Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/467

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 445 gences, and the final progress of idolatry, flowed from the bale- ful fountain of the holy war. The active spirit of the Latins preyed on the vitals of their reason and religion ; and, if the ninth and tenth centuries were the times of darkness, the thir- teenth and fourteenth were the age of absurdity and fable. In the profession of Chi'istianity, in the cultivation of a fertile land, the northern conquerors of the Roman empire insensibly mingled with the provincials and rekindled the embers of the arts of antiquity. Their settlements about the age of Charle- magne had acquired some degree of order and stability, when they were overwhelmed by new swarms of invaders, the Nor- mans, Saracens, '^'^ and Hungarians, who replunged the western countries of Europe into their former state of anarchy and bar- barism. About the eleventh century, the second tempest had subsided by the expulsion or conversion of the enemies of Christendom : the tide of civilisation, which had so long ebbed, began to flow with a steady and accelei-ated course ; and a fairer prospect was opened to the hopes and efforts of the rising generations. Great was the success, and rapid the progress, during the two hundred years of the crusades ; and some philo- sophers have applauded the propitious influence of these holy wars, which appear to me to have checked, rather than for- warded, the maturity of Europe.^^ The lives and labours of millions, which were buried in the East, would have been more profitably employed in the improvement of their native country : the accumulated stock of industry and wealth would have over- flowed in navigation and trade ; and the Latins would have been enriched and enlightened by a pure and friendly corre- spondence with the climates of the East. In one respect I can indeed perceive the accidental operation of the crusades, not so much in producing a benefit, as in removing an evil. The larger portion of the inhabitants of Europe was chained to the soil, without freedom, or property, or knowledge ; and the two orders of ecclesiastics and nobles, whose numbers were comparatively small, alone deserved the name of citizens and men. This oppressive system was supported by the arts of the clergy and rather inroads, in Italy and France, where their sole purpose was to plunder and destroy. "'■'On this interesting subject, the progress of society in Europe, a strong ray of philosophic light has broke from Scotland in our own times ; and it is with private as well as public regard that I repeat the names of Hume, Robertson, and Adam Smith.
 * ^ If I rank the Saracens with the barbarians, it is only relative to their wars, or