Ch. vi. Inhabitants of the North of Europe. 107 



had been supplied by a spring of very extra- 

 ordinary power. 



Gibbon describes the labours of Valentinian in 

 securing the Gallic frontier against the Germans ; 

 an enemy, he says, whose strength was renewed 

 by a stream of daring volunteers which inces- 

 santly flowed from the most distant tribes of the 

 north.* An easy adoption of strangers was pro- 

 bably a mode, by which some of the German 

 nations renewed their strength so suddenly,-)" 

 after the most destructive defeats ; but this ex- 

 planation only removes the difficulty a little fur- 

 ther off. It makes the earth rest upon the 

 tortoise; but does not tell us on what the tortoise 

 rests. We may still ask what northern reservoir 

 supplied this incessant stream of daring adven- 

 turers? Montesquieu's solution of the problem 

 will, I think, hardly be admitted. The swarms 

 of barbarians which issued formerly from the 

 north, appear no more, he says, at present; and 

 the reason he gives is, that the violence of the 

 Romans had driven the people of the south into 

 the north, who, as long as this force continued, 

 remained there; but as soon as it was weakened, 

 spread themselves again over every country. 



The same phenomenon appeared after the con- 

 quests and tyrannies of Charlemagne and the 

 subsequent dissolution of his empire; and if a 

 prince, he says, in the present days were to make 



* Gibbon, vol. iv. c. xxv. p. 283. 

 f Id. ib. note. 



