those whom the current is still carrying down
the stream: it were wiser to look before, and on either side of them; they
will better see whither they are going.--

It will perhaps be thought that throughout these volumes the sympathies
of the authoress are a little too chameleon-like,--somewhat too mobile,
and take their changeful hue from the immediate subject, or the last light
thrown upon it. Now the knight, with his faith in God and his own right
arm, his self-reliance, his daring and devotion, claims from the lady, as
is most just, his meed of applause. But by-and-by she catches him upon his
marauding expedition, the ruthless spoliator of the burgher, the
contemptuous oppressor of the artisan; and she does not spare her censure.
One moment she appears to join in the regret that the age of chivalry is
_gone_! The next moment the same phrase rings differently, and when
contemplating the oppressed condition of the peasantry, she rejoices that
the age of chivalry _is_ gone! In one part she makes honourable mention of
the training the youthful nobleman received in the halls of the great,
where he acted as page; but cannot, in another part, refrain from a little
satire on this very system of training. "Noble young gentlemen," she says
p. 32, "who would not to save their lives have employed themselves in any
useful art or manufacture, had no objection to lay cloths, carry up
dishes, wait at table, hold horses, and lead them to the stables; and
noble young ladies did not disdain to perform many of the offices of a
chambermaid at a hotel, for a knightly guest."

We note this versatility of feeling, but hardly for the purpose of blaming
it; for indeed it is the peculiar characteristic of the middle ages thus
to play with our sympathies. They present so many and such different
phases, their institutions are capable of being viewed under such opposite
lights, that it requires more care and watchfulness than is perhaps
consistent with simple honesty of thought and feeling, to preserve one's
self from these fluctuations of sentiment. One who yields unaffectedly to
the genuine impressions which the history of this period produces, will
find his _Ohs_ and his _Hahs_ breaking out in a very contradictory manner.
That knight, with lance at rest which challenges the whole fighting
world--whatever can be tilted at,--who would not be that knight? But the
man cannot read; and thinks an old woman can bewitch him by her spells,
and that h