The Roman and the Teuton Part 18

how all-inscrutable to human minds much in it!--often as inscrutable as would our training of our children seem to the bird brooding over her young ones in the nest. The parental relations in all three cases may be--the Scriptures say that they are--expansions of the same great law; the key to all history may be contained in those great words--'How often would I have gathered thy children as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings.' Yet even there the a.n.a.logy stops short--'but thou wouldest not' expresses a new element, which has no place in the training of the nestling by the dam, though it has place in our training of our children; even that self-will, that power of disobedience, which is the dark side of man's prerogative as a rational and self-cultivating being. Here that a.n.a.logy fails, as we should have expected it to do; and in a hundred other points it fails, or rather transcends so utterly its original type, that mankind seems, at moments, the mere puppet of those laws of natural selection, and compet.i.tion of species, of which we have heard so much of late; and, to give a single instance, the seeming waste, of human thought, of human agony, of human power, seems but another instance of that inscrutable prodigality of nature, by which, of a thousand acorns dropping to the ground, but one shall become the thing it can become, and grow into a builder oak, the rest be craunched up by the nearest swine.

Yet these dark pa.s.sages of human life may be only necessary elements of the complex education of our race; and as much mercy under a fearful shape, as ours when we put the child we love under the surgeon's knife.

At least we may believe so; believe that they have a moral end, though that end be unseen by us; and without any rash or narrow prying into final causes (a trick as fatal to historic research as Bacon said it was to science), we may justify G.o.d by faith, where we cannot justify Him by experience.

Surely this will be the philosophic method. If we seem to ourselves to have discovered a law, we do not throw it away the moment we find phaenomena which will not be explained by it. We use those phaenomena to correct and to expand our law. And this belief that History is 'G.o.d educating man,' is no mere hypothesis; it results from the observation of thousands of minds, throughout thousands of years. It has long seemed--I trust it will seem still--the best explanation of the strange deeds of that strange being, man: and where we find in history facts which seem to contradict it, we shall not cast away rashly or angrily either it or them: but if we be Bacon's true disciples, we shall use them patiently and reverently to correct and expand our notions of the law itself, and rise thereby to more deep and just conceptions of education, of man, and--it may be--of G.o.d Himself.

In proportion as we look at history thus; searching for effective, rather than final causes, and content to see G.o.d working everywhere, without impertinently demanding of Him a reason for His deeds, we shall study in a frame of mind equally removed from superst.i.tion on the one hand, and necessitarianism on the other. We shall not be afraid to confess natural agencies: but neither shall we be afraid to confess those supernatural causes which underlie all existence, save G.o.d's alone.

We shall talk of more than of an over-ruling Providence. That such exists, will seem to us a patent fact. But it will seem to us somewhat Manichaean to believe that the world is ill made, mankind a failure, and that all G.o.d has to do with them, is to set them right here and there, when they go intolerably wrong. We shall believe not merely in an over- ruling Providence, but (if I may dare to coin a word) in an under-ruling one, which has fixed for mankind eternal laws of life, health, growth, both physical and spiritual; in an around-ruling Providence, likewise, by which circ.u.mstances, that which stands around a man, are perpetually arranged, it may be, are fore-ordained, so that each law shall have at least an opportunity of taking effect on the right person, in the right time and place; and in an in-ruling Providence. too, from whose inspiration comes all true thought, all right feeling; from whom, we must believe, man alone of all living things known to us inherits that mysterious faculty of perceiving the law beneath the phaenomena, by virtue of which he is a _man_.

But we can hold all this, surely, and equally hold all which natural science may teach us. Hold what natural science teaches? We shall not dare not to hold it. It will be sacred in our eyes. All light which science, political, economic, physiological, or other, can throw upon the past, will be welcomed by us, as coming from the Author of all light. To ignore it, even to receive it suspiciously and grudgingly, we shall feel to be a sin against Him. We shall dread no 'inroads of materialism;'

because we shall be standing upon that spiritual ground which underlies--ay, causes--the material. All discoveries of science, whether political or economic, whether laws of health or laws of climate, will be accepted trustfully and cheerfully. And when we meet with such startling speculations as those on the influence of climate, soil, scenery on national character, which have lately excited so much controversy, we shall welcome them at first sight, just because they give us hope of order where we had seen only disorder, law where we fancied chance: we shall verify them patiently; correct them if they need correction; and if proven, believe that they have worked, and still work, [Greek text], as factors in the great method of Him who has appointed to all nations their times, and the bounds of their habitation, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him: though He be not far from any one of them; for in Him we live, and move, and have our being, and are the offspring of G.o.d Himself.

I thus end what it seemed to me proper to say in this, my Inaugural Lecture; thanking you much for the patience with which you have heard me: and if I have in it too often spoken of myself, and my own opinions, I can only answer that it is a fault which has been forced on me by my position, and which will not occur again. It seemed to me that some sort of statement of my belief was necessary, if only from respect to a University from which I have been long separated, and to return to which is to me a high honour and a deep pleasure; and I cannot but be aware (it is best to be honest) that there exists a prejudice against me in the minds of better men than I am, on account of certain early writings of mine. That prejudice, I trust, with G.o.d's help, I shall be able to dissipate. At least whatever I shall fail in doing, this University will find that I shall do one thing; and that is, obey the Apostolic precept, 'Study to be quiet, and to do your own business.'

Footnotes:

{1} Grimm, Grammatik, ii. p. 516.

{2} See Grimm, Grammatik, (2nd edit.) vol. i. p. 108; vol. ii. p. 581.

{3} Lectures on the Science of Language, vol. ii. p. 232.

