CHAPTER VI.

ORIGIN OF HISTORY, AND STATE OF HISTORICAL LITERATURE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.

I have now laid before the reader an examination of those conspicuous circumstances to which the progress of civilization is commonly ascribed; and I have proved that such circumstances, so far from being the cause of civilization, are at best only its effects; and that although religion, literature, and legislation do, undoubtedly, modify the condition of mankind, they are still more modified by it. Indeed, as we have clearly seen, they, even in their most favourable position, can be but secondary agents; because, however beneficial their apparent influence may be, they are themselves the product of preceding changes, and their results will vary according to the variations of the society on which they work.

It is thus that, by each successive analysis, the field of the present inquiry has been narrowed, until we have found reason to believe that the growth of European civilization is solely due to the progress of knowledge, and that the progress of knowledge depends on the number of truths which the human intellect discovers, and on the extent to which they are diffused. In support of this proposition, I have, as yet, only brought forward such general arguments as establish a very strong probability; which, to raise to a certainty, will require an appeal to history in the widest sense of the term. Thus to verify speculative conclusions by an exhaustive enumeration of the most important particular facts, is the task which I purpose to execute so far as my powers will allow; and in the preceding chapter I have briefly stated the method according to which the investigation will be conducted. Besides this, it has appeared to me that the principles which I have laid down may also be tested by a mode of proceeding which I have not yet mentioned, but which is intimately connected with the subject now before us. This is, to incorporate with an inquiry into the progress of the history of Man, another inquiry into the progress of History itself. By this means, great light will be thrown on the movements of society; since there must always be a connexion between the way in which men contemplate the past, and the way in which they contemplate the present; both views being in fact different forms of the same habits of thought, and therefore presenting, in each age, a certain sympathy and correspondence with each other. It will, moreover, be found, that such an inquiry into what I call the history of history, will establish two leading facts of considerable value. The first fact is, that during the last three centuries, historians, taken as a class, have shown a constantly increasing respect for the human intellect, and an aversion for those innumerable contrivances by which it was formerly shackled. The second fact is, that during the same period, they have displayed a growing tendency to neglect matters once deemed of paramount importance, and have been more willing to attend to subjects connected with the condition of the people and the diffusion of knowledge. These two facts will be decisively established in the present Introduction; and it must be admitted, that their existence corroborates the principles which I have propounded. If it can be ascertained, that as society has improved, historical literature has constantly tended in one given direction, there arises a very strong probability in favour of the truth of those views towards which it is manifestly approaching. Indeed, it is a probability of this sort which makes it so important for the student of any particular science to be acquainted with its history; because there is always a fair presumption that when general knowledge is advancing, any single department of it, if studied by competent men, is also advancing, even when the results may have been so small as to seem unworthy of attention. Hence it becomes highly important to observe the way in which, during successive ages, historians have shifted their ground; since we shall find that such changes have in the long-run always pointed to the same quarter, and are, in reality, only part of that vast movement by which the human intellect, with infinite difficulty, has vindicated its own rights, and slowly emancipated itself from those inveterate prejudices which long impeded its action.

With a view to these considerations, it seems advisable that, when examining the different civilizations into which the great countries of Europe have diverged, I should also give an account of the way in which history has been commonly written in each country. In the employment of this resource, I shall be mainly guided by a desire to illustrate the intimate connexion between the actual condition of a people and their opinions respecting the past; and, in order to keep this connexion in sight, I shall treat the state of historical literature, not as a separate subject, but as forming part of the intellectual history of each nation. The present volume will contain a view of the principal characteristics of French civilization until the great Revolution; and with that there will be incorporated an account of the French historians, and of the remarkable improvements they introduced into their own departments of knowledge. The relation which these improvements bore to the state of society from which they proceeded, is very striking, and will be examined at some length; while, in the next volume, the civilization and the historical literature of the other leading countries will be treated in a similar manner. Before, however, entering into these different subjects, it has occurred to me, that a preliminary inquiry into the origin of European history would be interesting, as supplying information respecting matters which are little known, and also as enabling the reader to understand the extreme difficulty with which history has reached its present advanced, but still very imperfect, state. The materials for studying the earliest condition of Europe have long since perished; but the extensive information we now possess concerning barbarous nations will supply us with a useful resource, because they have all much in common; the opinions of extreme ignorance being, indeed, every where the same, except when modified by the differences which nature presents in various countries. I have, therefore, no hesitation in employing the evidence which has been collected by competent travellers, and drawing inferences from it respecting that period of the European mind, of which we have no direct knowledge. Such conclusions will, of course, be speculative; but, during the last thousand years, we are quite independent of them, inasmuch as every great country has had chroniclers of its own since the ninth century, while the French have an uninterrupted series since the sixth century. In the present chapter, I intend to give specimens of the way in which, until the sixteenth century, history was habitually written by the highest European authorities. Its subsequent improvement during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, will be related under the separate heads of the countries where the progress was made; and as history, previous to the improvement, was little else than a tissue of the grossest errors, I will, in the first place, examine the leading causes of its universal corruption, and indicate the steps by which it was so disfigured that, during several centuries, Europe did not possess a single man who had critically studied the past, or who was even able to record with tolerable accuracy the events of his own time.

