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Leader (1850-1860), 16th June 1860, Edition 2 of 2, Page 16

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      Godwix's Iiistoiu" Of France.* Here We I...

      Involve ideas ; and if . en have already begun to ' - make war " for ideas ; and these are births the throes of which are now actually troubling : the .-world . ; . An American historian is moi'e likely , to deal with these matters impartially than an English one . Mr . Park Godwin appears , indeed , to be ah honest and sincei * e inquirer . He has a happy knack , too , in characterising 1 his authorities . Thus he says of Julius Caesar * that it was his" peculiar fortune to reveal to mankind by his conquests the ancestors of the three greatest modern nations , France , Germany , and Britain , " and that he " penetrated Gaul with his eyes as well as with his sword . The most competent observer of his age , both by native endowment and the accidents of his career , he still remains our best though not exclusive authority . " We gather from examples of this sort , that Mr . Godwin is an author whose forte it is to . write , pregnant sentences , teeming with meaning , and comprehending large issues expressed in a lew carefully chosen and significant words . .

      Mr . Godwin is also a cautious historian . Having described the ancient nations of which Gavil consisted , he prudently observes , that though it might be interesting , it would be fruitless to inquire into the origin of the several races , or the time and manner of their arriving in Gaul . The theory , he adds , " accepted b y many ethnologists , which represents the whole of Europe as having been peopled from the East , first by Finnic , then Pelasgie , then Keltic , then Teutonic , and then Sclavonic races , is , perhaps , speculatively satisfactory , but it cannot be adopted in history . For , in fact , history cannot know anything of the beginnings of nations ; its sphere is exclusively that of progress and development , and , while it acknowledges with cordial sympathy the services of archaeology , and rejoices particularly in those beautiful labours of the science of language which have unfolded the analysis of the sacred tongues of Upper Asia—the Sanscrit and the Zend—with the European dialects , it yet preserves a studied caution amid the half-lights and false lights of all unrecorded eras . " .

      • We •¦ remark- in Mr . Godwin a , similar caution in regard to the Druids , whose eastern derivation lie appears On the whole to grant . He admits the many -analogies , which-learned ' men discover between their supposed doctrines and rites _ and those " of certain Asiatic nations ; yet at the same time points attention to the differences , which are quite as many as' the resemblances , and scarcely , "lie insists , justify the identification of Druidism with any other known form of-religion . ' "iEven , " saysiie , " were the analogies stronger and more numerous than they are , it might still be plausibly contended that the faith of the Keltic races was an indigenous product , springing primarily , out of the depths of their own'heart ' s-, and modified -in a slight degree afterwards by the various Phoenician ^ Carthaginian , Greek , and Roman- influences , with which we know the Gauls were assailed . "

      We may regard Mr . Godwin , therefore , we think , as a tolerably safe guidu llu'ough legendary and archaeological labyrinths . It is true that the subject of Roman Gaul fills him with sublime ideas , and makes him grandiloquent in contemplating " the whole wonderful people cradled by the seven hills , " and that Italy which he regards as "the nursing mother of all the nations of the globe /' Hut he is not blinded to the evils of her dominion , right early mani-JesTecT Rome presented " a society thoroughly permeated by slavery , of which despotism was but the crowning and poisonous flower . " Her " religion consisted of a vile mass of capricious , impure , and sanguinary rites ; and in which the contempt for woman had almost dissolved the family tic , and bred the rankest contagions in the very heart of domestic life . " Koine was a

      hotbed , " wliere an hitenser life had rapidly exhausted the native vigour of the soil , and supplied its place with a luxuriant compost . " It was" towards Rome that all the peculiar luxuries , vices , crimes , sorceries , and superstitions of all the earth had tended . " Here , again , we see in a concise , statement the germ of a great development , by yhieh the history of the world from that time to the present lias been materially and spiritually affected . Christianity was early planted in Gaul ^—at a period much earlier than that of Constantine , when it had becomo corrupt . At that triumphant moment ( to quote our author ' s words , with certain needful modifications ) , when the new religious power was about to ascend the throne of the world , it was neither as a faith nor as an institution , the same as it appears to have been in its primitive age .

      The essence , or the fundamental principles of Christianity were , as they ever will be , the same ; but the human mind , in its conception of principles , is ever liable to prodigious transmutations , And Christianity was not a scheme for the miraculous conversion of men without consent of their understanding and hearts ; it was not avast and inflexible system of superstition , to be imposed by authority and propagated Ly terror and force , but it was pre-eminently a spiritual religion , addressed to the free itiTections and the independent reason of mankind , and implying in its very conditions ns such , that it might bo rejected , or perverted , or only half received . It wns of

      accordingly subject to a variety changes , th _ q successive steps of which lire noted on the p ^ ge of history . In the ng ' o of Constahtiho , the benignant Gospel had come to be considered a * some tnlismanio pnssport to the unimaginable bliss of a future state . In a word , the purest of religions had Buffered the fate of nil—it hud becomo for a while a superstition ; but only that , in the end , it might transcend all superstitions , by fprce of its original purity . , The world , or that part of it which was called the Empire of the West , hud now to bo divided into two prefectures—that of Ital y and that of Gaul ; the latter comprising Gaul proper , Spnin , nnd Britain . Here may be said to begin tlio political life of Gaul . Its inhabitants wero divided into classes , the third consisting of the mechanics .

