as compared with the old English. Of the other Teutonic languages now existing, the German, Dutch, or Danish, we may say they are brothers or sisters, very much like each other, but each with their own specialties. 24. We could write a long list of words which are almost exactly the same in English and German. Here are a few of the commonest Father, Mother, Brother, Sister, Neighbour, Friend, Man, House, Boat, Ship, Ox, Cow, Lamb, Mouse, Bread, Butter, Fish, Flesh, Arm, Hand, Shoulder, Finger, Good, Young, Fine. The Low Dutch, or language spoken in Holland, is still more like English than even the German, or High Dutch as they call it themselves. 25. With respect to their religion, Tacitus says that, "from the grandeur and majesty of beings celestial, they judge it altogether unsuitable to hold the gods inclosed within walls, or to represent them under Religion. human any likeness." Still they seem to have had images, which they kept in groves and forests, but which they carried about with them when they travelled. Their principal god was Odin, or Woden, from whom all their kings were supposed to be descended. He was the god of war, but they also believed that he had invented the letters of the alphabet. 26. The most interesting thing of all is what we find about their god Tiu. The principal god of the Romans, as will be remembered, was Jupiter, the sky-father. The real word was Ju, to which piter, for pater or father, was added. The same word came from the old Aryan stock to our forefathers also. In Sanskrit it was Dyu; in Greek Zeus; in Latin Ju; in Teutonic Tiu. The French word for God, Dieu, again, is the same. All these have the same meaning of heaven, and God in heaven. Just as the Romans added the word "father" to the name of their god, so the Teutons also looked on Tiu as their father. His son was Mannus, or Man (the thinker). Is it not very grand to find in these old religions how man loved to feel himself the son of God? 27. Our names for the days of the week, as is well known, were originally given in honour of the gods and goddesses of our forefathers. First the sun and the moon; then Tiu; then Woden or Odin; then Thor or Thunder, the god of storms; next Frea or Friga, the goddess of peace and plenty; and lastly Soetere, of whom little if anything remains but his name. Their beautiful goddess of spring and dawn was Eostre, who still gives her name to the most hopeful and joyful of the Christian festivals. LECTURE VI.-THE COMING OF THE ENGLISH. Departure of the Romans. The Picts and Scots. The settlements of the 1. FROM the time of Tacitus onwards the Teutonic tribes continued harassing the Roman empire, and by the beginning of the fifth century they were giving so much trouble, even in Italy itself, that the Romans wanted all their legions nearer home. They began to withdraw from their more distant provinces, as from Roumania, which was then called Dacia, and from Britain. Before they went away they repaired the wall of 410. Hadrian from the Tyne to the Solway, as the northern Departure of barbarians were also growing more and more troublesome. The Romans fully meant to come back again; but they never did so they never could find the opportunity. The Teutons spread everywhere. There were Goths in Italy, Goths in Spain, Vandals in Africa, Franks in Gaul, and very soon Angles in Britain. the Romans. 2. Now came the proof of what was said above. The Roman civilization forced on the Britons had done but little good and much harm. They had been so used to be governed by others that they did not know how to govern themselves; they had been so used to be fought for that they had nearly forgotten how to fight for themselves. As soon as the strong hand, which had kept them under while protecting them, was lifted off everything seemed to fall to pieces. 3. The Britons began to quarrel among themselves. Some, perhaps the least civilized of them, made friends with the barbarians to the north, who were, of course, their Picts and kinsfolk. These barbarians, seeing the comforts and wealth of the civilized regions where the Romanized Britons lived, soon managed to get over the Roman wall, and to make plundering expeditions into the very heart of the country. Scots. 4. The Romanized Britons hardly knew how to defend themselves; they had lost their savage courage, and had not learnt the Roman discipline. One of them, named Gildas, who is supposed to have lived in the sixth century, and who wrote a very curious history of the times after the departure of the Romans, gives an account of the northern enemies. Gildas. 5. We have now done with our Roman authorities, with Julius Cæsar and Tacitus; this is the first British book we have had. Gildas, however, wrote in Latin, though not in the masterly style of either Cæsar or Tacitus. He evidently tried very hard to write in a fine manner; sometimes he appears to have attempted to imitate the old Hebrew prophets, and it is astonishing what a number of wicked kings and other people he found to denounce. 6. This is a translation of his description of the Picts and Scots, as those northern invaders were called. "The Picts and Scots, like worms which in the heat of mid-day come forth from their holes, hastily land again from their canoes; ... differing from one another in manners, but inspired with the same avidity for blood, and all more eager to shroud their villanous faces in bushy hair than to cover with decent clothing those parts of their body which required it. Moreover, having heard of the departure of our friends" (that is, of the Romans), "and their resolution never to return, they seized with greater boldness than before on all the country as far as the wall. To oppose them there was placed on the heights a garrison equally slow to fight and ill-adapted to run away-a useless and panic-struck company, who slumbered away days and nights on their unprofitable watch. Meanwhile the hooked weapons of their enemies were not idle, and our wretched countrymen were dragged from the wall and dashed against the ground... But why should I say more? They left their cities, abandoned the protection of the wall, and dispersed themselves in flight more desperately than before. The enemy, on the other hand, pursued them with more unrelenting cruelty than before, and butchered our countrymen like sheep." 