At a very early period in the progress of a people, and long before they are acquainted with the use of letters, they feel the want of some resource, which in peace may amuse their leisure, and in war may stimulate their courage. This is supplied to them by the invention of ballads; which form the groundwork of all historical knowledge, and which, in one shape or another, are found among some of the rudest tribes of the earth. They are, for the most part, sung by a class of men whose particular business it is thus to preserve the stock of traditions. Indeed, so natural is this curiosity as to past events, that there are few nations to whom these bards or minstrels are unknown. Thus, to select a few instances, it is they who have preserved the popular traditions, not only of Europe,[418] but also of China, Tibet, and Tartary;[419] likewise of India,[420] of Scinde,[421] of Belochistan,[422] of Western Asia,[423] of the islands of the Black Sea,[424] of Egypt,[425] of Western Africa,[426] of North America,[427] of South America,[428] and of the islands in the Pacific.[429]

[418] For an account of the ancient bards of Gaul, see the _Benedictine Hist. Lit. de la France_, vol. i. part i. pp. 25-28. Those of Scotland are noticed in _Barry's Hist. of the Orkney Islands_, p. 89; and for a modern instance in the island of Col, near Mull, see _Otter's Life of Clarke_, vol. i. p. 307. As to the Irish bards in the seventh century, see _Sharon Turner's Hist. of England_, vol. iii. p. 571. Spenser's account of them in the sixteenth century (_Somers Tracts_, vol. i. pp. 590, 591) shows that the order was then falling into contempt; and in the seventeenth century this is confirmed by Sir William Temple; _Essay on Poetry_, in _Temple's Works_, vol. iii. pp. 431, 432. But it was not till the eighteenth century that they became extinct; for Mr. Prior (_Life of Goldsmith_, vol. i. pp. 36, 37) says, that Carolan, 'the last of the ancient Irish bards,' died in 1738. Without them the memory of many events would have been entirely lost; since, even at the end of the seventeenth century, there being no registers in Ireland, the ordinary means of recording facts were so little known, that parents often took the precaution of having the names and ages of children marked on their arms with gunpowder. See _Kirkman's Memoirs of Charles Macklin_, 8vo. 1799, vol. i. pp. 144, 145, a curious book. Compare, respecting Carolan, _Nichols's Illustrations of the Eighteenth Century_, vol. vii. pp. 688-694.

[419] On these Toolholos, as they are called, see _Huc's Travels in Tartary, Thibet, and China_, vol. i. pp. 65-67. Huc says, p. 67, 'These poet-singers, who remind us of the minstrels and rhapsodists of Greece, are also very numerous in China; but they are, probably, no where so numerous or so popular as in Thibet.'

[420] On the bards of the Deccan, see _Wilks's History of the South of India_, 4to. 1810, vol. i. pp. 20, 21, and _Transac. of the Bombay Soc._ vol. i. p. 162. For those of other parts of India, see _Heber's Journey_, vol. ii. pp. 452-455; _Burnes on the North-west Frontier of India_, in _Journal of Geog. Soc._ vol. iv. pp. 110, 111; _Prinsep_, in _Journal of Asiat. Soc._ vol. viii. p. 395; _Forbes's Oriental Memoirs_, vol. i. pp. 376, 377, 543; and _Asiatic Researches_, vol. ix. p. 78. They are mentioned in the oldest Veda, which is also the oldest of all the Indian books. See _Rig Veda Sanhita_, vol. i. p. 158.

[421] See _Burton's Sindh_, p. 56, 8vo. 1851.

[422] _Burton's Sindh_, p. 59.

[423] _Burnes's Travels into Bokhara_, 8vo. 1834, vol. ii. pp. 107, 115, 116.

[424] _Clarke's Travels_, 8vo. 1816, vol. ii. p. 101.

[425] Compare _Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol. ii. p. 304, with _Bunsen's Egypt_, vol. i. p. 96, vol. ii. p. 92.

[426] I have mislaid my note on the bards of Western Africa, and can only refer to a hasty notice in _Mungo Park's Travels_, vol. i. p. 70. 8vo. 1817.

[427] _Buchanan's Sketches of the North-American Indians_, p. 337.

[428] _Prescott's History of Peru_, vol. i. pp. 31, 32, 117.

[429] _Ellis_, _Polynesian Researches_, vol. i. pp. 85, 199, 411; _Ellis_, _Tour through Hawaii_, p. 91. Compare _Cook's Voyages_, vol. v. p. 237, with _Beechey's Voyage to the Pacific_, vol. ii. p. 106. Some of these ballads have been collected, but, I believe, not published. See _Cheever's Sandwich Islands_, 8vo. 1851, p. 181.

In all these countries, letters were long unknown; and, as a people in that state have no means of perpetuating their history except by oral tradition, they select the form best calculated to assist their memory; and it will, I believe, be found that the first rudiments of knowledge consist always of poetry, and often of rhyme.[430] The jingle pleases the ear of the barbarian, and affords a security that he will hand it down to his children in the unimpaired state in which he received it.[431] This guarantee against error increases still further the value of these ballads; and instead of being considered as a mere amusement, they rise to the dignity of judicial authorities.[432] The allusions contained in them, are satisfactory proofs to decide the merits of rival families, or even to fix the limits of those rude estates which such a society can possess. We therefore find, that the professed reciters and composers of these songs are the recognized judges in all disputed matters; and as they are often priests, and believed to be inspired, it is probably in this way that the notion of the divine origin of poetry first arose.[433] These ballads will, of course, vary, according to the customs and temperaments of the different nations, and according to the climate to which they are accustomed. In the south they assume a passionate and voluptuous form; in the north they are rather remarkable for their tragic and warlike character.[434] But, notwithstanding these diversities, all such productions have one feature in common. They are not only founded on truth, but making allowance for the colourings of poetry, they are all strictly true. Men who are constantly repeating songs which they constantly hear, and who appeal to the authorized singers of them as final umpires in disputed questions, are not likely to be mistaken on matters, in the accuracy of which they have so lively an interest.[435]

