Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Germany, From the Earliest Period, Vol. 1 of 4
The Romans regarded the forests of Germany with superstitious dread. There were said to be gigantic trees which, when hollowed into boats, held thirty men, and through the arches formed by their projecting roots a horseman could ride at full speed. The buffalo, the bison, and the elk, once numerous in these wilds, have now totally disappeared; and the bears, whose skins were the chief article of the dress of our forefathers, the wolves, boars, and innumerable other large game, daily become more scarce. The country possessed neither towns, roads, nor bridges, and it is easily conceivable that, dissatisfied with their meager forest fare, the people continually migrated to and took possession of the fruitful lands of neighboring nations. Solitude created a desire, or romantic longing, in the breast of the ancient inhabitant of these wilds, for what was distant and unknown, while the habits of the chase rendered him enterprising and hardy. The laws founded upon personal freedom, the virtuous manners and cheerful temperament of the ancient German, originated in those mighty wastes, where, forced to trust to his own resources, man necessarily became independent, and was secure from the corruption incidental to crowded communities. These wild forests also attached an idea of the marvelous, so novel to the Romans, to the character of the German, who, trained to war by the habits of the chase, associated piety with ferocity, and would still listen to the secret voice of Nature in the mysterious whisperings of the forest, now disposing him to deep musings, now creating strange forebodings, which were recognized as true prophetic inspiration in the women and maidens.
When Germany was first Christianized, the monks undertook to clear away the forests and to promote agriculture, and as the migrations had then ceased, those of the inhabitants who had remained in the country were gradually forced by necessity to exchange the life of the hunter for that of the peasant.
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