We do wrong to regard the middle age as a blank in human history, a useless void between the refinement of antiquity and the freedom of modern times. No vital element of civilization actually died, though all may have fallen into deep sleep, from which they awoke in a wonderful and sublime manner after a thousand years. The substantial portion of antique knowledge and civilization never was forgotten, nor was its better spirit disused, but through subsequent and superior invention has re-appeared in many of the best and noblest productions of modern genius. The fullness of creative fancy characterized the period between the Trojan adventurers and the times of Solon and Pericles, the fountain-head of that variety, originality, and beauty, which marked the unrivaled productions of a later era. What that primary growth was to the richest harvest of Greece, the early centuries of mediæval literature were to all the diversified wealth of modern Europe. The frigid tempestuousness of winter essentially precedes the silent process of vernal vegetation, just as spring must go before the rich maturity of autumnal fruit. When the sources of life were drying up in the immense body of Rome, the fountain of northern energy broke upon the mighty colossus, whose head was still of iron, though its feet were of clay. It fell for its own good and the welfare of the human race; for the sap of a loftier development was so to imbue it, that soon it should be created anew, full of a diviner strength and nobler life. The two opposing poles thus came into a needful contact with each other, and, by means of the elemental struggle occasioned by the civilization of the one, and the barbarism of the other, a happy equilibrium was established between both. The rugged North has always redeemed the effete South, and, by a succession of such amalgamations, secured to humanity perpetual improvement. It is only in this way that new races are assimilated to the old and raised above their level. The inert principle of barbarism at least possesses granite strength, to sustain the active element of civilization and bear it forward. An armful of green fuel thrown upon a dying fire, seems to quench it in clouds of smoke; but soon the moisture is evaporated, the fibres kindle to living flames, and the hearth glows with a purer and more grateful brightness than before.