Excerpt from The Three Germanys, Vol. 1: Glimpses Into Their History After centuries Of prodigious anarchy, these Six Medi terranean empires were succeeded by the seventh, the Holy Roman (german) Empire. This did not include J eru salem within its limits, for the ancient Jerusalem was no more. But it included Rome; and for two hundred years (the Crusades), at a gigantic cost Of money and life, it strove in vain to acquire the place on which the ancient Jerusalem had stood. The successive records of these seven empires may be called the grand river Of human history. Those Of other nations are branches which flow into it. After the de struction of the seventh Empire by Napoleon I., there was no new world-empire. The great stream separated into various channels, through which it is still rapidly rushing forward, foaming, eddying, breaking apart, form ing anew, according to the impetuous currents Of the mighty waters. Whither is it flowing? 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.