o
centuries of splendour, order, and peace during which civilization has
reached the point where we find it in the present day.

This is not the place to follow the march of human nature during these
two centuries. That history is so extensive, and composed of so many
relations, alternately vast and minute, but always important; of so many
events closely connected, brought about by causes so mixed together, and
causes in their turn productive of such numerous effects, of so many
different labours, that it is impossible to recapitulate them within a
limited compass. Never have so many powerful and neighbouring States
exercised upon each other such constant and complicated influence; never
has their interior structure presented so many ramifications to study;
never has the human mind advanced at once upon so many different roads;
never have so many events, actors, and ideas been engaged in such an
extended space, or produced such interesting and instructive results.
Perhaps on some future occasion we may enter into this maze, and look
for the clew to guide us through it. Called upon, at present, to study
the first ages of modern history, we shall seek for their cradle in the
forests of Germany, the country of our ancestors; after having drawn a
picture of their manners, as complete as the number of facts which have
reached our knowledge, the actual state of our information, and my
efforts to reach that level will permit, we shall then cast a glance
upon the condition of the Roman Empire at the moment when the barbarians
invaded it to attempt establishment; after that we shall investigate the
long struggles which ensued between them and Rome, from their irruption
into the West and South of Europe, down to the foundation of the
principal modern monarchies. This foundation will thus become for us a
resting-point, from whence we shall depart again to follow the course of
the history of Europe, which is in fact our own; for if unity, the fruit
of the Roman dominion, disappeared with it, there are always,
nevertheless, between the different nations which rose upon its ruins,
relations so multiplied, so continued, and so important, that from them,
in the whole of modern history taken together, an actual unity results
which we shall be compelled to acknowledge. This task is enormous; and
when we contemplate its full extent, it is impossible not to recoil
before the difficulty. Judge then, gentlemen, whether I ought not to
tremble