234 HISTORY. 



leaving little or no mark behind. Omitting the earlier 

 marvel of the Homeric poems, less than two centuries 

 comprised all the grandeur of Grecian intellect. The 

 art of Gibbon has compressed into a single sentence 

 one that must have been music to his own ear the 

 almost contemporaneous names of all the greatest philo- 

 sophers, poets, statesmen, and orators of Athens. The 

 political life of this wonderful city at the same period 

 has been ably pictured to us in the great work of Mr. 

 Grote. But there is some reason for thinking with 

 Sallust that the Athenian history has gained undue 

 prominence from the great names and elegant writers 

 by whom it has been transmitted to other countries 

 and ages. 1 And in any case how small a spot is 

 Greece in the map of the peopled world, and how 

 short this illustrious period compared with the twenty 

 centuries following of servitude and decay ! 



There are few persons, indeed, who rightly appre- 

 ciate the element of time in its relation to historical 

 events. Historians themselves, either from necessity 

 or neglect, have contributed much to this defective 

 view. Kecurring to Gibbon for an example, we find 

 him including in a single chapter between 500 and 

 600 years of Byzantine history following the death of 

 Heraclius. The wonderful art of the writer gives it 

 the aspect of continuous history, yet how small the in- 

 sight obtained into the real condition of this empire 

 and of the whole Eoman world during a period as 



1 When two scholars eminent as are Mr. Grote and Professor Jowett 

 differ so far in their understanding of the familiar term of Sophists, we 

 may well appreciate the difficulties of a right comprehension. 