[430] It is a singular proof of the carelessness with which the history of barbarous nations has been studied, that authors constantly assert rhyme to be a comparatively recent contrivance; and even Pinkerton, writing to Laing in 1799, says, 'Rhyme was not known in Europe till about the ninth century.' _Pinkerton's Literary Correspondence_, vol. ii. p. 92. The truth is, that rhyme was not only known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, but was used, long before the date Pinkerton mentions, by the Anglo-Saxons, by the Irish, by the Welsh, and, I believe, by the Brétons. See _Mure's Hist. of the Literature of Greece_, vol. ii. p. 113; _Hallam's Lit. of Europe_, vol. i. p. 31; _Villemarqué_, _Chants Populaires de la Bretagne_, vol. i. pp. lviii. lix. compared with _Souvestre_, _les Derniers Bretons_, p. 143; _Turner's Hist. of England_, vol. iii. pp. 383, 643, vol. vii. pp. 324, 328, 330. Rhyme is also used by the Fantees (_Bowdich_, _Mission to Ashantee_, p. 358); by the Persians (_Transac. of Bombay Soc._ vol. ii. p. 82); by the Chinese (_Transac. of Asiatic Soc._ vol. ii. pp. 407, 409, and _Davis's Chinese_, vol. ii. p. 269); by the Malays (_Asiatic Researches_, vol. x. pp. 176, 196); by the Javanese (_Crawfurd's Hist. of the Indian Archipelago_, vol. ii. pp. 19, 20); and by the Siamese (_Transac. of Asiatic Soc._ vol. iii. p. 299).

[431] The habit thus acquired, long survives the circumstances which made it necessary. During many centuries, the love of versification was so widely diffused, that works in rhyme were composed on nearly all subjects, even in Europe; and this practice, which marks the ascendency of the imagination, is, as I have shown, a characteristic of the great Indian civilization, where the understanding was always in abeyance. On early French historians who wrote in rhyme, see _Monteil_, _Hist. des divers Etats_, vol. vi. p. 147. Montucla (_Hist. des Mathémat._ vol. i. p. 506) mentions a mathematical treatise, written in the thirteenth century, 'en vers techniques.' Compare the remarks of Matter (_Hist. de l'Ecole d'Alexandrie_, vol. ii. pp. 179-183) on the scientific poetry of Aratus; and on that of Hygin, p. 250. Thus, too, we find an Anglo-Norman writing 'the Institutes of Justinian in verse;' _Turner's Hist. of England_, vol. vii. p. 307: and a Polish historian composing 'his numerous works on genealogy and heraldry mostly in rhyme.' _Talvi's Language and Literature of the Slavic Nations_, 8vo. 1850, p. 246. Compare _Origines du Droit Français_, in _[OE]uvres de Michelet_, vol. ii. p. 310.

[432] Mr. Ellis, a missionary in the South-Sea Islands, says of the inhabitants, 'Their traditionary ballads were a kind of standard, or classical authority, to which they referred for the purpose of determining any disputed fact in their history.' And when doubts arose, 'as they had no records to which they could at such times refer, they could only oppose one oral tradition to another; which unavoidably involved the parties in protracted, and often obstinate debates.' _Ellis_, _Polynesian Researches_, vol. i. pp. 202, 203. Compare _Elphinstone's Hist. of India_, p. 66; _Laing's Heimskringla_, 8vo. 1844, vol. i. pp. 50, 51; _Twell's Life of Pocock_, edit. 1816, p. 143.

[433] The inspiration of poetry is sometimes explained by its spontaneousness (_Cousin_, _Hist. de la Philosophie_, II^e série, vol. i. pp. 135, 136); and there can be no doubt that one cause of the reverence felt for great poets, is the necessity they seem to experience of pouring out their thoughts without reference to their own wishes. Still, it will, I believe, be found, that the notion of poetry being a divine art is most rife in those states of society in which knowledge is monopolised by the bards, and in which the bards are both priests and historians. On this combination of pursuits, compare a note in _Malcolm's Hist. of Persia_, vol. i. p. 90, with _Mure's Hist. of the Lit. of Greece_, vol. i. p. 148, vol. ii. p. 228, and _Petrie's_ learned work, _Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland_, Dublin, 1845, p. 354. For evidence of the great respect paid to bards, see _Mallet's Northern Antiquities_, pp. 234-236; _Wheaton's Hist. of the Northmen_, pp. 50, 51; _Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit._ vol. i. p. 3; _Warton's Hist. of English Poetry_, 1840, vol. i. pp. xxvi. xl.; _Grote's Hist. of Greece_, vol. ii. p. 182, 1st edit.; and on their important duties, see the laws of M[oe]lmund, _Villemarqué_, _Chants Populaires de la Bretagne_, 1846, vol. i. pp. v. and vi.; _Thirlwall's Hist. of Greece_, vol. i. p. 229; and _Origines du Droit_, in _[OE]uvres de Michelet_, vol. ii. p. 372.

[434] _Villemarqué_, _Chants Populaires_, vol. i. p. lv.

[435] As to the general accuracy of the early ballads, which has been rashly attacked by several writers, and among others by Sir Walter Scott, see _Villemarqué_, _Chants Populaires_, vol. i. pp. xxv.-xxxi., and _Talvi's Slavic Nations_, p. 150. On the tenacity of oral tradition, compare _Niebuhr's History of Rome_, 1847, vol. i. p. 230, with _Laing's Denmark_, pp. 197, 198, 350; _Wheaton's Hist. of the Northmen_, pp. 38, 39, 57-59. Another curious illustration of this is, that several barbarous nations continue to repeat the old traditions in the old words, for so many generations, that at length the very language becomes unintelligible to the majority of those who recite them. See _Mariner's Account of the Tonga Islands_, vol. i. p. 156, vol. ii. p. 217, and _Catlin's North-American Indians_, vol. i. p. 126.

This is the earliest, and most simple, of the various stages through which history is obliged to pass. But, in the course of time, unless unfavourable circumstances intervene, society advances, and, among other changes, there is one in particular of the greatest importance: I mean the introduction of the art of writing, which, before many generations are passed, must effect a complete alteration in the character of the national traditions. The manner in which this occurs has, so far as I am aware, never been pointed out; and it will, therefore, be interesting to attempt to trace some of its details.

