hook. They dwelt peaceably and
securely in their villages, towns, and rural homes. They divided their
employments. The land was cultivated, the stock of living animals was
fed, and commerce carried on. A parliament or congress of the chief
inhabitants assembled, and deliberated on the affairs of State. Laws
were enacted, and justice administered in the public courts. The
spiritual interests of the people were also provided for, and magnificent
temples, churches, and cathedrals were built and adorned the land. A
regular gradation of nobles or chiefs was established, to whom the people
at large looked up, while a King, Sovereign, or Emperor governed the
whole. These are the leading ideas connected with ancient civilization.
These elements flourished largely in the last of the old empires, or that
of Rome, which before its fall had transcended all that went before in
commerce, civilization, learning, refinement, science, art, as well as in
grandeur and extent of territory.

We have spoken of the fall of the Roman Empire. This occurred in the
beginning of the fifth century. We will just glance at the state of
Europe immediately before the dissolution of that vast empire. The Roman
Empire (which comprised Italy and the adjacent territories) was at that
time and had been for centuries the only kingdom in Europe where the arts
of peace and civilization reigned. All the vast countries north of the
Alps, west of the Mediterranean, and east and north of the Adriatic seas,
were in a state of comparative, if not complete barbarism. Among the
people who inhabited these countries we may name the Franks, who occupied
Gallia or modern France; the Goths, Vandals, and Germanic tribes, who
occupied modern Germany; the Scythians and other Sclavonic races who
occupied modern Russia; the Visigoths, who occupied Spain; the Celts, who
dwelt in Great Britain and Ireland; and the Scandinavians, who occupied
the north of Europe, or Lapland, Sweden, and Norway. These various
populations were, during the zenith, and down to the fall of the Roman
Empire, in a state of semi if not perfect barbarism. A great portion of
them were nomadic or roving tribes, and had in their career of
devastation and conquest traversed the vast plains of Asia and eastern
Europe, before taking up a more settled though not permanent abode in the
broad plains and forests of Germany, Spain, and Russia. The Goths,
Scythians, and Sclavonic tribes who thus poured