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BEOLINE OP THE ASA-EAITH. 819
itself through a long course of centuries with unim-
paired power, even amid violent outward convul-
sions. But the Asa-faith was not such a religion.
It is evident, on the contrary, that in the form under
which we know it, it must of necessity draw its
votaries into a life of activity, or rather, tear them
almost involuntarily out. into the wildest tumult of
the World. History shows us also how the Germanic
nations in earlier times, and afterward the
Northmen, inflamed by this faith, developed a
warlike power and boldness which shook Europe's
former social fabric to its foundations—^how great
hosts of Northmen were driven by this faith to a
Yiking-life which knew no home, no rest, and but
few of the milder feelings of humanity ; and how
the warlike spirit among them toward the close of
heathendom blazed out with a wild ferocity which,
as it were, consumed itself.
But in this agitated life, which the Asa-faith,
although it did not, perhaps, call it forth from the
first, yet did so strongly support, there lay an effec-
tive germ, not only of changes in the doctrines
themselves, but more especially of revolutions in
the religious opinions of its votaries— ^revolutions
which, in the course of time, were, of necessity, to
involve its decline and fall.
The Viking's life and uninterrtipted warfare kept
many of the chieftains and large troops of men the
greater part of the time away from their homes and
from the sanctuaries of the people, and made them
by degrees foreign and indifferent to. them, while
they, at the same time, came in contact with people