Excerpt from A Discourse on the Errors of Popery Few subjects more deeply interest the inquiring mind, than the origin, progress, and decline of the Roman Empire. Progressing from inconsiderable beginnings, it gradually rose to that height of power and greatness, that all the known and civilized earth was subjected to its command. Having for centuries ruled the nations with a rod of iron, it as gradually fell and in the end, stripped of its glo and ravaged by the barbarians, it was blotted from ilielist of nations. The monuments of arms, arts, and sciences, of genius, learning, and taste, which still remain, suficiently de monstrate, how great was ancient Rome. They excite our curiosity concerning the causes of her grandeur and ruin they teach us, that 'it was not so much her for; tune, as her system, which produced her exaltation and in the issue, not physical necessity, but vice and luxury were the causes of her decay. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.