ay see it coming,
though they cannot tell its hour; and that hour creates surprise, not
because it at length is come, but because it has been so long delayed.

I have been referring to the decline, as I before spoke of the progress,
of the Romans: the career of that people through twelve centuries is a
drama of sustained interest and equable and majestic evolution; it has
given scope for the most ingenious researches into its internal history.
There one age is the parent of another; the elements and principles of
its political system are brought out into a variety of powers with
mutual relations; external events act and react with domestic affairs;
manners and views change; excess of prosperity becomes the omen of
misfortune to come; till in the words of the poet, "_Suis et ipsa Roma
viribus ruit_." For how many philosophical histories has Greece afforded
opportunity! while the constitutional history of England, as far as it
has hitherto gone, is a recognized subject-matter of scientific and
professional teaching. The case is the same with the history of the
medieval Italian cities, of the medieval Church, and of the Saracenic
empire. As regards the last of these instances, I am not alluding merely
to the civil contentions and wars which took place in it, for such may
equally happen to a barbarian state. Cupidity and ambition are inherent
in the nature of man; the Gauls and British, the tribes of Scythia, the
Seljukian Turks, consisted each of a number of mutually hostile
communities or kingdoms. What is relevant to my purpose in the history
of the Saracens is, that their quarrels often had an intellectual basis,
and arose out of their religion. The white, the green, and the black
factions, who severally reigned at Cordova, Cairo, and Bagdad,
excommunicated each other, and claimed severally to be the successors of
Mahomet. Then came the fanatical innovation of the Carmathians, who
pretended to a divine mission to complete the religion of Mahomet, as
Mahomet had completed Christianity.[77] They relaxed the duties of
ablution, fasting, and pilgrimage; admitted the use of wine, and
protested against the worldly pomp of the Caliphs. They spread their
tents along the coast of the Persian Gulf, and in no long time were able
to bring an army of 100,000 men into the field. Ultimately they took up
their residence on the borders of Assyria, Syria, and Egypt. As time
went on, and the power of the Caliphs was still further reduced,