s destined to remain forever unique in its kind. As
different from the German feudalism which neighboured it upon the West,
as from the conquering spirit of the Turks which disquieted it on
the East, it resembled Europe in its chivalric Christianity, in its
eagerness to attack the infidel, even while receiving instruction in
sagacious policy, in military tactics, and sententious reasoning, from
the masters of Byzantium. By the assumption, at the same time, of the
heroic qualities of Mussulman fanaticism and the sublime virtues of
Christian sanctity and humility, [Footnote: It is well known with how
many glorious names Poland has enriched the martyrology of the Church.
In memorial of the countless martyrs it had offered, the Roman Church
granted to the order of Trinitarians, or Redemptorist Brothers, whose
duty it was to redeem from slavery the Christians who had fallen into
the hands of the Infidels, the distinction, only granted to this nation,
of wearing a crimson belt. These victims to benevolence were
generally from the establishments near the frontiers, such as those of
Kamieniec-Podolski.] it mingled the most heterogeneous elements, and
thus planted in its very bosom the seeds of ruin and decay.

The general culture of Latin letters, the knowledge of and love for
Italian and French literature gave a lustre and classical polish to the
startling contrasts we hare attempted to describe. Such a civilization
must necessarily impress all its manifestations with its own seal. As
was natural for a nation always engaged in war, forced to reserve its
deeds of prowess and valor for its enemies upon the field of battle, it
was not famed for the romances of knight-errantry, for tournaments or
jousts; it replaced the excitement and splendor of the mimic war by
characteristic fetes, in which the gorgeousness of personal display
formed the principal feature.

There is certainly nothing new in the assertion, that national character
is, in some degree, revealed by national dances. We believe, however,
there are none in which the creative impulses can be so readily
deciphered, or the ensemble traced with so much simplicity, as in the
Polonaise. In consequence of the varied episodes which each individual
was expected to insert in the general frame, the national intuitions
were revealed with the greatest diversity. When these distinctive marks
disappeared, when the original flame no longer burned, when no one
invented scenes for the