d
was in time succeeded by the broader national institutions based on
various forms of representation. Gunpowder, America, and the art of
printing were discovered, and the most civilised portion of mankind
passed insensibly into the modern era.

Such was the wide expanse which spread out before Gibbon when he
resolved to continue his work from the fall of the Western Empire to
the capture of Constantinople. Indeed his glance took in a still wider
field, as he was concerned as much with the decay of Eastern as of
Western Rome, and the long-retarded fall of the former demanded large
attention to the Oriental populations who assaulted the city and
remaining empire of Constantine. So bold an historic enterprise was
never conceived as when, standing on the limit of antiquity in the
fifth century, he determined to pursue in rapid but not hasty survey
the great lines of events for a thousand years, to follow in detail
the really great transactions while discarding the less important,
thereby giving prominence and clearness to what is memorable, and
reproducing on a small scale the flow of time through the ages. It is
to this portion of Gibbon's work that the happy comparison has been
made, that it resembles a magnificent Roman aqueduct spanning over the
chasm which separates the ancient from the modern world. In these
latter volumes he frees himself from the trammels of regular
annalistic narrative, deals with events in broad masses according to
their importance, expanding or contracting his story as occasion
requires; now painting in large panoramic view the events of a few
years, now compressing centuries into brief outline. Many of his
massive chapters afford materials for volumes, and are well worthy of
a fuller treatment than he could give without deranging his plan. But
works of greater detail and narrower compass can never compete with
Gibbon's history, any more than a county map can compete with a map of
England or of Europe.

The variety of the contents of these last three volumes is amazing,
especially when the thoroughness and perfection of the workmanship are
considered. Prolix compilations or sketchy outlines of universal
history have their use and place, but they are removed by many degrees
from the _Decline and Fall_, or rather they belong to another species
of authorship. It is not only that Gibbon combines width and depth,
that the extent of his learning is as wonderful as its accuracy,
though in this respe