Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/296

 2n THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, ter of the nation. Female courage, however it may be ^^' raised by fanaticism, or confirmed by habit, can be only a faint and imperfect imitation of the manly valour that dis- tinguishes the age or country in which it may be found. Religion. The religious system of the Germans (if the wild opinions of savages can deserve that name) was dic- tated by their wants, their fears, and their ignorance ^. They adored the great visible objects and agents of nature, the sun and the moon, the fire and the earth ; together with those imaginary deities, who were sup- posed to preside over the most important occupations of human life. They were persuaded, that by some ridiculous arts of divination they could discover the will of the superior beings, and that human sacrifices were the most precious and acceptable ofl^ering to their altars. Some applause has been hastily bestowed on the sublime notion entertained by that people of the Deity, whom they neither confined within the walls of a temple, nor represented by any human figure ; but when we recollect, that the Germans were unskilled in architecture, and totally unacquainted with the art of sculpture, we shall readily assign the true reason of a scruple, which arose not so much from a superiority of reason, as from a want of ingenuity. The only temples in Germany were dark and ancient groves, consecrated by the reverence of succeeding generations. Their secret gloom, the imagined residence of an invisible power, by presenting no distinct object of fear or wor- ship, impressed the mind with a still deeper sense of religious horror '^; and the priests, rude and ilHterate as they were, had been taught by experience the use of every artifice that could preserve and fortify impres- sions so well suited to their own interest. 1 Tacitus has employed a few lines, and Cluverius one hundred and twenty- four pages, on this obscure subject. The former discovers in Ger- many the gods of Greece and Rome. The latter is positive, that, under the emblems of the sun, the moon, and the fire, his pious ancestors worshipped the Trinity in unity. «■ The sacred wood, described with such sublime horror by Lucan, was in the neighbourhood of Marseilles ; but there were many of the same kind in Germany.