4f)8 G E R M ANY, 
The rude plenty of his hofpitable board was the only 
pay that he could bellow, or they would accept. AVar, 
rapine, and the free-will offerings of his friends, lup- 
plicd the materials of his conflatit munificence.” This 
inflitution,' however it miglit accidentally weaken the 
I'everal republics, invigorated the general character of 
the Germans, and even ripened amongfl them all the 
virtues of which barbarians are fufceptible ; the faith 
and valour, the hofpitality and the courtefy, fo confpi- 
cuous long afterw'ards in the ages of knighthood and 
cliivalry. The honourable gifts bellowed by the chief 
on his brave companions, have been fuppofed, by an in- 
genious writer, to contain the firll rudiments of the 
fiefs, or feodal tenures, dillributed, after the conquell 
of tlie Roman provinces, by the barbarian lords among 
tlieir valfals, with a fimilar duty of homage and mili¬ 
tary fervice. Thefe conditions are, however, very re¬ 
pugnant to the maxims of the ancient Germans, who 
deliglited in mutual yirefents ; but without either im- 
pofing, or accepting, the weight of obligations. 
“In tliofe days of knighthood or chivalry, the men 
■were brave, and the women challe —and notwith- 
flanding the latter of thefe virtues is acquired and pre- 
ferved with mucli more difficulty than the former, it is 
aferibed, almofl without exception, to the w'ines of the 
ancient Germans. See the article CHiv.-ti.RV, vol. iv. 
p. 505.—Polygamy was not in ufe, except among the 
princes, and among them only for thp fake of multiply¬ 
ing their alliances. Divorces w'ere prohibited by man¬ 
ners, rather than by laws. Adulteries were puniffied 
as rare and inexpiable crimes ; nor was fedudtion julli- 
fied by high example and falhion. We can eafily dif- 
cover, that Tacitus indulges an honeft pleafure in the 
contrafl of barbarian virtue, with the dilTolute conduct 
ot the Roman ladies ; yet there are fome (hiking cir- 
cumllances that give an air of truth, or at lead of pro¬ 
bability, to the conjugal faith and challity of the Ger- 
niiui people. 
Although the progrefs of civilization has undoubt¬ 
edly contributed to ail'uage the fiercer paliions of human 
nature, it feems to have been lefs favourable to the vir- 
tc.e of challity, whofe moil dangerous enemy is the foft- 
neis of the mind. The refinements of life corrupt, 
even while they polilh, the intercourfe of the fexes. 
The grofs appetite of love becomes moll dangerous 
when It is elevated, of rather indeed difguifed, by fen- 
timental paffion. The elegance of drefs, of motion, 
and dt manners, gives a lullre to beauty, and inflames 
tlie lenfes through the eye of imagination. Luxurious 
entertainments, midnight dances, and licentious Ipedla- 
clcs, prelent at once temptation and opportunity to fe¬ 
male trailty. From fuch dangers the unpolilhed wives 
of the barbarians were i'ecured by poverty, I'olitude, 
and the painful cares, of a domellic life. The German 
huts, open on every fide to the detcilion of indifere- 
tions, were a better fafeguard of conjugal fidelity, than 
the walls, the bolts, and the eunuchs, of a Perlian ha¬ 
rem. To this reafon, another may be added of a more 
honourable nature. The Germans treated their women 
with efieem and confidence, confulted them on all occa- 
llons of importance, and fondly believed, that in their 
brealls refided a fanflity and wifdom more than human. 
