The Old Roman World | Page 5

which happiness is based? Can vitality in states be
preserved by mechanical inventions? Does society expand from
inherent laws of development, or from influences altogether foreign to
man? Is it the settled destiny of nations to rise to a certain height in
wisdom and power, and then pass away in ignominy and gloom? Is
there permanence in any human institutions? Will society move round
in perpetual circles, incapable of progression and incapable of rest, or
will it indefinitely improve? May there not be the highest triumphs of
art, literature, and science, where the mainsprings of society are
sensuality and egotism? Is the tendency of society to democratic, or
aristocratic, or despotic governments? Does Christianity, in this
dispensation, merely furnish witnesses of truth, or will it achieve

successive conquests over human degeneracy till the race is
emancipated and saved? Can it arrest the downward tendency of
society, when it is undermined by vices which blunt the conscience of
mankind, and which are sustained by all that is proud in rank, brilliant
in fashion, and powerful in wealth?
These are inquiries on which Roman history sheds light. If history is a
guide or oracle, they are full of impressive significance. Can we afford
to reject all the examples of the past in our sanguine hopes for the
future? Human nature is the same in any age, and human experiences
point to some great elemental truths, which the Bible confirms. We may
be unmoved by them, but they remain in solemn dignity for all
generations; "and foremost of them," as Charles Kingsley has so well
said, "stands a law which man has been trying in all ages, as now, to
deny, or at least to ignore, and that is,--that as the fruit of righteousness
is wealth and peace, strength and honor, the fruit of unrighteousness is
poverty and anarchy, weakness and shame; for not upon mind, but upon
morals, is human welfare founded. Science is indeed great; but she is
not the greatest. She is an instrument, and not a power. But her lawful
mistress, the only one under whom she can truly grow, and prosper,
and prove her divine descent, is Virtue, the likeness of Almighty
God,--an ancient doctrine, yet one ever young, and which no
discoveries in science will ever abrogate."
Hence the great aim of history should be a dispassionate inquiry into
the genius of past civilizations, especially in a moral point of view.
Wherein were they weak or strong, vital or mechanical, permanent or
transient? We wish to know that we may compare them with our own,
and learn lessons of wisdom. The rise and fall of the Roman Empire is
especially rich in the facts which bear on our own development. Nor
can modern history be comprehended without a survey of the
civilization which has entered into our own, and forms the basis of
many of our own institutions. Rome perished, but not wholly her
civilization. So far as it was founded on the immutable principles of
justice, or beauty, or love, it will never die, but will remain a precious
legacy to all generations. So far as it was founded on pride, injustice,
and selfishness, it ignobly disappeared. Men die, and their trophies of
pride are buried in the dust, but their truths live. All truth is
indestructible, and survives both names and marbles.

Roman history, so grand and so mournful, on the whole suggests
cheering views for humanity, since out of the ruins, amid the storms,
aloft above the conflagration, there came certain indestructible forces,
which, when united with Christianity, developed a new and more
glorious condition of humanity. Creation succeeded destruction. All
that was valuable in art, in science, in literature, in philosophy, in laws,
has been preserved. The useless alone has perished with the worn-out
races themselves. The light which scholars, and artists, and poets, and
philosophers, and lawgivers kindled, illuminated the path of the future
guides of mankind. And especially the great ideas which the persecuted
Christians unfolded, projected themselves into the shadows of
mediaeval Europe, and gave a new direction to human thought and life.
New sentiments arose, more poetic and majestic than ever existed in
the ancient world, giving radiance to homes, peace to families,
elevation to woman, liberty to the slave, compassion for the miserable,
self-respect, to the man of toil, exultation to the martyr, patience to the
poor, and glorious hopes to all; so that in rudeness, in poverty, in
discomfort, in slavery, in isolation, in obloquy, peace and happiness
were born, and a new race, with noble elements of character, arose in
the majesty of renovated strength to achieve still grander victories, and
confer higher blessings on mankind.
Thus the Roman Empire, whose fall was so inglorious, and whose
chastisement was so severe, was made by Providence to favor the