A history of German literature as determined by social forces

Front matter

CORNELL

IJ;NIVERSITY

LIBRARY

Preface

The following attempt to define what seem to me the essential features of German literature is made from the point of view of the student of civilization rather than from that of the linguistic scholar or the literary critic.

My own university studies under such men as Giesebrecht, Brunn, Erwin Rohde, Paulsen; my subsequent work under Georg Waitz; and the part taken by me in editing for the Monumenta Germanics Historica the controversial writings of the eleventh and twelfth centuries — all this has naturally led me to look at the substance rather than the form of literature, to see in literature primarily the working of popular forces, to consider it chiefly as an expression of national culture.

To this personal bias there was added the consideration that, while there is no lack of works dealing with the history of German literature from the linguistic or the literary point of view, there seems to be a decided need of a book which, based upon an original study of the sources, should give a coherent account of the great intellectual movements of German life as expressed in literature; which should point out the mutual relation of action and reaction between these movements and the social and political condition of the masses from which they sprang or which they affected;

VI PREFACE,

which, in short, should trace the history of the German people in the works of its thinkers and poets.

No one could feel more clearly than I how far the present essay falls short of achieving what is implied in the foregoing remarks. All that I wish to claim is that this is an honest attempt, to analyze the social, religious, and moral forces which determined the growth of German literature as a whole. And all that I can hope is that the very distance which separates me from the country of my birth may have helped me to see at least some of its intellectual mountain-peaks as they tower up in clear outline above the dark stretch of the hills and the lowlands.

As to the fundamental principles which have shaped my conception of German literature, I may here say this. It seems to me that all literary development is determined by the incessant conflict of two elemental human tendencies: the tendency toward personal freedom and the tendency toward collective organization. The former leads to the observation and representation of whatever is striking, genuine, individual; in short, to realism. The latter leads to the observation and representation of whatever is beautiful, significant, universal; in short, to idealism. The individualistic tendency, if unchecked, may lead either to a vulgar naturalism or to a fantastic mysticism. The collectivistic tendency, if unchecked, may lead to an empty conventionalism. Those ages and those men in whom the individualistic and the collectivistic tendencies are evenly balanced, produce the works of literature which are truly great.

Should this book reach the shores of Germany, let it greet from me all the dear old places and faces; especially three friends and associates of youthful days, the thought of whom was constantly with me while writing it: Friedrich Renter, professor at the Altona ' Christianeum '; Friedrich Paulsen, professor at the University of Berlin; Ferdinand Tonnies, professor at the University of Kiel. I should be

PREFACE. VU

happy if they were to find here a not altogether unworthy expression of the ideals which were the bond of our friendship in years gone by.

To my American friends and colleagues, Ephraim Emerton and G. L. Kittredge, I am indebted for a careful revision of the language of the book. But in spite of this kind service, for which I wish here to express my sincerest gratitude, its style will easily betray the foreigner.

KuNO Francke.

Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A., December i, 1895.

Preface To The Second Edition

In sending the second edition of this book to press, I cannot withhold the wish that it might have been possible for me to make a more extensive use of the suggestions offered in so friendly a spirit by not a few of my reviewers. But inasmuch as some at least of these changes would involve the rewriting of considerable portions of the book, I shall have to leave this task to some future opportunity, A few slight changes, however, have been made and typographical errors have been corrected.

K. F.

January 3, 1897.

In the third edition, also, only a few minor corrections

have been made.

K. F.

NOTE TO THE FOURTH EDITION.

At the suggestion of my publishers, the fourth American edition of " Social Forces in German Literature " appears under a different title. I have assented to this change partly in order to secure uniformity of title with the first English edition which is to be brought out simultaneously by Messrs. George Bell & Sons, partly because the present title indicates more clearly than the former the fact that this book attempts to give a comprehensive account of the development of German literature as a whole.

In substance the only change made in this edition is a somewhat fuller treatment of the contemporary German drama. Part of the new matter is reprinted — with the kind consent of Messrs. Dodd, Mead & Co. — from my " Glimpses of Modern German Culture."

