It now remains that I give some sketch of the rise of that power, of which we read so much in the New Testament, and which then enjoying the universal empire, by military force hushed the world into a profound peace at the advent of the Redeemer. While all these things were transacting in the East, a nation was rising into notice in the south of Italy, destined to exert a more extensive influence upon the world by her arms than Greece did by her literature and her arts. About seven hundred and fifty years before Christ, as tradition relates, a small band of refugees from the ruins of Troy, joined by an equal or greater number of other adventurers, established themselves upon the banks of the Tyber. Their government was at first monarchical. They were poor in resources, temperate and frugal in their habits, but either from choice or necessity warlike from the first. Italy was not then a new nor an uncultivated country. It must have contained states and cities of great wealth, as at this day there are discovered in that country vast receptacles for the dead, dating back much earlier than the time of Romulus, vieing in extent and splendor with the mighty catacombs of Egypt. The earliest notices of authentic history present them to us as a nation of soldiers and statesmen, trained from their earliest years to politics and war. Their monarchy lasted about two centuries and a half. While that continued there was little indication that the

Romans were to become the masters of the world. The establishment of a popular government however, rapidly developed their national characteristic, a love of conquest and military glory. This character once formed, and all honor and promotion coming from the people, none could hope to succeed without bending the whole force of his talents to that object which every citizen had most at heart, the honor of the Roman name and the extension of their dominion over foreign nations. The Senate, composed either of the most distinguished and influential of the citizens, or of those who had made their way through the regular grades of the magistracy to the highest which was known in the state, constituted a body, which for more than a thousand years for talent, for weight, for wisdom and experience, was unrivalled in the history of the world. The Roman from youth to age lived in the eye of his country. To gain the favor of the arbiters of his destiny, was his perpetual study and his constant endeavor. Thus from the first every faculty was put upon the utmost stretch, and nothing was omitted through the whole course of education, which could give him eloquence before the people, valor and conduct in the field, and wisdom in the Senate. The whole nation was a sort of military school. No man could be a candidate for office until he had served his country ten years as a soldier in the camp.

The result was, that by thus bending all the powers of human nature in one direction, they excelled all mankind in that art to which they were exclusively devoted; they became a nation of soldiers, and pursuing with steady aim and untiring perseverance, one exclusive object for eight centuries, they naturally became the conquerors of the world.

A Roman army was the most terrible object that ever trod the earth. It was a vast human machine, contrived for the subjugation of the world, instinct with intelligence, shielded from assault by an almost impenetrable armor, and animated with a courage which was then most at home when in the midst of the shock of battle. When we read of a Roman camp, we cease to wonder why that nation carried conquest from the sands of Africa to the borders of Scotland, from the Straits of Gibralter to the skirts of the Arabian desert.

After the age of seventeen, every Roman citizen was liable to be enrolled and sent to the wars. When he arrived at the camp he entered on a course of life, in which ease and indulgence were altogether unknown. He commenced a discipline of hardship and endurance, which were it not made certain by historic records, would at this period of the world be utterly incredible. He was there furnished with a shield of sufficient size to protect his whole body, and thick

and strong enough to resist the force of arrows, swords, and spears; two javelins of some four feet in length, armed at the end with a three cornered blade of about eighteen inches. To these was added a two edged sword, sharp at the point, equally calculated to strike or to thrust as occasion might need. Boots for the defence of the legs, a breastplate of brass, a cap of the same, surmounted by a lofty plume, completed his panoply, and made him an object at once beautiful and terrible to the beholder. In addition to his heavy armor, the Roman soldier was compelled to march under the weight of the furniture of his tent, a burden which the puny men of our times would find themselves altogether unable to sustain. When they had arrived at the end of a fatiguing day's march, not an eye could be closed in sleep, nor a limb composed to rest, till their camp was surrounded by a trench twelve feet wide and twelve feet deep, surmounted by a breastwork of the same dimensions. When they were stationary, not a day nor an hour was lost. Their whole time was taken up in military and athletic exercises, which either gave strength and vigor to their bodies, or skill and dexterity to the use of their weapons. Such for nine centuries was a Roman army, not a day for the whole time that it did not exist and perform its various functions. The same discipline, continued from age to age, perpetuated without change the same national character, the same

taste and the same pursuits; and though the individuals changed, and the Roman consul, the Roman general, and the Roman soldier, bore a different name, it was the Roman consul, general, and soldier still. And such was the inflexible uniformity of military discipline from age to age, that though the form of government was three times radically changed, still, whether a Republic or a Despot, might govern at home, the Roman legions went steadily on in their stern and mighty task of conquering the world. Five hundred years were consumed in the conquest of Italy, and two hundred more made them masters of the earth. Sixty-three years before the birth of Christ the tide of conquest reached the Holy Land. Pompey the Great polluted with impious tread the Holy of Holies, and the Roman legions planted their standard upon the ramparts of the temple. Fortyeight years before the same era Cæsar subjugated the liberties of his country, putting an end to the Republic which had existed four hundred and sixty years. Thirty-one years before Christ the whole civilized world was united in one monarchy under his nephew Augustus. The civil wars were at an end, the Roman conquests were stayed, and the world was hushed in a profound repose, when the song was heard in Bethlehem, "Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, and good will among men."