of the people, till these recitals became a national passion, a national poetry; so, at the time of which we speak, the traditions of what may be called the heroic ages of Christianity had the same interest for the nations of Europe. There were men who made it their business to collect them, to transcribe them, to read or recite them aloud, for the edification and delight of the people. And this was the only literature, properly so called, of that time." The crusades were not less providential in their origin, than they were contagious in their progress, and revolutionary in their consequences. A sudden frenzy took possession of the minds of the western world, and poured itself upon the exhausted realms of the East, to the end that whatever remnants of good might yet remain therein, should be borne as a timely contribution to the new and more auspicious field. This important movement originated in the cultivated mind of Gerbert, in the first year of his pontificate; was accelerated by Hildebrand, and carried into most effectual execution by Urban II. and the eloquent Peter the Hermit. The first army marched A.D. 1096, and in 1099 Jerusalem was taken. The advantages derived from this event, in a literary point of view, were very great. The western champions of the cross in general passed through the great capital of the East; and in their transit the gates of Constantinople, and the palaces and churches, with their sumptuous and splendid decorations, were thrown open to their admiring view. This intercourse with a refined people, however transient, afforded the experience of many social conveniences, fresh conceptions of the refinements of polished letters and arts, together with the partial knowledge of a language in which few could be ignorant that works of immortal renown had been composed. Moreover, many Greek scholars, who could no longer find either employment or Security at home, emigrated into different regions of the West, and contributed largely to the promotion of learning, and to awaken the first feelings of a laudable curiosity which subsequent events more fully satisfied.