[102] The grammar and logic, the music and astronomy, of the times, were only cultivated as the handmaids of superstition; but the curiosity of the human mind must ultimately tend to its improvement, and the encouragement of learning reflects the purest and most pleasing lustre on the character of Charlemagne.

[103] The dignity of his person, [104] the length of his reign, the prosperity of his arms, the vigor of his government, and the reverence of distant nations, distinguish him from the royal crowd; and Europe dates a new aera from his restoration of the Western empire.
[Footnote 95: By Mably, (Observations sur l'Histoire de France,) Voltaire, (Histoire Generale,) Robertson, (History of Charles V.,) and Montesquieu, (Esprit des Loix, l.xxxi.c.

18.) In the year 1782, M.
Gaillard published his Histoire de Charlemagne, (in 4 vols.

in 12mo.,) which I have freely and profitably used.

The author is a man of sense and humanity; and his work is labored with industry and elegance.