History of the Anglo-Saxons, Volumen1

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Baudry, 1840
 

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Página 104 - Rhine over the greater part of the seventeen provinces of Gaul. That rich and extensive country, as far as the ocean, the Alps, and the Pyrenees, was delivered to the barbarians, who drove before them, in a promiscuous crowd, the bishop, the senator, and the virgin, laden with the...
Página 297 - ... of very frequent bodily anguish. Go back to the days of his childhood, and, though greatly above his years in the knowledge of men and things, yet see him passing into youth still unable to read ! But when Alfred was twelve years old, Judith, his stepmother, the grand-daughter of Charlemagne, " was sitting one day, surrounded by her family, with a manuscript of Saxon poetry in her hands. With a happy judgment, she proposed it as a gift to him who would the soonest learn to read it. The elder...
Página 20 - It is agreed by the British antiquaries, that the most ancient inhabitants of our island were called Cymry (pronounced Kumri) : they are so named in all that remains of the ancient British literature. The Welsh, who are their descendants, have always called themselves Cymry ; and have given the same appellation to the earliest colonists of our island...
Página 209 - Ealdormen and thegns about you, the fire blazing in the centre, and the whole hall cheered by its warmth, — and while storms of rain and snow are raging without, — a little sparrow flies in at one door, roams around our festive meeting, and passes out at some other entrance. While it is among us it feels not the wintry tempest. It enjoys the short comfort and serenity of its transient stay; but then, plunging into the winter from which it had flown, it disappears from our eyes. Such is here the...
Página 12 - There is an education of mind, distinct from the literary, which is gradually imparted by the contingencies of active life. In this, which is always the education of the largest portion of mankind, our ancestors were never deficient.
Página 59 - The Saxons were a German or Teutonic, that is, a Gothic or Scythian tribe ; and of the various Scythian nations which have been recorded, the Sakai, or Sacae, are the people from whom the descent of the Saxons may be inferred, with the least violation of probability.
Página 222 - Perhaps the conjecture on this dignity which would come nearest the truth, would be, that it was the walda or ruler of the Saxon kingdoms against the Britons, while the latter maintained the struggle for the possession of the country : a species of Agamemnon against the general enemy, not a title of dignity or power against each other. If so, it would be but the war-king of the Saxons in Britain, against its native chiefs.
Página 57 - The first scenes of their civil existence, and of their progressive power, were in Asia, to the east of the Araxes. Here they multiplied and extended their territorial limits, for some centuries, unknown to Europe.
Página 110 - ... devour the bowels of the citizens, and their widows and orphans ; public burthens are made the means of private plunder ; the collection of the national revenue is made the instrument of individual peculation ; none are safe from the devastations of these depopulating robbers. The public taxation is a continual destruction : the burthens, though severe, would be more tolerable, if borne by all equally and in common ; but they are partially imposed and arbitrarily levied : hence many desert their...
Página 115 - ... success, from the same cause, the western regions of Britain may have been plundered by the Scots, and the southern by the Saxons. Some of the maritime states, abandoned by their more powerful countrymen, may have sought the aid of JEtius, as they afterwards accepted that of the Saxons ; but we think the account of Gildas applicable only to particular districts, and not to the whole island."* It is uniformly supposed, by writers best entitled to credit, that the Romans finally quitted Britain...

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