JOHN G. SHEPPARD, D.C.L. SOMETIME FELLOW OF WADHAM COLLEgé, oxford, AND HEAD MASTER "Die Weltgeschichte ist das Weltgericht." SCHILLER. LONDON: ROUTLEDGE, WARNE, & ROUTLEDGE, FARRINGDON STREET; NEW YORK: 56, WALKER STREET. 1861. [The Right of Translation is reserved.] An important historical work is its own best introduction. This is not the case with books which are about history, rather than history itself. These require some explanation of their purpose and method, for they may deal with a matter in which the reader feels an interest, yet in a manner displeasing to his taste or foreign to his purposes as a student. I shall therefore explain, in as few words as possible, what I have endeavoured to do in these Lectures, and why I have endeavoured to do it. Our Universities of late have extended their field of historical study, and, whether as a cause or consequence of the fact, the general public has begun to feel an interest in persons and times concerning which it was formerly well content to remain in ignorance. One of these periods, it has seemed to me, is, or must necessarily very soon be, that critical and cardinal period during which the old-world Civilization broke up, and the new Civilization had its birth. When a man devotes his time and thoughts to any particular subject, he is sure to form large ideas of its importance. Every one exaggerates his own spécialité; and this is doubtless the case with myself Yet I cannot but think that most historical students will agree with the remark of a distinguished living historian,"La dissolution de l'Empire romain d'Occident se rattache |