K.F.

TABLE OF CONTENT&

Introduction

PAGE

The Epochs of German Culture 3

CHAPTER I. THE PERIOD OF THE MIGRATIONS. (From the Fifth to the Ninth Century.)

The disintegrating effect of the Migrations upon public morality. — The Germanic Epic. The historical and mythical elements of the different sagas. — Leading characters of the Dietrich-, Wolfdietrich-, Walthari-, Gudrun-, and Nibelung-sagas 7

CHAPTER II. THE GROWTH OF MEDIjEVAL HIERARCHY AND FEUDALISM

(From the Ninth to the Middle of the Twelfth Century.)

The conflict, in mediaeval life, between church and state; and the corresponding conflict, in mediaeval literature, between the spiritual and the worldly. — Heljand. Otfrid's Harmony of the Gospels. — Liudprand of Cremona. Ecbasis Captivi. Rosvitha. Ruodlieb. Konig Rother. Herzog Ernst. Rolandslied. Alexanderlied 34

Chapter III. The Height Of Chivalric Culture

(From the Middle of the Twelfth to the Middle of the Thirteenth Century.)

The approach, in the aristocratic society of the Hohenstaufen epoch, toward a reconciliation between the spiritual and

ix

X TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGB

the worldly. — Minnesong: Walther von der Vogelweide. — Revival of the ancient Germanic Epic : Nibelungenlied."' Gudrun.— The Court Epic: Hartmann von Aue. Wolframvon Eschenbach. Gottfried von Strassburg 63

Chapter IV. The Rise Of The Middle Classes

(From the Middle of the Thirteenth to the Sixteenth Century.)

Growth of territorial sovereignty and municipal independence.— The beginnings of modern individualism. — The Mystic Movement: Berthold von Regensburg. Eckhart. Suso. Tauler. — The Volkslied. — Didactic and satirical narrative: Der Pfaffe Amis. Meier Helmbrecht. Hugo von Trimberg's Renner. Boner's Edelstein. Sebastian Brant. Reinkede Vos. Thomas Murner. Till Eulenspiegel. — The religious drama: Ludus de Antichristo. Wiener Osterspiel. Alsfelder Passionsspiel. Hessisches Weihnachtspiel. Redentiner Osterspiel. — The Fastnachtspiel 100

Chapter V. The Era Of The Reform A Tion

(The Sixteenth Century.)

The democratic movement of the beginning of the sixteenth century. — Humanism: Erasmus's Moriae Encomium and Enchiridion Militis Christiani. Hutten's Dialogues and other anti-Roman writings. — Luther's revolutionary pamphlets of 1520. — The turning-point of the Reformation. Luther's return to authority. — The effect of the reaction upon literature. Hans Sachs. Johann Fischart. The Faust-book of 1587 joq

Chapter VI. The Struggle Against Absolutism And The Beginnings Of Modern Life

(The Seventeenth and the First Half of the Eighteenth Century.)

I. The Recovery FROM THE Thirty Years' War. The growth

of Prussia.— Pietism and Rationalism. Leibniz 172

TABLE OF CONTENTS. XI

PAG1£

2- Pseudo-classicism. Opitz. Gottsched. The literature of gallantry 178

3. The Individualistic Undercurrent of Seventeenth-

century Literature. Religious poetry: Fleming. Gerhardt. Spec. ScheiHer. — Satire and novel: Logau. Moscherosch. Grimmelshausen. — Comedy: Gryphius. Weise 187

4. The Sentimentalism and Rationalism of the First

Half of the Eighteenth Century. Giinther. Brookes. Haller. The Anacreonticists. Gellert 213

Chapter VII. The Age Of Frederick The Grea T And The Height

OF ENLIGHTENMENT.

(The Third Quarter of the Eighteenth Century.)

