82 THE HISTORICAL PAST OF ITALY.
described as the tutelary genius, the guardian, and the
7 reward of manly virtues and of religion, and as the
lamp which shone on the inviolate sanctity of the
domestic hearth.
Accordingly, from this date we find the private or
domestic life gradually rising in importance ; and notice
(even in the scanty annals that survive to us) the
purifying effect which the Teutonic ideal has had over
modern civilization, an ideal which, though now divested of
the graceful forms of the exuberant and poetic fancy
which framed the romantic fables of chivalry, is not the
less active in these our own days.
It may, therefore, in conclusion, be repeated that the
great military career of Charlemagne is the least part of
his wonderful epoch, upon which our attention concen-
trates itself. His long reign was the turning point of the
old society, as it merged into the new; as the western
world became subjected to a more wholly European
influence, and ceased to be half Asiatic.