constituted the business of life, it is impossible not to compare them with the building of Babel, or to wonder that the same confusion of tongues terminated both enterprizes.

The metaphysicians applied all their skill to harmonize their systems with scripture, which originated endless dis Their union however was preputes among themselves. served at first by a general warfare against heresy. But when law and logic had freed them from this enemy, the habit of disputation irresistibly impelled to argument. When they had settled their collisions for a moment on substance, form, and accident, the most direful logomachies ensued " de ratione philosophandi." After exhausting subjects, which philosophers of the present day have abandoned, in despair of discovery or elucidation, they began to examine their tests of truth, and the mode of investigation. At the end of the pursuit they at length perceived, "Ut certam de rebus scientiam mens acquirat, nec "inter varia opinionum avia constitutus animus paulo mo"mento illuc impellatur, aut veritatis specie seductus indig

nos foveat errores, ante omnia videndum est, qua sit in-. "sistendum via ad solidam rerum omnium cognitionem ac"quirendam; et investigandam, quænam sit prima ac cer"tissima veritas, quæ tanquam fundamentum sit ac prin"cipium omnis demonstrationis, quæque omnis falsitatis ac "incertitudinis expers, nec ansam dubitationi præbeat, nec › "errori." In useless and endless altercations on universals and particulars, the doctors sat, like Milton's devils, "--and reason'd high,

"And found no end in wandering mazes lost."

Hence originated the famous sects of the REALISTS and NOMINALISTS, who, enlisting under Plato and Aristotle, contested with a zeal inversely proportionate to the significance of the subject.

From the ardor of competition, these debates became a kind of public spectacle. The heat, and passion, and eloquence of the speaker atoned for the unintelligibility of the harangue, and the people listened in admiration, of that phi

losophy, which was to them wholly incomprehensible. These exhibitions were also connected frequently with their religious creeds, and here credulity was ever forward to pre fer and accept the greater mystery. We may judge of the nature of these disputes, from one of the writers of the times. He observes, "Sicut enim rerum, ita propositionum. infinita conversio est. Unum idemque verum esse, et fals sum, et neutrum, adhibitis mille differentiis, facillimè negat et probat. Si eis credis, utrum Deus an non Deus, utrum Christus homo aut non homo, aliquid an non aliquid, nihil. an non nihil, nescis; et sic de cæteris."

It is natural to remark the restriction and limitation im posed on science, by confining the attention of scholars to such inquiries. It left the people in a kind of foolish wonder, and to a desponding neglect of literature. If the doctors had burnt their logics and dialectics, and studied and explained" the great volume of nature," experiment would have finally interested and instructed the people, and an expansion of mind would have preceded the improvement of life.

But to men of such ambitious minds, who, like the Titans, were scaling the skies, things became diminutive in proportion to their proximity. The object within their reach was beneath their examination. The stars, from their distance, solicited and engaged some attention. When the people were trembling at an eclipse of the sun at the end of the millennium, as portentous of the dissolution of the.. world, Everackel dissipated their fears by assuring them, that it was a natural event in its proper time. Gerbert had regulated a dial, from his observations of the pole star through a reed. But this limited knowledge acquired for its possessors among the people the title and reputation of sorcerers.

Of the other branches of natural philosophy it is not uncandid to infer their ignorance from their silence, and the little assistance they could derive from the antients. Though a veneration for the sages of antiquity is considered as hon

orable, it becomes enthusiasm when it imputes to them any depth in what is now called science. Their observations were few, and their discoveries more the gift of chance, than the result of experiments. They appear not to have combined facts to arrive at a principle, but were more accustomed to take the high priori road, as the peculiar track of genius. When we recollect how much nonsense was published under the name of philosophy by such systematizers, we cannot regret, that we have lost many evidences of their folly, nor wonder why the moderns learned so much later the form of the globe, than the mode of the operations of Deity on the substance of angels.

