intrust that aspiring order with temporal dominion and civil
jurisdiction; and his son Lewis, when he was stripped and degraded
by the bishops, might accuse, in some measure, the imprudence of his
father. His laws enforced the imposition of tithes, because the daemons
had proclaimed in the air that the default of payment had been the cause
of the last scarcity. The literary merits of Charlemagne are attested
by the foundation of schools, the introduction of arts, the works
which were published in his name, and his familiar connection with the
subjects and strangers whom he invited to his court to educate both the
prince and people. His own studies were tardy, laborious, and imperfect;
if he spoke Latin, and understood Greek, he derived the rudiments of
knowledge from conversation, rather than from books; and, in his mature
age, the emperor strove to acquire the practice of writing, which every
peasant now learns in his infancy. The grammar and logic, the music
and astronomy, of the times, were only cultivated as the handmaids of
superstition; but the curiosity of the human mind must ultimately tend
to its improvement, and the encouragement of learning reflects the
purest and most pleasing lustre on the character of Charlemagne. The
dignity of his person, the length of his reign, the prosperity of his
arms, the vigor of his government, and the reverence of distant nations,
distinguish him from the royal crowd; and Europe dates a new aera from
his restoration of the Western empire.

That empire was not unworthy of its title; and some of the fairest
kingdoms of Europe were the patrimony or conquest of a prince, who
reigned at the same time in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Hungary.
I. The Roman province of Gaul had been transformed into the name and
monarchy of France; but, in the decay of the Merovingian line, its
limits were contracted by the independence of the _Britons_ and the
revolt of _Aquitain_. Charlemagne pursued, and confined, the Britons
on the shores of the ocean; and that ferocious tribe, whose origin
and language are so different from the French, was chastised by the
imposition of tribute, hostages, and peace. After a long and evasive
contest, the rebellion of the dukes of Aquitain was punished by the
forfeiture of their province, their liberty, and their lives. Harsh and
rigorous would have been such treatment of ambitious governors, who had
too faithfully copied the mayors of the palace. But a recent d