GERM N Y, 
4 CO 
thefe flight habitations, Tliey were indeed no more 
than low huts of a circular figure, built of rougli tim¬ 
ber, thatclied with boughs or draw, and pierced at the 
top to leave a free pailage for the fmoke. In the mod 
inclement winter, the children went naked, and the men 
hung tlie Ikin of fome wild bead upon their dioulders, 
fade'ning it tvith a thong ; and perfons of the bed qua¬ 
lity wore only ;i coarfe woollen mantle, ora fort of coat 
without fleevc's. Their ufual bed was the ground, co¬ 
vered with a little draw, or the fkins of bears and 
wolves. 'I'heir meals were taken in the fame apartment, 
with the mader of the family in the middle, and the 
red on the right and left, fitting on the ground in a fe- 
micircle. The game of various forts, with which the 
foreds of Germany were plentifully docked, ftipplied 
them with food and exercifc. Their numerous herds of 
cattle, lefs remarkable indeed for their beauty than for 
their utility, formed the principal objeft of their wealth. 
A fmall quantity of corn was the only produce exadled 
from the earth : the ufe of orchards or artificial mea¬ 
dows was unknown to the Germans ; nor ought we to 
expeft any improvements in agriculture from a people, 
whole property every year experienced a general change 
by a new divilion of the arable lands, and who, in that 
drange operation, avoided difputes, by fuffering a great 
part of their territory to lie wade and without tillage. 
Gold, diver, and iron, were extremely fcarce in an¬ 
cient Germany. Its barbarous inhabitants wanted both 
fkill and patience to invedigate thofe rich veins of diver, 
which haVe fo liberally rewarded the attention of the 
princes of Brunfwick and Saxony. Sweden, which now 
fupplies Europe with iron, was equally ignorant of its 
own riches; and the appearance of the arms of the 
Germans furnifhed afufficient proof how little iron they 
were able to beftow on what they mud have deemed the 
nobled life of that metal. The various tranfaefions of 
peace and war had introduced fome Roman coins 
(chieHy diver) among the borderers of the Rhine and 
Danube; but tlie more didant tribes were abfolutely 
unacquainted with the ufe of money, infomuch that 
they carried on their confined traffic by the exchange of 
commodities, find prized their rude earthen vefl’cls as of 
equal value with the filver vafes, the prefents of Rome 
to their princes and ambadadors. To a mind capable 
of refleition, fuch leading fafts convey more indruCtion 
than a long detail of fubordinate circumdances. The 
value of money has been fettled by general confent to 
exprefs our wants and our property ; as letters were 
invented to exprefs our ideas ; and both thefe inditu- 
tions, by giving a more adlive energy to the powers and 
pafllons of human nature, have contributed to multiply 
the objefts they were defigned to reprefent. The ule 
of gold and filver is in a great meafure factitious ; but 
it would be impodible to enumerate the important and 
various fervices which agriculture, and ail the arts, 
have received from iron, when tempered and fafliioned 
by the pperation of Hre, and the dextrous hand of man. 
Money, in a v.'ord, is the mod univerfal incitement, 
iron the mod powerful indrument, of human indudry ; 
and it is very difficult to conceive by what means a 
people, neither aCfuated by the one, nor feconded by 
the other, could emerge frorii the groffed barbarifm. 
If we contemplate a favage nation in any part of the 
globe, a fupine indolence, and a carelellhefs of futu¬ 
rity, will be found to conditute their general charaCter, 
In a civilized date, every faculty of man is expanded 
and exercifed ; and the great chain of mutual depen¬ 
dence connects and embraces the feveral members of 
fociety. The mod numerous portion of it is employed 
in condant and ufeful labour. The feleCl few, placed 
by fortune above that neceOity, can, however, fill up 
their time by the purfuits of iiUered or glory, by the 
smpfovement of their edate, or of their underltandiiig; 
by the duties, the plcafures, and even the follies, of 
fociai Ufe/. The Germans were not poffelfed of thefe 
refources. The care of the houfe and family, the ma- 
nagement of the land and cattle, were delegated to the 
old and the infirm, to w'omen ^nd Haves, The unem¬ 
ployed warrior, deditute of every art that might fill up 
his leifure hours, confumed Ids days and nights in the 
animal gratifications of flcep and food. And yet, by a 
wonderful diverfity of nature, according to the remark 
of Tacitus, the fame barbarians are by turns the mod 
indolent, and the mod active, of mankind. They de¬ 
light in lloth, tliey deted tranquillity. Tlie languid 
I’oul, opprefled with its own weight, aiixioufiy required 
Ibme new and powerful fenfation ; and war and danger 
were the only amufements adapted to its fier'ce temper. 