The first, and perhaps the most obvious consideration, is that the introduction of the art of writing gives permanence to the national knowledge, and thus lessens the utility of that oral information, in which all the acquirements of an unlettered people must be contained. Hence it is, that as a country advances, the influence of tradition diminishes, and traditions themselves become less trustworthy.[436] Besides this, the preservers of these traditions lose, in this stage of society, much of their former reputation. Among a perfectly unlettered people, the singers of ballads are, as we have already seen, the sole depositories of those historical facts on which the fame, and often the property, of their chieftains principally depend. But, when this same nation becomes acquainted with the art of writing, it grows unwilling to intrust these matters to the memory of itinerant singers, and avails itself of its new art to preserve them in a fixed and material form. As soon as this is effected, the importance of those who repeat the national traditions is sensibly diminished. They gradually sink into an inferior class, which, having lost its old reputation, no longer consists of those superior men to whose abilities it owed its former fame.[437] Thus we see, that although, without letters, there can be no knowledge of much importance, it is nevertheless true, that their introduction is injurious to historical traditions in two distinct ways: first by weakening the traditions, and secondly by weakening the class of men whose occupation it is to preserve them.

[436] That the invention of letters would at first weaken the memory, is noticed in Plato's Phædrus, chap. 135 (_Platonis Opera_, vol. i. p. 187, edit. Bekker, Lond. 1826); where, however, the argument is pushed rather too far.

[437] This inevitable decline in the ability of the bards is noticed, though, as it appears to me, from a wrong point of view, in _Mure's Literat. of Greece_, vol. ii. p. 230.

But this is not all. Not only does the art of writing lessen the number of traditionary truths, but it directly encourages the propagation of falsehoods. This is effected by what may be termed a principle of accumulation, to which all systems of belief have been deeply indebted. In ancient times, for example, the name of Hercules was given to several of those great public robbers who scourged mankind, and who, if their crimes were successful, as well as enormous, were sure after their death to be worshipped as heroes.[438] How this appellation originated is uncertain; but it was probably bestowed at first on a single man, and afterwards on those who resembled him in the character of their achievements.[439] This mode of extending the use of a single name is natural to a barbarous people;[440] and would cause little or no confusion, as long as the traditions of the country remained local and unconnected. But as soon as these traditions became fixed by a written language, the collectors of them, deceived by the similarity of name, assembled the scattered facts, and, ascribing to a single man these accumulated exploits, degraded history to the level of a miraculous mythology.[441] In the same way, soon after the use of letters was known in the North of Europe, there was drawn up by Saxo Grammaticus the life of the celebrated Ragnar Lodbrok. Either from accident or design, this great warrior of Scandinavia, who had taught England to tremble, had received the same name as another Ragnar, who was prince of Jutland about a hundred years earlier. This coincidence would have caused no confusion, as long as each district preserved a distinct and independent account of its own Ragnar. But, by possessing the resource of writing, men became able to consolidate the separate trains of events, and, as it were, fuse two truths into one error. And this was what actually happened. The credulous Saxo put together the different exploits of both Ragnars, and, ascribing the whole of them to his favourite hero, has involved in obscurity one of the most interesting parts of the early history of Europe.[442]

[438] Varro mentions forty-four of these vagabonds, who were all called Hercules. See a learned article in _Smith's Biog. and Mythology_, vol. ii. p. 401, 8vo. 1846. See also _Mackay's Religious Development of the Greeks and Hebrews_, vol. ii. pp. 71-79. On the relation between Hercules and Melcarth, compare _Matter_, _Hist. du Gnosticisme_, vol. i. p. 257, with _Heeren's Asiatic Nations_, vol. i. p. 295, 8vo. 1846. And as to the Hercules of Egypt, _Prichard's Analysis of Egyptian Mythology_, 1838, pp. 109, 115-119. As to the confusion of the different Hercules by the Dorians, see _Thirlwall's Hist. of Greece_, vol. i. p. 257; and compare p. 130.

[439] This appears to be the opinion of Frederick Schlegel; _Schlegel's Lectures on the History of Literature_, Edinb. 1818, vol. i. p. 260.

[440] The habit of generalizing names precedes that more advanced state of society in which men generalize phenomena. If this proposition is universally true, which I take it to be, it will throw some light on the history of disputes between the nominalists and the realists.

[441] We may form an idea of the fertility of this source of error from the fact, that in Egypt there were fifty-three cities bearing the same name: 'L'auteur du Kamous nous apprend qu'il y a en Egypte cinquante-trois villes du nom de Schobra: en effet, j'ai retrouvé tous ces noms dans les deux dénombremens déjà cités.' _Quatremère_, _Recherches sur la Langue et la Littérature de l'Egypte_, p. 199.

[442] On this confusion respecting Ragnar Lodbrok, see _Geijer's History of Sweden_, part i. pp. 13, 14; _Lappenberg's Anglo-Saxon Kings_, vol. ii. p. 31; _Wheaton's Hist. of the Northmen_, p. 150; _Mallet's Northern Antiquities_, p. 383; _Crichton's Scandinavia_, vol. i. p. 116. A comparison of these passages will justify the sarcastic remark of Koch on the history of Swedish and Danish heroes; _Koch_, _Tableau des Révolutions_, vol. i. p. 57 note.

