apart and distinct." Instead of cities, they planted villages, just as a fountain, a field, or a wood invited them. They seem to have felt, as an Englishman does, that every man's house is his castle; for the houses did not touch each other; each one had a vacant place all round it. Then, again, the villages were very independent of one another, and each had its own free space bordering it on every side, a ring of common ground where they thought the fairies and spirits dwelt. This ring or border-land was called the mark or march; if a stranger entered the march he had to blow a horn, for if he came in secretly every one had a right to kill him; which shows that they still felt, as in old times, that unless they were of one family, or had made special agreements, every man was the enemy of every other man. Family feeling. 19. The Teutons, who honoured their wives so highly, thought also very much of other family ties. To kill infants was esteemed an abominable sin, whereas among the Romans, and many other nations, it was quite a common practice, and hardly at all blamable, to kill them, especially girls. The mothers all nourished their own children, and they were brought up in very hardy and healthy habits; the young lord and the young slave just in the same way till the proper time came to separate them. The family all hung together; and each village or settlement was inhabited by relations, or supposed to be so. "All the enmities of your house, whether of your father or your kindred, you must adopt, as well as their friendships." If any one in the family did a wrong action, if he murdered or robbed a man of another family, it was not looked on so much as his own deed as that of his whole family, his father, uncles, brothers, and cousins; and the whole family had to make it good. All the members of a family were bound to protect each other from wrong, and, if possible, to hinder each other from evil-doing. 20. They were above everything noted for their love of liberty, though, like the Romans, they possessed slaves, who were, probably, conquered captives at first. But they themselves were Each freeman had some land of his own, and had a share in the government. free. 21. Even in those old days we can see something like our own constitution. Now we have a king (or queen), the House of Lords, and the House of Commons. Then, in nearly Government. all the tribes, there was a king, a small assembly of chiefs, elders, or wise men, and a great assembly of the whole people, of all the freemen. Our House of Commons does not consist indeed of all the people, because, of course, in a great country it is impossible for all to assemble; members of Parliament are, therefore, chosen or elected by the people to represent and speak for them. The king was elected, but always out of one family-a special family which was supposed to be descended from their principal god, Woden. The chiefs were chosen for their courage and talents, and were always followed by a band of brave young freemen. They were called by a name which we do not now think very grand or dignified-aldermen, or, in the old spelling, ealdormen: eldermen. In those days, at any rate, age was supposed to confer wisdom, and elder or alderman was a title of honour. Among the freemen themselves there was a certain difference of rank. Some were earls and some were churls. The earls were the most nobly born. The word churl has a bad meaning now, but it had not that formerly; it only meant that he was of lower rank. No doubt the higher-bred man was more polite; and so to be less polite or less generous came to be called "churlish." 22. This old Parliament, when there was any important matter to be decided, assembled in the open air. All the freemen, both earls and churls, came in a very independent style; all armed, and sitting down wherever they pleased. But it was only the king and the chiefs who spoke. They had probably already discussed the affair in private, and then stood forth, not to command, but to persuade the people. They made the very best and finest speeches they could (just as our Prime Minister would do now), while everybody listened; when they had explained what they wished to do, "if the proposition displease they reject it by an inarticulate murmur; if it be pleasing they brandish their javelins. The most honourable manner of signifying their assent is to express their applause by the sound of their arms." 23. As to their language, their "plain speech" as they call it, the very first written specimen we have of it is a translation of the Bible, which was made for a tribe of the Goths Language. by their Bishop Ulfilas, in the fourth century. The good bishop, however, missed out some of the accounts of the Jewish wars in his translation, because his flock were already so quarrelsome! We certainly should not be able to read it now, but we should find in it a great many words just like our own. The earliest written English also seems very different from our English. So does a child of a year old look very different from the man or woman of fifty; nevertheless, it is only the same person at another age. And so, or almost so, is our English language as compared with the old English. Of the other Teutonic languages now existing, the German, Dutch, or Danish, we may say they are brothers or sisters, very much like each other, but each with their own specialties. 24. We could write a long list of words which are almost exactly the same in English and German. Here are a few of the commonest Father, Mother, Brother, Sister, Neighbour, Friend, Man, House, Boat, Ship, Ox, Cow, Lamb, Mouse, Bread, Butter, Fish, Flesh, Arm, Hand, Shoulder, Finger, Good, Young, Fine. The Low Dutch, or language spoken in Holland, is still more like English than even the German, or High Dutch as they call it themselves. 