Northern Antiquities/Conclusion

by Paul Henri Mallet

THere remains now but one word to add by way of conclusion. When the truth of facts is once solidly established, we may safely reason concerning their causes. From a representation of such facts, (which are here only brought together and left to speak for themselves) a picture has been given of the ancient northern nations. But having thus informed ourselves concerning the manners of this people; why may not we proceed a step farther, to consider the general caufes of their character. It does not seem impossible here to discover and persue the path which nature hath taken. A great abundance of blood and humours, strong and rigid fibres, together with an inexhaustible vigour, formed the constitutional temperament of the Scandinavians and Germans, as they do indeed of all savage people who live under a like climate^[1].

Hence proceeded that impetuofity and violence of their paffions when they were once roufed; and hence in their calmer moments that ferious, phlegmatic and in- dolent turn. The exercifes of war and the chace, which are great fatigues to a lefs robuft people, were to them only amufe- ments, the means of fhaking off their lethargy, and of giving an agreeable and even neceffary motion to the body. Their relifh for this kind of life, the effect of constitution, strengthened in its turn the caufe that produced it. Thus ftrongly moulded by the hand of nature, and ren- dered hardy by education, the opinion they entertained of their own courage and ftrength muft have given the peculiar turn to their character. A man who thinks he has nothing to fear, cannot endure any fort of conftraint; much lefs will he fubmit to any arbitrary authority, which he fees only fupported by human power, or fuch as he can brave with impunity. As he thinks himfelf not obliged to court any one's favour or deprecate his refentment, he fcorns diffimulation, artifice or falfhood. He regards thefe faults, the effects of fear, as the moft degrading of all others. He is always ready to repel force by force; hence he is neither fufpicious nor diftruftful. A declared enemy to his enemy, he attacks openly; he confides in and is true to others; generous and fometimes in the higheſt de- gree magnanimous, becaufe he places his deareft intereft in the idea he entertains and would excite of his courage. He does not willingly confine himfelf to fuch occu- pations as require more affiduity than ac- tion, more application of mind than body; becaufe moderate exercife is not fufficient to put his blood and fibres into such a degree of motion as is necessary to his own ease. Hence that distaste for the arts; and as the passions always endeavour to justify themselves, hence also that contempt and prejudice which represents the profession of the arts as dishonourable. War then becomes the only employment he can exercise with pleasure. The frequent and extreme vicissitudes, the fatigues and dangers attendant on this way of life, are alone able to throw him into those violent and continual agitations his habit of body requires. Now if we suppose after this a whole society composed of such men, to what a degree of emulation must their courage arise? The love of distinction so natural to all men, having here no other object than personal valour, with what ardour must that quality have been cultivated and cherished? The love of arms becoming thus their ruling and universal passion, would soon characterise their religion, dictate their laws, and in short form their prejudices and opinions, which decide every thing among mankind.

But it may be objected, that if the manners and character of the ancient northern people proceeded so much from the climate, as the same cause still operates, why is the effect altered? This is only a specious difficulty. A nation is never solely influenced by climate, except in its infancy; while it is uncultivated and barbarous, it is only guided by instinct; the objects of sense and the modes of living being as yet simple and uniform. When after some ages, reason has been expanded by experience and reflection, when legislators have arisen, who either by the native force of genius, or by observing the manners of other nations, have so enlarged their understandings as to perceive the necessity of a change of manners, it is then that a new system of principles combat, and either divide the empire with, or totally triumph over the first physical causes. Such was the immediate effect of Christianity in the North, an event which, considered only in a philosophical light, should be ever regarded as the dawn of those happy days, which were afterwards to shine out with superior splendour. In effect, this religion, which tended to correct the abuse of licentious liberty, to banish bloody dissentions from among individuals, to restrain robberies and piracy, softening the ferocity of manners, requiring a certain knowledge of letters and history, re-establishing a part of mankind, who groaned under a miserable slavery, in their natural rights, introducing a relish for a life of peace, and an idea of happiness independant of sensual gratifications, sowed the seeds, if I may so speak, of that new spirit, which grew to maturity in the succeeding ages, and to which the arts and sciences springing up along with it, added still more strength and vigour.

But after all, is it very certain, as the objection supposes, that the climate of Europe hath not undergone a change since the times we speak of? Those who have read the ancients with attention, think differently, and conclude, that the degrees of cold are at this time much less severe than they were formerly. This is not a place to enlarge on a subject which might appear foreign to the work^[2]. Let it suffice to observe, that the rivers in Gaul, namely, the Loire and the Rhone were regularly frozen over every year, so that frequently whole armies with their carriages and baggage could march over them^[3]. Even the Tyber froze at Rome, and Juvenal says positively, that it was requisite to break the ice in winter, in order to come at the water of that river^[4]. Many passages in Horace suppose the streets of Rome to be full of ice and snow^[5]. Ovid assures us, that the Black Sea was frozen annually, and appeals for the truth of this to the governour of the province, whose name he mentions: he also relates several circumstances concerning that climate, which at present agree only with Norway or Sweden^[6]. The forests of Thrace and Pannonia were full of ‘white’ bears and white boars, in like manner as now the forests of the North^[7]. The northern part of Spain was little inhabited for the same cause^[8]. In short, all the ancients who mention the climate of Gaul, Germany, Pannonia and Thrace, speak of it as insupportable^[9], and agree that the ground was covered with snow the greatest part of the year, being incapable of producing olives, grapes, and most other fruits. It is easy to conceive that the forests being cleared away, the face of the country better cultivated, and the marshy places drained, the moist exhalations which generate cold, must be considerably lessened, and that the rays of the sun must have a freer access to warm the earth. The same thing has happened in North America since the Europeans have carried there their wonted industry^[10]. The history of the North leaves us no room to doubt, that there have been vast forests cut down, and by this single means extensive marshes have been dried up and converted into land fit for cultivation. Without mentioning the general causes which insensibly effect the destruction of forests, it was common to set these on fire in order to procure fertile fields. This was so usual a practice in Sweden, that this country is supposed to have taken its name from thence^[11]. A king of that country was surnamed the wood-cutter, for having grubbed up and cleared vast provinces, and felled the trees with which it was all covered. Nor were they less cleared away in Norway and Denmark. Thus a change in the climate must long have preceded that in the manners.

