preliminary discourses of the authors of "l'Histoire Literaire de la
France," on the state of learning during the ninth and tenth centuries,
strongly confirm the abbé's representations. It is surprising how many
works were written during these dark, and, as they are too harshly
called, ignorant ages. It is more to be wondered, that while so much was
written, so little was written well. The classical works of antiquity
were not unknown in those times; the Latin Vulgate translation of the
Old and New Testament was daily read by the clergy, and heard by the
people. Now, although the language of the Vulgate be not classical, it
is not destitute of elegance, and it possesses throughout the exquisite
charms of clearness and simplicity. It is surprising that these
circumstances did not lead the writers to a better style. They had no
such effect; the general style of the time was hard, inflated and
obscure. It should, however, be observed, that Simonde de Sismondi, as
he is translated by Mr. Roscoe, justly observes, that "during the reign
of Charlemagne, and during the four centuries which immediately preceded
it, there appeared, both in France and Italy, some judicious historians,
whose style possesses considerable vivacity, and who gave animated
pictures of their times; some subtle philosophers, who astonished their
contemporaries, rather by the fineness of their speculations than by the
justness of their reasoning; some learned theologians, and some poets.
The names of Paul Warnefrid, of Alcuin, of Luitprand, and Eginhard, are
even yet universally respected. They all, however, wrote in Latin. They
had all of them, by the strength of their intellect, and the happy
circumstances in which they were placed, learned to appreciate the
beauty of the models which antiquity had left them. They breathed the
spirit of a former age, as they had adopted its language: we do not find
them representatives of their contemporaries: it is impossible to
recognize in their style the times in which they lived; it only betrays
the relative industry and felicity with which they imitated the language