear to act wholly without motives or principles of conduct. It was king Valdemar the Second to whom the glory belongs of having abolished this absurd and inhuman practice in Denmark †.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE PASSION OF THE ANCIENT SCANDINAVIANS FOR ARMS: THEIR VALOUR: THE MANNER IN WHICH THEY MADE WAR.

"Rome had reckoned from its foundation six hundred and forty years, when the arms of the Cimbri were first heard of among us. From that time to the present have elapsed two hundred and six years more. So long have we been in conquering Germany. And in the course of so tedious a war, what various losses have been sustained by each party? No nation has given us more frequent alarms; neither the Samnites, the Carthaginians, the Spaniards, the Gauls, nor even the Parthians so much less vigour has the despotic power of Arsaces had, than the liberty of the Germans. For, except the defeat of Crassus, what has the conquered and prostrate Fast to object to the current of our success? Whereas the

* He reigned from the year 1202 to 1241.-P.

+ I cannot conclude this subject without observing that we find some traces of the ordeal among the ancient Greeks and Romans. Thus in the Antigone of Sophocles, (Act II. Sc. 11.) we have the following remarkable passage, which shows it was not unknown in Greece:

"The guards accused each other; nought was proved,

But each suspected each, and all denied,

Offering in proof of innocence to grasp

The burning steel, to walk thro' fire, and take

Their solemn oath they knew not of the decd.”

See Franklin's Sophocles and note on the above passage. See also Stiernhök de Jur. Vet. Suec. lib. i. c. 8, apud Dalin, Sue. Rik. Hist. tom. i. ch. 7.

Pliny, speaking of a feast, which the ancient Romans celebrated every year in honour of the Sun, observes that the priests, who were to be of the family of the Hirpians, danced on this occasion barefoot on burning coa's without burning themselves: this was apparently a relic of the fiery ordeal. Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. vii. 2.

Germans have taken or defeated five generals of the republic who commanded so many consular armies. They cut off Varus and three legions from Augustus himself. Nor was that advantage obtained with impunity, which Marius gained over them in Italy, the divine Julius in Gaul, and Drusus, Tiberius and Germanicus in their own country. And even presently after this, the tremendous threats of Caligula became the object of their sport. A respite followed, till profiting by our discord and civil wars, they attacked our legions in their winter quarters, and even undertook the conquest of Gaul. We have since driven them back beyond the Rhine : but in these latter times, our victories over them have been less real, than the pomp of our triumphs.

If this people cannot be brought to love us, at least may they always hate each other! since in the present declining fates of the empire, fortune can grant us no greater favour, than the dissensions of our enemies."*

Such was the opinion entertained of the German and northern nations by the people who conquered the rest of the world. Such, according to the confession of Tacitus, was that martial courage, that ardour, that constancy in defending and avenging their liberty, which so early threatened the power of Rome, and in a few ages after overturned it. It is not my present business to write the history of that great revolution, which changed the face of Europe, but my subject leads me to disclose its causes, since they are contained in the opinions and manners which I am describing. We only want here that penetrating eye, that deep sense and energy of style, which distinguished the author I have been translating. The sources whence issued those torrents of people, which from the north overwhelmed all Europe, the principles which put them in motion, and gave them so much activity and force, these objects, so grand and interesting, have been but slightly and weakly treated of. The more enlightened people, who were the victims of these ravages, were too much pressed with the weight of their calamity to have leisure to trace its remote causes. Like the thunder which remains unseen in the clouds till the moment it bursts forth, and whose nature we have no time to study while it is

Tacit. Germ. c. 37, et c. 33.

striking us; these unexpected irruptions would hardly become the objects of research till after their effects were forgotten. Hence the relations that have been given us of them are so uninteresting, confused, and obscure; faults to which every history will be liable which only gives us a heap of facts, without being able to develop their causes. The greatest part then of the historical phenomena of the middle ages can only be explained by a deep insight into the manners of the northern nations. It is only from thence we can ever be able to comprehend what could induce whole nations to transport themselves from one extremity of Europe to the other; could break through the ties of country, which so strongly attach men to the places of their birth; could render them unanimous in such strange projects, and make them thus spread themselves beyond their own boundaries with such exuberance and impetuosity.

I have already hinted that the ancient Teutonic nations breathed nothing but war, which was at once with them the source of honour, riches, and safety. Their education, laws, prejudices, morality and religion, all concurred to make that their ruling passion and only object. From their most tender age they applied themselves to learn the military art; they hardened their bodies, and accustomed themselves to cold, fatigue, and hunger. They exercised themselves in running, in the chace, in swimming across the greatest rivers, and in handling their arms. The very sports of childhood itself, and of early youth, were directed all towards this end: dangers were always intermingled with their play; for it consisted in taking frightful leaps, in climbing up the steepest rocks, in fighting naked with offensive weapons, in wrestling with the utmost fury: it was therefore common to see them at the age of fifteen years already grown robust men, and able to make themselves feared in combat. It was also at this age that their young men became their own masters, which they did by receiving a sword, a buckler, and a lance. This ceremony was performed in some public meeting. One of the principal persons of the assembly armed the youth in public. "This, we are told by Tacitus, was his Toga Virilis, his entrance upon dignities; before this he made only part of a family, now he became a member of the state." After this he was obliged to provide for his own subsistence, and was

either now to live by hunting, or by joining in some incursion against an enemy. Particular care was taken to prevent these young soldiers from enjoying too early an acquaintance with the opposite sex, till their limbs had acquired all the vigour of which they were capable. Indeed they could have no hope to be acceptable to the women but in proportion to the courage and address they had shown in war and in their military exercises. Accordingly we see in an ancient song, preserved by Bartholin, a king of Norway extremely surprised that, as he could perform eight different exercises, his mistress should presume to reject his suit. I shall frequently have occasion to produce new instances of this manner of thinking among their women: it is sufficient at present to observe, that they were not likely to soften their children by too much delicacy or indulgence. These tender creatures were generally born in the midst of camps and armies. Their eyes, from the moment they were first opened, saw nothing but military spectacles, arms, effusion of blood, and combats either real or in sport: thus as they grew up from their infancy, their souls were early disposed to imbibe the cruel prejudices of their fathers.

Their laws, for the most part like those of the ancient Lacedemonians, seemed to know no other virtues than those of a military nature, and no other crimes but cowardice. They inflicted the greatest penalties on such as fled the first in battle. The laws of the ancient Danes, according to Saxo, excluded them from society, and declared them infamous. Among the Germans this was sometimes carried so far as to suffocate cowards in mud; after which they covered them over with hurdles; to show, says Tacitus, that though the punishment of crimes should be public, there are certain degrees of cowardice and infamy which ought to be buried in eternal silence. The most flattering distinctions were reserved for such as had performed some signal exploit, and the laws themselves distributed men into different ranks according to their different degrees of courage. Frotho, king of Denmark, had ordained, according to Saxo, that whoever solicited an eminent post in the army, ought upon all occasions to attack one enemy; to face two; to retire only one step back from three; and not to make an actual retreat till assaulted by four. Hence was formed that prejudice so