Some of thei'e interpreters of fate, fuch as Velleda, in 
the Batavian war, governed in the name of the deity 
the fierceli nations of Germany-, ddie red of the fex, 
without being adored as goddelfes, were refpeited as 
tlic tree and equal companions of foldiers ; allbciated 
even by the’ marriage ceremony to a life of toil, of dan¬ 
ger, and of glory. In their great invafions, the camps 
of the Germans were filled with a multitude of women, 
who remained firm and undaunted amidfi the clalh of 
arms, she horrors of dcllruction, and tlie bleeding 
wounds of their fons and hulbands. Fainting armies of 
F/erm.ia warriors have more than once been driven back 
upon the enemy, by the generous defpmiroi the women, 
who dreaded death much lefs than fervitude. If the 
day was irrecoverably loll, they svell knew how to de¬ 
liver themfelves and their children, with their own 
hands, from an implacable victor. Heroines of fuch a 
call may claim our admiration ; but they were moll af- 
furedly neither lovely, nor very fufceptible of tender 
love. Whillh the}^ aftefted to emulate the (lern valour 
oi man, they mull have religneu that attractive foftnefs 
in which principally conlills the cliarms and w'eaknefs 
of woman. Confeious pride taught the German females 
to fupprefs every tender emotion that flood in competi¬ 
tion with honoui', and the firll honour of the fex has 
ever been that of challity. The fentiments and conduft 
of thefe high-fpirited matrons may, at once, be confi- 
dered as a caufe, as an ert'edl, and as a proof, of tlie lin¬ 
gular character of the nation. Female courage, liow- 
ever it may be raifed by fanaticifm, or confirmed by 
habit, can be only a faint and imperfeCl imitation of 
the manly valour tliat dillinguiflies the age or country 
in which it may be found. 
The religious fyllem of the ancient Germans (if the 
wild opinions of favages can deferve that name) was 
dictated by their wants, their fears, and tlieir ignorance. 
Like the aboriginal Britons, they adored the great vilible 
objecls and agents of nature, the fun and the moon, the 
fire and the earth ; together with thole imaginary dei¬ 
ties, who were, fuppofed to prelide over the moll inte- 
relling occupations of human life. They were per- 
I'uaded, that, by arts of divination, tliey could difeover 
the will of the fuperior beings, and that human facri- 
fices were the moll precious and acceptable offering to 
their altars. Some applaiife has been thouglitlefsly be¬ 
llowed on the I'ublinie notion entertained by that people 
of tlie Deity, whom they neither confined within the 
walls of a temple, nor reprefented by any human figure ; 
but when we recoiled:, that the Germans were unlkilled 
in architcClure, and totally unacquainted with the ai t 
of fculpture, ve lhall readily afiign the true realbn of 
a fcruple which arofe not lb much from a. luperiority 
of reafon as from a want of ingenuity. The only tem- 
j)les in Germany were dark and folitary groves, confe- 
crated by the reverence of fucceeding generations. 
Their fecret gloom, the imagined refidence of an iiivi- 
fible power, b}- pr^fenting no difiincl objeCt of fear or 
worfiiip, imprefi'ed the mind with a Hill deeper fenfe of 
religious awe ; and the priefts, rude and illiterate as 
they were, had been taught by experience the ufe of 
every artifice that could preferve and fortify imprellions 
fo well fuited to their interell and authority. 
Tlie fame ignorance which renders barbarians inca¬ 
pable of conceiving or embracing the ufeful rellr.iints 
of laws, expofes them naked and unarmed to the blind 
terrors of I'uperltition. The German priells, improving 
this favourable temper of their countrymen, liad af- 
fumed a jurifdiction, even in temporal concerns, which 
the magifirate could not venture toexercilc; and the 
haughty warrior patiently fubnritted to the laffi of cor- 
reiilion, when it was inflibled, not by any human power, 
but by the immediate order of the god of war. The 
defeats of civil policy were fometimes fupplied by the 
interpofition of eccleliallical authority. Tlie latter was 
confiantly exerted to maintain lilenceand decency in the 
popular affemblies ; and was fometimes extended to a 
more enlarged concern for the national welfare. A fo- 
lemn proceffion was occalionally celebrated in the pre- 
fent countries of Mecklenburgh and Pomerania. The 
unknown fymbol of the Eartli, covered witli a tliick 
veil, was placed on a carriage drawn by cows; and in 
tills manner the goddefs, whole common relidence was 
in the i(le of Rugen, vifited leveral adjacent tribes of 
her worlhippers. During her progrefs, the found of 
war was hufiled, quarrels were ful'pended, arms laid 
afide, and the reillels Germans had an opportunity of 
talting the bleffings of peace and harmony. 'J'lic truce 
of God, fo often and io inefi'eitually proclaimed by itie 
