The San Francisco call., 1905-04-02

world should be revised in the light of
recent discoveries in all the sciences
ciology have Joined hands with arch
aeology and paleontology to widen our
conception as to the greatness, the SOL
idarity and the antiquity of our race.
and that everywhere immense activity
in investigation has been met with in
creased facilities for the accumulation
Of material unknown to past genera
tions. The whole Of the last volume is
devoted to a complete general index Of
the world history in one alphabet, COW
ering both proper names and important
topics, and this is considered a unique
feature and a fitting conclusion to the
monumental work.
Perhaps the most interesting of the
first five volumes series, the age of
antiquity, is the fourth volume, RE
publican Rome" 1t contains so much
about those notable actions and those
impressive personalities, which even
to modern times still dominate the at
tention almost in equal share with the
great events and the pre-eminent
characters who come so much closer in
time to us We read of the rise of
Rome to universal dominion; of the
great struggle with Carthage when the
Senate left 1t to the people to decide
whether they would fight or no; of the
progress Of the cycle. from virtue to
power. from power to wealth. from
wealth TO luxury, from luxury to vice
and the downfall of the great republic
and the rise Of the empire.
We find the stories Of those person
ages of Rome's rise so we'll retold that
we are glad of their recall thus to
re-enact their parts before US. Has
drubal and Hannibal have their pages
of vivid presentment; Scipio Africanus
who by his victory over the Car
thaginians made Rome the dominant
power of the western world, is treated
in one OF the best passages; the de-
scription of T1berius Gracious, who,
with the eagerness and impetuosity of
youth, undertook to cure the worst
evils in the state" but who could not
to noble aims and great talents Join
the knowledge of men and their pas
sions, and the experience in the af-
fairs Of state, which time alone can
give, and which were indispensable for
the task before him. is vivid and in
structive; Cato, the foremost of the
peasant democr-cy of his generation,
and who made the strictness of Cato
proverbial for all time,'' is well
sketched as the history hurries on;
Marius, "a vigorous self-made man who
despised the incompetence and in
dolence of the officers from the no.
bility," rises first to our admiration
and then quickly sinks below it when,
on meeting with scorn and hostility,
''the ambitious homo novus was filed
with a fierce and persistent rage
against the nobility, which later drove
him to frightful excesses'' there are
Antony and Cleopatra, spectacular, of
course; there is the great Caesar, who
though himself early fell, was sur
vived by the many reforms in admins
tration, and by other creations, which
are the monument Of the incredible
activity and wonderful versatility of
the mind Of this great man.; but above
ali these picturesque characters the
author Of this fourth volume seems to
delight in spending his best talent in
making us consider attentively his
presentation to us of the hero of the
Punic War, Scipio Africanus.
Here is a fragment Of that presenta-
ton: When Claudius Nero
had shown himself unequal to the task
assigned him. the Senate decided to
commit the conduct of the war to a
general with pre-consular authority,
who, as an extraordinary measure
should be chosen by the people. The
place was sought and obtained by a
youth of only "a years, Publius Cor
nelius Scipio, the chivalrous and uni
versally beloved son of the dead Pub
Illus Scipio. Around him the grateful
remembrance of contemporaries and
the homage of later ages have thrown
a peculiar halo. 1t was never forgotten
that to him fell the glory Of finally con-
quering Hannibal and of putting an
end to the horrors of this war. His for
tune was greater than his military
gifts, though these far surpassed even
those Of Marcellus; but to his contem-
poraries the youthful hero was fasci-
mating personality. Chivalrously
brave, handsome, gracious In giving,