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in 1453.
And this marvellous scope he has treated with a wonderful equality of
research and power;--the world-absorbing empire, the origin and movements
of the northern tribes and the Scythian marauders, the fall of the Western
Empire, the history of the civil law, the establishment of the Gothic
monarchies, the rise and spread of Mohammedanism, the obscurity of the
middle age deepening into gloom, the crusades, the dawning of letters, and
the inauguration of the modern era after the fall of Constantinople,--the
detailed history of a thousand years. It is difficult to conceive that any
one should suggest such a task to himself; it is astonishing to think
that, with a dignified, self-reliant tenacity of purpose, it should have
been completely achieved. It was an historic period, in which, in the
words of Corneille, "_Un grand destin commence un grand destin s'acheve_."
In many respects Gibbon's work stands alone; the general student must
refer to Gibbon, because there is no other work to which he can refer.


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