barbarian nations settled in their new conquests, almost all the effects of the knowledge and civilization which the Romans had spread through Europe had disappeared. Not only the arts of elegance, which minister to luxury and are supported by it, but many of the useful arts incidental to the general comforts of life, disappeared. All this is what may well be expected to have resulted from the disorganized social state at that time; for if men do not enjoy the protection of regular government, together with the personal security which naturally flows from it, they never attempt to make progress in science, nor aim at attaining refinement in taste or in manners.

The ignorance and rudeness here alluded to were not confined to the lower grades of society; they were observable among the highest. Persons of rank, and those occupying the most eminent stations, could neither read nor write. Many of the clergy did not understand the breviary which they were obliged daily to recite; and some of them could scarcely read it. The memory of past transactions was in a great degree lost, or preserved only in annals filled with trifling events or legendary tales. Europe, during four centuries, produced few authors whose works are worthy of perusal, either on account of the elegance of their composition, or the justness and novelty of their sentiments. Evidences in proof of these assertions have been collected by Robertson in abundance; of which some may be here given.

Many charters are preserved, originally granted by persons of the highest rank, from which it appears that they could not subscribe their names. It was usual for persons who could not write to make the sign of the cross in confirmation of the charter; and several such charters yet remain, in which kings and persons of great eminence have given this token of ignorance. From this is derived the phrase of signing' instead of 'subscribing' a paper. The supreme judge of the empire in the ninth century, and Du Guesclin, a very eminent man of a still later

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period, could neither read nor write. Many dignified ecclesiastics could not subscribe the canons or regulations of those councils in which they sat as members. In England, in the time of Alfred the Great, it was complained by that enlightened monarch, that from the Humber to the Thames there was not a priest who understood the liturgy in his mother-tongue, or who could translate the easiest piece of Latin; and that from the Thames to the sea the ecclesiastics were still more ignorant.

Besides the obvious and explained causes for this deplorable state of ignorance, there was another which tends to shew the difficulties with which men had to contend in the prosecution of study, even when they were inclined to it, namely, the scarcity of books. The Romans of a former era had written their books either on parchment or on paper made of the Egyptian papyrus, the latter being the cheaper and the more commonly used. But after the

conquest of Egypt by the Saracens, in the seventh century, the communication between that country and Italy and France became almost entirely discontinued, and the papyrus was no longer used as it had been. The inhabitants of Europe, therefore, were obliged to write all their books upon parchment, and as the price of that material was high, books became extremely rare, and of great value. A curious proof may be given of the scarcity of writing materials in the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries; viz. that many manuscripts of those times were written on parchment from which some former writing had been erased, in order to substitute a new composition in its place. It is supposed that in this manner several works of the ancients were destroyed; the valuable thoughts of a Tacitus or a Livy being superseded by, perhaps, some monkish legend. Montfaucon stated that the greater part of the manuscripts which he had seen, written in the middle ages, were on parchment from which some former writing had been erased. As the want of materials for writing is one reason why so many of the works of the ancients have perished, so also it will

account for the small number of manuscripts of any kind previous to the eleventh century. Private persons seldom possessed any books whatever; and even monasteries of considerable note had only one missal. An abbot wrote to the pope in the year 855, beseeching him to lend a copy of Cicero and of Quinctilian. For,' said he, although we have parts of those books, there is no complete copy of them in all France.' The price of books became so high, that persons of moderate fortune could not afford to purchase them. The countess of Anjou paid for a copy of the 'Homilies' of Haimon, bishop of Halberstadt, two hundred sheep, five quarters of wheat, and the same quantity of rye and millet. Sometimes plate and jewels were pledged as security for the loan of a book; and in other cases a bond or deed was signed and witnessed, covenanting the return of a borrowed book at a stipulated period. When any person made a present of a book to a church or monastery, it was deemed a donation of such value, that the donor offered it on the altar pro remedio animæ suæ, that is, 'for the salvation of his soul.'

When once the means of writing were procured, (and the invention of the art of making paper, in the eleventh century, multiplied these means, while the feudal system was yet in full force), the direction of thought was such as naturally resulted from the mode in which society had been rudely demolished, and as rudely re-established. As soon as the principal countries of Europe settled down into something like order, and a glimmering light was thrown on the advantages of commerce, of public order, and of personal security, there were slight indications of active thought in some few minds of less rude texture than the rest, and these thoughts received that particular stamp which afterwards obtained the name of the scholastic philosophy. As soon as men began again to exercise their intellect, after a mental darkness of many centuries, instead of rising step by step from one subject to others more difficult, they plunged at once into the depths of metaphysics, proposing to them

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selves the solution of questions which never have been solved, and probably never will. Each writer framed theories of the universe, of the creation, or of the mind of man, according to the current of his own thoughts, without testing the truth of his theories by observation of the world as it really exists; or, if facts appeared to contradict the theory, the theorist would not scruple to bend and distort them to his purpose.

The state of religious feeling had much to do with this mode of philosophising. The simple truths of Christianity had been overlaid with theories of philosophy which attempted to penetrate mysteries beyond our power of com- | prehension; and thus the so-called philosophers of the middle ages took these mystic reasonings as part and parcel of their religion. The scholastic theology, with its train of bold disquisitions and subtile distinctions, was one of the first results of the awakened thought of the middle ages.

THE FEUDAL SYSTEM IN RELATION TO COMMERCE AND

INTERCOMMUNICATION.

The relations between man and man, in all that concerned exchange of produce and personal intercourse, were such as naturally resulted from the texture of society under the feudal system. Europe, or what had been the western part of the Roman empire, was. broken up by the barbarians into a number of petty and disjointed states, having scarcely any intercourse one with another. Navigation was dangerous in seas infested by pirates, and strangers could not hope for a friendly reception in the ports of uncivilized nations. Even between distant parts of the same kingdom the communication was difficult and infrequent. The lawless conduct of banditti, (for there were abundance of them in such times), together with the formidable and oppressive exactions of the barons, rendered a journey of any considerable length very perilous. The greater part of the inhabitants of Europe, therefore, fixed thus to the spot on

which they resided, lost in great measure the knowledge of remote districts, together with their situations, their climates, their productions and trading commodities, and even their names.

The proofs which shew how little communicaton was maintained between various countries, are often very curious. Towards the close of the tenth century, count Bouchard, intending to found a monastery at St Maur, near Paris, applied to an abbot at Clugny, in Burgundy, intreating him to conduct the monks thither. In his letter, the count tells the abbot that he had undertaken the labour of such a great journey, that he was fatigued with the length of it, and hoped that his journey into such a distant country would not be in vain. The abbot, in his answer, refused to comply with this desire, as it would be extremely fatiguing to accompany the count into a strange and unknown region.' This strange and unknown region was in the vicinity of Paris! There was an occasion on which two fraternities of monks wished to find out and aid each other; one was at Tournay in Flanders, and the other at Ferrieres, but neither one had ever heard of such a place as that at which the other resided, and it was only by accident that the particular places were explored. In a map of the world, constructed in the feudal times and still preserved, Jerusalem is placed in the middle of the globe, and Alexandria is about as near to it as Nazareth.

There were no inns or houses of entertainment on the road from one town to another; and thence it became a custom to observe that hospitality towards travellers which so frequently marks the character of half-civilized nations. Indeed, this hospitality was so necessary to that state of society, that it was not considered as one of those virtues which men may practise or not, according to their temper or disposition. It was enforced by statutes, and such as neglected this duty were liable to punishment. Yet it seems a strange contradiction to this conduct, that if a traveller remained in any country or state but his own for