[. The Enlightened Absolutism. The conflict between Frederick's intellectual convictions and political methods. Its effect on modern German culture 228

2. Klopstock. His spirituality. His poetic quality as ex-

emplified in the Messias. His patriotism. His cosmopolitanism 233

3. Wieland. His ideal of culture as shown in Agathon. His

position as literary interpreter of the rationalistic philosophy • 251

4. Lessing. The destruction of Gottschedianism. — The re-

discovery of classic antiquity: Winckelmann. Laokoon. Hamburgische Dramaturgic. — The creation of a national drama: Tellheim and Odoardo as its types. — The positive and the rational religion: Anti-Goeze. Nathan. Die Erziehung des Menschengeschlechts. — Frederick's De la Littgrature Allemande 265

Chapter VIII. The Age Of The Revolution And The Climax Op

INDIVIDUA LISM.

(The End of the Eighteenth and the Beginnings of the Nineteenth Century.)

I. The Storm-and-Stress Movement. Its revolutionary tendencies: Lenz. H. L. Wagner. Klinger. Schubart. Maler Mailer. Fr. Stolberg/ BiUgor. Heinse. — Conxii TABLE OF CONTENTS.

servative influences: Justus Moeser.— The outcome of the movement 3°^

II. The Classics of Individualism.

1. Herder. The idea of organic development. Literature as an index of national culture. The apotheosis of humanity 3i°

2. Kant. The Pure Reason. The Moral Law. Latent Pantheism.— The new Humanism: Wilhelm von Humboldt 328

3. Goethe and Schiller. Their part in the Storm-and-Stress movement: Goetz. Werther. Faust. Egmont. Die RSuber. Kabale und Liebe. Don Carlos. — Goethe's maturity: Lyrics and Ballads. Iphigenie. Tasso. Wilhelm Meister. Hermann und Dorothea. The second conception of Faust. — Schiller's maturity: ^Esthetic prose writings. Lyrics and ballads. Wallenstein. Maria Stuart. Jungfrau von Orleans. Braut von Messina. Tell. — Goethe and Schiller as public characters 335

Chapter IX

THE ERA OF NATIONAL RECONSTRUCTION AND THE GROWTH OF THE COLLECTIVISTIC IDEAL.

(Prom the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century to the Revolution of 1S48.)

I. The Transition from Classicism to Romanticism. Jean

Paul. His sense of the unity of life. His greatness as landscape-painter; as genre-painter; as humorist. His excessive individualism. His capriciousness. His lack of form 399

II. The Disintegration OF Classicism. Early Romanticism a. caricature of Classicism. Tieck's William Lovell. Friedrich Schlegel's Lucinde. Novalis 412

III. The Regeneration of the German People and the Wars of Liberation.

1. Pantheism and Socialism. Schleiermacher's Reden ttber die Religion and Monologen. Fichte's Grundzflge des gegenwartigen Zeitalters and Reden an die deutsche Nation 428

2. The Renaissance of the German Past. Holderlin. Wackenroder. Novalis's Geistliche Lieder. Tieck and his

TABLE OF CONTPNTS. XIU

PAGE

followers. August Wilhelm Schlegel. Des Knaben

Wunderhorn. GOrres. The brothers Grimm 444

3, The New Poetry and the National Uprising, Kleist: Der zerbrochene Krug. Penthesilea. Kathchen von Heilbronn. Kohlhaas. Hermannsschlacht. Katechismus der Deutschen. Prinz von Homburg. — Uhland. — The

war of 1813. KSrner. Arndt 467

IV. The Age of the Restoration.

1. The Effect of the Political Reaction upon Literature. Grillparzer. Rilckert. Schopenhauer. Lenau. Platen. Immermann. BSrne. Heine 495

2. The Victory of Liberalism. Goethe's old age. Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre and the Second Part of Faust. Hegel. Rechtsphilosophie and Philosophic der Geschichte. The development from 1830 to the Revolution 0(1848 ^ 527

Epilogue

RiCHAKD Wagner. The Contemporary Drama* 548

Index 581

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.

GdgPh, = Grundriss der germanischen Philologie, herausgegeben von H. Paul. Strassburg, 1891-93.

GG. = K. Goedeke, Grundriss zur Geschichte der deutschen

Dichtung. Zweite Aufl., Hannover (Dresden), 1884-91.

