Gibbon wrote and we speak of the “Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire,” and Maspero has written a magnificent volume on “The Passing
of the Ancient Empires.” Gradual degeneracy is the cause and precursor
of final collapse.
After a violent gale one night a great tree was found lying
across the pathway in the park where through long years it
had been developing a noble growth. Nothing but a splintered
stump remained standing. Examination showed there had been
another development besides that of its stately beauty. For it
was rotten to the core, because of the secret workings of a
multitude of little insects which for generations had lived and
multiplied. Judgment was not passed on that tree by the sudden
gale, but went forth from the very moment that the first insect
nested within its bark.
(1701)