This etext was produced by David Widger
[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of thefile for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making anentire meal of them. D.W.]
1855
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION., Part 2.
Five centuries of isolation succeed. In the Netherlands, as throughoutEurope, a thousand obscure and slender rills are slowly preparing thegreat stream of universal culture. Five dismal centuries of feudalism:during which period there is little talk of human right, little obedienceto divine reason. Rights there are none, only forces; and, in brief,three great forces, gradually arising, developing themselves, acting uponeach other, and upon the general movement of society.
The sword—the first, for a time the only force: the force of iron. The"land's master," having acquired the property in the territory and in thepeople who feed thereon, distributes to his subalterns, often but a shadebeneath him in power, portions of his estate, getting the use of theirfaithful swords in return. Vavasours subdivide again to vassals,exchanging land and cattle, human or otherwise, against fealty, and sothe iron chain of a military hierarchy, forged of mutually interdependentlinks, is stretched over each little province. Impregnable castles,here more numerous than in any other part of Christendom, dot the levelsurface of the country. Mail-clad knights, with their followers, encamppermanently upon the soil. The fortunate fable of divine right isinvented to sanction the system; superstition and ignorance give currencyto the delusion. Thus the grace of God, having conferred the property ina vast portion of Europe upon a certain idiot in France, makes himcompetent to sell large fragments of his estate, and to give a divine,and, therefore, most satisfactory title along with them. A greatconvenience to a man, who had neither power, wit, nor will to keep theproperty in his own hands. So the Dirks of Holland get a deed fromCharles the Simple, and, although the grace of God does not prevent theroyal grantor himself from dying a miserable, discrowned captive, theconveyance to Dirk is none the less hallowed by almighty fiat. So theRoberts and Guys, the Johns and Baldwins, become sovereigns in Hainault,Brabant, Flanders and other little districts, affecting supernaturalsanction for the authority which their good swords have won and are everready to maintain. Thus organized, the force of iron asserts and exertsitself. Duke, count, seignor and vassal, knight and squire, master andman swarm and struggle amain. A wild, chaotic, sanguinary scene. Here,bishop and baron contend, centuries long, murdering human creatures byten thousands for an acre or two of swampy pasture; there, doughtyfamilies, hugging old musty quarrels to their heart, buffet each otherfrom generation to generation; thus they go on, raging and wrestlingamong themselves, with all the world, shrieking insane war-cries which nohuman soul ever understood—red caps and black, white hoods and grey,Hooks and Kabbeljaws, dealing destruction, building castles and burningthem, tilting at tourneys, stealing bullocks, roasting Jews, robbing thehighways, crusading—now upon Syrian sands against Paynim dogs, now inFrisian quagmires against Albigenses, Stedingers, and other heretics—plunging about in blood and fire, repenting, at idle times, and payingtheir passage through, purgatory with large slices of ill-gotten gainsplaced in t