sition of a people. And this certainly was among the
characteristics of every nation for many centuries.

[Sidenote: Degradation of morals.]

It is easy to infer the degradation of society during the dark ages from
the state of religion and police. Certainly there are a few great
landmarks of moral distinctions so deeply fixed in human nature, that no
degree of rudeness can destroy, nor even any superstition remove them.
Wherever an extreme corruption has in any particular society defaced
these sacred archetypes that are given to guide and correct the
sentiments of mankind, it is in the course of Providence that the
society itself should perish by internal discord or the sword of a
conqueror. In the worst ages of Europe there must have existed the seeds
of social virtues, of fidelity, gratitude, and disinterestedness,
sufficient at least to preserve the public approbation of more elevated
principles than the public conduct displayed. Without these imperishable
elements there could have been no restoration of the moral energies;
nothing upon which reformed faith, revived knowledge, renewed law, could
exercise their nourishing influences. But history, which reflects only
the more prominent features of society, cannot exhibit the virtues that
were scarcely able to struggle through the general depravation. I am
aware that a tone of exaggerated declamation is at all times usual with
those who lament the vices of their own time; and writers of the middle
ages are in abundant need of allowance on this score. Nor is it
reasonable to found any inferences as to the general condition of
society on single instances of crimes, however atrocious, especially
when committed under the influence of violent passion. Such enormities
are the fruit of every age, and none is to be measured by them. They
make, however, a strong impression at the moment, and thus find a place
in contemporary annals, from which modern writers are commonly glad to
extract whatever may seem to throw light upon manners. I shall,
therefore, abstain from producing any particular cases of dissoluteness
or cruelty from the records of the middle ages, lest I should weaken a
general proposition by offering an imperfect induction to support it,
and shall content myself with observing that times to which men
sometimes appeal, as to a golden period, were far inferior in every
moral comparison to those in which we are thrown.[546] One crime, as
more universal and characteri