248 AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF FRENCH LITERATURE. 



general appearances of Roman literature from the age of the Anto- 

 nines to the reign of Constantine the Great, we cannot avoid heing 

 struck with the rapid and almost uniform degeneracy and deteriora- 

 tion. Taste and judgment seem to have suffered in each successive 

 attempt ; and we see that the admirers of Cicero, of Horace and of 

 Virgil found it easier to imitate their blemishes than their excel- 

 lencies, and sought rather to catch the glare of their colouring than 

 copy the accuracy of their drawing. Who can be sui - prised at the 

 fate of literature, if he reviews the list of Emperors and considers 

 the endless scenes of warfare, bloodshed, and confusion in which the 

 Romans were constantly engaged. We find the unhappy state go- 

 verned by monsters, invaded by barbarians, curtailed in extent, and, 

 when freed from foreign scourges, torn by religious disputes and 

 persecutions. Constantine the Great, though he deservedly claims 

 our praise as a patron of men of letters, inflicted a fatal wound on 

 Roman learning. In removing the seat of empire, he little foresaw 

 that that portion of Roman taste and literature which followed the 

 fortunes of his court would soon be superseded by the arts and lan- 

 guage of the east, and that that portion which remained would fall 

 an inevitable prey to the encroachments of barbarism. Influenced, 

 however, by political motives, and blinded by the truly splendid 

 ambition of founding a new metropolis, we may lament but can 

 hardly censure these unexpected consequences, these involuntary 

 mischiefs. 



The most fatal and accelerating cause, however, to which we may 

 attribute the fall of the Latin language, was at hand in the irrup- 

 tions and depredations of the barbarous tribes from the north of 

 Europe and the north-west of Asia. Carnage, rapine and bloodshed 

 marked their footsteps, and Europe was shaken to her foundations 

 by these terrible revolutions. It is generally found that conquest, to 

 compensate, as it were, for its innumerable evils, brings with it 

 some great, some permanent advantages : these barbarous hordes, 

 however, subsisting upon the chase, possessed no agriculture, no 

 traffic, no mechanical or domestic arts ; they lived not in towns, 

 nor could they endure to have their dwellings contiguous, but built 

 wherever they found a spot to their fancy, and were generally 

 attracted by a grove, a fountain, or a plain. The only known pro- 

 fession among them was that of arms : they disdained to remain in 

 inaction, and courted dangers where they might acquire renown 

 and display their prowess : the coward and the assassin were con- 

 sidered as equally execrable, and persons convicted of either of these 

 crimes were immediately executed. 



