430 THE REIGN OF LAW. 



there is any law of growth, of progress, and of 

 decay prevailing over Nations, as over individual 

 Organisms. Whatever the solution of this ques- 

 tion may be, it is certain that some causes are no 

 longer in existence which produced — not indeed 

 the corruption, but — the final overthrow of the 

 great historical Nations of Antiquity. The epoch 

 of conquering Races destroying the Governments, 

 and reconstructing the Populations of the World, 

 is an epoch which has passed away. Whatever 

 causes there may be now of political decline are 

 causes never brought to such rough detection, 

 and never ending in catastrophes so complete. 

 Yet, in modern days a condition of stagnation 

 and decline has been the actual condition of many 

 Political Societies for long periods of time. It is 

 a condition prepared always by ignorance or 

 neglect of some moral or economic laws, and 

 determined by long-continued perseverance in a 

 corresponding course of conduct. Then the laws 

 which have been neglected assert themselves, and 

 the retributions they inflict are indeed tremendous. 

 In the last generation, and in our own time, the 

 Old and the New Worlds have each afforded 