7. During all these troublous times we can see with reverence the influence of Christianity in the wonderful men who stood, as it were, in the breach, to help the conquered, to tame and soften the conquerors. I fear we in England do great injustice to the memory of these saints. Because a great many fables and strange tales have grown up about their histories, and too much has been made of the honour and reverence due to them, and because some of the saints in the Roman calendar were noted for what we cannot call virtues at all, we are apt to confuse them altogether, and think the very word "saint" means some useless unpractical bigot; that is, if we ever think about them at all. For the most part, however, we have quite forgotten them, or only know their names as belonging to old churches and towns. St. Germain. 8. But when we read different histories of these times, we find there have always been wonderful Christian heroes (sometimes on the Danube, sometimes in Italy, and other places), leading glorious lives, dying glorious deaths; teaching, baptizing, mediating, feeding the starving, clothing the naked. One such man was in Britain while the wars with the Picts and Scots were at their height-Saint Germain or Germanus, a bishop from Gaul. He had come over to Britain to argue against some heretics. For, unhappily, Christians had already begun quarrelling about words and doctrines which are hard to understand. However, while in the country he was implored to aid the poor Britons against their enemies, and he is said to have presided over the most singular battle that, perhaps, ever took place on English ground. Fuller tells us the story 429. "The pious bishop" (after baptizing multitudes of pagan converts), "turning politic engineer, chose a place of advantage, being a hollow dale surrounded with hills. Here Germanus placed his men in ambush, with instructions that, at a signal given, they should all shout 'Hallelujah' three times with all their might, which was done accordingly. The pagans were surprised with the suddenness and loudness of such a sound, much multiplied by the advantage of the echo, whereby their fear brought in a false list of their enemies' number; and, rather trusting their ears than their eyes, they reckoned their foes by the increase of the noise rebounded unto them; and then, allowing two hands for every mouth, how vast was their army! But besides the concavity of the valley improving the sound, God sent a hollowness into the hearts of the pagans, so that without striking a stroke, they confusedly ran away. Thus a bloodless victory was gotten without sword drawn, consisting of no fight, but a fright and a flight." 9. If this victory, however, "not by shooting, but by shouting," was ever really achieved, the Britons were very unsuccessful on the whole. They turned and prayed the Romans to come back and help them. This is part of the letter they wrote to Ætius, who was a Roman general and consul. 'The groans of the Britons. The barbarians drive us to the sea; the sea throws us back on the barbarians; thus two modes of death await us: we are either slain or drowned." We see how much the Britons were changed from the old days of Caradoc and Boadicea. It was really about time cowards like this got a new master. The 10. For as the Romans had now too much on their hands to come back, the distressed Britons had to look out for some one else to help them. This time it was rather like the sheep praying the wolves to take care of them. The people they turned to had indeed been called "sea-wolves." They were the English. 11. At this time they were living as three tribes in Sleswig, and near the mouth of the Elbe. They were called the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes, and the Angles were the most important and powerful of them. Though they were near neighbours, they were quite distinct from one another, and continued so long after they came into Britain. They hardly deserved a better name at present than sea-wolves or pirates. They were good sailors, as we are now, and good fighters. They had long been accustomed to come ravaging and pillaging on the coasts of Britain. English. 12. In an evil hour for the Britons, but in a good hour for us, Vortigern, a British king of Kent, bethought him of hiring one set of barbarians against another, and of persuading these Teutonic pirates to fight for him against the Picts and Scots, promising them in return not only money, but lands. "The barbarians," says the Briton Gildas, "being thus introduced as soldiers into the island, to encounter, as they falsely said, any dangers in defence of their hospitable entertainers, obtain an allowance of provisions, which, for some time, being plentifully bestowed, stopped their doggish mouths. Yet they complain that their monthly supplies are not furnished in sufficient abundance, and they industriously aggravate each occasion of quarrel, saying that unless more liberality is shown them they will break the treaty and plunder the whole island. In a short time they follow up their threats with deeds." Their arrival. 13. Their first landing-place was at Ebbsfleet, in the Isle of Thanet, which was then much more of an island than it is now, and separated from the mainland by a difficult and dangerous ford. Vortigern, perhaps, thought that he could pen them up there, and they would come no farther. But he little knew what he had done. After the quarrels Gildas mentions, and more and more of the strangers coming pouring in, they soon burst out of the island, under their two chiefs Hengist and Horsa. The names of both these chiefs meant horse (hengst is a German word for horse now), and the standard of Kent is a |