{4} Forstemann mentions a Latin inscription of the third century found near Wiesbaden with the Dative Toutiorigi.

{5} German cla.s.sics, by M. M. p. 12.

{6} Anonym. Valesian. ad calcem Ann. Marcellin. p. 722. Gibbon, cap.

x.x.xix; now known, through Mommsen, as the Annals of Ravenna.

{7} Grimm thinks that Charle-maigne and Charlemagne were originally corruptions of Karlo-man, and were interpreted later as Carolus magnus.

Grimm, Grammatik, ii. 462; iii. 320.

{8} Weber, Lehrbuch der Weltgeschichte, section 245: 'Bei Verona von Theoderich (daher Dietrich von Bern) besiegt, barg sich Odoaker hinter die Mauern von Ravenna.' It is much more objectionable when Simrock in his translation of the Edda renders Thjodrekr by Dietrich, though he retains Theodolf and similar names. But it shows at the same time the wide popularity of that name.

{9} Grimm, Heldensage, p. 344.

{10} Gibbon, chap. x.x.xix. sub fin.

{11} Otto von Freising, in the first half of the twelfth century (Chronicon 5, 3), takes the opposite view, and thinks the fable derived from history: 'Ob ea non multis post diebus, x.x.x imperii sui anno, subitanea morte rapitur ac juxta beati Gregorii dialogum (4, 36) a Joanne et Symmacho in Aetnam praecipitatus, a quodam homine Dei cernitur. Hinc puto fabulam illam traductam, qua vulgo dicitur: _Theodoricus vivus equo sedens ad inferos descendit_.

{12} Grimm, Deutsche Heldensage, p. 36. Chronicon Urspergense, 85a: Haec Jordanis quidam grammaticus, ex eorundem stirpe Gothorum progenitus, de Getarum origine et Amalorum n.o.bilitate non omnia, quae de eis scribuntur et referuntur, ut ipse dicit, complexus exaravit, sed brevius pro rerum not.i.tia huic opusculo inseruimus. His perlectis diligenterque perspectis perpendat, qui discernere noverit, quomodo illud ratum teneatur, quod non solum _vulgarifabulatione_ et _cantilenarum modulatione_ usitatur, verum etiam in _quibusdam chronicis_ annotatur; scilicet quod _Hermenricus_ tempore Martiani principis super omnes Gothos regnaverit, et _Theodoric.u.m Dietmari filium_, _patruelem_ suum, ut dic.u.n.t, _instimulante Odoacre_, item, ut ajunt, _patruele suo de Verona pulsum_, apud _Attilam Hunorum regem exulare coegerit_, c.u.m historiographus narret, Ermenric.u.m regem Gothorum multis regibus dominantem tempore Valentiniani et Valentis fratrum regna.s.se et a _duobus fratribus Saro_ et _Ammio_, quos conjicimus eos fuisse, qui _vulgariter Sarelo et Hamidiecus_ dic.u.n.tur, vulneratum in primordio egressionis Hunorum per Maeotidem paludem, quibus rex fuit Valamber, tam vulneris quam Hunorum irruptionis dolore defunctum fuisse, Attilam vero postea ultra LXX annos sub Martiano et Valentiniano c.u.m Romanis et Wisigothis Aetioque duce Romanorum pugna.s.se et sub eisdem principibus regno vitaque decessisse. . . . Hinc rerum diligens inspector perpendat, quomodo _Ermenricus Theodoric.u.m Dietmari filium apud Attilam exulare coegerit_, c.u.m juxta hunc historiographum contemporalis ejus non fuit. Igitur aut hic falsa conscripsit, aut _vulgaris opinio fallitur_ et _fallit_, aut alius Ermenricus et alms Theodoricus dandi sunt Attilae contemporanei, in quibus hujus modi rerum convenientia rata possit haberi. Hic enim Ermenricus longe ante Attilam legitur defunctus.

{13} Chronicon, 5, 3: Quod autem rursum narrant, eum Hermanarico Attilaeque contemporaneum fuisse, omnino stare non potest, dum Attilam longe post Hermanaric.u.m constat exercuisse tyrannidem istumque post mortem Attilae octennem a patre obsidem Leoni Augusto traditum.

{14} Chronicon, 16, 481: Quod autem quidam dic.u.n.t, ipsum Theodoric.u.m fuisse Hermenrico Veronensi et Attilae contemporaneum, non est verum.

Constat enim Attilam longe post Hermenric.u.m fuisse Theodoric.u.m etiam longe post mortem Attilae, quum esset puer octennis, Leoni imperatori in obsidem datum fuisse.

{19} The early romancers, and especially Achilles Tatius, give pictures of Roman praedial slavery too painful to quote. Roman domestic slavery is not to be described by the pen of an Englishman. And I must express my sorrow, that in the face of such notorious facts, some have of late tried to prove American slavery to be as bad as, or even worse than, that of Rome. G.o.d forbid! Whatsoever may have been the sins of the Southern gentleman, he is at least a Teuton, and not a Roman; a whole moral heaven above the effeminate wretch, who in the 4th and 5th centuries called himself a senator and a clarissimus.

{101} Dr. Sheppard, p. 297.

{109} Had he actually taken the name of Theodoric, Theuderic, Dietrich, which signifies much the same thing as 'King of nations'?

{158} With west-countrymen, to 'scrattle' still means to scramble, or shuffle about.

{162} English Language, vol. i. p. 200.

{214} Cf. Montalembert. 'Moines d'Occident.'

{279} Sismondi _Hist. de la Chute de l'Empire Romain_, p. 187.