qualities, but the hopeless degeneracy of the older nations and the
reckless turbulence of the western barbarians, both of whom needed
masters.

The conquered world must be governed. The Romans had a genius for
administration as well as for war. While war was reduced to a science,
government became an art. Seven hundred years of war and administration
gave experience and skill, and the wisdom thus learned became a legacy
to future civilizations.

It was well, both for enervated orientals and wild barbarians, to be
ruled by such iron masters. The nations at last enjoyed peace and
prosperity, and Christianity was born and spread. A new power silently
arose, which was destined to change government, and science, and all the
relations of social life, and lay a foundation for a new and more
glorious structure of society than what Paganism could possibly create.
We see the hand of Providence in all these mighty changes, and it is
equally august in overruling the glories and the shame of a vast empire
for the ultimate good of the human race.

If we more minutely examine the history of either Republican or Imperial
Rome, we read lessons of great significance. In the Republic we see a
constant war of classes and interests,--plebeians arrayed against
patricians; the poor opposed to the rich; the struggle between capital
and labor, between an aristocracy and democracy. Although the favored
classes on the whole retained ascendancy, yet the people constantly
gained privileges, and at last were enabled, by throwing their influence
into the hands of demagogues, to overturn the constitution. Julius
Caesar, the greatest name in ancient history, himself a patrician, by
courting the people triumphed over the aristocratical oligarchy and