Amidst their labors, the literati found leisure for other amusements. Respectable writers have traced the regular romance to these ages. This is evidence of such a kind of composition at this period, though no proof of its origin at this time. It is natural for man, who sacrificed his race to his curiosity, to be fond of narrative. Tradition handed down from one age the heroes of another, and fancy embellished them in each succession with the fiction of a savage. Storytellers are found in all the eastern countries, and must be interesting to a people, who had no rational engagement for a leisure hour. The bards are noticed in Germany be fore this period, and the "mimi" no doubt added to the arts of recitation the interest of narrative. It is honor enough to the age, that they wrote as well, as recited 'romance; but it is idle to date from this period the origin of fictions, which must have been coeval with society.

Music, which in the former age was regarded as a liberal art, was cultivated in this. It was the subject of study and systém in the Academies. Those only, who excelled in theory and practice, who wrote both words and tunes, were called "musici." The mere composer was styled "cantor.” This art has been a favorite in Germany, and she is still famous for her taste in composition and skill in execution.

The effect of the discovery of the mines at Harz, and of the study of the Roman laws, must be deferred to our

R

next number. We conclude with an enumeration of the writers of this age, to whom we have not before particularly referred.

The principal monument of German literature of the tenth century still extant is Notker's paraphrase on the psalms. Similar expositions on Boethius and the Organon of Aristotle were found by Gerbert at Saint Gall, and attributed to Notker, who died, 1022.

Of the works of the eleventh century, there are still extant, I. A Franconian translation of the Organon of Aristotle. 2. A Glossary treating on matters of economy and husbandry, by an unknown author. 3. A panegyric of an unknown poet, on Anno, Archbishop of Cologne, who died A. D. 1075. It is inserted verbatim in the poetical works of Opitz, and was printed in the German Museum, 1791, with a high German translation by Professor Hegewitz. 4. A fragment of a Franconian translation of the Gospels, which is to be found in Ecardi Veter. Monumentor. Quatern. p. 44, 43. 5. Four Latin German Glossaries. See Gebert. ep. 6. The translation of the Canticles, by Wil leram, published in Schiller's Thesaurus. Willeram was one of the most eminent authors of this century. He studied in Paris, and after his return to Germany retired and spent his life in the cloister. His work on the Canticles contains a paraphrase in Latin hexameters in rhyme, a version in German prose, and an exposition. Though energetic and concise, it does not discover so much improvement in taste, as the works of Ottifried. Its chief value, is to the antiquarian, who wishes to trace the German language to its origin.

Hermannus is extolled as the most distinguished literary character of the age. His commentaries on Cicero and Aristotle, and his mathematical and grammatical works have perished.

MEMOIR RESPECTING THE UNION OF THE
SWISS CANTONS,

And their emancipation from the House of AUSTRIA.
(Continued from page 44.]

WILLIAM TELL, a native of Burglen near Altorf,

Tell

was the first, who was denounced to Gessler, as not having rendered the prescribed honors to the hat. The crime was a singular one, the punishment was as extraordinary. passed for an excellent crossbowman, and had an only son. He was condemned to stand at a certain distance, and strike off an apple from the head of this beloved child.* Compelled to submit to an order so barbarous, he succeeded, without wounding his son. Gessler, filled with astonishment, demanded for what purpose he was furnished with another arrow, which the bailiff observed in his girdle. Tell frankly answered," had I been so unfortunate, as to "kill my son, the second arrow should not have missed the' governor." Provoked to the last degree at such an an swer, Gessler immediately caused the citizen of Uri to be chained, determined to convey him to the castle of Kussnacht, and torture him there, in expiation of his fault. But Providence, says the patriotic Watteville, watched for this brave man. There arose so violent a storm on the lake of Lucerne, which Gessler was obliged to pass with his prisoner, that the boatmen advised the release of Tell from his chains, that he might assist in gaining the bank, as they knew him to be skilful in rowing. Tell in fact soon approached the shore, and watched an opportunity with so

* Two hundred years since, the tree, to which it is said the son of William Tell was bound, stood in the market place of Altorf. On this spot is built a kind of painted tower; and at a little distance a public fountain marks the place, where the father stood, when he shot the apple from the head of his son. Wood.