Page:1909historyofdec04gibbuoft.djvu/208

176 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xxxvm tion of the present age. It is the duty of a patriot to prefer and promote the exclusive interest and glory of his native country ; but a philosopher may be permitted to enlarge his views, and to consider Europe as one great republic, whose various inhabit- ants have attained almost the same level of politeness and cul- tivation. The balance of power will continue to fluctuate, and the prosperity of our own or the neighbouring kingdoms may be alternately exalted or depressed ; but these partial events cannot essentially injure our general state of happiness, the system of arts, and laws, and manners, which so advantageously distinguish, above the rest of mankind, the Europeans and their colonies. The savage nations of the globe are the common enemies of civilized society ; and we may inquire with anxious curiosity, whether Europe is still threatened with a repetition of those calamities which formerly oppressed the arms and in- stitutions of Rome. Perhaps the same reflections will illustrate the fall of that mighty empire, and explain the probable causes of our actual security. I. The Eomans were ignorant of the extent of their danger, and the number of their enemies. Beyond the Rhine and Danube, the northern countries of Europe and Asia were filled with innumerable tribes of hunters and shepherds, poor, vora- cious, and turbulent ; bold in arms, and impatient to ravish the fruits of industry. The Barbarian world was agitated by the rapid impulse of war ; and the peace of Gaul or Italy was shaken by the distant revolutions of China. The Huns, who fled before a victorious enemy, directed their march towards the West ; and the torrent was swelled by the gradual accession of captives and allies. The flying tribes who yielded to the Huns assumed in their turn the spirit of conquest ; the endless column of Bar- barians pressed on the Roman empire with accumulated weight ; and, if the foremost were destroyed, the vacant space was in- stantly replenished by new assailants. Such formidable emi- grations can no longer issue from the North; and the long repose, which has been imputed to the decrease of population, is the happy consequence of the progress of arts and agriculture. Instead of some rude villages, thinly scattered among its woods and morasses, Germany now produces a list of two thousand three hundred walled towns ; the Christian kingdoms of Den- mark, Sweden, and Poland, have been successively established ;