SOCIAL LIFE AND AMUSENIENTS.
The question whether the Teutonic character—that is, the prehistoric ethical capacity of the nation—would alone have sufficed to attain that degree of culture which it developed in later times is wholly irrelevant. This problem was never actually presented for solution, and we are deal ing only with the actual facts of history and not with the consideration of hypotheses. But in order fully to comprehend the facts it must con stantly be borne in mind that the ethico-intellectual disposition of the Teu tons has ever remained the most important factor in the development of German culture as well as of that of kindred nationalities, and that the advance which followed every critical stage of progress was due to impulses given by this element of the original character. Crises have been the vehicles of all progress; a comparatively smooth and steady growth, such as the Greeks and even the Romans experienced, has not fallen to the lot of later nationalities. Successive revolutions and refor mations have constituted the law of later progress, but the result has been a regeneration such as no nation of antiquity enjoyed.
The simple nature of the Teutons could not endure contact with the nations of antiquity. At first dazzled by the unexpected sight of so much magnificence, the Teutons endeavored to accommodate their new acquisi tions to the measure of their own conceptions; this attempt resulted but too often in a wild passion for destruction which has still left traces of itself in the term " vandalism." As their intellect became more expand ed, this passion was transformed into an ungovernable craving for luxury. The former is illustrated in the great migrations, the latter is exemplified in the history of the Franks.
The free inhabitants of field and forest suffered most from the effects of their own victories; because, as has been justly remarked, in order to establish their dominion permanently the conquerors were themselves to a certain extent compelled to submit to a supreme leader during the long vacillations of the fortune of ar. The advantages which they retained
for themselves in opposition to the vanquished laid the foundations of the feudal system—a system which threatened to destroy the distinctive cha racteristic of the Teutonic nature, the feeling of personal independence, the consciousness of individual worth.
Influence of great importance must not be attached to the introduction of Christianity, for, as a general thing, the people accepted it with great reserve and considered only its practical advantages. Their intelligence, sharpened by experience, had freed itself to a large extent from the ancient traditional faith, and they hoped to find in the God of the Christians a more powerful agent to further their immediate objects than they had found in any of their national divinities. Fre quently their acceptance of Christianity was merely a measure of policy. It is interesting to observe that where Christianity was accepted for such reasons it assumed a character in which these conceptions remained per manent; and that where, as in Lower Saxony, it was forced upon the people, the indelible effect is still seen in their stolid and unimpression able temperament.' The extensive plans of the apostle \Vinfrid and their realization by Charlemagne, which built up the power and union of the Church in the Northern countries, did not at once produce an effect upon their civiliza tion. Everywhere the Church had to make great concessions to the tra ditions of the people, and much of the old paganism remained under various forms. Individuals of deep feeling possessed themselves with great ardor of the real substance of the revealed religion, their reception of which partook of the character of a special consecration. The German cloisters in which such persons established a congenial home were soon distinguished from those of the Romance countries, and they developed features of the new civilization which would otherwise have been lost, but the full importance of which did not become apparent until later times.