MSD. 5= Milllenhoff und Scherer, Denkmaler deutscher Poesie und Prosa aus dem 8.-I2. Jahrhundert. Dritte Aufl., Berlin, 1892.

DNL. s= Deutsche National-Litteratur, herausgegeben von Joseph Kurschner. Berlin und Stuttgart.

NddLw. = Neudrucke deutscher Litteraturwerke des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts, herausgegeben von W. Braune. Halle, 1882 £f.

DLD. = Deutsche Litteraturdenkmale des iB. (und 19.) Jahrhunderts, herausgegeben von B. Seuffert (und A. Sauer). Heilbronn (Stuttgart), 1882 ff.

xiv

INTRODUCTION.

THE EPOCHS OF GERMAN CULTURE.

The fundamental conception which underlies the following account of the development of German literature is that of a continual struggle between individualistic and collectivistic tendencies, between man and society, between personality and tradition, between liberty and unity, between cosmopolitanism and nationality, — a struggle which maybe said to be the prime motive power of all human progress.

The first appearance of Germanic tribes in the foreground of European history, the influx of the Northern barbarians into the decaying civilization of the Roman empire, is marked by a dissolution of all social bonds. Severed from their native soil, thrust into a world in which their ancestral faith, customs, institutions have no authority, the Teutons of the era of the Migrations experience for the first time on a grand scale the conflict between universal law and individual passion. The Germanic epic with its colossal types of heroic devotion, greed, and guilt, is the poetic embodiment of this tragic conflict.

Out of the bloody tumult of the Migration epoch there rise gradually, from the ninth century on, the outlines of a new social order. The Carolingian monarchy, a gigantic attempt to unite the whole continent under Germanic rule, soon gives way to more limited and more natural political combinations; and by the middle of the tenth century we see for the first time a distinctly German state holding its place among, or rather above, a variety of

Other nationalities. At the same time, the papacy, as the representative both of the Christian ideal of cosmopolitanism and of the Roman claim to world-dominion, extends its centralizing influence over the whole Occident, thus creating a new international bond of spiritual relationship. In the fierce and prolonged struggles which, with alternating success, are waged between empire and papacy, the intellectual life of feudal society reaches its first climax. Under the influence of all these contrasting tendencies there grows up a literature which, though controlled exclusively by ecclesiastics, oscillates for a long time between a drastic representation of every-day reality, and ideal images of the inner life; until about the middle of the twelfth century, simultaneously with the heightening of the whole national existence brought about by the crusades, attempts are made to depict human nature in its fulness.

The end of the twelfth century and the beginning of the thirteenth show mediaeval society at its height. The struggle between empire and papacy now assumes its grandest proportions and brings forth the most striking manifestations of collective consciousness. The aristocratic principles of chivalry have been fully established, and are accepted as the foundation of public life. Allegiance to the feudal lord, to the church, to the chosen lady; a decorous behaviour, courtliness of speech and bearing, valour, readiness for service, self-possession, gentleness, magnanimity, moderation; the whole galaxy of virtues suggested by the one word diu mdze (measure): — these are the duties magnified by an age whose social etiquette seems to bring back in a new form the Greek ideal of KaXoKaya-dia. In the Minnesong; in the rejuvenated and transformed Germanic epic of the Migration period; in the adaptation, through the medium of the French, of Celtic and Graeco-Roman epic traditions; the chivalric ideal receives its supreme poetic expression. At the same time, however, there is seen in the finest representatives of chivalric culture — in Walther von der Vogel-

THE EPOCHS OF GERMAN CULTURE. J

weide, Hartmann von Aue, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Gottfried von Strassburg — an instinctive reaching out beyond the limits of this culture, a divinatory anticipation of a new social order.

