Of Heaven his wretched fare: shivering in caves
Or scorch'd on rocks, he pines from day to day;
But science gives the word; and lo, he braves
The surge and tempest, lighted by her ray,
And to a happier land wafts merrily away.

"And e'en where nature loads the teeming plain With the full pomp of vegetable store,

Her bounty, unimprov'd, is deadly bane:

Dark woods and rankling wilds, from shore to shore
Stretch their enormous gloom; which to explore
Ev'n fancy trembles in her sprightliest mood:
For there each eyeball gleams with lust of gore,

Nestles each murderous and each monstrous brood, Plague lurks in every shade, and steams from every flood.

"""Twas from philosophy man learn❜d to tame
The soil by plenty to intemperance fed.
Lo, from the echoing axe, and thundering flame,
Poison and plague and yelling rage are fled:
The waters, bursting from their slimy bed,
Bring health and melody to every vale:

And, from the breezy main, and mountain's head,
Ceres and Flora, to the sunny dale,

To fan their glowing charms, invite the fluttering gale.

"What dire necessities on every hand

Our art, our strength, our fortitude require!
Of foes intestine what a numerous band
Against this little throb of life conspire!
Yet science can elude their fatal ire

Awhile, and turn aside death's levell'd dart,

Sooth the sharp pang, allay the fever's fire,

And brace the nerves once more, and cheer the heart, And yet a few soft nights and balmy days impart.

"Nor less to regulate man's moral frame Science exerts her all-composing sway. Flutters thy breast with fear, or pants for fame, Or pines to indolence and spleen a prey, Or avarice, a fiend more fierce than they? Flee to the shade of Academus' grove; Where cares molest not, discord melts away In harmony, and the pure passions prove How sweet the words of truth breath'd from the lips of love.

"What cannot art and industry perform,
When science plans the progress of their toil
They smile at penury, disease, and storm;
And oceans from their mighty mounds recoil.
When tyrants scourge, or demagogues embroil
A land, or when the rabble's headlong rage
Order transforms to anarchy and spoil,
Deep-vers'd in man, the philosophic sage
Prepares with lenient hand their frenzy to assuage.

""Tis he alone, whose comprehensive mind,
From situation, temper, soil, and clime
Explor'd, a nation's various powers can bind,
And various orders, in one form sublime
Of polity, that, midst the wrecks of time
Secure shall lift its head on high, nor fear
Th' assault of foreign or domestic crime,

While public faith, and public love sincere,
And industry and law maintain their sway severe."

CHAPTER IX.

WHEN the Cæsars had passed away, and Rome had become as corrupt as any city of the east, a new direction was given to the human mind by the conversion of Constantine to the Christian religion, in the commencement of the fourth century. In this century, 379, Theodosius divided the empire, and Byzantium became the seat of government. The western empire from that date began to decline. New nations, almost unknown before, now started up to agitate the world. The Huns, who had inhabited the north of China, a numerous race, now swept over the better part of Europe, and in their way made war upon Rome and Greece; and also upon their brother barbarians, the Goths.

In 395, Alaric, king of the Goths, attacked Greece. In 400, he was met by the Romans, and defeated. Radagaisus entered Italy with a vast army, and was defeated and slain, which proves that the Romans were still a warlike people. In 408, Alaric took Rome, and soon after died, while besieging Rhegio. He was buried under the bed of a river, which the Goths had turned aside for that purpose. In 444, Attilla appeared at the head of the Huns and swept over the earth as the scourge of God. He laid cities in ashes, but was in a short time defeated by Theodoric, king of the Visgoths. He was permitted to die a natural death.

The Goths, who had issued from Scandinavia and overran Pomerania, divided into Vis-goths and Ostragoths,-west and east Goths. In their conflicts with the Huns they were scattered and divided, and part of them formed the new kingdom of Italy.

These nations, who had made their conquests and settlements, though almost unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans, gave a new character to the world; for new elements were developed, and new powers exhibited. The Roman character was not wholly lost in these ages of war and blood, for in the days of Justinian, Belisarius emulated the Scipios and the other men of war of former periods. This great general is used so much in the legends of fiction, as proving the inconstancy of fortune, that he is almost overlooked in sober history; but the "Date obulum Belisario” was no fiction, it was as sober truth as the story of St. Helena and Longwood,—both awful lessons to ambitious chieftains. The beggar through the cities of Italy and Greece once annihilated the power of the Vandals, and reduced them to as great a state of wretchedness as he himself afterwards was by the power of a capricious, ungrateful master.

New dynasties arose, and the world of matter was again to be disturbed by the world of mind. There had been a mixing up of the Christian with Pagan idolatry, and a mongrel race of thinkers was formed throughout all Europe, and in parts of Asia and Africa.

At the commencement of the seventh century, 622, Mahomet arose, the founder of a new sect in religion. He was a master spirit. He succeeded beyond all other imposters, for this sound reason: He fashioned his general doctrines to the nature of man-his appetites,

dispositions, and modes of reasoning. He said himself, that he only developed human nature to direct it, not to overcome or subjugate it. With the aid of the Jewish scriptures and some of the first Christian writers, he prepared the Koran, a most sublime composition, as a whole; favorable, in general, to virtue, and particularly useful as a law book in the country in which he lived. It was a most admirable improvement on the code of Asiatic laws, in relation to the rights of women,,-defining their rights, and securing what it defined. If he is said to encourage licentiousness, it is because the critic does not consider how much the imposter had to contend with in forming his creed. We should not, in our estimation of the Koran, consider how much it falls short of the code of Jesus of Nazareth, but how much superior it is to all the heathen codes then, or even now, extant. It created and perpetuated a temperance society; yet there is a great deal that is trivial mixed up with the moral and sentimental in it. It should be remembered also, that the Mahometans did not wage war with the Christians until the Christians had made a furious onset upon them. The historian should go over his course impartially, on peril of forfeiting his character for principle and honesty as well as accuracy.

While this excitement was going on in the east, and the doctrines of Mahometanism were spreading over an immense extent of territory, the northmen were not idle. Fond of navigation, and fearless of the dangers of the seas, they made great progress in the size and forms of their ships, and in the method of sailing them. Instead of being confined to oars, or a little sail used only in going before the wind,- -as the maritime people of the Mediterrancan were accustomed to,-they raised