melancholy termination of a power believed by its founders invincible,
and intended to be eternal. But you will find, though the glory and
greatness belonging to its military genius have passed away, yet those
belonging to the arts and institutions, by which it adorned and dignified
life, will again arise in another state of society." I opened my eyes
again, and I saw Italy recovering from her desolation--towns arising with
governments almost upon the model of ancient Athens and Rome, and these
different small states rivals in arts and arms; I saw the remains of
libraries, which had been preserved in monasteries and churches by a holy
influence which even the Goth and Vandal respected, again opened to the
people; I saw Rome rising from her ashes, the fragments of statues found
amidst the ruins of her palaces and imperial villas becoming the models
for the regeneration of art; I saw magnificent temples raised in this
city become the metropolis of a new and Christian world, and ornamented
with the most brilliant masterpieces of the arts of design; I saw a
Tuscan city, as it were, contending with Rome for pre-eminence in the
productions of genius, and the spirit awakened in Italy spreading its
influence from the South to the North. "Now," the Genius said, "society
has taken its modern and permanent aspect. Consider for a moment its
relations to letters and to arms as contrasted with those of the ancient
world." I looked, and saw, that in the place of the rolls of papyrus,
libraries were now filled with books. "Behold," the Genius said, "the
printing-press; by the invention of Faust the productions of genius are,
as it were, made imperishable, capable of indefinite multiplication, and
rendered an unalienable heritage of the human mind. By this art,
apparently so humble, the progress of society is secured, and man is
spared the humiliation of witnessing again scenes like those which
followed the destruction of the Roman Empire. Now look to the warriors
of modern times; you see the spear, the javelin, the shield, and the
cuirass are changed for the musket and the light artillery. The German