Of the new languages which were produced at the close of the tenth century, one appeared to prevail over all others, and became widely spread. Innumerable writers almost cotemporaneously employed this recent vernacular, which owed nothing of its originality to what is usually termed classical literature. They rapidly spread their reputation from Spain to Italy, and from Germany to England, and as suddenly disappeared. While the nations were yet listening in wonder, the voice of the Troubadours became silent, the Provençal dialect was abandoned, and its productions were ranked among the dead languages. This, too, was a part of that process in the moral world, as in the natural, wherein the fresh germ is hidden beneath decay, and that which we in our short-sightedness deplore, is most essential to the new life already proceeding from death. The greatest excellence is often elaborated amid the severest trials, and the calamities we would gladly avert, have most of all contributed to progress, intellectual and moral. Simultaneous with the Provençal poetry, chivalry had its rise. It was the soul of the new literature, and gave to it a character generically different from any thing in antiquity. Chivalry is not synonymous with the feudal system; on the contrary, it is the ideal world, such as it existed in the imagination of the romance writers. Devotion to woman, and to honor, constituted its essential character. It is difficult to decide who were the inventors of that chivalric spirit which burned in the mediæval romances; but no one can fail to be astonished as he observes how splendid and sudden was that burst of genius which the Troubadours and Trouvèrs exemplified. That it did not originate in the manners and traditions of the Germans, seems quite evident. Their brave, loyal, but rude habits, could never have contributed to the development of the sentiment and heroism of chivalry. The romance writers of the twelfth century placed the age of chivalry in the time of Charlemagne, and caused the Paladins of his court, as well as the famous emperor himself, to figure in many of the gorgeous fictions of loyalty, virtue, and grace. Chivalry existed rather in gallantry and sentiment, than in imagination; it was a lyric to be sung, and not an epic to be read. Its spirit hovered over the age at large, but the first romances actually composed, were produced in northern France, and especially in Normandy. As the renovating tempest deepened its tumultuous might, heaven came down to mitigate the savageness of earth, and religious gallantry soon made humane gentleness an indispensable accompaniment of true valor. Thus the spirit of chivalry was a consequence of feudal life, as it was an antidote against its evils. By the mediæval poets and romancers, we are carried into an exalted realm, wherein all things are great and marvelous. On every hand we come in contact with feats of prowess, tempered by generosity. The