Section 128. CHARACTER OF CHARLEMAGNE. II.
Reading edition
As a scholar[1], his acquisitions[2] were little superior[3] to those of his unrespected son; and in[4] several points of view the glory of Charlemagne might be[5] extenuated by an analytical dissection. But[6] rejecting a mode of judging equally uncandid and fallacious, we shall find that he possessed in everything that grandeur of[7] conception which distinguishes extraordinary minds[8]. Like Alexander, he seemed born[9] for universal innovation[10]; in a life restlessly active[11], we see him reforming (S. 78, N. 14, B) the coinage[12], and establishing the legal divisions of money[13]; gathering[14] about him the learned of every country, founding schools and collecting libraries; interfering[15], but with the tone of a King, in religious controversies; aiming[16], though prematurely, at the formation of a naval force; attempting[17], for[18] the sake of commerce, the magnificent[19] enterprise of uniting (S. 1, N. 3) the Rhine and[20] Danube; and[21] meditating to mould the[22] discordant codes of Roman and barbarian laws into one uniform system.—Hallam, “The Student’s Middle Ages.”