" Whether
he succeeds, I must leave my readers to decide. Tacitus describes the
quarrels of the Germans; fought, then with weapons; now, with words: their
gambling, their sloth, their drunkenness. "Strong beer, a liquor extracted
with very little art from wheat or barley, and _corrupted_ (as it is
strongly expressed by Tacitus) into a certain semblance of wine, was
sufficient for the gross purposes of German debauchery." Tacitus informs
us, too, "that they sleep far into the day; that on rising they take a
bath, usually of warm water; then they eat." To pass an entire day and
night in drinking, disgraces no one: "Dediti somno ciboque," he says; a
people handed over to sloth and gluttony. Some of these customs are now
almost obsolete; the baths, for instance. In others, there has been little
alteration since the Age of Tacitus; and the Germans have adhered, with
obstinate fidelity, to their primitive habits. Tacitus thought less of
their capacity, upon the whole, than it is usual to think now: "The
Chatti," he says, "for Germans, have much intelligence;" "Leur
intelligence et leur finesse etonnent, dans des Germains.
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