And hence Charlemagne’s empire went to pieces as soon as he was dead.  There was nothing permanent in his conquests, except those made against barbarism.  He was raised up to erect barriers against fresh inroads of barbarians.  His whole empire was finally split up into petty sovereignties.  In one sense he founded States, “since he founded the States which sprang up from the dismemberment of his empire.  The kingdoms of Germany, Italy, France, Burgundy, Lorraine, Navarre, all date to his memorable reign.”  But these mediaeval kingdoms were feudal; the power of the kings was nominal.  Government passed from imperialism into the hands of nobles.  The government of Europe in the Middle Ages was a military aristocracy, only powerful as the interests of the people were considered.  Kings and princes did not make much show, except in the trappings of royalty,—­in gorgeous dresses of purple and gold, to suit a barbaric taste,—­in the insignia of power without its reality.  The power was among the aristocracy, who, it must be confessed, ground down the people by a hard feudal rule, but who did not grind the souls out of them, like the imperialism of absolute monarchies, with their standing armies.  Under them the feudal nobles of Europe at length recuperated.  Virtues were born everywhere,—­in England, in France, in Germany, in Holland,—­which were a savor of life unto life:  loyalty, self-respect, fidelity to covenants, chivalry, sympathy with human misery, love of home, rural sports, a glorious rural life, which gave stamina to character,—­a material which Christianity could work upon, and kindle the latent fires of freedom, and the impulses of a generous enthusiasm.  It was under the fostering influences of small, independent chieftains that manly strength and organized social institutions arose once more,—­ the reserved power of unconquerable nations.  Nobody hates feudalism—­in its corruptions, in its oppressions—­more than I do.  But it was the transition stage from the anarchy which the collapse of imperialism produced to the constitutional governments of our times, if we could forget the absolute monarchies which flourished on the breaking up of feudalism, when it became a tyranny and a mockery, but which absolute monarchies flourished only one or two hundred years,—­a sort of necessity in the development of nations to check the insolence and overgrown power of nobles, but after all essentially different from the imperialism of Caesar or Napoleon, since they relied on the support of nobles and municipalities more than on a standing army; yea, on votes and grants from parliaments to raise money to support the army,—­certainly in England, as in the time of Elizabeth.  The Bourbons, indeed, reigned without grants from the people or the nobility, and what was the logical result?—­a French Revolution!  Would a French Revolution have been possible under the Roman Caesars?