A History of England Under the Anglo-Saxon Kings #228292

An epoch of great convulsions would scarcely seem to be consistent with the developement of the higher forms of life. Perhaps my estimate of the Middle Ages, which is rather more favourable than that commonly taken, has been coloured by the same tendency to believe in growth rather than in sudden and violent revolutions. It is difficult to study a literature and laws that are as English as our own in spirit and purpose without feeling that we have inherited good as well as evil from the past.