era no land, no part and parcel of the Roman empire, has ever risen into
strength and opulence, except where unusual artificial industry has
availed to counteract the tendencies of nature. So entirely had Rome
engrossed whatsoever was rich by the mere bounty of native endowment.

Vast, therefore, unexampled, immeasurable, was the basis of natural power
upon which the Roman throne reposed. The military force which put Rome in
possession of this inordinate power, was certainly in some respects
artificial; but the power itself was natural, and not subject to the ebbs
and flows which attend the commercial empires of our days, (for all are in
part commercial.) The depression, the reverses, of Rome, were confined to
one shape--famine; a terrific shape, doubtless, but one which levies its
penalty of suffering, not by elaborate processes that do not exhaust their
total cycle in less than long periods of years. Fortunately for those who
survive, no arrears of misery are allowed by this scourge of ancient days;
[Footnote: "_Of ancient days_."--For it is remarkable, and it serves
to mark an indubitable progress of mankind, that, before the Christian
era, famines were of frequent occurrence in countries the most civilized;
afterwards they became rare, and latterly have entirely altered their
character into occasional dearths.] the total penalty is paid down at
once. As respected the hand of man, Rome slept for ages in absolute
security. She could suffer only by the wrath of Providence; and, so long
as she continued to be Rome, for many a generation she only of all the
monarchies has feared no mortal hand [Footnote: Unless that hand were her
own armed against herself; upon which topic there is a burst of noble
eloquence in one of the ancient Panegyrici, when haranguing the Emperor
Theodosius: "Thou, Rome! that, having once suffered by the madness of
Cinna, and of the cruel Marius raging from banishment, and of Sylla, that
won his wreath of prosperity from thy disasters, and of Caesar,
compassionate to the dead, didst shudder at every blast of the trumpet