394 INTRODUCTION. 



was destined to break forth with renewed splendor, and 

 shed its light abroad over the nations of the earth. 

 Such a period was that following the fall of the Roman 

 empire. "During this period the most extraordinary and 

 baneful changes took place in the condition of the world. 

 Population dwindled and commerce, arts, wealth and free- 

 dom all disappeared. The people were reduced to poverty 

 and misery and the most degraded condition of serfdom and 

 slavery. The disintegration of society was almost com- 

 plete. The conditions of life were so hard that individual 

 selfishness was the only thing consistent with the instinct of 

 self-preservation. All public spirit, all generous emotions, 

 all the noble aspirations shriveled and disappeared as the 

 volume of money shrunk and prices fell. History records 

 no such disastrous transition as that from the Roman Empire 

 to the Dark Ages." 



The condition of the French people prior to the 

 Revolution was scarcely less deplorable than that following 

 the fall of the Roman Empire. The State was rotten in 

 every department. The utmost licentiousness prevailed 

 among the nobility; the king spread the contagion of his 

 own example by riding in open carriage with his chosen 

 mistress. The utmost extravagance was indulged in the 

 expenditure of the revenues. The people were only 

 regarded as things to be taxed; the life of a peasant was 

 worth less than that of a wild boar. In the judicial depart- 

 ment justice was bartered for money. Through the 

 influence of the nobility, and for a price, men and women 

 were thrown into the vilest dungeons on the slightest pre- 

 text and often without even the semblance of trial. The 

 Bastile was crowded with victims of private animosity; 

 these numbered 15,000 in the reign of Louis XV. The 

 nobility, regardless of the social relations, debauched with 

 impunity, the lower classes. The clergy shared in the 

 general corruption; their salaries were excessive and their 



