Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1903-01-01

Henry Norman a Norwegian resi-
dent Of South Melbourne, Australia,
though subject of his majesty King
Edward, is not willing to give undue
honor to the British name. He has
written a vigorous article protesting
against giving King Alfred, whose
mlllennial was celebrated a year ago,
the credit Of being the founder of
England's material greatness. This
he recently sent in a letter to Rasmus
b. Anderson, in which he takes occa-
sion also to commend in fattering
terms the works of this writer. His
contention is that the glory of Britain
dates from the Norman conquest. His
article follows:
At the close Of the ninth century ap-
peared Rollo, who led the flower of the
Norwegian NOTES.-The chivalry of
western Scandinavia, the founders OF
the duchy Of Normandy, which in
course of time became the native land
! of the kings, conquerors, nobility, and
| chivalry Of Great Britain. They en-
barked not for plumber, but to lay the
foundations of empire, to seek an ap-
propriate field whereon to work out
| the great destiny for which they were
reserved; they founded the order of
| gentlemen, whose mission it was to
| diffuse that spirit of chivalry, which
| had but dimly dawned on the magma
ton of the older world in the isolated
careers of a Pericles, Epaminondas.
|
and nobility that resides not in pre-
rogative, and has no necessary connec-
ton with cOrOnetS or ermine it was
| that innate dignity which kings can
not give or parliaments annul; a dis
tinction the Norman might we'll be
proud to recognize as the birth-right
of his fathers and his own. The best
qualities of the Teutonic nations, to
whom the cause of universal civiliza-
ton is intrusted, find their germ in
the genius of the Norman race. 1t
is for that reason that We should lin
ger reverently through the aisles once
echOing to their tread, by the columns
once darkened with their shadows, the
| fortresses that sheltered them while
living, and the tombs that received
them when dead.
Let us never for get that while the
monastries were preserving the
precious monuments of the old world,
the recesses of baronial heights wit
messed the first essays of literature
and fostered the earliest productions
Of European imagination, and from the
opening of the 18th century the pros
poets of literature began to brighten,
Gerbert Anselm, Thomas Aquinas,
Scotus, and Roger Bacon were re-
splendent lights to herald yet mightier
names.
! France was then the literary center
of Europe; through the Normans. her
language was spread from Sicily to
England, her vernacular literature was
initiated in Germany, and became
| naturalized in both Italy and Spain.
The rugged north has always re-
| deemed the effete south, and by sue
cession of such almagamations, Sc
cured to humanity perpetual improve
ment. The influence of Norman
genius at the epoch on literature, art,
science, philosophy, and religion of
the word made that fair nation France
the center Of light, the sovereign of
thought, the beautifier Of life, and the
encyclopedia Of civilization; they re-
deemed Italy, ennobled Spain, and
cultivated Gaul. The Norman con-
quest was England's Trojan war, an
epoch beyond which our learning
| seldom induces our imagination to
ascend. 1t was arduous deeds done
, that lifted it above the dead level of
history, a struggle on the result of
which was staked the dearest interest
of the human race
The Norman conquest undid Anglo
Saxon Britain, but it made the Eng
land of all the later years, the England
of today, momentous at this present
time, not to England alone, but to all