taste; but, as Mr. Gibbon, whose authority on the subject is certainly great, justly observes," "if we except the inimitable Lucian, the age "passed away without producing a single writer "of genius who deserved the attention of pos"terity." This decay of genius among the Románs is usually attributed to the arbitrary power of the emperors, which, it is said, depraved the talents of their subjects; yet, Mr. Gibbon himself observes, that Longinus, who lived at the close of this æra of Roman literature, possessed the spirit of ancient Athens; and that in its age of brass, to which we may assign the period between the reign of the last of the Antonines, and the final division of the Roman empire, the poet Claudian acquired the absolute command of the Latin language, soared above his contemporaries, and placed himself, after an interval of 300 years, among the poets of ancient Romet. In this period also, Ammianus Marcellinus produced a history of an interesting æra of the Roman empire, which, for good sense and impartiality, will not suffer in comparison with any former Greek or Latin historian. With the invasion of the Barbarians, the iron, or last age of Roman literature began; with the extinction of the empire of the west, it expired, and was followed by a base and discoloured age.

I. 2. Literature of Rome.

The effects of the Invasion of the Barbarians on
Literature.

THE general effect of this irruption into the Ro-
man empire, cannot be described better than it
has been by Dr. Robertson, in his introduction
to the reign of Charles the Fifth, and in the first
pages of his History of America.

The Barbarians assaulted the empire on every side, without distinction between what was sacred and what was profane, and without respect for age or sex, destroyed or ravaged all around them. In this general wreck, the arts, the sciences, all the inventions and discoveries of the Romans disappeared. The knowledge of remote regions was lost, their situations, their conveniences, and almost their names were forgotten.

By degrees the fury of the invaders subsided, but at first this was attended with no advantage; the human mind neglected, enervated and depressed, sunk into the most profound ignorance, and the lamp of science seemed extinguished in every part of the western empire.

I. 4.

State of Learning in the Middle Ages.

YET, after much consideration, the writer is inclined to think, that the ignorance produced by

I. 4.

the devastations of the Barbarians was at no Learning in the Middle Ages. time so great as is generally supposed; so that, in every part of what are termed the dark ages, there was less ignorance and superstition than is generally represented. It may be added, that there are grounds to suspect that the dispersion of these was earlier, and that sound learning and science began to revive in Europe sooner than is generally imagined.*

We shall shortly state some facts, which may be thought to prove this assertion, as it may be applied to the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

1. In the tenth century, and the four centuries which immediately preceded it, there appeared, more particularly in France and Italy, says Simonde de Sismondi, as he is translated by Mr. Roscoe,† "some judicious historians, whose "style possesses considerable vivacity, and who

* Doctor Henry (Book I. ch. iv. s. 1.) observes, that "the darkness of that long night of ignorance which over"shadowed Europe, from the fall of the western empire to "the revival of learning in the sixteenth century, was not "equally profound at all times and in all places; in Britain, particularly, some gleam of light appeared at different "times."

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"Historical View of the Literature of the South of "Europe, by J. C. L. Simonde de Sismondi, translated from "the original, with notes, by Thomas Roscoe, Esq." Vol. I.

p. 21.

CHAP. I.

600-1467.

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have given animated pictures of their times; some subtle philosophers, who astonish us "rather by the fineness of their speculations "than by the justness of their reasoning; "some learned theologians, and some poets. "The names of Paul Warnefrid, of Alcuin, of "Luitprand and of Eginhard, are even yet universally respected. They all, however, wrote "in Latin. They had all of them, by the "strength of their intellect, and the happy circumstances in which they were placed, learned to appreciate the beauty of the models which antiquity had left them. They breathed a spi"rit of a former age, as they had adopted its language; in them we do not find the repre"sentatives of their contemporaries; it is im

possible to recognize in their style, the times, in "which they lived; it only betrays the relative industry and felicity with which they imitated "the language and thoughts of a former age

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They do not belong to modern literature. They were the last monuments of civilized antiquity; the last of a noble race, which, after "a long period of degeneracy, became extinct in "them."*

* Few discerning readers of the passage cited in the text will not admire it; they may think that Dr. Cave should have paused before he denominated the tenth century the "sæculum obscurum."

2. Before the eleventh century, the arts and sciences had begun to flourish, under the protection of the Mahometan princes of Persia, Bagdad, Africa and Spain.* In all these countries the studies of medicine, astronomy and dialectic, the science of numbers, poetry, and other branches of polite literature were cultivated with success, and the works of Aristotle and some other authors were translated from the Greek language into the Arabic. Much learning also remained at Constantinople, and in the adjacent provinces. By degrees they attracted the attention, first of the Italians, and afterwards of the northern inhabitants of Europe, and many inquisitive spirits travelled in quest of learning to the Greeks of the eastern empire, or to the Arabians in Bagdad, Spain or Africa, and returned with considerable literary spoil. Of these, Gerbert, who afterwards became Pope, under the name of Sylvester the Second, deserves particular mention. A thirst of knowledge had led him to Cordova; he acquired, in that celebrated seat of Moorish literature, an extensive knowledge of mathematics, geometry and astronomy. On his return to France, he drew the notice of Adalberon, Archbishop of Rheims, and, under his auspices, opened a school in that city. Hugh

* Simonde de Sismondi, Vol. I. ch. 2. The reflections at the end of this chapter are very interesting.