nkind in general from that state of dark ignorance into which
barbarian invasion had cast the world.

During the first ten or fifteen years after its establishment, the
college of the palace had probably followed the court during its
frequent migrations, notwithstanding the number of members, and
the difficulty of transporting the library, which soon became
considerable. Many circumstances, however, seem to show, that after
the construction of the great palace at Aix-la-Chapelle, it became
fixed in that place. The library, we know, was there concentrated; and
several of the books thus collected, such as the Codex Carolinus, &c.
have come down through a long line of emperors to the present day.
Indeed, a great part of the most valuable literature of former ages,
was preserved alone by the efforts of the French monarch for the
revival of science; and the link of connexion between ancient and
modern civilization, owes its existence, as much to the endeavours of
Charlemagne, as even to the papal preservation of antique Rome.

* * * * *

WRITING IN FRANCE.

In the reign of Charlemagne, in the year 796, the mode of writing
underwent a change. The rude characters employed under the Merovingian
race were disused, and the small Roman letters were introduced. As the
spirit of improvement proceeded, new alterations were sought; and some
years afterwards, to write in the large Roman capitals, became the
mode of the day, the initial letter of each paragraph being always
highly ornamented, and sometimes painted, many specimens of which have
come down to the present time. Though at an advanced[12] period of
life when this method of writing first began to prevail, Charlemagne
endeavoured to learn it, and even caused models of the letters to be
laid by his pillow, that during the waking moments of the night, he
might practise the art which he sought to acquire.

[12] I do not know whether it be worth while to attempt to refute
the opinion which has been founded on an erroneous passage in
Eginhard, that Charlemagne could not write. Eginhard understood,
as Gibbon says, the court and the world, and the Latin language,
it is true; but, nevertheless, we may much more rationally believe
that the secretary made use of a vague expression, than
suppose that he wished to imply, in one sentence, the manifest
contradiction of Charlemagne being in the habit of going through