degeneracy, which, if left to itself, would doubtless soon produce a
state of society like that which is attributed to the nations "before
the flood came and destroyed them all."

[Sidenote: Wars over-ruled for the good of nations.]

With this view of war--always aggressive with one party, always a
calamity to both; the greatest calamity known to the nations,
exhausting, bloody, cruel, sweeping every thing before it; a moral
conflagration, bringing every kind of suffering and sorrow in its train,
yet made to result as a retribution to worn-out and degenerate races,
and a means of vast development of resources among those peoples which
have life and energy,--we see the providence of God in the Roman
Conquests. The gradual growth of Rome as a warlike state is a most
impressive example of the agency of a great Moral Governor in breaking
up states that deserved to perish, and in building up a power such as
the world needed in order to facilitate both a magnificent civilization
and the peaceful spread of a new religion. The Greeks created art and
literature; the Romans, laws and government, by which society everywhere
was made more secure and tranquil, until the good which arose from the
evil was itself perverted.

[Sidenote: Growth of Rome under the kings.]

Under the kingly rule Rome becomes the most important and powerful of
the cities of Latium, and a foundation is laid of social, religious, and
political institutions which are destined to achieve a magnificent
triumph. The kings of Rome are all great men--wise and statesmanlike,
patrons of civilization among a rude and primitive people. No state for
more than two hundred years was ever ruled by more enlightened princes,