zot, to whose judgment I owe all deference,
has dwelt rather too much on the feudal character of chivalry. Hist. de
la Civilisation en France, Lecon 36. Hence he treats the institution as
in its decline during the fourteenth century, when, if we can trust
either Froissart or the romancers, it was at its height. Certainly, if
mere knighthood was of right both in England and the north of France, a
territorial dignity, which bore with it no actual presumption of merit,
it was sometimes also conferred on a more honourable principle. It was
not every knight who possessed a fief, nor in practice did every
possessor of a fief receive knighthood.

Guizot justly remarks, as Sismondi has done, the disparity between the
lives of most knights and the theory of chivalrous rectitude. But the
same has been seen in religion, and can be no reproach to either
principle. Partout la pensee morale des hommes s'eleve et aspire fort au
dessus de leur vie. Et gardez vous de croire que parce qu'elle ne
gouvernait pas immediatement les actions, parceque la pratique demontait
sans cesse et etrangement la theorie, l'influence de la theorie fut
nulle et sans valeur. C'est beaucoup que le jugement des hommes sur les
actions humaines; tot ou tard il devient efficace.

It may be thought by many severe judges, that I have over-valued the
efficacy of chivalrous sentiments in elevating the moral character of
the middle ages. But I do not see ground for withdrawing or modifying
any sentence. The comparison is never to be made with an ideal standard,
or even with one which a purer religion and a more liberal organization
of society may have rendered effectual, but with the condition of a
country where neither the sentiments of honour nor those of right
prevail. And it seems to me that I have not veiled the deficiencies and
the vices of chivalry any more than its beneficial tendencies.

A very fascinating picture of chivalrous manners has been drawn by a
writer of considerable reading, and still more considerable ability, Mr.
Kenelm Digby, in his Broad Stone of Honour. The bravery, the
courteousness, the munificence, above all, the deeply religious
character of knighthood and its reverence for the church, naturally took
hold of a heart so susceptible of these emotions, and a fancy so quick
to embody them. St. Palaye himself is a less enthusiastic eulogist of
chivalry, because he has seen it more on the side of mere romance, and
been less penetrated with t