Part 3 (2/2)

Thus, as if by enchantious Man and his fortunes, in all clies, became topics of intense interest, especially when they tended to degrade by contrast the detested condition of things at home This was the weak side of historical speculation in France: it was essentially poleenuine interest in the past than by strong hatred of the present Of this perturbation note eht from the narrow limits of nation and creed produced, as it were in a es may equal, but can hardly surpass

The influence of French thought was European, and nowhere land In other countries it was too despotic, and produced in Ger's memorable reaction But the robust national and political life of England reduced it to a welco of our insular temperament The Scotch, who had a traditional connection with France, were the first irown in the same soil as Voltaire, was only three years behind hie of Louis XIV_ was published in 1751, and the first voluland_ in 1754 Hume was no disciple of Voltaire; he simply wrote under the stimulus of the same order of ideas Robertson, who shortly followed him, no doubt drew direct inspiration frohtiest achievement, the View of the State of Europe, prefixed to his _History of Charles V_, was largely influenced, if it was not absolutely suggested, by the _Essay on Manners_ But both Hume and Robertson surpassed their ht, that the French were their masters The Scotch writers had no quarrel with their country or their age as the French had One was a Tory, the other a Whig; and Hume allowed himself to be unworthily affected by party bias in his historical judgment But neither was tempted to turn history into a covert attack on the condition of things anity of tone and language, very different from the petulant brilliancy of Voltaire, who is never so happy as when he can make the past look mean and ridiculous, merely because it was the parent of the odious present But, excellent as were the Scotch historians--Huravity and shrewd sense--they yet left much to be desired Hu the whole history of England from the Ro that the subject was new to hienuine research out of the question Robertson had the oddest way of consulting his friends as to what subject it would be advisable for him to treat, and was open to proposals from any quarter with exemplary impartiality; this only showed how little the stern conditions of real historic inquiry were appreciated by hi them injustice to say that these eminent men were a sort of modern Livies, chiefly occupied with the rhetorical part of their work, and not over inclined to waste their ti in the deep mines of historic lore

Obviously the place was open for a writer who should unite all the broad spirit of coh and minute patience of a Benedictine; whose subject, ht him rather than he it; whose whole previous course of study had been an unconscious preparation for one great effort which was to fill his life When Gibbon sat down to write his book, the man had been found who united these difficult conditions

The decline and fall of Roer portion of the earth's surface, it affected the lives and fortunes of a larger nus, than any other revolution on record For it was essentially one, though it took centuries to consuh it had for its theatre the civilised world Great evolutions and catastrophes happened before it, and have happened since, but nothing which can compare with it in volume and mere physical size Nor was it less morally The destruction of Rome was not only a destruction of an eht, of a system of human beliefs, of morals, politics, civilisation, as all these had existed in the world for ages The dra, that even at this day we are hardly reh to take it fully in The s under the load imposed upon it The capture and sack of a town one can fairly conceive: theroofs, the desolation Even the devastation of a province can be approxiht can embrace the devastation and destruction of all the civilised portions of Europe, Africa, and Asia? Who can realise a Thirty Years War lasting five hundred years? a devastation of the Palatinate extending through fifteen generations?

If we try to insert into the picture, as we undoubtedly should do, the founding of the nehich was going on beside this destruction of the old, the settling down of the barbarian hosts in the conquered provinces, the expansion of the victorious Church, driving paganis it entirely, the effort becoend of the Seven Sleepers testifies to the need edy had coeable for on around theion The fall of Roan world and the birth of the new Christian world--the greatest transition in history

This, and no less than this, is Gibbon's subject

He has treated it in such a way as even now fills co like astonishe of his matter, the variety of his topics, the cohness of his knowledge, never failing at any point over the vast field, the ease and mastery hich he lifts the enormous load, are appreciated in proportion to the information and abilities of his critic One testimonial will suffice Mr Freeman says: ”That Gibbon should ever be displaced seems impossible That wonderful enius and the historical learning of a whole generation, and left little, indeed, of either for his contehteenth century whom modern research has neither set aside nor threatened to set aside We may correct and improve from the stores which have been opened since Gibbon's tie parts of his story from other and often truer and more wholesome points of view, but the work of Gibbon as a whole, as the encyclopaedic history of 1300 years, as the grandest of historical designs, carried out alike onderful power and onderful accuracy, must ever keep its place Whatever else is read, Gibbon must be read too”

Gibbon's immense scheh at least two distinct stages in the conception of his work The original idea had been confined to the decline and fall of the city of Roan to write, this had been expanded to the fall of the empire of the West The first volume, whichhim publish in the last chapter, was only an instalh a doubt as to how his labours would be received The two following volumes, published in 1781, completed his primitive plan Then he paused exactly a year before he resolved to carry on his work to its true end, the taking of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453 The latter portion he achieved in three voluave to the world on his fifty-first birthday, in 1788

Thus the work naturally falls into two equal parts It will be ard in our remarks the interval of five years which separated the publication of the first volume from its two immediate companions The first three volumes constitute a whole in themselves, which ill now consider

