Chapter II: Prologue: Of Mottoes

"Could we create so close, tender, and cordial a connection between the citizens of a state, as to induce all to consider themselves as relatives--as fathers, brothers, and sisters, then this whole state would constitute but a single family, be subjected to the most perfect regulations, and become the happiest republic that ever existed upon earth."--Plato.

"Although this great edifice of universal history, where the conclusion at least is still wanting, is in this respect incomplete, and appears but a mighty fragment of which even particular parts are less known to us than others; yet is this edifice sufficiently advanced, and many of its great wings and members are sufficiently unfolded to our view, to enable us, by a lucid arrangement of the different periods of history, to gain a clear insight into the general plan of the whole."--Frederic Von Schlegel.

"Whatever is necessary exists."--De Maistre.

"God shall enlarge Japhet, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem."--Genesis ix. 27.

PART FIRST.

PERICLES.--AGE OF ARTISTIC BEAUTY.