A soil, exhausted by the long culture of Pagan empires, was to lie fallow for a still longer period. |
The gigantic Gaul derided the Roman soldiers as a band of pigmies. |
In the tenth century the old Batavian and later Roman forms have faded away. |
The ferocious inroads of the Normans scared many weak and timid persons into servitude. |
The splendid empire of Charles the Fifth was erected upon the grave of liberty. |
A good lawyer is a bad Christian. |
Thus again the Netherlands, for the first time since the fall of Rome, were united under one crown imperial. They had already been once united, in their slavery to Rome. |
The whole territory of the Netherlands was girt with forests. |
For a century longer, Rome still retains its outward form, but the swarming nations are now in full career. |
Wealth brings strength, strength confidence. |
The rise of the Dutch Republic must ever be regarded as one of the leading events of modern times. |
A terrible animal, indeed, is an unbridled woman. |
Thus the liberties of Holland and Flanders waxed, daily, stronger. |
History shows how feeble are barriers of paper. |
A new civilization was not to be improvised by a single mind. |
When did one man ever civilize a people? |
Enthusiasm could not supply the place of experience. |
With the Germans, the sovereignty resided in the great assembly of the people. |
The sword - the first, for a time the only force: the force of iron. |
Thus the whole country was broken into many shreds and patches of sovereignty. |