Under their conquests Europe wore a new
face, which, however rude, was infinitely preferable to that which it
had lately worn.
face, which, however rude, was infinitely preferable to that which it
had lately worn.
Camoes - Lusiades
[179] The Mediterranean.
[180] The Don. --_Ed. _
[181] The Sea of Azof. --_Ed. _
[182] Italy. In the year 409 the city of Rome was sacked, and Italy laid
desolate by Alaric, king of the Gothic tribes. In mentioning this
circumstance Camoens has not fallen into the common error of little
poets, who on every occasion bewail the outrage which the Goths and
Vandals did to the arts and sciences. A complaint founded on ignorance.
The Southern nations of Europe were sunk into the most contemptible
degeneracy. The sciences, with every branch of manly literature, were
almost unknown. For near two centuries no poet of note had adorned the
Roman empire. Those arts only, the abuse of which have a certain and
fatal tendency to enervate the mind, the arts of music and cookery, were
passionately cultivated in all the refinement of effeminate abuse. The
art of war was too laborious for their delicacy, and the generous warmth
of heroism and patriotism was incompatible with their effeminacy. On
these despicable Sybarites{*} the North poured her brave and hardy sons,
who, though ignorant of polite literature, were possessed of all the
manly virtues in a high degree.
Under their conquests Europe wore a new
face, which, however rude, was infinitely preferable to that which it
had lately worn. And, however ignorance may talk of their barbarity, it
is to them that England owes her constitution, which, as Montesquieu
observes, they brought from the woods of Saxony.
{*} _Sybaris_, a city in Magna Grecia (South Italy), whose inhabitants
were so effeminate, that they ordered all the cocks to be killed, that
they might not be disturbed by their early crowing.
[183] The river Don.
[184] This was the name of an extensive forest in Germany. It exists now
under different names, as the _Black Forest_, the Bohemian and the
Thuringian Forest, the Hartz, etc. --_Ed. _
[185] The Hellespont, or Straits of the Dardanelles. --_Ed. _
[186] The Balkan Mountains separating Greece and Macedonia from the
basin of the Danube, and extending from the Adriatic to the Black
Sea. --_Ed. _
[187] Now Constantinople.
[188] Julius Caesar, the conqueror of Gaul, or France. --_Ed. _
[189] _Faithless to the vows of lost Pyrene_, etc. --She was daughter to
Bebryx, a king of Spain, and concubine to Hercules.
