have well been named, in which genius had sufficient freedom in
determining its own direction to devote itself with all its strength
to great creations.

As the German spirit at the epoch of the Reformation, so the English
spirit at the beginning of the seventeenth century, took its place
among the rival nationalities which stood apart from one another on
the domain of Western Christendom, and on whose exertions the advance
of the human race depends.

NOTES:

[379] In a letter to Casaubon he says 'vitam et res humanas et medias
earum turbas per contemplationes sanas et veras instructiores esse
volo.' (Works vi. 51).

[380] Sam. Cox in Nicolas' Memoirs of Hatton, App. XXX.

BOOK V.

DISPUTES WITH PARLIAMENT DURING THE LATER YEARS OF THE REIGN OF JAMES
I AND THE EARLIER YEARS OF THE REIGN OF CHARLES I.

It has been my wish hitherto in my narrative to suppress myself as it
were, and only to let the events speak and the mighty forces be seen
which, arising out of and strengthened by each other's action in the
course of centuries, now stood up against one another, and became
involved in a stormy contest, which discharged itself in bloody and
terrible outbursts, and at the same time was fraught with the decision
of questions most important for the European world.

The British islands, which in ancient times had been the extreme
border-land, or even beyond the extreme border-land of civilisation,
had now become one of its most important centres, and, owing to the
union just effected, had taken a grand position among the powers of
the world. But it is nevertheless clear at first sight that the
constituent elements of the population were far from being completely
fused. In many places in the two great islands the old Celtic stock
still existed with its original character unaltered. The Germanic
race, which certainly had an indubitable preponderance and was
sovereign over the other, was split into two different kingdoms,
which, despite the union of the two crowns, still remained distinct.
The hostility of the two races was increased by a difference of
religion, which was closely connected with this hostility though it
was not merged in it. As a general rule the men of Celtic extraction
remained true to the Roman Catholic faith, while the Germanic race was
penetrated by Protestant convictions. Yet there were Protestants among
the former, and we know how numerous and how powerful the Catholics
were among the la