26 



WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTEKS. 



The pomp of her heroic games, 



And crested chiefs and tissued dames 



Assembled at the clarion's call, 



In some pi'oud castle's high arched hall" 



— we have tlie most illustrious period of our race, in which, 

 through the expansion of the higher virtues, woman emerged 

 to her true place, and stood forth in light — the angel of the 

 fireside ! Though the feudal age was partial in its immediate 

 eflfects, and the masses were still held in rude vassalage, yet 

 such developments as came to and for the few, were large 

 and grand. Then came the accession, though it was much 

 confined to the privileged classes, of that bold individuality 

 which dared to question any despotism, or hoary precedent 

 for truth, and out of which emancipation, sprung those liberal 

 opinions which have so far through blood and " terror" worked 

 out the modern ideas of liberty and equality. Thence came, 

 too, those regal impulses — those mild and liberal sentiments, 

 which in their open-handed dispensations fell like the benedic- 

 tion of blessed dews from heaven, upon the feverish embittered 

 struggle of man with man ; and which cooled down their heat, 

 restoring that calm, mutual faith, that is the basis of any 