What conclusion ought we to draw from all this? If for these fifteen or sixteen centuries, the arts, sciences, industry and politeness have been incessantly advancing in the north of Europe, we cannot but evidently discover three causes of this, which, though different in their natures, have yet been productive of the same effect. The first is that restlessness natural to the people of all nations, but which acts more forceably on the inhabitants of Europe, and is ever urging them to exchange their present condition, in hopes of a better: the second, slower but equally sure, is the change of climate: the third, more sensible, more expeditious, but more accidental, is that communication formed between mankind by commerce and religion, and cemented by a thousand new relations; which has in a short time transported from the South into the North new arts, manners and opinions. These three causes have continually operated, and the face of Scandinavia changes daily. It already shines with somewhat more than borrowed lights. Time produces strange revolutions. Who knows whether the Sun will not one day rise in the North?

End of the First Volume.

1. Sub Septentrionibus nu- triuntur gentes immani- bus corporibus, candidis co- loribus, fanguine multo, quoniam ab humoris pleni- tate, clique refrigera- tionibus funt confirmati. Sanguinis abundantia ferro refiftunt fine timore. Qui refrigeratis nafcuntur regionibus ad armorum ve- hementiam paratiores funt, magnifque viribus ruunt fine timore, fed tarditate animi refringuntur. Vi- truv. lib. vi. The an- cients bear witness to thefe affertions; The fentiments of Vitruvius are here nothing more than their general opi- nion. [Let the reader caft his eye over the following passages. Septen- trionales populi largo fan- guine redundantes. Veget. I, 2. Gothi confcientia virium freti, robore cor- poris validi, manu prompti. Ifidor. Chronic. p. 730. Germanica nationes, fa- viffimis durata frigoribus, mores ex ipfo cceli rigore traxerunt. Ifid. Orig. lib. ix. cap. 2. Scythe gens laboribus et bellis af- pera: vires corporum im- menfa. Juftin. lib. ii. cap. 3. Firft Edit.]
2. L’Histoire des Celtes, tom. i. c. 12. may be consulted in this matter.
3. Vid. Diod. Sic. lib. v. Dion also mentions the coldness of Gaul, lib. lxxix. and Statius in Sylv. lib. x. carm. I.
4. Hybernum fractâ glacie descendet in amnem,
   Juv. Sat. 6.Ter matutino Tyberi mergetur.
   
   

   The abbé du Bos, from whom this quotation is borrowed, adds, that the Tyber at Rome now freezes no more than the Nile at Grand Cairo, and that the Romans reckon it a very rigorous winter if the snow lies two days on the ground unmelted, and if there is any ice on the fountains which are exposed to the North.

5. See in particular lib. ii. sat. 3 et 6.
6. Vid. Trist. lib. iii. eleg. 9. De Ponto. lib. iv. eleg. 7. 9. 10. Tournefort, a native of Provence, says in his Voyages, that there is no part of the world where the climate is more mild, nor the fruits more abundant than in Thrace; and that the Black Sea is now never frozen. Yet Pliny, Herodian, Strabo, and other authors expressly say, that Thrace is in a most frightful climate, that the inhabitants are forced to bury in the earth and to cover over with dung, during the winter, all the fruit-trees they wish to preserve. Ovid and Strabo agree in saying, that the countries about the Boristhenes and the Cimmerian Bosphorus are both uninhabited and uninhabitable by reason of the cold. Vid. Plin. lib. xv. c. 18. Herodian. lib. i. p. 26. Strabo 11. Ovid. Trist. lib. iii.
7. Vid. Pausan. Arcad. c. xii. The Gaulish and German horfes were very small and ill-made, as are these of the coldest parts of Scandinavia, which M. Buffon attributes to the severe cold of those countries. V. Hift. Nat. tom. iv. du Cheval. Equi non formâ conspicui. Tac. Germ. Jumenta Germanis parva et deformia. Cæsar. de bell. Gallic. lib. xiv.
8. Vid. Strab. lib. iii. ———[Polybius speaks of Arcadia itself as situate under a cold and humid climate. Lib. iv. c. 21. First Edit.]
9. Quid istis locis asperius? Cicer. Sithonia nix. Germania informis terris. Aspera cœlo. Germania frugiferarum arborum impatiens. Tacitus passim. Gallicâ hyeme frigidior. Petronius. Scythico quid frigore pejus. Ovid. &c. First Edit.
10. “Our colonies in North-America” (says a learned Englishman) “become more temperate in proportion as we cut down the forests; but they are in general colder than the countries of Europe situated under the same latitude.” Vid. Hume’s Political Discours. Disc. 10. p. 246. Father Charlevoix observes the same of Canada. “Experience,” says he, “puts it past contradiction, that the cold decreases in proportion as the country is discovered,” Voyage en Amerique. Lettre X. p. 188.
11. From the old Cimbric word Suidia to burn: Hence lands cleared away and prepared for cultivation are called in the North Suidior and Suidioland. The same derivation holds in the German dialect; Sueden from Sueda, to burn. Vid. Olai Vereli Notæ in Hist. Gotr. et Rolv. 1664. 12mo. T.