Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/298

 S74 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, devoted with dire execrations to the gods of war and ^ ^' of thundery. In the faith of soldiers (and such were the Germans) cowardice is the most unpardonable of sins. A brave man was the worthy favourite of their martial deities ; the wretch who had lost his shield, was alike banished from the religious and the civil assem- blies of his countrymen. Some tribes of the north seem to have embraced the doctrine of transmigration^, others imagined a gross paradise of immortal drunken- ness^. All agreed, that a life spent in arms, and a glorious death in battle, were the best preparations for a happy futurity, either in this or in another world. The bards. The immortality so vainly promised by the priests was, in some degree, conferred by the bards. That singular order of men has most deservedly attracted the notice of all who have attempted to investigate the antiquities of the Celts, the Scandinavians, and the Germans. Their genius and character, as well as the reverence paid to their important office, have been suf- ficiently illustrated. But we cannot so easily express, or even conceive, the enthusiasm of arms and glory which they kindled in the breast of their audience. Among a polished people, a taste for poetry is rather an amusement of the fancy, than a passion of the soul. And yet, when in calm retirement we peruse the com- bats described by Homer or Tasso, we are insensibly seduced by the fiction, and feel a momentary glow of martial ardour. But how faint, how cold is the sensa- tion which a peaceful mind can receive from solitary €tudy ! It was in the hour of battle, or in the feast of victory, that the bards celebrated the glory of heroes of ancient days, the ancestors of those warlike chief- tains who listened with transport to their artless but y See an instance of this custom, Tacit. Annal. xiii. 57. 2 Caesar, Diodorus, and Lucan, seem to ascribe this doctrine to the Gauls ; but M. Pelloutier (Histoire des Celtes, 1. iii. c. 18.) labours to reduce their expressions to a more orthodox sense. in the curious version of that book, published by M. Mallet, in his intro- duction to the History of Denmark.
 * Concerning this gross but alluring doctrine of the Edda, see fable xx.