Upon again opening his eyes, he saw Italy recovering from her desolation, towns arising with governments almost upon the model of ancient Athens and Rome, and these different small states rivals in arts and arms;--he saw the remains of libraries, which had been preserved in monasteries and churches by a holy influence, which even the Goth and Vandal respected, again opened to the people;--he saw Rome rising from her ashes, the fragments of statues found amidst the ruins of her palaces and imperial villas, becoming the models for the regeneration of art;--he saw magnificent temples raised in this city, become the metropolis of a new and Christian world, and ornamented with the most brilliant master-pieces of the arts of design.--"Now," the Genius said, "society has taken its modern and permanent aspect. Consider for a moment its relations to letters and to arms, as contrasted with those of the ancient world." He looked, and he saw that, in the place of the rolls of papyrus, libraries were now filled with books. "Behold," the Genius said, "THE PRINTING PRESS! By the invention of Faust, the productions of genius are, as it were, made imperishable, capable of indefinite multiplication, and rendered an unalienable heritage of the human mind. By this art, apparently so humble, the progress of society is secured, and man is spared the humiliation of witnessing again scenes like those which followed the destruction of the Roman Empire. Now look to the warriors of modern times; you see the spear, the javelin, and the cuirass are changed for the musket and the light artillery. The German monk who discovered gunpowder did not meanly affect the destinies of mankind; wars are become less bloody by becoming less personal; mere brutal strength is rendered of comparatively little avail; all the resources of civilization are required to move a large army; wealth, ingenuity, and perseverance become the principal elements of success; civilized man is rendered in consequence infinitely superior to the savage, and gunpowder gives permanence to his triumph, and secures the cultivated nations from being ever again overrun by the inroads of millions of barbarians."[116] [116] This is a question which Gibbon has very eloquently discussed ("_General Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West_," vol. vi.) "Cannon and fortifications now form an impregnable barrier against the Tartar horse; and Europe is secure from any future irruption of barbarians; since, before they can conquer, they must cease to be barbarous." What an extraordinary illustration does this principle find in the history of our possessions in India, where, to speak in round numbers, thirty thousand Europeans keep no less than one hundred million of natives in subjection!