our historic studies, in the progress of the
page, astonish, exceed, or disappoint our expectations alike. We find
it as vain to foresee a cause as to fix a limit for the arbitrary
inconsistencies in the dispositions of mankind.

But, though to speculate upon the future conduct of others under
impending circumstances be but too often to expose the fallacy of our
wisest anticipations, to contemplate the nature of that conduct after
it has been displayed is a useful subject of curiosity, and may perhaps
be made a fruitful source of instruction. Similar events which succeed
each other at different periods are relieved from monotony, and derive
new importance from the ever-varying effects which they produce on the
human character. Thus, in the great occurrence which forms the
foundation of our narrative, we may find little in the siege of Rome,
looking at it as a mere event, to distinguish it remarkably from any
former siege of the city--the same desire for glory and vengeance,
wealth and dominion, which brought Alaric to her walls, brought other
invaders before him. But if we observed the effect of the Gothic
descent upon Italy on the inhabitants of her capital, we shall find
ample matter for novel contemplation and unbounded surprise.

We shall perceive, as an astonishing instance of the inconsistencies of
the human character, the spectacle of a whole people resolutely defying
an overwhelming foreign invasion at their very doors, just at the
period when they had fallen most irremediably from the highest position
of national glory to the lowest depths of national degradation;
resisting an all-powerful enemy with inflexible obstinacy, for the
honour of the Roman name, which they had basely dishonoured or
carelessly forgotten for ages past. We shall behold men who have
hitherto laughed at the very name of patriotism, now starving
resolutely in their country's cause; who stopped at no villainy to
obtain wealth, now hesitating to employ their ill-gotten gains in the
purchase of the most important of all gratifications--their own
security and peace. Instances of the unimaginable effect produced by
the event of the siege of Rome on the characters of her inhabitants
might be drawn from all classes, from the lowest to the highest, from
patrician to plebeian; but to produce them here would be to admit too
long an interruption in the progress of the present narrative. If we
are to enter at all into detail on such a subject,