text:  These errors the natural result of a philosophic and profound mind wandering without a guide in the mighty maze of human transactions are entirely avoided in the _Grandeur et Decadence des Romains_ where he was retained by authentic history to a known train of events and where his imaginative spirit and marked turn for generalization found sufficient scope and no more to produce the most perfect commentary on the annals of a single people of which the human mind can boast