rks of Lessing and Herder will be produced in Germany; and yet the
names of these two men will fill a German with a reverence and
enthusiasm such as the names of the most gifted masters will hardly
awaken. And why? Because they _humanized_ knowledge; because they
broadened the basis of life and intelligence; because they worked
powerfully to diffuse sweetness and light, to make reason and the will
of God prevail. With Saint Augustine they said:--"Let us not leave thee
alone to make in the secret of thy knowledge, as thou didst before the
creation of the firmament, the division of light from darkness; let the
children of thy spirit, placed in their firmament, make their light
shine upon the earth, mark the division of night and day, and announce
the revolution of the times; for the old order is passed, and the new
arises; the night is spent, the day is come forth; and thou shalt crown
the year with thy blessing, when thou shalt send forth laborers into thy
harvest sown by other hands than theirs; when thou shalt send forth new
laborers to new seed-times, whereof the harvest shall be not yet."

Keeping this in view, I have in my own mind often indulged myself with
the fancy of employing, in order to designate our aristocratic class,
the name of _The Barbarians_. The Barbarians, to whom we all owe so
much, and who reinvigorated and renewed our worn-out Europe, had, as is
well known, eminent merits; and in this country, where we are for the
most part sprung from the Barbarians, we have never had the prejudice
against them which prevails among the races of Latin origin. The
Barbarians brought with them that stanch individualism, as the modern
phrase is, and that passion for doing as one likes, for the assertion of
personal liberty, which appears to Mr. Bright the central idea of
English life, and of which we have at any rate a very rich supply. The
stronghold and natural seat of this passion was in the nobles of whom
our aristocratic class are the inheritors; and this class, accordingly,
have signally manifested it, and have done much by their example to
recommend it to the body of the nation, who already, indeed, had it in
their blood. The Barbarians, again, had the passion for field-sports;
and they have handed it on to our aristocratic class, who of this
passion, too, as of the passion for asserting one's personal liberty,
are the great natural stronghold. The care of the Barbarians for the
body, and for all manly exercise