text:  His descriptions of the Roman empire in the zenith of its power as it existed in the time of Augustus--of its decline and long-protracted old age under Constantine and his successors on the Byzantine throne--of the manners of the pastoral nations who under different names and for a succession of ages pressed upon and at last overturned the empire--of the Saracens who issuing from the lands of Arabia with the Koran in one hand and the cimeter in the other urged on their resistless course till they were arrested by the Atlantic on the one side and the Indian ocean on the other--of the stern crusaders who nursed amid the cloistered shades and castellated realms of Europe struggled with that devastating horde "when 'twas strongest and ruled it when 'twas wildest"--of the long agony silent decay and ultimate resurrection of the Eternal City--are so many immortal pictures which to the end of the world will fascinate every ardent and imaginative mind