on the Saxons

Gibbon on the early government of seven Saxon kings in England:

“It has been pretended that this republic of kings was moderated by a general council and a supreme magistrate. But such an artificial scheme of policy is repugnant to the crude and turbulent spirit of the Saxons; their laws are silent; and their imperfect annals afford only a dark and bloody prospect of intestine discord.”

And by the way, since making my recent post about Gibbon’s use of the word “insensibly,” I’ve seen him do it four additional times. The slow occurrence of gradual, unnoticed reversals is really his favorite theme, I’d say.

For example, here’s the most recent case:

“Under the long dominion of the emperors, Britain had been insensibly moulded into the elegant and servile form of a Roman province, whose safety was entrusted to a foreign power.”