tradition.  The thinking mind pauses in sadness to contemplate the spectacle of these weary ages, when his brother man was the most ferocious of beasts, and when all the discipline of life tended only to sink him into deeper abysses of brutality and misery.  There is here a problem in the divine government which no human wisdom can solve.  There is consolation only in the announcement that what we know not now, we shall know hereafter.  All these diverse nations blending have formed the present Russians.

Along the shores of the Baltic, these people assumed the name of Scandinavians, and subsequently Normans.  Toward the close of the eighth century, the Normans filled Europe with the renown of their exploits, and their banners bade defiance even to the armies of Charlemagne.  Early in the ninth century they ravaged France, Italy, Scotland, England, and passed over to Ireland, where they built cities which remain to the present day.  “There is no manner of doubt,” writes M. Karamsin in his history of Russia, “that five hundred years before Christopher Columbus, they had discovered North America, and instituted commerce with the natives.”

It is not until the middle of the ninth century, that we obtain any really reliable information respecting the inhabitants of central Russia.  They are described as a light-complexioned, flaxen-haired race, robust, and capable of great endurance.  Their huts were cheerless, affording but little shelter, and they lived upon the coarsest food, often devouring their meat raw.  The Greeks expressed astonishment at their agility in climbing precipitous cliffs, and admired the hardihood with which they plunged through bogs, and swam the most rapid and swollen streams.  He who had the most athletic vigor was the greatest man, and all the ambition and energy of the nation were expended in the acquisition of strength and agility.

They are ever described as strangers to fear, rushing unthinkingly upon certain death.  They were always ready to accept combat with the Roman legions.  Entire strangers to military strategy, they made no attacks in drilled lines or columns, but the whole tumultuous mass, in wild disorder rushed upon the foe, with the most desperate daring, having no guide but their own ferocity and the chieftains who led small bands.  Their weapons consisted of swords, javelins and poisoned arrows, and each man carried a heavy shield.  As they crossed the Danube in their bloody forays, incited by love of plunder, the inhabitants of the Roman villages fled before them.  When pursued by an invincible force they would relinquish life rather than their booty, even when the plunder was of a kind totally valueless in their savage homes.  The ancient annals depict in appalling colors the cruelties they exercised upon their captives.  They were, however, as patient in endurance as they were merciless in infliction.  No keenness of torture could force from them a cry of pain.

Yet these people, so ferocious, are described as remarkably amiable among themselves, seldom quarreling, honest and truthful, and practicing hospitality with truly patriarchal grace.  Whenever they left home, the door was unfastened and food was left for any chance wayfarer.  A guest was treated as a heavenly messenger, and was guided on his way with the kindest expressions for his welfare.