The annals of the North afford another curious instance of this source of error. A tribe of Finns, called Quæns, occupied a considerable part of the eastern coast of the Gulf of Bothnia. Their country was known as Quænland; and this name gave rise to a belief that, to the north of the Baltic, there was a nation of Amazons. This would easily have been corrected by local knowledge; but, by the use of writing, the flying rumour was at once fixed; and the existence of such a people is positively affirmed in some of the earliest European histories.[443] Thus, too, Abo, the ancient capital of Finland, was called Turku, which, in the Swedish language, means a market-place. Adam of Bremen, having occasion to treat of the countries adjoining the Baltic,[444] was so misled by the word Turku, that this celebrated historian assures his readers that there were Turks in Finland.[445]

[443] _Prichard's Physical Hist. of Mankind_, vol. iii. p. 273. The Norwegians still give to the Finlanders the name of Quæner. See _Dillon's Lapland and Iceland_, 8vo. 1840, vol. ii. p. 221. Compare _Laing's Sweden_, pp. 45, 47. The Amazon river in South America owes its name to a similar fable. _Henderson's Hist. of Brazil_, p. 453; _Southey's Hist. of Brazil_, vol. i. p. 112; _M'Culloh's Researches concerning America_, pp. 407, 408; and _Journal of Geog. Soc._ vol. xv. p. 65, for an account of the wide diffusion of this error.

[444] Sharon Turner (_Hist. of England_, vol. iv. p. 30) calls him 'the Strabo of the Baltic;' and it was from him that most of the geographers in the Middle Ages derived their knowledge of the North.

[445] 'It was called in Finnish _Turku_, from the Swedish word _torg_, which signifies a market-place. The sound of this name misled Adam of Bremen into the belief that there were Turks in Finland.' _Cooley's Hist. of Maritime and Inland Discovery_, London, 1830, vol. i. p. 211.

To these illustrations many others might be added, showing how mere names deceived the early historians, and gave rise to relations which were entirely false, and might have been rectified on the spot; but which, owing to the art of writing, were carried into distant countries, and thus placed beyond the reach of contradiction. Of such cases, one more may be mentioned, as it concerns the history of England. Richard I., the most barbarous of our princes, was known to his contemporaries as the Lion; an appellation conferred upon him on account of his fearlessness, and the ferocity of his temper.[446] Hence it was said that he had the heart of a lion; and the title C[oe]ur de Lion not only became indissolubly connected with his name, but actually gave rise to a story, repeated by innumerable writers, according to which he slew a lion in single combat.[447] The name gave rise to the story; the story confirmed the name; and another fiction was added to that long series of falsehoods of which history mainly consisted during the Middle Ages.

[446] The chronicler of his crusade says, that he was called Lion on account of his never pardoning an offence: 'Nihil injuriarum reliquit inultum: unde et unus (_i.e._ the King of France) dictus est Agnus a Griffonibus, alter Leonis nomen accepit.' _Chronicon Ricardi Divisiensis de Rebus gestis Ricardi Primi_, edit. Stevenson, Lond. 1838, p. 18. Some of the Egyptian kings received the name of Lion 'from their heroic exploits.' _Vyse on the Pyramids_, vol. iii. p. 116.

[447] See Price's learned Preface to _Warton's History of English Poetry_, vol. i. p. 21; and on the similar story of Henry the Lion, see _Maury_, _Légendes du Moyen Age_, p. 160. Compare the account of Duke Godfrey's conflict with a bear, in _Matthæi Paris Historia Major_, p. 29, Lond. 1684, folio. I should not be surprised if the story of Alexander and the Lion (_Thirlwall's History of Greece_, vol. vi. p. 305) were equally fabulous.

The corruptions of history, thus naturally brought about by the mere introduction of letters, were, in Europe, aided by an additional cause. With the art of writing, there was, in most cases, also communicated a knowledge of Christianity; and the new religion not only destroyed many of the Pagan traditions, but falsified the remainder, by amalgamating them with monastic legends. The extent to which this was carried would form a curious subject for inquiry; but one or two instances of it will perhaps be sufficient to satisfy the generality of readers.

Of the earliest state of the great Northern nations we have little positive evidence; but several of the lays in which the Scandinavian poets related the feats of their ancestors, or of their contemporaries, are still preserved; and, notwithstanding their subsequent corruption, it is admitted by the most competent judges that they embody real and historical events. But in the ninth and tenth centuries, Christian missionaries found their way across the Baltic, and introduced a knowledge of their religion among the inhabitants of Northern Europe.[448] Scarcely was this effected, when the sources of history began to be poisoned. At the end of the eleventh century, Sæmund Sigfussen, a Christian priest, gathered the popular, and hitherto unwritten, histories of the North into what is called the Elder Edda; and he was satisfied with adding to his compilation the corrective of a Christian hymn.[449] A hundred years later, there was made another collection of the native histories; but the principle which I have mentioned, having had a longer time to operate, now displayed its effects still more clearly. In this second collection, which is known by the name of the Younger Edda, there is an agreeable mixture of Greek, Jewish, and Christian fables; and, for the first time in the Scandinavian annals, we meet with the widely diffused fiction of a Trojan descent.[450]

[448] The first missionary was Ebbo, about the year 822. He was followed by Anschar, who afterwards pushed his enterprise as far as Sweden. The progress was, however, slow; and it was not till the latter half of the 11th century that Christianity was established firmly in the North. See _Neander's Hist. of the Church_, vol. v. pp. 373, 374, 379, 380, 400-402; _Mosheim's Eccles. Hist._ vol. i. pp. 188, 215, 216; _Barry's Hist. of the Orkney Islands_, p. 125. It is often supposed that some of the Danes in Ireland were Christians as early as the reign of Ivar I.; but this is a mistake, into which Ledwich fell by relying on a coin, which in reality refers to Ivar II. _Petrie's Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland_, p. 225; and _Ledwich's Antiquities of Ireland_, p. 159.

[449] Mr. Wheaton (_History of Northmen_, p. 60) says, that Sæmund 'merely added one song of his own composition, of a moral and Christian religious tendency; so as thereby to consecrate and leaven, as it were, the whole mass of Paganism.'

