Price.] 298 [January. 



only be cured by a fresh infusion of barbarian vigor, and the eradica- 

 tion of degenerate men. But the infusion of Huns, Goths, and 

 Vandals, were rough materials for Christianity to mould into civiliza- 

 tion. 



Though rude and warlike, these invading hordes from the great 

 Northern hive supplied the needed elements for the renovation of 

 the corrupt descendants, now the fragments of the Roman Empire. 

 These conquerors of the Empire became themselves captives to the 

 Christianity of the conquered ; and that faith, a milder climate, and 

 the more refined manners of the South, had their natural civilizing 

 influences upon the new settlers in Southern Europe and Northern 

 Africa. These brought not only their fresh and uncorrupted natures 

 from the forests of Germany, but they also brought with them a 

 characteristic peculiar to themselves, worth more than all the civil- 

 ized effeminacy they displaced, — they brought with them a profound 

 reverence for woman. Let us remember this, for it is the element of 

 the world's highest civilization, next to Christianity, for nearly two 

 thousand years, and is to co-operate with that faith in the indefinite 

 future. 



Of their earliest written history Tacitus gives the best account, 

 and in this wise speaks of the sentiment of the ancient German mind 

 towards their women, in whose presence they fought their battles, 

 with the dreadful alternative that defeat would destine wives and 

 daughters to the horrors of slavery: "There is, in their opinion, 

 something sacred in the female sex, and even the power of foresee- 

 ing future events. Their advice is, therefore, always heard ; they 

 are frequently consulted, and their responses are deemed oracular. 

 We have seen in the reign of Vespasian, the famous Veleda revered 

 as a divinity by her countrymen. Before her time, Aurinia and 

 others were held in equal veneration ; but a veneration founded on 

 sentiment and superstition, free from that servile adulation which 

 pretends to people heaven with human deities." (Sec. viii.) Tacitus 

 further says, " 3Iarriage is considered as a strict and sacred institu- 

 tion. In the national character there is nothing so truly commenda- 

 ble. To be contented with one wife is peculiar to the Germans. 

 They differ in this respect from all savage nations." (xviii.) "In 

 consequence of these manners, the marriage state is a life of affection 

 and female constancy. The virtue of the woman is guarded from 

 seduction. No public spectacles to seduce her; no banquets to in- 

 flame her passions; no baits of pleasure to disarm her virtue." Her 