The beginnings of this new order make themselves felt about the middle of the thirteenth century. While the! empire falls a prey to sectional rivalries, while the church; shows signs of internal decay, while chivalry deteriorates both economically and morally, modern freedom finds its first! embodiment in the communal independence of the greaV commercial centres. Corporate interest, to be sure, remains even here the chief concern of life ; but by its side, or rather within it, there develops a spirit of self-assertion, of observation, of introspection, which ultimately must turn against the corporate consciousness and destroy it. In the directness and subjectivity of the Volkslied; in the sturdy realism of the religious drama; in the glorification by the Mystics of the inner union between God and the individual soul; in the proclamation by the Humanists of the sovereignty of the individual intellect — we see different phases of that revolt against mediaeval society which culminates in the religious Reformation.

The reformation begins with a grand movement for popular freedom; it ends by establishing more firmly fhan ever the absolutism, religious as well as political, of the territorial princes. It begins with the restoration of national unity and greatness in sight; it ends in the misery of the Thirty Years' War. By the middle of the seventeenth century, the fate of Germany seems to be sealed. Instead of the generous, broad, all-embracing mediaeval church there dominates in religious affairs a narrow, spiteful, inquisitorial sectarianism. Instead of the cultivated and public-spirited aristocracy of the Hohenstaufen period, there rules in political matters an ignorant, swaggering, depraved cavalierdom. The proud, stately, self-asserting burgher of the palmy days of the Hanse has been transformed into a timid, cowed, official-ridden subject. Literature is degraded into a plaything for idle courtiers. The German past is effaced. Society is atomized; public life is dead.

At this point there sets in a movement, the roots of which go back to Humanism and the Reformation, the climax of which is attained in the age of Kant and Goethe, ^the struggle for completeness of individuality. Debarred from active participation in public life, hemmed in by narrow surroundings, out of contact with the nation at large, Germany's best men now turn all the more eagerly to the cultivation of the inner self. Reorganization of the national body through regeneration of the individual mind — this now becomes the great task of literature. Pietism and Rationalism, Sentimentalism and Storm-and-Stress, Classicism and Romanticism, co-operate in this common task of building up and rounding out the inner life. And at the end of the eighteenth century, at the very time when the last remnants of the old German empire are swept away by the irresistible tide of the French Revolution, German culture has reached a height which is best described in the words of Goethe : " Germany as a whole is nothing, the individual German is everything."

And here, finally, begins the last great movement of German thought. Just as Wolfram von Eschenbach and his peers point beyond the conventions of chivalric society toward individual freedom and culture, so Goethe, Schiller, and their kin point beyond individual freedom and culture toward the common tasks of a new society. German literature of the nineteenth century, while by no means discarding the individualism of the eighteenth, finds its highest inspiration in this new, collectivistic ideal.

This is, in outline, the intellectual development which we shall now proceed to consider in detail, briefly up jto the time of the Thirty Years' War, somewhat more fully from the middle of the seventeenth to the middle of the nineteenth century.

Chapter I. The Period Of The Migrations

(From the Fifth to the Ninth Century.)

The period of the Migrations, introducing for the first time Germanic tribes as shapers of the destiny of Europe, forms the opening chapter in the political career _, of the German people. From their seats north mentsoftte and east of the Danube and the Rhine, where 'arioua tribes, we find the Germans settled at the time of Augustus, they move, tribe after tribe, southward and westward and gradually overrun the greater part of the Roman empire. First, to mention only a few striking dates, the Visigoths under their heroic leader Alaric (d. 410) sweep over the Balkan peninsula, down into Greece, and through all Italy, until they finally settle in Spain. They are succeeded by the Vandals, who with equally irresistible rapidity pass through middle and southwestern Europe, cross over to Africa (429), and from there, by frequent piratical expeditions, terrorize the coasts of the Mediterranean. About the same time the Burgundians leave their seats between the Oder and the Vistula and settle in the upper Rhine valley; until, defeated in aviolent conflict with Hunnish tribes (437), they abandon this new home also anV^move on towards the banks of the Rhone. Soon after {449), the Anglo-Saxons, hired by the Britons to assist them in their struggle against the Picts and Scots, swarm over the Channel and, having conquered the common foe, defeat and subdue their former allies. There follows the gigantic clash between the Roman world and the Hunnish invaders under Attila; and here again Germanic tribes play an important part.