[450] _Wheaton's Hist. of the Northmen_, pp. 89, 90; _Mallet's Northern Antiquities_, pp. 377, 378, 485; _Schlegel's Lectures on the History of Literature_, vol. i. p. 265. Indeed, these interpolations are so numerous, that the earlier German antiquaries believed the Edda to be a forgery by the northern monks,--a paradox which Müller refuted more than forty years ago. _Note in Wheaton_, p. 61. Compare _Palgrave's English Commonwealth, Anglo-Saxon Period_, vol. i. p. 135.

If, by way of further illustration, we turn to other parts of the world, we shall find a series of facts confirming this view. We shall find that, in those countries where there has been no change of religion, history is more trustworthy and connected than in those countries where such a change has taken place. In India, Brahmanism, which is still supreme, was established at so early a period, that its origin is lost in the remotest antiquity.[451] The consequence is, that the native annals have never been corrupted by any new superstition; and the Hindus are possessed of historic traditions more ancient than can be found among any other Asiatic people.[452] In the same way, the Chinese have for upwards of 2,000 years preserved the religion of Fo, which is a form of Buddhism.[453] In China, therefore, though the civilization has never been equal to that of India, there is a history, not, indeed, as old as the natives would wish us to believe, but still stretching back to several centuries before the Christian era, from whence it has been brought down to our own times in an uninterrupted succession.[454] On the other hand, the Persians, whose intellectual development was certainly superior to that of the Chinese, are nevertheless without any authentic information respecting the early transactions of their ancient monarchy.[455] For this I can see no possible reason, except the fact, that Persia, soon after the promulgation of the Koran, was conquered by the Mohammedans, who completely subverted the Parsee religion, and thus interrupted the stream of the national traditions.[456] Hence it is that, putting aside the myths of the Zendavesta, we have no native authorities for Persian history of any value, until the appearance, in the eleventh century, of the Shah Nameh; in which, however, Ferdousi has mingled the miraculous relations of those two religions by which his country had been successively subjected.[457] The result is, that if it were not for the various discoveries which have been made, of monuments, inscriptions, and coins, we should be compelled to rely on the scanty and inaccurate details in the Greek writers for our knowledge of the history of one of the most important of the Asiatic monarchies.[458]

[451] As is evident from the conflicting statements made by the best orientalists, each of whom has some favourite hypothesis of his own respecting its origin. It is enough to say, that we have no account of India existing without Brahmanism; and as to its real history, nothing can be understood, until more steps have been taken towards generalizing the laws which regulate the growth of religious opinions.

[452] Dr. Prichard (_Physical Hist. of Mankind_, vol. iv. pp. 101-105) thinks that the Hindus have a history beginning B.C. 1391. Compare _Works of Sir W. Jones_, vol. i. pp. 311, 312. Mr. Wilson says, that even the genealogies in the Puranas are, 'in all probability, much more authentic than has been sometimes supposed.' Wilson's note in _Mill's Hist. of India_, vol. i. pp. 161, 162. See also his preface to the _Vishnu Purana_, p. lxv.; and _Asiatic Researches_, vol. v. p. 244.

[453] _Journal of Asiatic Soc._ vol. vi. p. 251; _Herder_, _Ideen zur Geschichte_, vol. iv. p. 70; _Works of Sir W. Jones_, vol. i. p. 104. I learn from a note in _Erman's Siberia_, vol. ii. p. 306, that one of the missionaries gravely suggests that 'Buddhism originated in the errors of the Manichæans, and is therefore but an imitation of Christianity.'

[454] M. Bunsen says, that the Chinese have 'a regular chronology, extending back 3,000 years B.C.' _Bunsen's Egypt_, vol. i. p. 240. See also _Humboldt's Cosmos_, vol. ii. p. 475, vol. iv. p. 455; _Renouard_, _Hist. de la Médecine_, vol. i. pp. 47, 48; and the statements of Klaproth and Rémusat, in _Prichard's Physical Hist._ vol. iv. pp. 476, 477. The superior exactness of the Chinese annals is sometimes ascribed to their early knowledge of printing, with which they claim to have been acquainted in B.C. 1100. _Meidinger's Essay_, in _Journal of Statistical Society_, vol. iii. p. 163. But the fact is, that printing was unknown in China till the ninth or tenth century after Christ, and moveable types were not invented before 1041. _Humboldt's Cosmos_, vol. ii. p. 623; _Transac. of Asiatic Society_, vol. i. p. 7; _Journal Asiatique_, vol. i. p. 137, Paris, 1822; _Davis's Chinese_, vol. i. pp. 174, 178, vol. iii. p. 1. There are some interesting papers on the early history of China in _Journal of Asiat. Soc._ vol. i. pp. 57-86, 213-222, vol. ii. pp. 166-171, 276-287.

[455] 'From the death of Alexander (323 B.C.) to the reign of Ardeshir Babegan (Artaxerxes), the founder of the Sassanian dynasty (200 A.D.), a period of more than five centuries, is almost a blank in the Persian history.' _Troyer's Preliminary Discourse to the Dabistan_, 8vo. 1843, vol. i. pp. lv. lvi. See to the same effect _Erskine on the Zend-Avesta_, in _Transac. of Soc. of Bombay_, vol. ii. pp. 303-305; and _Malcolm's Hist. of Persia_, vol. i. p. 68. The ancient Persian traditions are said to have been Pehlvi; _Malcolm_, vol. i. pp. 501-505; but if so, they have all perished, p. 555: compare Rawlinson's note in _Journal of Geog. Soc._ vol. x. p. 82.

