In discussing Barbarism and Christianity I have actually been discussing the Fall of Rome.
Interpretation
The quote connects the concepts of barbarism and civilization to the historical fall of Rome, highlighting the cyclical nature of societal development.
Edward Gibbon's quote reflects on the complex relationship between civilization, represented by Christianity, and its contrast with barbarism, suggesting that the decline of the Roman Empire was not merely a political event but a profound cultural and moral shift. Through this lens, Gibbon invites us to ponder how societies evolve and devolve, and the factors that contribute to their rise and fall, emphasizing the lessons that can be drawn from the past.
In practice
This quote could be used in a lecture on the impact of religion on societal development.
It was Rome, on the fifteenth of October, 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing vespers in the Temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind.
I will not dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and, perhaps, the establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon humbled, and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind, by the idea that I had taken an everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion, and that whatsoever might be the future date of my History, the life of the historian must be short and precarious.
And the winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.
The first and indispensable requisite of happiness is a clear conscience.
Many a sober Christian would rather admit that a wafer is God than that God is a cruel and capricious tyrant.
The theologian may indulge the pleasing task of describing Religion as she descended from Heaven, arrayed in her native purity. A more melancholy duty is imposed on the historian. He must discover the inevitable mixture of error and corruption which she contracted in a long residence upon Earth, among a weak and degenerate race of beings.
The human psyche has two great sicknesses: the urge to carry vendetta across generations, and the tendency to fasten group labels on people rather than see them as individuals.
Visible and mobile, my body is a thing among things; it's caught in the fabric of the world, and its cohesion is that of a thing. But, because it moves itself and sees, it holds things in a circle around itself.
None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army
It would seem the people who want to preserve the Penans' way of life are condemning them to a life full of diseases and a shorter life span.
I don't think anyone is qualified to answer questions of eternal fate definitively, much less pinpoint it to a given day.
...My point is, I went crazy. When I saw what a black, awful joke the world was. I went crazy as a coot! I admit it! Why can't you?
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