on of chivalry,
whatsoever opinion may now be formed of the policy of those great
contests. No sight more glorious can be imagined than the chivalry of
the West marching triumphantly through the heart of Europe to avenge the
wrongs and indignities of the Cross upon the Infidel, and contend against
four-fold odds under the walls of Antioch and Jerusalem, to recover the
Holy Sepulchre from the pollution of Moslem hands. Whatsoever opinion
the sober philosophy of history may now pronounce on these great wars,
they were dictated by the highest aspirations, and ennobled by the most
heroic actions, and they stand out nobly on the headlands of the past as
monuments of human grandeur.

Although we have only viewed the institution of chivalry in its outward
and more attractive aspects, yet it inculcated a high code of personal
morality, very beneficial in the feudal ages. In this era the law was
feeble, and its administration so often fruitless, that the greatest
restraint on power, and the best security for the rights of individuals,
and more especially of the weak, was personal honor; and this in its
highest sense was generally characteristic of the barons and knights.
They as frequently armed to redress the wrongs of the weak as to avenge
their own personal injuries. The maiden's wail, the orphan's cry, were
to them the most potent spring of action for the most fatal rencontres.
The faithless knight who might happen to injure virgin purity, or oppress
unarmed and defenceless people, roused the resentment of the whole order
of chivalry, and was pursued from castle to cloister, and from land to
land, till his blood atoned for his lust or cruelty. Chivalry inculcated
upon its members the highest honor, fidelity, truth, and justice; and in
the absence of strong public law, administered equally with a powerful
and impartial hand, formed the best code of law and morals in the feudal
times. We find examples of faithless barons and recreant knights, as
there are exceptions to every rule, and blots upon every picture; yet in
the main the very code in which they were instructed, and the habits
which they acquired had a most beneficial influence in the formation of
their characters, and furnished many illustrious examples of human
virtue, and public renown.

The feudal system was, moreover, fertile of the military spirit, and this
in its fullest vigor was necessary for the defence of the nation, as well
as of individuals, in the