AND EDUCATION IN DENMARK. 21) 
their sonorous harmonies, and the Italian poets with their soul-dis- 
solving effusions, were everywhere listened to with extravagant ad- 
miration ; whilst imagination and melody received the homage of 
other lands, all in Denmark was darksome and silent. During this 
slumber of the intellect, never a poetic song uprose, save that of 
the Scalds, composed in an obsolete tongue, and appertaining to a 
departed age. When Christianity had dispersed the fictions of a 
pagan theogony, modern language had not vet passed from its in- 
fancy, and the Danish people found themselves placed between the 
wrecks of their ancient religion and the incomplete structure of the 
new, between an established tongue that was disappearing, and an 
unformed language which they could not use. They were incapable 
of discerning a poetic element, and of creating the means of social 
improvement. Besides, they were entirely occupied with mere 
animal pursuits, to the exclusion of intellectual exercises. Warfare, 
piracy and traffic, were cherished by the resolute Danes for their 
poetry ; and to them, occupations of this sort constituted the foun- 
tain of glory, the mainspring of life and exertion. This daring 
people despised every thing that tended to divert them from the 
scenes of an adventurous existence, and they reposed with a perfect 
serenity of soul in their ignorance and barbarism. 
In studying the history of a nation’s literature, the mind natu- 
rally suffers itself to be captivated by the splendour of brilliant 
epochs and the haloes of illustrious names. Nevertheless, there is a 
peculiar charm in descending from eminences visible to the ken of 
all beholders, to examine the intermediate spaces, and in stepping 
aside to retrace the humble foot-path that joins the highway, or the 
unheeded well-spring that oozes in droplets from a rock of granite, 
to become a ‘mighty stream. Generally, there exists a correlative 
accordance between the favourite pursuits of man, during his vigo- 
rous manhood, and the direction given to them in the prime of his 
days. Such an accordance, also, has place in literature. With a 
view to know the “genius of humanity,” we ought not only to 
scrutinize it in its epochs of glory, but likewise in those of its in- 
fancy and earliest effort. The former display its powers; the lat- 
ter exhibit its perseverance. The former are brilliant as the noon- 
day sun in his full refulgence; the latter resemble the beams of 
of Germany, the Lore of Love and Chivalry sunk into a despicable trade.— 
Outlines of a Philosophy of the History of Man; translated from the German 
of John Godfrey Herder, by 'T. Churchill ; 4to, London, 1800; Book XX, 
Chapter 11, p. 608-9. 