[456] On the antagonism between Mohammedanism and the old Persian history, see a note in _Grote's Hist. of Greece_, vol. i. p. 623. Even at present, or, at all events, during this century, the best education in Persia consisted in learning the elements of Arabic grammar, 'logic, jurisprudence, the traditions of their prophet, and the commentaries on the Koran.' _Vans Kennedy on Persian Literature_, in _Transac. of Bombay Society_, vol. ii. p. 62. In the same way the Mohammedans neglected the old history of India, and would, no doubt, have destroyed or corrupted it; but they never had anything like the hold of India that they had of Persia, and, above all, they were unable to displace the native religion. However, their influence, so far as it went, was unfavourable; and Mr. Elphinstone (_Hist. of India_, p. 468) says, that till the sixteenth century there was no instance of a Mussulman carefully studying Hindu literature.

[457] On the Shah Nameh, see _Works of Sir W. Jones_, vol. iv. pp. 544, 545, vol. v. p. 594; _Mill's Hist. of India_, vol. ii. pp. 64, 65; _Journal of Asiatic Society_, vol. iv. p. 225. It is supposed by a very high authority that the Persian cuneiform inscriptions 'will enable us, in the end, to introduce something like chronological accuracy and order into the myths and traditions embodied in the Shah Nameh.' _Rawlinson on the Inscriptions of Assyria and Babylonia_, in _Journal of Asiat. Soc._ vol. xii. p. 446.

[458] On the ignorance of the Greeks respecting Persian history, see Vans Kennedy, in _Transac. of Soc. of Bombay_, vol. ii. pp. 119, 127-129, 136. Indeed, this learned writer says (p. 138) he is 'inclined to suspect that no Greek author ever derived his information from any native of Persia Proper, that is, of the country to the east of the Euphrates.' See also on the perplexities in Persian chronology, _Grote's Hist. of Greece_, vol. vi. p. 496, vol. ix. p. 3, vol. x. p. 405; and _Donaldson's New Cratylus_, 1839, p. 87 note. As to the foolish stories which the Greeks relate respecting Achæmenes, compare _Malcolm's Hist. of Persia_, vol. i. p. 18, with _Heeren's Asiatic Nations_, vol. i. p. 243. Even Herodotus, who is invaluable in regard to Egypt, is not to be relied upon for Persia; as was noticed long ago by Sir W. Jones, in the preface to his _Nader Shah_ (_Jones's Works_, vol. v. p. 540), and is partly admitted by Mr. Mure (_History of the Literature of Ancient Greece_, vol. iv. p. 338, 8vo. 1853).

Even among more barbarous nations, we see the same principle at work. The Malayo-Polynesian race is well known to ethnologists, as covering an immense series of islands, extending from Madagascar to within 2,000 miles of the western coast of America.[459] The religion of these widely scattered people was originally Polytheism, of which the purest forms were long preserved in the Philippine Islands.[460] But in the fifteenth century, many of the Polynesian nations were converted to Mohammedanism;[461] and this was followed by a process precisely the same as that which I have pointed out in other countries. The new religion, by changing the current of the national thoughts, corrupted the purity of the national history. Of all the islands in the Indian Archipelago, Java was the one which reached the highest civilization.[462] Now, however, the Javanese have not only lost their historical traditions, but even those lists of their kings which are extant are interpolated with the names of Mohammedan saints.[463] On the other hand, we find that in the adjacent island of Bali, where the old religion is still preserved,[464] the legends of Java are remembered and cherished by the people.[465]

[459] That is, to Easter Island, which appears to be its furthest boundary (_Prichard's Phys. Hist._ vol. v. p. 6); and of which there is a good account in _Beechey's Voyage to the Pacific_, vol. i. pp. 43-58, and a notice in _Jour. of Geog. Society_, vol. i. p. 195. The language of Easter Island has been long known to be Malayo-Polynesian; for it was understood by a native of the Society Islands, who accompanied Cook (_Cook's Voyages_, vol. iii. pp. 294, 308; and _Prichard_, vol. v. p. 147: compare _Marsden's History of Sumatra_, p. 164). Ethnologists have not usually paid sufficient honour to this great navigator, who was the first to remark the similarity between the different languages in Polynesia proper. _Cook's Voyages_, vol. ii. pp. 60, 61, vol. iii. pp. 230, 280, 290, vol. iv. p. 305, vol. vi. p. 230, vol. vii. p. 115. As to Madagascar being the western limit of this vast race of people, see _Asiatic Researches_, vol. iv. p. 222; _Reports on Ethnology by Brit. Assoc. for 1847_, pp. 154, 216, 250; and _Ellis's Hist. of Madagascar_, vol. i. p. 133.

[460] Also the seat of the Tagala language; which, according to William Humboldt, is the most perfect of all the forms of the Malayo-Polynesian. _Prichard's Physical Hist._ vol. v. pp. 36, 51, 52.

[461] _Marsden's History of Sumatra_, p. 281. De Thou (_Hist. Univ._ vol. xiii. p. 59) supposes that the Javanese did not become Mohammedans till late in the sixteenth century; but it is now known that their conversion took place at least a hundred years earlier, the old religion being finally abolished in 1478. See _Crawfurd's Hist. of the Indian Archipelago_, vol. ii. p. 312; _Low's Sarawak_, p. 96; and _Raffles' Hist. of Java_, vol. i. pp. 309, 349, vol. ii. pp. 1, 66, 254. The doctrines of Mohammed spread quickly; and the Malay pilgrims enjoy the reputation, in modern times, of being among the most scrupulously religious of those who go to the Hadj. _Burckhardt's Arabia_, vol. ii. pp. 96, 97.

[462] The Javanese civilization is examined at great length by William Humboldt, in his celebrated work, _Ueber die Kawi Sprache_, Berlin, 1836. From the evidence supplied by some early Chinese writings, which have only recently been published, there are good grounds for believing that the Indian Colonies were established in Java in the first century after Christ. See _Wilson on the Foe Kue Ki_, in _Journal of Asiat. Soc._ vol. v. p. 137; compare vol. vi. p. 320.

