But the problem was, how to replenish those 

 armies. Men were wanting. The Empire 

 perished for want of men" (Seeley). To say 

 that nations die of "old age" is the veriest 

 nonsense. Nations fail only when they cease 

 to breed men. 



"Severe," "austere" are good old Roman 

 words, and to other emperors besides Septi- 

 mius Severus they were applied with jus- 

 tice. "Luxurious," "uxorious" are also 

 Roman words, and for some emperors these 

 were used also. But for the most part these 

 were no more characteristic than the others. 



Does history ever repeat itself? It always 

 does if it is true history. If it does not we 

 are dealing not with history but with mere 

 succession of incidents. Like causes pro- 

 duce like effects, just as often as man may 

 choose to test them. Whenever men use a 

 nation for the test, poor seed yields a poor 

 fruitage. Where the weakling and the cow- 

 ard survives in human history, there " the 

 human harvest is bad," and it can never be 

 otherwise. 



Not long ago I visited the city of Novara, 

 in northern Italy. There, just to the south 



The 



Human 



Harvest 



History 

 repeats 

 itself 



[35] 



