438 ORIGIN OF THE PEOPLE. 



in beings of such a character, may be attributed their gradual pro- 

 gress to civilization and refinement. The magnificence of nature, 

 the miraculous productions of art, the collision with superior minds, 

 enlarge and expand his ideas. He looks around him with surprise 

 and admiration, and believes himself translated to another world, so 

 utterly distinct are the things and persons which now meet his view. 

 And when he again visits his native land again walks over his 

 paternal fields, does he relapse into the same dull course which con- 

 tented him in times of yore ? No ! The stores of knowledge which 

 he has collected in other climes, are transplanted to his native land, 

 destined to flourish and shoot forth with a vigour and strength which 

 in their original soil they were forbidden to attain. 



The Crusades, undertaken for the recovery and possession of the 

 Holy Land, were our first advances from darkness into light. Whe- 

 ther we consider the state of Europe at the period immediately 

 preceding them, the expeditions themselves, or the consequences and 

 effects resulting from them, the illustration they afford to the prece- 

 ding remarks will be evident. 



The monks, secluded from the world in the privacy and solitude of 

 a cloister, were estranged from all the endearing affections, the tender 

 charities of domestic life, They had few feelings in common with 

 the world. They were a distinct order of beings. The stores of 

 literature and science handed down from the classic ages, and depo- 

 sited in their custody, were neither made an object of study by 

 themselves, or communicated to the rest of the world. These trea- 

 sures of antiquity were left to the desolating hand of time, whose 

 destructive effects were but too often anticipated by the avarice of 

 their possessors, which converted them, from the scarcity of materials 

 for writing in those days, into depositories for the legends of their 

 patron saints, and the chronicles of their houses. They were effectual 

 checks to improvement and civilization. 



The noble, inhabiting his solitary tower, or castle, resembled in his 

 state and mode of life a petty, though despotic sovereign, holding a 

 supreme jurisdiction, extending even to life and death, over his 

 vassals. The most atrocious acts of violence, the most savage deeds 

 of cruelty, the most tyrannic efforts of authority were exercised with 

 impunity, and almost without reproach, on his miserable dependants. 

 But could a contrary course of conduct be expected from men whose 

 education was confined to a dexterity in wielding the spear, a skill 

 and vigour in the management of the war-horse, and an address in 

 the use of arms ; whose mornings were spent in the pursuit of the 

 chase, or the prosecution of some unjust and barbarous feud whose 

 evenings were devoted to riot and intemperance ! 



But if such was the noble, what then was the condition of the 

 vassal ? The miserable serfs, in a state of slavery, bound down like 

 beasts of burthen to the land which they cultivated, whose produce 

 was never destined to reward their labour, were entirely subjected to 

 the caprice and violence of their superiors, and dared not even raise 

 a murmur against their injustice, as their lives and property were 

 equally at their disposal. 



The ameliorating hand of civilization had not yet impressed its 



