Roman, the Abyssinian, and the Russian calendar. Nor has their
reputation been confined to the Christian world. This popular tale,
which Mahomet might learn when he drove his camels to the fairs of
Syria, is introduced as a divine revelation, into the Koran. The story
of the Seven Sleepers has been adopted and adorned by the nations, from
Bengal to Africa, who profess the Mahometan religion; and some vestiges
of a similar tradition have been discovered in the remote extremities of
Scandinavia. This easy and universal belief, so expressive of the sense
of mankind, may be ascribed to the genuine merit of the fable itself. We
imperceptibly advance from youth to age, without observing the
gradual, but incessant, change of human affairs; and even in our larger
experience of history, the imagination is accustomed, by a perpetual
series of causes and effects, to unite the most distant revolutions.
But if the interval between two memorable aeras could be instantly
annihilated; if it were possible, after a momentary slumber of two
hundred years, to display the _new_ world to the eyes of a spectator, who
still retained a lively and recent impression of the _old_, his
surprise and his reflections would furnish the pleasing subject of
a philosophical romance. The scene could not be more advantageously
placed, than in the two centuries which elapsed between the reigns of
Decius and of Theodosius the Younger. During this period, the seat of
government had been transported from Rome to a new city on the banks
of the Thracian Bosphorus; and the abuse of military spirit had been
suppressed by an artificial system of tame and ceremonious servitude.
The throne of the persecuting Decius was filled by a succession of
Christian and orthodox princes, who had extirpated the fabulous gods of
antiquity: and the public devotion of the age was impatient to exalt the
saints and martyrs of the Catholic church, on the altars of Diana and
Hercules. The union of the Roman empire was dissolved; its genius was
humbled in the dust; and armies of unknown Barbarians, issuing from the
frozen regions of the North, had established their victorious reign over
the fairest provinces of Europe and Africa.

Chapter XXXIV: Attila.--Part I.

The Character, Conquests, And Court Of Attila, King Of The
Huns.--Death Of Theodosius The Younger.--Elevation Of
Marcian To The Empire Of The East.

The Western world was oppressed by the Goths and Vandals,