From the accession of Commodus, AD 180, to the last of the Western Caesars, AD 476, three centuries elapsed The first date is a real point of departure, the coe of decay in the empire The second is a mere official record of the final disappearance of a series of phanto was hardly noticed Between these limits the empire passed froh the dreadful century of anarchy between Pertinax and Diocletian, through the relative peace brought about by Diocletian's reforms, the civil wars of the sons of Constantine, the disastrous defeat of Julian, the calamities of the Gothic war, the short respite under Theodosius, the growing anarchy and es of Rome and its sack by the Goths, the awful appearance of Attila and his Huns, the final subence of the Western Empire under the barbarians, and the universal ruin which marked the close of the fifth century This was the temporal side of affairs On the spiritual, we have the silent occult growth of the early Church, the conversion of Constantine, the tremendous conflict of hostile sects, the heresy of Arius, the final triumph of Athanasius, the spread of anisun

Over all this i attitude of pohich arose from his consciousness of complete preparation

What there was to be known of his subject he felt sure that he knew

His ht say primitive, but it is very effective He masters his materials, and then condenses and clarifies them into a broad, well-filled narrative, which is always or nearly always perfectly lucid through his skill in grouping events and characters, and his fine boldness in neglecting chronological sequence for the sake of clearness and unity of action It is doing the book injustice to consult it only as a work of reference, or even to read it in detached portions It should be read through, if ould appreciate the art hich the story is told No part can be fairly judged without regard to the remainder In fact, Gibbon was much more an artist than perhaps be suspected, and less of a philosophic thinker on history than he would have been willing to allow His shortcos in this latter respect will be adverted to presently; we are now considering his orous narrative stands pre-ens of Julian, Belisarius, and Heraclius are painted with a dash and clearness which few civil historians have equalled His descriptive power is also very great The picture of Constantinople in the seventeenth chapter is, as the writer of these pages can testify, a wonderful achieve from a man who had never seen the place

”If we survey Byzantiuust naure of the imperial city le The obtuse point, which advances towards the east and the shores of Asia, meets and repels the waves of the Thracian Bosphorus The northern side of the city is bounded by the harbour; and the southern is washed by the Propontis, or Sea of Marle is opposed to the west, and terminates the continent of Europe But the admirable form and division of the circumjacent land and water cannot, without a more ample explanation, be clearly or sufficiently understood

”The winding channel through which the waters of the Euxine floith rapid and incessant course towards the Mediterranean received the appellation of Bosphorus, a name not less celebrated in the history than in the fables of antiquity A crowd of te its steep and woody banks, attested the unskilfulness, the terrors, and the devotion of the Grecian navigators, who, after the exaers of the inhospitable Euxine

On these banks tradition long preserved the memory of the palace of Phineus, infested by the obscene Harpies, and of the sylvan reign of Amycus, who defied the son of Leda to the combat of the cestus The straits of the Bosphorus are ter to the description of the poets, had once floated on the surface of the waters, and were destined by the Gods to protect the entrance of the Euxine against the eye of profane curiosity

From the Cyanean rocks to the point and harbour of Byzantiuth of the Bosphorus extends about sixteen miles, and its most ordinary breadth may be computed at about one mile and a half The _new_ castles of Europe and Asia are constructed on either continent upon the foundations of two celebrated temples of Serapis and Jupiter Urius The _old_ castles, a work of the Greek emperors, command the narrowest part of the channel, in a place where the opposite banks advance within five hundred yards of each other These fortresses were destroyed and strengthened by Mahoe of Constantinople; but the Turkish conqueror was norant that near two thousand years before his reign Darius had chosen the sae of boats At a small distance from the old castles we discover the little town of Chrysopolis or Scutari, which may almost be considered as the Asiatic suburb of Constantinople The Bosphorus, as it begins to open into the Propontis, passes between Byzantium and Chalcedon The latter of these two cities was built by the Greeks a few years before the former, and the blindness of its founders, who overlooked the superior advantages of the opposite coast, has been stigmatised by a proverbial expression of contempt

”The harbour of Constantinople, which may be considered as an arm of the Bosphorus, obtained in a very remote period, the denomination of the _Golden Horn_ The curve which it describes , or as it should seeolden_ was expressive of the riches which every afted from the most distant countries into the secure and capacious port of Constantinople The river Lycus, formed by the conflux of two little streams, pours into the harbour a perpetual supply of fresh water, which serves to cleanse the bottom and to invite the periodical shoals of fish to seek their retreat in that convenient recess As the vicissitudes of the tides are scarcely felt in those seas, the constant depth of the harbour allows goods to be landed on the quays without the assistance of boats, and it has been observed that in ainst the houses while their sterns are floating in the water From the mouth of the Lycus to that of the harbour, this arth The entrance is about five hundred yards broad, and a strong chain could be occasionally drawn across it, to guard the port and the city from the attack of an hostile navy