The found that fummoned the German to arms, was 
grateful to his ear. It rouled him from his lethargy, 
gave him a dauntlefs courage, and, by drong exercife 
of the body, and violent emotions of the mind, redored 
him to a more lively fenfe of his nature and exidciice. 
In the dull intervals of peace, thefe barbarians were 
immoderately addiCfed to gaming and drinking; both 
ot which, by different means, the one by inflaming 
their pafllons, the other by extinguifning their reafon, 
alike relieved them from the pain of thinking. They 
gloried in pafling whole days and nights in feading ; 
and the blood of friends and relations too often dained 
thefe inebriating ademblies. Their debts of honour, 
(for in that liglit they have tranfmitted to us thofe of 
play,) they difeharged with the mod fcriipulous fide¬ 
lity. The defperate gameder, who had daked his per- 
foil and liberty on a lad throw of the dice, patiently 
lubmitted to tlie decifion of fortune, and fud'ered him- 
lelf to be bound, chadiled, and fold into remote flavery, 
by his weaker but more fortunate antagonid. 
Strong beer, a liquor which they extracted with very 
little art from wheat or barley, and corrupted (as it is 
exprefied by Tacitus) into a certain femblance of wine, 
was lufficient for the grofs purpofes of German de¬ 
bauchery. Yet thofe who had taded the rich wines of 
Italy, and afterwards of Gaul, fighed for the more de¬ 
licious fpecies of intoxication. They attempted not, 
however, (as lias fince been executed with fo much fuc- 
cefs,) to naturalize the vine on the banks of the Rhine 
and Danube ; nor did they endeavour to procure by 
indudry and labour, the materials of an advantageous 
commerce. To procure by labour what might be 
gained by arms, was edeemed unworthy of the German 
Ipirit. The intemperate third of drong liquors often 
urged them to invade the provinces on which art or na, 
tiire had bedowed thofe much envied, yet dangerous, 
prefents. The Tufean who betrayed his country to the 
Celtic nations, attraCfed tliem into Italy, according to 
Plutarch, by the profpeCf of the rich fruits and delicious 
wines, the prodiiCIions of a happier climate. And in 
tlie fame manner tlie German auxiliaries, invited into 
France during the civil wars of the fixteenth century, 
were allured by the promife of plenteous quarters in 
the wine-drinking provinces of Chainpaigne and Bur¬ 
gundy, Drunkennels, the mod illiberal, though per¬ 
haps not the mod dangerous, of our vices, was fome- 
times capable, in a lels civilized date of mankind, of 
occafioning a battle, a war, dr a revolution. 
I'he cli-uate of ancient Germany'has been mollified, 
and the foil fertilized, by the labour of tea centuries 
from the time of Charlemagne. The fame extent of 
ground which at prefent maintains’, in eafe and plenty, 
a million of hulbandmen and artificers, was unable to 
fupply an hundred thoufand warriors, or fighting men, 
with the ilmple necelfaries of life. The Germans aban¬ 
doned their irmnenfe foreds to the exercife of hunting, 
employed in padurage- the mod conliderable part of 
their lands, bedowed on the fmall remainder a cavelefs 
cultivation, and then accufed with fcantmels nd deri- 
lity, the face of a comui i that refufed, for wa: i of la¬ 
bour only, to imiihain the multitude of its inhabitarits, 
Vv’^hen famine fcvcre!y"admoniIhcd them of the import- 
anco 
