"In short, he became so infatuated with this kind of study, that he passed whole days and nights over these books; and thus, with little sleeping and much reading, his brains were dried up and his intellect deranged. His imagination was full of all that he had read; of enchantments, contests, battles, challenges, wounds, tortures, and impossible absurdities, and so firmly was he persuaded of the truth of the whole tissue of visionary fiction, that, in his mind, no history in the world was more authentic."-Don Quixote de la Mancha.

CHAPTER I.

POETICAL FEELING OF THE EUROPEAN NATIONS.

"Imagination, not permitted here

To waste her powers, as in the worldling's mind,

On fickle pleasures, and superfluous cares

And trivial ostentation-is left free

And puissant to range the solemn walks

Of time and nature, girded by a zone

That, while it binds, invigorates and supports."

Despondency Corrected.

IN examining into the causes which led to the rise of a new and beautiful literature in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, it is obvious that we must direct our attention more to the actual Spirit of Poetry amongst the nations of Northern and Western Europe, than to the few remains of rude verse which have been preserved to us. The Romances of Chivalry, with all their throngs of "knights and barons bold," their princes and paladins, yet every here and there point as strongly to their origin in the age of the sea kings, as does the Voluspa, or the Death song of King Haco; and it would indeed be difficult to believe that a period so wild and so stirring, when

"The warriors of the world went forth

To seek another land".

when the North Seas were covered with the fleets of these "dark riders of the wave,"-men too, who, followers of the most poetic system of mythology which the world has ever seen, beheld in the storms which swept the sea the actual presence of the evil beings who had their habitation in the depths of the ocean-who heard the voice of their gods in the wild wailing of the wind and the roar of the thunder-and who peopled every mountain and wood and glen with strange and aërial inhabitants-it would indeed be remarkable, if such an era should have past away and left no traces on the literature of succeeding ages. Their deeply mysterious rites and symbolic ceremonies, their wild and gloomy superstitions, spread with their race over almost all Europe, and the Goth looked forth on the "living gold" of the Mediterranean, on the ravines of the Alpuxarras, and the vega of Granada, with the same feelings as his remote brethren who retained their ancient seats beneath the pine forests of Scandinavia. The dream of the Lady Alda

"Oh I was upon a mountain, in a bare and desert place,
And I saw a mighty eagle, and a faulcon he did chase,
And to me the faulcon came, and I hid it in my breast,
But the mighty bird pursuing, came and rent away my vest;
And he scattered all the feathers—and blood was on his beak,
And ever as he tore and tore, I heard the faulcon shriek-
Now read my vision damsels-now read my dream to me,
For my heart may well be heavy that doleful sight to see

is but a repetition of the magnificent old Gothic ballad of Sir Aldingar

"I fell in a sweven on Thursday eve

On my bed whereon I lay;

I dreamt that a grype and a grimlie beast
Had carried my crown away:

My gorget and my kirtle of gold,

And all my fair head gear

And that he worried me with his beak

And would to his nest Y beare."

So it was in all those symbolic ceremonies which took place during the administration of justice, or the election of magistrates. The adalid of King Alonzo the Wise was to be raised on a shield by twelve others, and whilst his face was turned to the east, he drew the "sweet and holy sign" in the air with his drawn sword, exclaiming, "In the name of God, I defy all the enemies of the faith, and of my lord the King, and of this land;" and amid the clashing of buckles and the shouting of the tribes, the ancient Norwegian chief was lifted on the dark blue shield in the plain of Mora. When the shine mote was to be convened, the summoning symbol was borne by the weary. husbandman from dwelling to dwelling, over moor and wild-the hieroglyphical token was varied in its form according to the intent. An arrow called the people to sit in judgment upon the murderer, or told them the land was herried by the enemy. War was signified by the fiery cross of the Gael: but in Scandinavia the cross indicated that the precepts of the Church had been violated, and that the transgressors against the "Christendom's bolkr" were to appear before the court. These most ancient principles of symbolism acquired a new and peculiar influence on the spread of Christianity. Sacchi defines the symbolic art of the early Christians as a sort of mystic science understood by the initiate alone. It was divided into hermetic and orphic-the first referring to the plan and shape of the church, the number of angles and faces it presented; and the second, or orphic, consisting in the ornaments or other accessories regulating the colour and quantity of the materials employed, the disposition of the cyphers and

monograms sculptured over the gates and other parts of the building, the figures of animals, and other sculptured ornaments, all having a mystic meaning.a

Similarly a portion of the national character and feeling was the belief in the mysterious power of words. The whole saga of Gunnlang with the serpent's tongue turns on this idea. The youthful poet sought instruction in the law from Thorstein the Wise; a year was passed in listening to Thorstein's lessons; but the several studies of Gunnlang were relieved by the contemplation of the charms of the fair-haired Helga, the daughter of the sage-and he loved and knew that he was beloved again. It chanced that they were sitting at the board, when Gunnlang spoke to Thorstein: "One law form yet remaineth, which thou hast not taught me-nor do I yet know how a maiden is to be wedded." Thorstein answered, "that few words were needed,” and he repeated the form of espousal. Gunnlang then craved leave to repeat his lesson to Helga, a request to which the father assented, after slightly hinting that the sport was idle. The lover, however, pronounced the wedding words with precision and solemnity, and named the witnesses-and in after time Gunnlang vindicated his right to the hand of Helga in bloodshed and in death.

The poetical feeling of the middle ages exhibits itself in almost every page of their history, and is most conspicuous in all the detail of their domestic life which has come down to us their very medical receipts carry us back to the days when every flower and leaf and tree were invested with strange power and magic might.

If the elf-siddene or night-mare was to be chased away

a Sacchi-Antichita Romantiche d' Italia.