”Between the Bosphorus and the hellespont, the shores of Europe and Asia receding on either side include the Sea of Marmora, which was known to the ancients by the denoation from the issue of the Bosphorus to the entrance of the hellespont is about one hundred and twenty h the hlands of Thrace and Bithynia and never lose sight of the lofty summit of Mount Olympus, covered with eternal snows They leave on the left a deep gulf, at the bottom of which Nicomedia was seated, the imperial residence of Diocletian, and they pass the small islands of Cyzicus and Proconnesus before they cast anchor at Gallipoli, where the sea which separates Asia froeographers, ith the most skilful accuracy have surveyed the forn about sixtycourse and about three miles for the ordinary breadth of those celebrated straits But the narrowest part of the channel is found to the northward of the old Turkish castles between the cities of Sestos and Abydos It was here that the adventurous Leander braved the passage of the flood for the possession of his mistress It was here, likewise, in a place where the distance between the opposite banks cannot exceed five hundred paces, that Xerxes ie of boats for the purpose of transporting into Europe an hundred and seventy myriads of barbarians A sea contracted within such narrow liular epithet of _broad_, which Homer, as well as Orpheus, has frequently bestowed on the hellespont But our ideas of greatness are of a relative nature; the traveller, and especially the poet, who sailed along the hellespont, who pursued the windings of the stream and contemplated the rural scenery which appeared on every side to terminate the prospect, insensibly lost the remembrance of the sea, and his fancy painted those celebrated straits with all the attributes of awith a swift current in the h a wide o Ancient Troy, seated on an eminence at the foot of Mount Ida, overlooked the mouth of the hellespont, which scarcely received an accession of waters from the tribute of those immortal rivulets the Simois and Sca the shore froaean to the Rhaetian prouarded by the bravest chiefs who fought under the banners of Agamemnon The first of these promontories was occupied by Achilles with his invincible Myrmidons, and the dauntless Ajax pitched his tents on the other After Ajax had fallen a sacrifice to his disappointed pride and to the ingratitude of the Greeks, his sepulchre was erected on the ground where he had defended the navy against the rage of Jove and Hector, and the citizens of the rising town of Rhaetium celebrated his ave a just preference to the situation of Byzantiu the seat of empire on this celebrated spot, froin The extensive plain which lies below ancient Troy towards the Rhaetian proh the undertaking was soon relinquished, the stately remains of unfinished walls and towers attracted the notice of all who sailed through the straits of the hellespont

”We are at present qualified to view the advantageous position of Constantinople; which appears to have been forreat ree of latitude, the imperial city commanded from her seven hills the opposite shores of Europe and Asia; the climate was healthy and temperate; the soil fertile; the harbour secure and capacious; and the approach on the side of the continent was of small extent and easy defence The Bosphorus and the hellespont ates of Constantinople, and the prince who possesses those iainst a naval enemy and open them to the fleets of commerce The preservation of the eastern provinces ree be ascribed to the policy of Constantine, as the barbarians of the Euxine, who in the preceding age had poured their armaments into the heart of the Mediterranean, soon desisted fro this insurates of the hellespont and Bosphorus were shut, the capital still enjoyed within their spacious inclosure every production which could supply the wants or gratify the luxury of its numerous inhabitants The sea-coasts of Thrace and Bithynia, which languish under the weight of Turkish oppression, still exhibit a rich prospect of vineyards, of gardens, and of plentiful harvests; and the Propontis has ever been renowned for an inexhaustible store of the most exquisite fish that are taken in their stated seasons without skill and ales of the straits were thrown open for trade, they alternately admitted the natural and artificial riches of the north and south, of the Euxine and the Mediterranean

Whatever rude commodities were collected in the forests of Germany and Scythia, and as far as the sources of the Tanais and Borysthenes; whatsoever was ypt, the geht by the varying winds into the port of Constantinople, which for es attracted the commerce of the ancient world

”The prospect of beauty, of safety, and of wealth united in a single spot was sufficient to justify the choice of Constantine But as soe been supposed to reflect a becoreat cities, the e his resolution not so much to the uncertain counsels of human policy as to the eternal and infallible decrees of divine wisdom In one of his laws he has been careful to instruct posterity that in obedience to the co foundations of Constantinople, and though he has not condescended to relate in what manner the celestial inspiration was communicated to his mind, the defect of his enuity of succeeding writers, who describe the nocturnal vision which appeared to the fancy of Constantine as he slept within the walls of Byzantiu under the weight of years and infir maid, whoreatness

The monarch awoke, interpreted the auspicious omen, and obeyed without hesitation the will of Heaven The day which gave birth to a city or a colony was celebrated by the Roenerous superstition: and though Constantine an origin, yet he was anxious to leave a deep impression of hope and respect on the minds of the spectators On foot, with a lance in his hand, the emperor himself led the solemn procession: and directed the line which was traced as the boundary of the destined capital: till the growing circumference was observed with astonishth ventured to observe that he had already exceeded the reat city 'I shall still advance,' replied Constantine, 'till HE, the invisible Guide who marches before me, thinks proper to stop'”