25. With respect to their religion, Tacitus says that, "from the grandeur and majesty of beings celestial, they judge it altogether unsuitable to hold the gods inclosed within walls, or to represent them under Religion. any human likeness." Still they seem to have had images, which they kept in groves and forests, but which they carried about with them when they travelled. Their principal god was Odin, or Woden, from whom all their kings were supposed to be descended. He was the god of war, but they also believed that he had invented the letters of the alphabet. 26. The most interesting thing of all is what we find about their god Tiu. The principal god of the Romans, as will be remembered, was Jupiter, the sky-father. The real word was Ju, to which piter, for pater or father, was added. The same word came from the old Aryan stock to our forefathers also. In Sanskrit it was Dyu; in Greek Zeus; in Latin Ju; in Teutonic Tiu. The French word for God, Dieu, again, is the same. All these have the same meaning of heaven, and God in heaven. Just as the Romans added the word "father" to the name of their god, so the Teutons also looked on Tiu as their father. His son was Mannus, or Man (the thinker). Is it not very grand to find in these old religions how man loved to feel himself the son of God? 27. Our names for the days of the week, as is well known, were originally given in honour of the gods and goddesses of our forefathers. First the sun and the moon; then Tiu; then Woden or Odin; then Thor or Thunder, the god of storms; next Frea or Friga, the goddess of peace and plenty; and lastly Soetere, of whom little if anything remains but his name. Their beautiful goddess of spring and dawn was Eostre, who still gives her name to the most hopeful and joyful of the Christian festivals. LECTURE VI.-THE COMING OF THE ENGLISH. Departure of the Romans. The Picts and Scots. The settlements of the 1. FROM the time of Tacitus onwards the Teutonic tribes continued harassing the Roman empire, and by the beginning of the fifth century they were giving so much trouble, even in Italy itself, that the Romans wanted all their legions nearer home. They began to withdraw from their more distant provinces, as from Roumania, which was then called Dacia, and from Britain. Before they went away they repaired the wall of Hadrian from the Tyne to the Solway, as the northern barbarians were also growing more and more troublesome. The Romans fully meant to come back again; but they never did so they never could find the opportunity. The Teutons spread everywhere. There were Goths in Italy, Goths in Spain, Vandals in Africa, Franks in Gaul, and very soon Angles in Britain. 410. Departure of the Romans. 2. Now came the proof of what was said above. The Roman civilization forced on the Britons had done but little good and much harm. They had been so used to be governed by others that they did not know how to govern themselves; they had been so used to be fought for that they had nearly forgotten how to fight for themselves. As soon as the strong hand, which had kept them under while protecting them, was lifted off everything seemed to fall to pieces. 3. The Britons began to quarrel among themselves. Some, perhaps the least civilized of them, made friends with the barbarians to the north, who were, of course, their Picts and kinsfolk. These barbarians, seeing the comforts and wealth of the civilized regions where the Romanized Britons lived, soon managed to get over the Roman wall, and to make plundering expeditions into the very heart of the country. Scots. 4. The Romanized Britons hardly knew how to defend themselves; they had lost their savage courage, and had not learnt the Roman discipline. One of them, named Gildas, who is supposed to have lived in the sixth century, and who wrote a very curious history of the times after the departure of the Romans, gives an account of the northern enemies. 5. We have now done with our Roman authorities, with Julius Cæsar and Tacitus; this is the first British book we have had. Gildas, however, wrote in Latin, though not in the masterly style of either Cæsar or Tacitus. Gildas. He evidently tried very hard to write in a fine manner; sometimes he appears to have attempted to imitate the old Hebrew prophets, and it is astonishing what a number of wicked kings and other people he found to denounce. 6. This is a translation of his description of the Picts and Scots, as those northern invaders were called. "The Picts and Scots, like worms which in the heat of mid-day come forth from their holes, hastily land again from their canoes; ... differing from one another in manners, but inspired with the same avidity for blood, and all more eager to shroud their villanous faces in bushy hair than to cover with decent clothing those parts of their body which required it. Moreover, having heard of the departure of our friends" (that is, of the Romans), "and their resolution never to return, they seized with greater boldness than before on all the country as far as the wall. To oppose them there was placed on the heights a garrison equally slow to fight and ill-adapted to run away-a useless and panic-struck company, who slumbered away days and nights on their unprofitable watch. Meanwhile the hooked weapons of their enemies were not idle, and our wretched countrymen were dragged from the wall and dashed against the ground... But why should I say more? They left their cities, abandoned the protection of the wall, and dispersed themselves in flight more desperately than before. The enemy, on the other hand, pursued them with more unrelenting cruelty than before, and butchered our countrymen like sheep." 7. During all these troublous times we can see with reverence the influence of Christianity in the wonderful men who stood, as it were, in the breach, to help the conquered, to tame and soften the conquerors. I fear we in England do great injustice to the memory of these saints. Because a great many fables and strange tales have grown up about their histories, and too much has been made of the honour and reverence due to them, and because some of the saints in the Roman calendar were noted for what we cannot call virtues at all, we are apt to confuse them altogether, |