states of East Friesland, we have a
remarkable illustration in the old Frisian Laws. These are in the native
Frisian tongue, and, except that they represent republican rather than
monarchical institutions, are similar in form, in spirit, to the Saxon.

[19] The great blow against the sovereignty of Rome, and the one which
probably prevented Germany from becoming a Roman province, was struck by
the Cheruscan Arminius against Quintilius Varus, in the reign of Augustus.
The date of the organized insurrection of Arminius was A.D. 9; the place,
the neighbourhood of Herford, or Engern, in Westphalia. Drawn into an
inpracticable part of the country, the troops of Varus were suddenly
attacked and cut to pieces--consisting of more than three legions. "Never
was victory more decisive, never was the liberation of an oppressed people
more instantaneous and complete. Throughout Germany the Roman garrisons
were assailed and cut off; and, within a few weeks after Varus had fallen,
the German soil was freed from the foot of an invader.

"Had Arminius been supine or unsuccessful, our Germanic ancestors would
have been enslaved or exterminated in their original seats along the Eyder
and the Elbe. This island would never have borne the name of England, and
we, this great English nation, whose race and language are now overrunning
the earth, from one end of it to the other, would have been utterly cut off
from existence."[68]

[20] _Heliand_ is the gerund from _helian_ = _heal_, and means _the
Healer_ or _Saviour_. It is the name of an old Saxon poem, in alliterative
metre, of the tenth or eleventh century, in the dialect supposed to have
belonged to the parts about Essen, Cleves, and Munster in Westphalia. It is
a sort of Gospel Harmony, or Life of Christ, taken from the Gospels. It has
been edited by Schmeller.

[21] Hildubrand and Hathubrant, father and son, are two legendary heroes
belonging to that cycle of German fiction of which Theodoric of Verona is
the centre. A fragment containing an account of their hostile meeting,
being mutually unknown, in alliterative metre, represents the _fictional_
poetry of the old Saxons in the same way (though not to the same extent)
that the Heliand represents their sacred poetry. The "Hildubrand and
Hathubrant" have been edited by Grimm.

[22] In a language which for a long time was considered to be the Dutch of
Holland in its oldest known form, there is an imperfect translation of the
Psalms; r