ation
from the old western Rome, and overthrown by the Ottoman Turks in the
year 1453. In the fortunes and main stages of this empire, what are the
chief arresting phenomena, aspects, or relations, to the greatest of
modern interests? We select by preference these.

I. First, this was the earliest among the kingdoms of our planet _which
connected itself with Christianity_. In Armenia, there had been a
previous _state_ recognition of Christianity. But _that_ was neither
splendid nor distinct. Whereas the Byzantine Rome built avowedly upon
Christianity as its own basis, and consecrated its own nativity by the
sublime act of founding the first provision ever attempted for the
poor, considered simply as poor, (_i.e._ as objects of pity, not as
instruments of ambition.)

II. _Secondly, as the great aegis of western Christendom_, nay, the
barrier which made it possible that any Christendom should ever exist,
this Byzantine empire is entitled to a very different station in the
enlightened gratitude of us western Europeans from any which it has yet
held. We do not scruple to say--that, by comparison with the services of
the Byzantine people to Europe, no nation on record has ever stood in
the same relation to any other single nation, much less to a whole
family of nations, whether as regards the opportunity and means of
conferring benefits, or as regards the astonishing perseverance in
supporting the succession of these benefits, or as regards the ultimate
event of these benefits. A great wrong has been done for ages; for we
have all been accustomed to speak of the Byzantine empire with scorn,{B}
as chiefly known by its effeminacy; and the greater is the call for a
fervent palinode.

III. _Thirdly._ In a reflex way, as the one great danger which
overshadowed Europe for generations, and against which the Byzantine
empire proved the capital bulwark, Mahometanism may rank as one of the
Byzantine aspects or counterforces. And if there is any popular error
applying to the history of that great convulsion, as a political effort
for revolutionizing the world, some notice of it will find a natural
place in connexion with these present trains of speculation.

Let us, therefore, have permission to throw together a few remarks on
these three subjects--1st, on the remarkable distinction by which the
eldest of Christian rulers proclaimed and inaugurated the Christian
basis of his empire: 2dly, on the true but forgotten relation of this