We must conceive that the ancient Germans were little removed from the
original state of nature: the social confederacy among them was more
martial than civil: they had chiefly in view the means of attack or
defence against public enemies, not those of protection against their
fellow-citizens: their possessions were so slender and so equal, that
they were not exposed to great danger; and the natural bravery of the
people made every man trust to himself and to his particular friends for
his defence or vengeance. This defect in the political union drew much
closer the knot of particular confederacies: an insult upon any man was
regarded by all his relations and associates as a common injury: they
were bound by honor, as well as by a sense of common interest,
to revenge his death, or any violence which he had suffered: they
retaliated on the aggressor by like acts of violence; and if he were
protected, as was natural and usual, by his own clan, the quarrel was
spread still wider, and bred endless disorders in the nation.
The Frisians, a tribe of the Germans, had never advanced beyond this
wild and imperfect state of society; and the right of private revenge
still remained among them unlimited and uncontrolled.
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