The propagation of the plague by contagion was, as we have already seen, distinctly denied by Procopius, and in this opinion he seems, as in modern times, to have been backed by a majority of the people. The immortal historian of “The Decline and Fall” did not partake of Procopius’ doubts. “Contagion,” he remarks, “is the inseparable symptom of the plague, which, by mutual respiration, is transfused from the infected persons to the lungs and stomach of those who approach them. While the philosophers believe and tremble, it is singular that the existence of a real danger should have been denied by a people most prone to vain and imaginary terrors. Yet the fellow-citizens of Procopius were satisfied, by some short and partial experience, that the infection could not be gained by the closest conversation; and this persuasion might support the assiduity of friends or physicians in the care of the sick, whom inhuman prudence would have condemned to solitude and despair. But the fatal security, like the predestination of the Turks, must have aided the progress of the contagion; and those salutary precautions to which Europe is indebted for her safety, were unknown to the government of Justinian. No restraints were imposed on the free and frequent intercourse of the Roman provinces. From Persia to France the nations were mingled and infected by wars and emigration, and the pestilential odour which lurks for years in a bale of cotton was imported by the abuse of trade into the most distant regions.”[13]