o mention new publications and to utilize the results of
my own studies. The index makes it easy to find the subjects discussed.

And here I must again thank my friend Charles Michel, who undertook the
tedious task of rereading the proofs of this book, and whose scrupulous and
sagacious care has saved me from many and many a blunder.

F. C.

PARIS, FRANCE, February, 1909.

* * * * *

{1}

ROME AND THE ORIENT.

We are fond of regarding ourselves as the heirs of Rome, and we like to
think that the Latin genius, after having absorbed the genius of Greece,
held an intellectual and moral supremacy in the ancient world similar to
the one Europe now maintains, and that the culture of the peoples that
lived under the authority of the Caesars was stamped forever by their strong
touch. It is difficult to forget the present entirely and to renounce
aristocratic pretensions. We find it hard to believe that the Orient has
not always lived, to some extent, in the state of humiliation from which it
is now slowly emerging, and we are inclined to ascribe to the ancient
inhabitants of Smyrna, Beirut or Alexandria the faults with which the
Levantines of to-day are being reproached. The growing influence of the
Orientals that accompanied the decline of the empire has frequently been
considered a morbid phenomenon and a symptom of the slow decomposition of
the ancient world. Even Renan does not seem to have been sufficiently free
from an old prejudice when he wrote on this subject:[1] "That the oldest
and most worn out civilization should by its corruption subjugate the
younger was inevitable."

But if we calmly consider the real facts, avoiding the optical illusion
that makes things in our immediate {2} vicinity look larger, we shall form
a quite different opinion. It is beyond all dispute that Rome found the
point of support of its military power in the Occident. The legions from
the Danube and the Rhine were always braver, stronger and better
disciplined than those from the Euphrates and the Nile. But it is in the
Orient, especially in these countries of "old civilization," that we must
look for industry and riches, for technical ability and artistic
productions, as well as for intelligence and science, even before
Constantine made it the center of political power.

While Greece merely vegetated in a state of poverty, humiliation and
exhaustion; while Italy suffered depopulation and became unabl