AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF FRENCH LITERATURE. 249 



Such minds could not be brought to think of learning and the 

 arts, unaccompanied with the desire to destroy them ; and, but for 

 the intervention of one of their most powerful enemies, literature 

 must have been swept from the earth. This great enemy, or, to 

 speak more correctly, friend, was Superstition. Tbe blind worship 

 of their idols induced a similar deference for their ministers ; and 

 in their conquests we find that they transferred this reverential 

 feeling to the priests whom they found established there. Thus 

 while the palace and the castle were wrapt in flames, the monastery 

 and the convent escaped, and within the pale of the church alone 

 did literature, in the midst of these terrible convulsions, find a shel- 

 ter and repose. It might, under such circumstances, have been 

 reasonably supposed that, by the priesthood at least, Latin would 

 have been preserved as a living and established idiom : the reverse 

 was, however, the case, and instead of teaching a language, they 

 were content to learn a colloquial jargon, a mixture of the Latin 

 with the harsher dialects of the barbarians. 



Having thus seen the decline of the latin language in its mother 

 country, let us return to France, where, at the commencement of 

 the seventh century, we find no less than three languages current, 

 namely — the Latin, which, though much corrupted, still continued 

 the official language ; the ancient Celtic or Frankish, which was, 

 however, soon extirpated, and a new idiom, a mixture of the Latin 

 with the dialects of the northern tribes. This latter soon became 

 the general language of the people, and was, in consequence, uni- 

 versally cultivated. Towards the middle of the eighth century, we 

 find a considerable progression in this language ; this improvement 

 proved, however, but transient, as at the commencement of the 

 ninth century we find a great deterioration, which continued almost 

 uniformly until the commencement of the eleventh century. 



Charlemagne, whose powerful mind eagerly grasped at every 

 means of improvement, whether physical or intellectual, made a 

 noble though ineffectual stand against the invasions of barbarism 

 and the encroachments of ignorance. He founded colleges and 

 public schools in all parts of his dominions : his example was 

 speedily followed, and in a short time there was not a cathedral, 

 a convent, and scarcely a church of any eminence without one ; 

 but, numerous as were these seminaries, within their walls little 

 was taught that tended to make a useful citizen or a happy indivi- 

 dual ; an education for the purposes of active life shared not 

 part of their solicitude. The only existing professions were the 

 military and the theological ; those destined for the former seldom 

 vol. vni., no. xxiv. 32 



