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    TALES—TRANSLATED ANDQlllGlXAL.

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    involve ideas ; and iren have already begun to " make war for ideas ; and these are births , the throes of which are now actually troubling the world . . * An American historian is more likely to deal with these matters impartially than an English one . Mr . Park Godwin appears , indeed , to be an honest and sincere inquirer . He has a happy knack , too , in characterising his authorities . Thus he says of Julius Caesar , that it was his " peculiar fortune to reveal to mankind by his

    conquests the ancestors of the three greatest modern nations , France , Germany , and Britain , " and that he " penetrated Gaul with his eyes as well as with his sword . The most competent observer of his age , both by native endowment and the accidents of his career , he still remains our best though not exclusive authority . " We gather from examples of this sort , that Mr . Godwin is an author whose forte it is to write pregnant sentences , teeming with meaning , and comprehending large issues expressed in a few carefully chosen and significant words .

    Mr . Godwin is also a cautious historian . Having described tie ancient nations of which Gaul consisted , he prudently observes , that though it might be interesting , it would be fruitless to inquire into the origin of the several races , or the time and manner of their arriving in Gaul . The theory , he adds , " accepted by many ethnologists , which represents the whole of Europe as having been peopled from the East , first by Finnic , then Pelasgic , then Keltic , then Teutonic , and then Sclavonic races , is , perhaps , speculatively

    satisfactory , but it cannot be adopted in history . For , in fact , history cannot know anything of the beginnings of nations ; its sphere is exclusively that of progress and development , and , while it acknowledges with cordial sympathy the services of archaeology , and rejoices particularly in those beautiful labours of the science ot language which have unfolded the analysis of the sacred tongues of Upper Asia—the Sanscrit and the Zend—with the European dialects , it yet preserves a studied caution amid the half-lights and false lights Of all unrecorded eras . "

    We remark in Mr . Godwin a similar caution in regard to the Druids , whose eastern derivation he appears on the whole to grant . He admits the many analogies which learned men discover between -their supposed doctrines and rites and those of certain Asiatic nationsj jet-at the saine time points attention to the differences , which are quite as many as * the resemblances , and scarcely ,, he insists , justify the identification of Druidisni with any other known form of religion . ~ " Even , " says he , " were the analogies stronger and more numerous than _ they are , it might still be plausibly contended that the faith of . the Keltic races was an indigenous product , springing primarily put of the depths of their own hearts , and modified in a slight degree afterwards' by the . various Phoenician , Carthaginian , Greek , and Roman influences , with which we know the Gauls were assailed . ''

    We may regard Mr . Godwin , therefore , we think , as a tolerably safe guide through legendary and archaeological labyrinths . It is true that the subject of Roman Gaul fills him with sublime ideas , and makes him grandiloquent in contemplating " the whole wonderful people cradled by the seven hills , " and that Italy which he regards as " the nursing mother of nil the nations of the globe . " But he is not blinded to the evils of her dominion , right early manifested * : —Rnypft—prfJSAiitied . ! ' n . . socjuty—thoroughly permeated ¦ by slavery * of which despotism was but the crowning and poisonous flower , " Her " religion consisted of a vile mass of capricious , impure , and sanguinary rites ; and in which the contempt for woman hud almost dissolved the family tie , and bred the rankest

    or free artisans of the towns , and the small possessors of land in the country . This was organised into corporations of the dinerent trades Mr . Godwin doubts whether any substantial change had been effected among the rural population of Gaul in consequence of the Roman conquest . "They held to the condition of the slave without being of his kind , and to the condition of the freeman without enjoying all his rights . " The upper classes were enormously rich , and devoted to a sumptuous and idle indulgence , They passed their days alternately in their line city palaces and in their country villas , constructed in the Roman fashion , amid the picturesque or grand scenes of nature . Of the seventeen famous cities of the world , Ti AclesToulouseNarbonne

    live belonged to Gaul , namely—eves , , , , and Bordeaux , which last was even then celebrated for its wines . Abandoned to gaieties and festivals , few traces are to be discerned of any serious occupation , or of any deep and absorbing general interest among them , although , the age " was a most stirring and calamitous one , when the wild squadrons of Germany swept the plains , and the empire rocked and groaned like : i vessel struck by the tempests . Some of the nobles , . though , are confessed to have been men ot mind , —philosophers , litterati , and poets . One Vectius , for instance , is described as " a monk , not under the gown , but under the tunic of the warrior , " who frequently read the Scriptures , especially at his repasts , " partaking at once of the nutriment of the soul and of

    the body . " . . , Into the subject of the literature and science of Gaul at this and subsequent periods Mr . Godwin enters with an eloquent force which will render his book attractive . Gaul abounded in schools in which ' the Arts Avere taught , and Christianity was not without its rhetoricians . Mr . Godwin traces it through its Hebrew , Greek , and Latin forms , and shows himself capable of an extensive range of thought ,. . The historian then pursues his fruitful theme through its remaining phases ;—as , firstly , Roman-German Gaul ; and , secondly , German Gaul . The- advances of the Teutonic world upon the empire are distinctly traced , and the learning applicable to the point , as far as possible , exhausted . . .. -.. •' .. .

