the Bollandists, Mensis Julii,
tom. vi. p. 375-397. This immense calendar of Saints, in one hundred
and twenty-six years, (1644-1770,) and in fifty volumes in folio, has
advanced no further than the 7th day of October. The suppression of the
Jesuits has most probably checked an undertaking, which, through the
medium of fable and superstition, communicates much historical and
philosophical instruction.]

[Footnote 47: See Maracci Alcoran. Sura xviii. tom. ii. p. 420-427, and
tom. i. part iv. p. 103. With such an ample privilege, Mahomet has not
shown much taste or ingenuity. He has invented the dog (Al Rakim) the
Seven Sleepers; the respect of the sun, who altered his course twice
a day, that he might not shine into the cavern; and the care of God
himself, who preserved their bodies from putrefaction, by turning them
to the right and left.]

[Footnote 48: See D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 139; and
Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alexandrin. p. 39, 40.]

[Footnote 49: Paul, the deacon of Aquileia, (de Gestis Langobardorum,
l. i. c. 4, p. 745, 746, edit. Grot.,) who lived towards the end of the
eight century, has placed in a cavern, under a rock, on the shore of the
ocean, the Seven Sleepers of the North, whose long repose was respected
by the Barbarians. Their dress declared them to be Romans and the
deacon conjectures, that they were reserved by Providence as the future
apostles of those unbelieving countries.]

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, who fled
before the Huns; but the achievements of the Huns themselves were not
adequate to their power and prosperity. Their victorious hordes had
spread from the Volga to the Danube; but the public force was exhausted
by the discord of independent chieftains; their valor was idly consumed
in obscure and predatory excursions; and they often degraded their
national dignity, by condescending, for the hopes of spoil, to enlist
under the banners of their fugitive enemies. In the reign of Attila, [1]
the Huns again became the terror of the world; and I shall now describe
the character and actions of that formidable Barbarian; who alternately
insulted and invaded the East and the West, and urged the rapid downfall
of the Roman empire.

[Footnote 1: T