Attila himself appears half Germanized, his name is Gothic,' at his court he receives Gothic singers, Ostrogoths and Thuringians form a part of his hosts; but against him also, on the side of the Romans, there are German armies, and the great battle of Chilons (451) is won mainly through the valour of the Visigoths. Shortly afterwards the domination of Italy passes definitely into German hands? In 476 Odoacer, a chieftain of the tribe of the Heruli, dethrones the powerless Roman emperor and assumes himself the title of patricius and king of Italy. This rule soon gives way to that of the noble tribe of the Ostrogoths, who under their great leader Theoderic and his successors not only extend their sway over the greater part of the peninsula, but also attempt to bring about a reconciliation between Germanic and Roman culture and institutions; until they, in turn, succumb to the armies of the Byzantine emperor (552). Now the Langobards rush into the place left free by the Ostrogoths, and for two centuries (568-774) subject the people of northern Italy to an iron military rule, without, however, leaving more than a sporadic impress on the character of the vanquished country. Finally, the Franks, by overthrowing the Roman rule in Gaul and by gradually forcing the other German tribes into their allegiance, become the dominating power in Europe, and, under Charles the Great, even restore the name and supremacy of the old Roman empire. With the foundation of the Carolingian monarchy the westward wanderings of the Germanic nations may be said to have come to an end; except for the Norsemen, whose Viking expeditions continued to infest the coast districts of northern and western Europe throughout the ninth century, terminating only with the establishmeHt of that Norman

' It is a diminutive form of Goth, atta = father. Cf. J. Grimm, Gesch. der d. Sfr* p. 189. 332. F. Kluge, NominaU StammHldungs- Uhre § S6.

colony on French soil (912) which was destined to be the foster-mother of English greatness.

The full extent of the extraordinary revolution which these centuries of uninterrupted warfare and tumult produced in the life and character of the German Effect of the

race it is hard for us to appreciate at this dis- JJigrations on

'^ '^ . the national

tant day. But if we were to express m a word character.

the main lines on which this revolution seems to have proceeded, we might say that the Teutons during the period of the Migrations conquered the world at the expense of themselves. In the time of Tacitus they were the most purely aboriginal and unadulterated nation of Europe; in the time of Charles the Great they are largely Romanized. Before they had crossed the Danube, they prayed to Wodan and Donar and Frija; having overthrown the Roman empire, they bow before the Crucified One. Once, in their native ♦woods, they were free men; now, on foreign soil, they obey kings. It would, of course, be a mistake to see in this self-surrender of Germanic tradition and faith a loss only.| Without the influx of Roman elements, without Christianity, without the feudal monarchy, the history of the Middle \ Ages would have been without its greatest glory and its greatest achievements. And even the very process of mastering the new form of life, the struggle between native and foreign conceptions and institutions, seems to have brought out in the character of the German invaders traits which otherwise might have remained hidden.

There can be little doubt that it was this very conflict which gave rise to those manifestations of a haughty race-

feelins which are so characteristic of the heroes of the Migration period. As early as the beginning of the third century an adventurous Gothic herdboy — the later emperor Maximinus — found his way into the camp of a Roman army and the presence of the Roman emperor. Far from being overawed by the august surroundings, he at once enters upon a wrestling-match with one of the imperial body-guards, and tries to outrun the horse of the emperor himself." When Alaric, before the walls of Rome, is met by a deputation of citizens, who, in order to frighten him from an attack on the city, point out to him the strength of the Roman army, he answers:' "Well, the thicker the grass the easier it is to mow." When the Vandal king Geiseric sets out on one of his piratic expeditions, and the pilot asks him whither he shall direct his course, the king replies:' "Wherever there are people with whom God is angry." Such stories, be they historically correct or not, show at least the spirit attributed to the leaders of the invaders by their own contemporaries; and something of the same spirit, of the same contempt for their enemies, of the same fatalistic belief in their own power and race-superiority, must have lived in the masses of the invaders also. Surely, nothing could be prouder and more defiant than the self-characterization of the Franks in the prologue of their national code, the Lex Salica:'' " The glorious people of the Franks, whose founder is God himself, brave in arms, firm in peace, wise in council, noble in body, radiant in health, excelling in beauty, daring, quick, hardened, . . . this is the people which shook the cruel yoke of the Romans from its neck."

