P. III.

'TWAS a Century after, that another Crusade, in their march against Infidels, facked this very City; depofed the then Emperor; and committed Devaftations, which no one would have committed, but the most ignorant, as well as cruel Barbarians. If we defcend not at prefent to particulars, it is, because we have already quoted fo largely from Nicetas, in a former Chapter*.

BUT a Question here occurs, easier to propofe, than to anfwer." To what are "we to attribute this character of FERO

CITY, which feems to have then pre"vailed thro' THE LAITY OF EUROPE?

* See Part III. chap. 5, and Abulpharagius, p. 282, who defcribes their indiferiminate Cruelty in a manner much refembling that of their Brother Crufaders at Bezieres, and that nearly about the fame time. See before, p. 409.

SHALL

SHALL we fay, 'twas CLIMATE, and Chap. THE NATURE OF THE COUNTRY?-Thefe XIV. we must confess have in fome inftances great Influence.

The Indians, feen a few years fince by Mr. Byron in the fouthern parts of South America, were brutal and favage to an enormous excefs. One of them, for a trivial offence, murdered his own Child (an infant) by dafhing it against the Rocks. The Cyclopes, as described by Homer, were much of the same fort; each of them gave Law to his own Family, without regard for one another; and befides this, they were Atheists and Man-eaters.

MAY we not fuppofe, that a ftormy fea, together with a frozen, barren, and inhofpitable shore might work on the Imagination of these Indians, fo, as by banishing all pleafing and benign Ideas, to fill

P. III. them with habitual Gloom, and a Propen

fity to be cruel-or might not the tremendous Scenes of Etna have had a like

Effect upon the Cyclopes, who lived amid Smoke, Thunderings, Eruptions of Fire, and Earthquakes? If we may believe

Fazelius, who wrote upon Sicily about two hundred years ago, the Inhabitants near Etna were in his time a fimilar Race*

IF therefore thefe limited Regions had fuch an effect upon their Natives, may not a fimilar Effect be presumed from the vaft Regions of the North? May not its cold, barren, uncomfortable Climate have made its numerous Tribes equally rude and Savage?

Ir this be not enough, we may add another Caufe, I mean their profound Igno

* See Fazelius de Rebus feculis, L. II. c. 4.

rance,

rauce. Nothing mends THE MIND more Chap. than CULTURE, to which thefe Emi- XIV. grants had no defire, either from Example or Education, to lend a patient Ear.

WE may add a farther Caufe ftill, which is, that, when they had acquired Countries better than their own, they settled under the fame Military Form, thro' which they had conquered; and were in fact, when fettled, a fort of Army after a Campaign, quartered upon the wretched remains of the antient Inhabitants, by whom they were attended under the different names of Serfs, Vaals, Villains, &c.

'Twas not likely the Ferocity of these Conquerors fhould abate with regard to their Vafals, whom, as ftrangers, they were more likely to fufpect, than to love.

P. III.

'Twas not likely it should abate with regard to one another, when the Neigh bourhood of their Caftles, and the Contiguity of their Territories, muft have given occafions (as we learn from Hiftory) for endless Altercation. But this we leave to

the learned in FEUDAL TENURES,

WE fhall add to the preceding Remarks one more fomewhat fingular, and yet perfectly different; which is, that tho' the Darkness in Western Europe, during the Period here mentioned, was (in Scripture Language) a Darkness that might be felt, yet is it furprising that, during a Period fo obfcure, many admirable Inventions found their into the world; I mean fuch as Clocks, Telescopes, Paper, Gunpowder, the Mariner's Needle, Printing, and a number here omitted *,

way

* See two ingenious Writers on this Subject, Polydore Virgil, De Rerum Inventoribus; and Pan girallus, De Rebus perditis et inventis.