[463] _Crawfurd's Hist. of the Indian Archipelago_, vol. ii. p. 297. Compare with this the exactness with which, even in the island of Celebes, the dates were preserved 'before the introduction of Mahomedanism.' _Crawfurd_, vol. i. p. 306. For similar Footnote: instances of royal genealogies being obscured by the introduction into them of the names of gods, see _Kemble's Saxons in England_, vol. i. pp. 27, 335.

[464] _Asiatic Researches_, vol. x. p. 191, vol. xiii. p. 128. In the Appendix to _Raffles' Hist. of Java_, vol. ii. p. cxlii., it is said, that 'in Bali not more than one in two hundred, if so many, are Mahomedans.' See also p. 65, and vol. i. p. 530.

[465] Indeed, the Javanese appear to have no other means of acquiring the old Kawi traditions than by learning them from natives of Bali. See note to an Essay on the Island of Bali, in _Asiatic Researches_, vol. xiii. p. 162, Calcutta, 1820, 4to. Sir Stamford Raffles (_Hist. of Java_, vol. i. p. 400) says, 'It is chiefly to Bali that we must look for illustrations of the ancient state of the Javans.' See also p. 414.

It would be useless to adduce further evidence respecting the manner in which, among an imperfectly civilized people, the establishment of a new religion will always affect the accuracy of their early history. I need only observe, that in this way the Christian priests have obscured the annals of every European people they converted, and have destroyed or corrupted the traditions of the Gauls,[466] of the Welsh, of the Irish,[467] of the Anglo-Saxons,[468] of the Sclavonic nations,[469] of the Finns,[470] and even of the Icelanders.[471]

[466] Respecting the corruption of Druidical traditions in Gaul by Christian priests, see _Villemarqué_, _Chants Populaires de la Bretagne_, Paris, 1846, vol. i. pp. xviii. xix.

[467] The injury done to the traditions handed down by Welsh and Irish bards, is noticed in Dr. Prichard's valuable work, _Physical Hist. of Mankind_, vol. iii. p. 184, 8vo, 1841. See also _Warton's Hist. of English Poetry_, vol. i. p. xxxvii. note.

[468] See the remarks on Beowulf, in _Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit._ vol. i. p. 7, 8vo, 1842. See also pp. 13, 14: and compare _Kemble's Saxons in England_, vol. i. p. 331.

[469] _Talvi's Language and Literature of the Slavic Nations_, 8vo, 1850, p. 231. The Pagan songs of the Slovaks, in the north-west of Hungary, were for a time preserved; but even they are now lost. _Talvi_, p. 216.

[470] The monkish chroniclers neglected the old Finnish traditions; and allowing them to perish, preferred the inventions of Saxo and Johannes Magnus. _Prichard's Physical Hist._ vol. iii. pp. 284, 285.

[471] For an instance in which the monks have falsified the old Icelandic traditions, see Mr. Keightley's learned book on _Fairy Mythology_, 8vo, 1850, p. 159.

Besides all this, there occurred other circumstances tending in the same direction. Owing to events which I shall hereafter explain, the literature of Europe, shortly before the final dissolution of the Roman Empire, fell entirely into the hands of the clergy, who were long venerated as the sole instructors of mankind. For several centuries, it was extremely rare to meet with a layman who could read or write; and of course it was still rarer to meet with one able to compose a work. Literature, being thus monopolized by a single class, assumed the peculiarities natural to its new masters.[472] And as the clergy, taken as a body, have always looked on it as their business to enforce belief, rather than encourage inquiry, it is no wonder if they displayed in their writings the spirit incidental to the habits of their profession. Hence, as I have already observed, literature, during many ages, instead of benefiting society, injured it, by increasing credulity, and thus stopping the progress of knowledge. Indeed, the aptitude for falsehood became so great, that there was nothing men were unwilling to believe. Nothing came amiss to their greedy and credulous ears. Histories of omens, prodigies, apparitions, strange portents, monstrous appearances in the heavens, the wildest and most incoherent absurdities, were repeated from mouth to mouth, and copied from book to book, with as much care as if they were the choicest treasures of human wisdom.[473] That Europe should ever have emerged from such a state, is the most decisive proof of the extraordinary energy of Man, since we cannot even conceive a condition of society more unfavourable to his progress. But it is evident, that until the emancipation was effected, the credulity and looseness of thought which were universal, unfitted men for habits of investigation, and made it impossible for them to engage in a successful study of past affairs, or even record with accuracy what was taking place around them.[474]

[472] The Rev. Mr. Dowling, who looks back with great regret to this happy period, says, 'Writers were almost universally ecclesiastics. Literature was scarcely anything but a religious exercise; for everything that was studied, was studied with a reference to religion. The men, therefore, who wrote history, wrote ecclesiastical history.' _Dowling's Introduction to the Critical Study of Ecclesiastical History_, 8vo, 1838, p. 56; a work of some talent, but chiefly interesting as a manifesto by an active party.

[473] Thus, for instance, a celebrated historian, who wrote at the end of the twelfth century says of the reign of William Rufus: 'Ejusdem regis tempore, ut ex parte supradictum est, in sole, luna, et stellis multa signa visa sunt, mare quoque littus persæpe egrediebatur, et homines et animalia submersit, villas et domos quamplures subvertit. In pago qui Barukeshire nominatur, ante occisionem regis sanguis de fonte tribus septimanis emanavit. Multis etiam Normannis diabolus in horribili specie se frequenter in silvis ostendens, plura cum eis de rege et Ranulfo, et quibusdam aliis locutus est. Nec mirum, nam illorum tempore ferè omnis legum siluit justitia, causisque justitiæ subpositis, sola in principibus imperabat pecunia.' _Rog. de Hoveden Annal. in Scriptores post Bedam_, p. 268. See also the same work, pp. 356-358; and compare _Matthæi Westmonast. Flores Historiarum_,