n eye.]

[Footnote 76: It was contained between the two branches of the old
Rhine, as they subsisted before the face of the country was changed by
art and nature. See Cluver German. Antiq. l. iii. c. 30, 37.]

II. The strength of ancient Germany appears formidable, when we consider
the effects that might have been produced by its united effort. The wide
extent of country might very possibly contain a million of warriors, as
all who were of age to bear arms were of a temper to use them. But
this fierce multitude, incapable of concerting or executing any plan
of national greatness, was agitated by various and often hostile
intentions. Germany was divided into more than forty independent states;
and, even in each state, the union of the several tribes was extremely
loose and precarious. The barbarians were easily provoked; they knew not
how to forgive an injury, much less an insult; their resentments were
bloody and implacable. The casual disputes that so frequently happened
in their tumultuous parties of hunting or drinking, were sufficient
to inflame the minds of whole nations; the private feuds of any
considerable chieftains diffused itself among their followers and
allies. To chastise the insolent, or to plunder the defenceless, were
alike causes of war. The most formidable states of Germany affected
to encompass their territories with a wide frontier of solitude and
devastation. The awful distance preserved by their neighbors attested
the terror of their arms, and in some measure defended them from the
danger of unexpected incursions. [77]

[Footnote 77: Caesar de Bell. Gal. l. vi. 23.]

"The Bructeri [771] (it is Tacitus who now speaks) were totally
exterminated by the neighboring tribes, [78] provoked by their insolence,
allured by the hopes of spoil, and perhaps inspired by the tutelar
deities of the empire. Above sixty thousand barbarians were destroyed;
not by the Roman arms, but in our sight, and for our entertainment. May
the nations, enemies of Rome, ever preserve this enmity to each other!
We have now attained the utmost verge of prosperity, [79] and
have nothing left to demand of fortune, except the discord of the
barbarians." [80]--These sentiments, less worthy of the humanity than of
the patriotism of Tacitus, express the invariable maxims of the policy
of his countrymen. They deemed it a much safer expedient to divide than
to combat the barbarians, from whose defeat they could derive neither
honor n