    The downfall of the empire is depicted in suitable terms of dignity . " The great sun , " Mr . Godwin writes , " which for so many centuries had illumined and dazzled the world , was set , and the nations were left to grope in the twilight of its o'iice .. effulgeii . t _ diiy-. " Chlodwig the Great is then celebrated as the real Touuder-pf the Frankish monarchy . With the' Merovingian dynasty the Roman element xetires , and- leaves Gaul entirely to the German influence . This period , comprises more than half of the seventh-century , and extends to the middle of the ninth . And here the author closes his

    first volume . The empire of the Franks had dissolved . But a new vision had disclosed itself . The Church remained . Christianity would not recede . The empire e-f the great Karl was to become a civilizing inspiration of the West . The fragments into which his empire split were not the broken and useless pieces of a magnificent fabric overthrown , biit themselves -the . " corner-stones of more imperial structures . " The enforced unity of llonian contrivance was shattered for ever , but the seeds of vital nationalities were sown , and already ItalyGermany , and . '' France sprouted out of the earth . "

    , So concludes a volume which treats a great subject with some majesty of diction and some profundity of thought , and which reflects considerable credit on tiiePlustorie genius oi' ^ brrericaT

    contagions in the very heart of domestic life . " Rome was a hotbed , " where an intenser life had rapidly exhausted the native vigour of the soil , and stipplied its place with a luxuriant compost . '' It was " towards Rome that all the peculiar luxuries , vices , crimes , sorceries , and superstitions of all the earth had tended . " Here , again , wo see in a concise statement the germ of a great development , by which the history of the world from that time to the present has been materially and spiritually affected . Christianity was early planted in Gaul—at a period much earlier than that of Constantine , when it had become corrupt . At that triumphant moment ( to quote our author ' s words , with certain needful modifications ) , when the new religious power was about to ascend the throne of the world , it was neither as a faith noi" as an institution , the same as it nppears to have been in its primitive age . The essence , or the fundamental principles of Christianity were ( > as they ever will be , the same ; but the human mind , in its conception

    of principles , is ever liable to prodigious transmutations . And Christianity was not a scheme for the miraculous conversion of men without consent of their understanding and hearts ; it was not avast and inflexible system of superstition , to be imposed by authority and propagated by terror and force , but it was pre-eminently a spiritual religion , addressed to the free affections and the independent reason of mankind , and implying in its very conditions as such , that it might bo rejected , or perverted , or only half received . It was accordingly subject to a variety of changes , the successive steps of which lire noted on the poge _ of history . In the ago of Constantine , the benignant Gospel had come to be considered as some talismanic pnssport to the unimaginable bliss of n futnre state . In a word , the purest of religions had suffered the fate of all—it had becomo for a while a superstition , but only that , in the end , it might transcend all superstitions , by force of its original purity . The world , or that part of it which was called the Empire of tlio West , had now to be divided into two prefectures—that of Itatyand that of Gnul ; tho latter comprising-Gaul proper , Spnin , and Britain . Hero may bo said to begin the political life of Gaul . Its inhabitants were divided into classes , tho third consisting : of the mechanics ,

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    O F all nations the Northern are'the most celebrated lor their numerous , traditions and fabulous concoctions . Without doubt the genius of these peoples is peculiarly adopted to the fabrication of ingenious- ' myths and allegorical pictures . Their writings of this class abound in such singular vagaries of fancy , such novel flights of imagination , and extraordinary figures of speech , as justly entitle them to a foremost rank in compositions of the kind . Among these fantastic celebrities Herr Hans Andersen occupies a prominent position . Those who remember that master-piece of one of the most subtle and brilliant of imaginations , the " Improvisatore , " will be at no loss to account for the world-wide reputation of its author ,.

    and the extensive circulation of his inimitable productions , another volume of which is now presented to the English public . This volume is entitled the " Sandhills of Jutland , " being-a collection of fabulous stories descriptive of events supposed to take place in that wild and thinly-populated region . All these tales possess that strange fascination for which Herr Andersen's works are so remarkable . The soul of the reader is gradually infused with a portion of the author ' s divino inspiration , and he feels himself borno onwards along the current of ideas as familiarly as though they had originally generated in hit * own mind , instead of boing tho emanations of a directly foreign source . This power of compelling others to enter so completely into tho spirit of our own thoughts , sensations , and emotions , belongs to but few writers of fiction—but . amongst these few Herr Andersen stands conspicuous . The rich mine of his

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    572 The Leader andSaturday Aiialyst . [ June 16 , I 860 .

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    * The Sitnrfliillti of Jutland . Ity IlAtfs CimiSTiAN Andersen , Author of the ' Improvisator © , " fco . ltfchard Benttay . C / utptcra on Wiooa . By Mrs . EliUS , Author of "Mothers of Great Men . ' * liiohtml Uentley . Alico Mala a Talo of Puritan Ttmes . By tho llov . II . King , B . Af , Author of " Angpls' Work / ' " Singere of tho Simqtuary , " &o . J . II . aud Jas . l ' nrkor . ' , Zaitt / Goutlvhihl ' a IPuhy Hint / . Houlston and "Wright . Chileotc J ' arkt or , Tho RMcys . By tho Author of " Likoa and Dislikes . " John W . barker and Son .

    Tales—Translated Andqlllglxal.

    TALES—TRANSLATED AND ORIGINAL .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 16, 1860, page 572, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2352/page/16/