Alongside of this proud self-consciousness of a people brimming over with animal vigour and youthful defiance we Oontaot with ^"^ ^" equally wonderful power of adaptation in higher ciTili- these German barbarians, and this faculty also is jation. stimulated by the contact with the higher ci\ Iliza-

tion of Rome and the deeper thought of the Christian church. The history of the world knows few more impressive figures than Theoderic, the noble Ostrogoth, who, after having es-

* Jordanes Geiica ed. Th. Mommsen XV, 84 ff.

* Zosimus 'llTTopia v^a. ed. Imm. Bekker V, 40.

* Procopius De bello Vandalico ed. W. Dindorf I, 5,

* Zmc Salica ed. Merclcel fifol. IV., p. 93,

THE PERIOD OF THE MIGRATIONS. II

tablished the dominion of his people in Italy with bloody hand, attempts to rule as a prince of peace over Teutons and Romans alike, protecting the weak, advancing the public prosperity, establishing a new code of law, surrounding himself with Roman statesmen, philosophers and artists, and at the same time preserving the proud, warlike traditions of his own people. No more venerable leader is seen at the beginning of any nation's history than Ulfilas, the bishop of the Visigoths (d. 381), who, a second Moses, guiding his people through war and strife, at the same time became, through his translation of the Bible, the creator of their written language. No purer and better men have ever lived than the Anglo-Saxon missionaries, such as Willibrord (d. c. 740) and Winifred (d. 755), who, only a few generations after their own nation had been won over to Christianity, set out to preach the gospel to their German brethren on the Rhine and the Weser : men sturdy in mind and body, single-minded, open-eyed, full of common sense, yet unflinchingly clinging to the spiritual, ready to lay down their lives at any moment in the service of the eternal.

And what hero of the world's history could be compared to the man whose towering figure stands at the end of this whole epoch : Charles the Great ? His attempt to weld the Germanic tribes into one ^^J.°°*''* mighty nation may have been premature; his methods of spreading the Christian religion may have been crude and barbaric; his efforts, both for the renewal of classic literature and art and for the preservation of ancient Germanic poetry, may have been temporary failures; yet it is not too much to say that his life-work was an anticipation of the course which German culture was to take during the next eight hundred years. His empire soon crumbled to pieces, but the idea of German unity and the memory of Germanic traditions remained alive, in spite of all that tended to obliterate them. The splendour of imperial

Aachen soon vanished, but the seeds from which was to spring the flower of mediaeval art had not been sown in vain. The fame of the imperial academy was soon forgotten, but the foundations had been laid for a system of public instruction which was to maintain throughout the Middle Ages the contact at least of the clergy with classic antiquity; and scholars like Paulus Diaconus, Einhard, and Alcuin, the emperor's most trusted advisers, must be counted among the forerunners of sixteenth-century Humanism.

One may be fully sensible of these hopeful and positive features of the time, and yet find the chief characteristic of Dl inte ation ^^ period of the Migrations in a complete upof public mo- rooting of public morality, a universal overturnraUty. j^g gf inherited conceptions of right and wrong.

Even if we consider the description of Germanic society by Tacitus, written about three hundred years before the Migrations began, as too idealistic and as, in some respects, overdrawn, there can be no doubt that the life of the Germans at that time was in a singular degree surrounded and guarded by a pure tradition, that the sanctity of blood-relationship, tlie holiness of the plighted word, the chastity of women, were with them ideals not yet to be defiled without popular chastisement. And nothing could more vividly express the very essence of Germanic life at that time than the famous word of the Roman historian," that with the Germans good customs were more powerful than elsewhere good laws. Now this whole fabric of popular custom is broken up. In the decades, nay, centuries of perpetual fighting and wandering that follow, tribal traditions are effaced, the contact with the native soil is lost, family ties are severed, religious beliefs are shattered. And now there appear, as the typical