hopefulness to a decadent ancient civilization, but also to meet, conquer,
and in time civilize the barbarian hordes from the North which overwhelmed
the Roman Empire. A new and youthful race of German barbarians now
appeared upon the scene, with resulting ravage and destruction, and
anarchy and ignorance, and long centuries ensued during which ancient
civilization fell prey to savage violence and superstition. Progress
ceased in the ancient world. The creative power of antiquity seemed
exhausted. The digestive and assimilative powers of the old world seemed
gone. Greek was forgotten. Latin was corrupted. Knowledge of the arts and
sciences was lost. Schools disappeared. Only the Christian Church remained
to save civilization from the wreck, and it, too, was almost submerged in
the barbaric flood. It took ten centuries partially to civilize, educate,
and mould into homogeneous units this heterogeneous horde of new peoples.
During this long period it required the strongest energies of the few who
understood to preserve the civilization of the past for the enjoyment and
use of a modern world.

Yet these barbarian Germans, great as was the havoc they wrought at first,
in time contributed much to the stream of our modern civilization. They
brought new conceptions of individual worth and freedom into a world
thoroughly impregnated with the ancient idea of the dominance of the State
over the individual. The popular assembly, an elective king, and an
independent and developing system of law were contributions of first
importance which these peoples brought. The individual man and not the
State was, with them, the important unit in society. In the hands of the
Angles and Saxons, particularly, but also among the Celts, Franks,
Helvetii, and Belgae, this idea of individual freedom and of the
subordination of the State to the individual has borne large fruit in
modern times in the self-governing States of France, Switzerland, Belgium,
England and the English self-governing dominions, and in the United States