A Short History of France

component parts, of varying qualities, and the result we call England, or Germany, or France. The steps by which it is

l fused and interpenetrated with two other nationalities. She must first be humanized a

Julius Caesar, and for the latter-five ce

esar. Napoleon, who strove to imitate him 1800 years later, was a charlatan in comparison; a mer

compelling current. This was not accomplished by placing before the inferior race a higher ideal of life for imitation, but by a mingling of the blood o

such consequences to the human race as

he resources of Rome. Caesar conceived the audacious idea of stopp

ir sources of weakness, their internal jealousies and rivalries, their incohesiveness. When they hurled themselves against Rome, it was as a mass of sharp fragment

us personal force; and during nine years carried on eight campaigns, marvels in the art of war, as well as in the subtler methods of negotiation and intrigue

s and empire, that can be possessed by man. Great in politics as in war, as full of

leader burning with military ardor that he conducted those eight campaigns. The conquest of Gaul meant the greater conquest of Rome. The

f the world; he-wou

ds and aqueducts and faubourgs sprang into existence across the Seine, and Lutetia was swallowed up in Paris-so named for a Gallic tribe, the Parisii, which had once encamped there. Standing within the Palais de Justice on this island to-day, one is in d

homes, and Roman legions were encamped where are now the Palais de Luxembourg and the Sorbo

va and the gods of Parnassus supplanted the grim deities of a more ancient mythology. But while Rome was a powerful teacher, she was a cruel mistress-and shackles were galling to these free barbarians. In the midst of universal misery there came tidings of