      or free artisans of the towns , and the small possessors of land m the country . This was organised into corporations of the different ; trades . Mr . Godwin doubts whether any substantial change had been effected among the rural population of Gaul in consequence of the Roman conquest . " They held to the condition ot the slave without beiiv of his kind , and to the condition of the freeman without enjoying all his rights . " The upper classes were enormously rich , and devoted to a sumptuous and idle indulgence , lhey passed their days alternately in their fine city palaces and in their country villas , constructed in the Roman fashion , amid the picturesque or grand scenes of nature . Of the seventeen famous cities of the world , AclesToulouse ] S

      five belonged to Gaul , namely—Tn-ves , , , aroonne , and Bordeaux , which last was even then celebrated for its wines . Abandoned to gaieties and festivals , few traces are to be discerned of any serious occupation , or of any deep and absorbing general interest among them , although the age was .-i most stirring and calamitous one , when the wild squadrons of Germany swept the plains , and the empire rocked and groaned like a vessel struck by the tempests . Some of the nobles , though , are confessed to have been men of mind , —philosophers , liHerati , and poets . One Vectlus , for instance , is described as " a monk , not under the gown , but under the tunic of the warrior , " who frequently read the Scriptures , especially at his repasts , " partaking at once " of the nutriment of the soul and of

      the body . " . Into the subject of the literature and science of Gaul at this and subsequent periods Mr . Godwin enters with sin eloquent force which will render his book attractive . Gaul abounded in schools in which the Arts were taught , and Christianity wns not without its rhetoricians . Mr . Godwin traces it through its Hebrew , Greek , and Latin forms , and shows himself capable of an extensive range of thought . The historian then ]> ursues his fruitful theme through its remaining phases ;—as , firstly , Roman-German Gaul ; and , secondly , German Gaul . The- advances of the Teutonic world . upon the empire are distinctly traced , and the learning- applicable to the point , as far as possible , exhausted . ^ ..- The downfall of the empire is depicted in suitable terms of

      uignity . " The great sun , " Mr . Godwin writes , " which tor so many centuries had illumined and dazzled the world , was set , nnd the nations were left to grope in the twilight of its once effulgent . 'day . " Chlodwig . the Great is then celebrated as the real founder of the Frankish monarchy . With the Merovingian dynasty the Roman element retires , and leaves ^ Gaul entirely to-tlic German influence . This period comprises more than half of the seventh century , and extends to the middle of the ninth . And here the author closes his first volume . The empire " of . the Franks had dissolved . But anew vision had disclosed itself . The Church remained . Christianity would not recede . The empire of the great Karl was to become a civilizing inspiration of the West . The fragments , into which his empire split were not the broken and useless pieces of a magnificent fabric overthrown , but themselves the corner-stones of more imperial structures . " The enforced unity of lioinan contrivance whs shattered for ever , but the seeds of vital nationalities were sown , and already Italy , Germany , and France sprouted out of the earth . "

      So concludes a volume which treats a great subject with some i ^^ t y ^ Sf ^ tatim ^ reflects considerable credit on the historic genius of America .

      572 The Leader And Sattirday Analyst. L ...

      572 The Leader and Sattirday Analyst . L JuNE 16 > 1 S 6 ° -

      Talks-^Translated Axd Oiucilxal. Of All ...

      TALKS- ^ TRANSLATED AXD OIUCilXAL . OF all nations the Northern are"the most celebrated for their numerous traditions and fabulous concoctions . Without doubt the genius of these peoples is peculiarly adapted to the fabrication . ' of - ingenious myths and allegorical pictures . Their writings of this class abound in such singular vagaries of fancy , such novel flights of imagination , and extraordinary figures of speech , as justly entitle them to a foremost rank in compositions of the kind . Among these fantastic celebrities Herr Hans Andersen occupies a prominent position . Those who remember that master-piece of one of the most subtle and brilliant of imaginations , the " Improvisatore , " will be at no loss to account for the world-wide reputation of its author ,.

      and the extensive circulation of his inimitable productions , another volume of which is now presented to tlio English public . This volume is entitled the " Sandhills of Jutland , " being a collection of fabulous stories descriptive of events supposed to take place in that wild and thinly-populated region . All these , tales possess that strange fascination for which Herr Andersen ' s works are so remarkable . The soul of the reader is gradually infused with a portion ot the author ' s divine inspiration , and he feels himself borne onwards along the current of ideas ns familiarly as though they had originally generated in his own mind , instead of being the emanations of a directly foreign source . This power of compelling others to enter so completely into the spirit ol our own thoughts , sensations , and emotions , belongs to but low writers of fiction—but amongst these . Tov Hcvr Andttrson stands . conspicuous . TJio rich .. minq of his

      * The Sandhill A Of Jutland. By Ilane Ch...

      * The Sandhill a of Jutland . By IlANe Chiustian Andkubkn , Author of the " Improvimvtoro , " & o . Richard Bentloy . Chapter * on ! Flues . By Mrs . Ellis , Author of " Mothers of Great Mon . ' ltSohard Bcntloy . Alice JJsto : a Talo of Puritan Times . By the Kov . It . KlNCJ , B . A ., Author of " Angels' Work , " " Singers of tho Sunctuary , " & o . J . II . and J « b . Parker . « Z «< fy / Gtoodvhihl ' n Fairy Wtiy . Ilonlston and Wright . CMlvote Park } or , Tho Maters . By tho Author of " Ukoa and Dislikes . " John W . Parker and Son .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), June 16, 1860, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16061860/page/16/