Herein the spirit of chivalry was seen in harmony with the wisdom and simplicity of nature, which ordains that man should be indebted for all essential knowledge to authority, rather than to his own private speculation and judgment. The man who relies upon the authority of the Catholic Church, besides the merit of obedience to the ordination of Christ, deserveth also the praise of highest wisdom; for to prefer the judgment of so great a number of learned, holy, and virtuous men as have been in that Church from age to age, before his own private judgment, is most evident wisdom, even considered according to the principles of human wisdom. This is the observation of Francis Walsingham, after concluding his search into matters of religion. No intelligent person will require to be shewn how these and similar considerations are connected with the subject on which we are engaged. In the ages which we shall shortly review, it was the unity of faith, resulting from these principles, which united all hearts in noble and generous chivalry.

"Europe," says Schlegel, "was united in one during these grand ages, and the soil of this general country was fruitful in generous thoughts, which served to guide both in life and death. One common chivalry converted adversaries into brethren in arms, and it was to defend one common faith that they were armed. Love inspired every heart, and the poetry which sang this alliance expressed the same sentiment in different languages. Alas! the noble energy of the ancient time is lost. Our age is the inventor of a narrow policy: and what weak men are unable to conceive, is in their eyes only a chimera. Nothing that is divine can succeed when it is undertaken with a profane heart. Alas! our

age has knowledge of neither faith nor love; how could it have preserved hope?"

"This know also," says the Apostle, "that in the last days perilous times shall come; for men shall be lovers of their own selves." That these times were accomplishing in our heroic age, it was impossible to suppose; but a new period of the world's history has commenced, and new principles are said to be necessary. The ancient orders of Christendom are superseded by clubs and associations, whereby men can enjoy some of the pleasures of society, without fulfilling the duties attached to social life, and may escape the burden of personal obligation, without forfeiting their rights and honour. That love which was the soul of chivalry, that devoted affection of the youthful heart, in conformity with nature's law, which expelled every selfish thought and wish, and refined and developed every generous virtue, is exposed to the counteracting influence of the new philosophy, which teaches the young that there may be happiness without the exercise of virtue, without being devoted and faithful, disinterested and sincere; which places avarice and ambition (for the consideration of wealth is avarice, and the love of rank and high connexion is ambition,) in the innermost sanctuary of the human heart, and thus defiles, in its noblest feature, the image of the Almighty; which leads its disciples to regard all duty and obligation, "which grey-beards call divine," as matters in which he has no concern, and to say to his selfish heart, like Richard,

I am myself alone.

The convenience and profit of individuals, not the everlasting distinctions of right and wrong, are consulted and regarded as the only public good; riches and presumption overpower the opposite scale of virtue and modesty. In a word, the prin

ciples and thoughts of men have changed with their political situation. What was once honourable is now said to be obsolete and worthless, imaginary, eccentric, and ridiculous; what was once baseness and crime is now prudence, and moderation, and philosophy. The question will, therefore, again present itself to every lover of his species, to every thoughtful observer who casts a philosophic eye upon the character, and transactions, and interests of mankind, and to him it will, indeed, be a subject of serious inquiry, how far this new direction, which has been given to the movement of the human heart, how far the principles and temper, which now influence the actions of men, may fulfil the prediction of Holy Scripture.

XVI. In concluding this introductory view of the spirit of the Christian chivalry, it will be necessary to add some remarks on the symbolical character which unquestionably belongs to it; which consideration will shew with what perfect consistency men may associate it with such grave reflections as are occasionally to be met with in these books, and into what error we should be led if we were to guide our judgment by the advice of men like Boileau, who maintained, in his Art of Poetry, that religion ought to be separated from literature, as it had already been from the theory and practice of civil government. "There are many things between heaven and earth which are not dreamt of in such a philosophy," as Friedrich Schlegel says, in allusion to the celebrated lines of Shakspeare. It is by a reference to this symbolical philosophy, that we should understand that sentence of Plato, where he says, that the rule of moral excellence lies between what does not exist, and what is abstract truth.2 Modern critics tear to pieces the magnificent

1 Philosophie des Lebens, I.

2 Plato de Repub. V, 479.

figures of chivalrous history, and then presenting isolated fragments, they condemn them as extravagant and ridiculous; but they should observe, that it is only when connected and associated with the ideas which gave life and movement to chivalry, that the images which belonged to it can be understood. In order to explain this, we are again directed to the youthful mind as a mirror, in which we can more easily behold the leading features of chivalry than if we were to contemplate it in a more abstract form.

"It is easy to shew," says Friedrich Schlegel, "that the education of youth, whether domestic or public, is essentially symbolic, and must be so, unless it should degenerate into a mere mechanical system. Herein consists, in a great measure, the difference between a spiritless education, which, however reproachless in point of moral strength, must still prove dead and unfruitful, and another more pure and suitable to human nature, less ostentatious in the beginning, but, on that account, more productive in the end. How susceptible the youthful mind is for whatever is symbolical within its sphere, and with what liveliness it seizes upon it, will sufficiently appear from observing one of the most common sports for the different ages of boyhood and youth, in which the employments, conditions, and situations of real life, which are for them still in futurity, are imitated in various childlike ways, or rather emblematically represented, and it is known to all how much motion this extends through the little community; what multitudinous and deep impressions it leaves in their minds, more, perhaps, than many hours of study, when the end of this study is prevented by the usual method of overloading." Nor is this observation to be con

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1 Philosophie des Lebens, 368.

fined to youth. It is true, in the White King and other books of chivalry, we only read that Maximilian, and Du Guesclin, and others, practised these diversions in their early days; but where there is genius, maturer age seems to be oftener deterred from engaging in them by external considerations, than induced to abandon them through an inward experience of their inefficacy to delight the mind.

When Lælius and Scipio would go into the country, they used to become quite like boys again, escaping from the city as if from confinement. Cicero says, "I hardly dare to relate of such men what Scævola used to affirm, that they used to amuse themselves picking up shells and pebbles, and descending to every kind of play and relaxation."1

To the youthful inclinations described by Schlegel, might be added that disposition which so remarkably characterises young persons of piety, who, like the young Duke of Gandia (St. Francis Borgia), St. Francis de Sales, and numberless others, find no play or amusement so captivating as that in which they imitate the ceremonies of the Church, building little oratories and cloisters, decorating little altars, and training children of their own age to assist them in their innocent solemnities. Even in a later age of youth, St. Francis Borgia is described as sanctifying, by means of this symbolical view, the adventures of the chase, to which he was continually obliged to accompany the emperor.

This want and demand of nature may yield us an insight into the whole history of whatever is connected with the embellishment or harmony of human life. The remark of Friedrich Schlegel may be applied to all the images which belong to chivalry. His words are these: "The reality, the actual form,

1 De Oratore, II, 6.

2 Vie de St. François de Borgia, tom. I, p. 9. Vie de St. François de Saies, par Marsollier, I, 10. Souvenirs de S. Acheul.