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Search - Historical And Critical Essays - Vol I

Historical And Critical Essays Vol I
Author: Thomas De Quincey

Text extracted from opening pages of book: HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL ESSAYS. BY THOMAS DE QUINCE Y, QV OP AN ENGLISH OPIUM - & ATM&,* ETC. ETC. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. L BOSTON: TICKNOR, REED, AND FIELDS. MDCCCLIXI. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by TICKNOR, REED, AND FIELDS, in the Ckrk's Office of the District Court of the ... more »District of Massachusetts. THUBiSTON, TQRRY, AND SMBHSQN, PRINTERS. CONTENTS, PHILOSOPHY OF ROMAN HISTORY ... I THE ESBENB3 ..... 29 PHILOSOPHY OF HEKODOTUS . . . .119 PLATO'S REPUBLIC 177 HOMER AND THE HOMEROMG .... 231 PHILOSOPHY OF ROMAN HISTORY. IT would bo thought strange indeed, if there should exist a large, a memorable section of history, trav ersed by many a scholar with various objects, reviewed by many a reader in a spirit of anxious scrutiny, and yet to this hour misunderstood ; erroneously appre ciated ; its tendencies mistaken, and its whole mean ing, import, value, not so much inadequately as falsely, ignorantly, perversely deciphered. Primd faciCj one would pronounce this impossible. Never theless it is a truth ; and it is a solemn truth ; and what gives to it this solemnity, is the mysterious mean ing, the obscure hint of a still profounder meaning in the background, which begins to dawn upon the eye when first piercing the darkness now resting on the subject. Perhaps no one arc or segment, detached from the total cycle of human records, promises so much beforehand so much instruction, so much gratification to curiosity, so much splendor, so much depth of interest, as the great period the systole and diastole, flux and reflux of the Western Roman Empire. Its parentage was magnificent and Titanic. It was a birth out of the death-struggles of the colos-VOL, i. 1 2 PHILOSOPHY OF ROMAN HISTORY. sal republic : its foundations were laid by that sublime dictator, c the foremost man of all this world,' who was unquestionably for comprehensive talents the Lucifer, the Protagonist of all antiquity. Its range, the corn pass of its extent, was appalling to the imagination. Coming last amongst what arc called the great mon archies of Prophecy, it was the only one which realized in perfection the idea of a monarchia, being, ( except for Parthia and the great fable of India beyond it) strictly coincident with n oiarot'. Mm/, or the civilized world. Civilization and this empire were commensu rate : they were interchangeable ideas, and co-exten sive. Finally, the path of this great Empire, through its arch of progress, synchronized with that of Chris tianity : the ascending orbit of each was pretty nearly the same, and traversed the same series of generations These elements, in combination, seemed to promise a Succession of golden harvests : from the specular sta tion of the Augustan age, the eye caught glimpses by anticipation of some glorious El Dorado for human hopes. What was the practical result for our historic experience? Answer A sterile Zaarruh. Preliba tions, as of some heavenly vintage, were inhaled by the Virgils of the day looking forward in the spirit of prophetic rapture ; whilst in the very sadness of truth, from that age forwards the Roman world drank from stagnant marshes. A Paradise of roses was pre figured : a wilderness of thorns was found. Even this fact has been missed even the bare fact has been overlooked ; much more the causes, the principles, the philosophy of this fact. The rapid barbarism which closed in behind Caesar's chariot PHILOSOPHY OF ROMAN HISTORY. 3 wheels, has been hid by the pomp and equipage of the imperial court. The vast power and domination of the Roman empire, for the three centuries which followed the battle of Actium, have dazzled the his toric eye, and have had the usual re-action on the power of vision : a dazzled eye is always left in a condition of darkness. The battle of Actium was followed by the final conquest of Egypt That con quest rounded and integrated the glorious empire : it was now circular as a shield orbicular as the disk of

ISBN-13: 9781406767568
ISBN-10: 1406767565
Publication Date: 3/15/2007
Pages: 356
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Publisher: De Quincey Press
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
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