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Not having the means of knowing what had happened in other ages, and being equally uninformed of what was now happening in other countries, they would without fcruple give credit to any fabulous reports that might be told them, concerning what was to be feen in foreign parts. Hence arose a thoufand wild ideas, of giants, and dwarfs, dragons, and enchantinents, of fairies, ghofts, witches, and hobgoblins. And when once. people were fatisfied, that fuch things were common in other lands, it was natural for them to believe, that they were not uncommon in their And the fame extravagance of fancy, and love of fuperftition, may always be expected in times of ignorance; especially in countries, where traditions remain concerning antient history and fable; and where the priests, deluded themselves with visionary legends, not wholly deftitute of knowledge, and living retired in gloomy and lonely habitations, find it their intereft to deceive, amufe, and terrify the vulgar,

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The credulity of mankind in those dark ages is now matter of aftonishment. As late as the thirteenth century, when modern literature had made fome progrefs, Dante, a famous Italian poet, published a work in verfe, which he called Inferno; wherein he gave a defcription of the infernal regions, which he fays, in the poem, that he had paffed through, in company with Virgil: and this poem the common people of that time took for a real hiftory, and feriously believed that Dante went down to hell from time to time. Sir John Mandeville, an Englishman of learning, fet out on his travels in the year one thoufand three hundred and twenty; employed thirty years in vifiting foreign countries; and, at his return to Europe,

Europe, published the hiftory of his adventures in three languages, Latin, English, and Italian. His book, before publication, was prefented to the Pope, who, after comparing it with the Mappa Mundi, was pleased to give it the fanction of his authority: a proof, that it not only was believed by the author, and by His Holinefs, but was alfo thought credible enough according to the notions of thofe times. Yet this book, though Mandeville feems to have been an honeft, and by no means an ignorant man, contains the most abfurd fables. The author gravely tells us, that he faw the rock to which Andromeda was chained, when they delivered her to the fea-monfter; and adds, that Andromeda lived before the flood. With equal gravity he speaks of a Lady, who had been transformed into a ferpent, or dragon, by a goddess called Diana, and was then confined in a dungeon, in the island of Cyprus, if I mistake not *. He does not fay, that he faw this lady; but he mentions it as a fact, which he had heard; and he feems not to difbelieve it. He speaks too of a nation of men fifty feet high, who inhabited an island in the East Indies, and of another race of mortals, who had their eyes in their fhoulders and all this, and much more, of the fame kind, he appears to have credited, merely because he had been fo informed.-I here is reafon to think, that Caxton, one of the first Englifh printers, miftook a French tranflation of Virgil's Eneid for a true history;-if he did not use ihe word history in a fenfe different from what it now bears. Nay, a Swedish navigator, who lived not two hundred years ago, has affirmed, that

I write from memory; not having the book at hand, nor knowing at prefent where to find it.

that, in the islands of Nicobar, in the gulph of Bengal, he discovered a race of men, with long tails, like thofe of cats. The islands of Nicobar, and their inhabitants, are now well known to Europeans; but the cats tails are no where to be found.

While the ignorance and credulity of this western world were fo great, we may well fuppofe, that, in their hiftories (if they had any) little regard would be paid to truth; and none at all to probability, or even to poffibility, in their fables. In fact, the first productions in the way of romance, that appeared in Europe, were in the highest degree extravagant.

But other caufes, befides the credulity and ignorance of the times, confpired to give a peculiar caft of wildness to thofe performances, and make them totally unlike every thing of the kind, which had hitherto occurred to human fancy.To explain these causes, it will be proper to give a brief account of that form of policy, which was introduced by the northern nations, who over-ran the Roman empire; and which is commonly called the Feudal Government. It has been described at large by many eminent writers. I fhall enter into the fubject no further, than is neceflary to connect and illuftrate my reafoning. This government it was, that, among many other ftrange inftitutions, gave rife to Chivalry: and it was Chivalry, which gave birth and form to that fort of fabulous writing, which we term Romance.

The

The word is Spanish, and fignifies the Spanish Tongue and the name is fuitable enough to the nature of a language, whereof the greater part is derived from the antient Latin or Roman. It seems, the first Spanish books were fabulous: and, being called Romance, on account of the tongue in which they were written, the fame name was afterwards given, by the other nations of Europe, not to Spanish books, which is the proper application of the term, but to a certain clafs of fabulous writings.

Some have thought, that the nations, who destroyed the Roman empire, were obliged to leave their own country, and establish themfelves by force elsewhere; because at home their numbers were fo great, that the foil was infufficient to support them. But this, I prefume, is a miftake. Those northern regions, where the climate is inhofpitable, may produce a hardy race of men, but cannot be fuppofed to produce them in very great numbers. In fact, the population in fuch countries has generally been found rather deficient, than exceffive. I therefore think, that they left their native land, because it was uncomfortable; and because they had heard, that the conveniencies of life were more eafily obtained in the fouthern parts of the world. Accordingly, there is no evidence, that they fent out colonies, or that one part of the nation went in queft of fettlements, while the other remained at home: it rather appears, that a whole people emigrated at once, men, women, and children; without any purpose to return.

One

One of their firft expeditions, that we read of, happened about the fix hundred and fiftieth year of Rome; when the Cimbri and Teutones (who are fuppofed to have come from Denmark, and the northern parts of Germany) invaded the Roman Province with an army of three hundred thoufand men, befides women and children, and were overthrown by Caius Marius, with prodigious flaughter. Their coun trymen were more fuccefsful in the decline of the empire and at length they wrested a great part of Europe out of the hands of the Romans; eftablishing themfelves in the conquered provinces; the Franks and Normans in Gaul, the Goths and Vandals in Spain, and the Lombards in Italy.

There are, in the character of this extraordinary people, feveral particulars that deferve attention. We may call them one people, because a great fimilarity in manners, opinions, and government, prevailed among them; though they occupied many wide regions in the northern part of the continent of Europe.

Firft: They were a strong, hardy, and active race of men. This character they must have derived, in a great meafure, from their climate and needy circumstances. Want is the parent of industry. To obtain even the neceffaries of life, where the climate is cold, and the foil untractable, requires continual exertion; which at once inures the mind to vigilance, and the body to labour. The Germans, in Cefar's time, made it their boaft, that they had not been under a roof for fourteen years: which

Cæfar. Bell. Gall. i. 36.

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