2. What is the moral of this fable? 3. Discuss the meaning and etymology of "Micromegas," "philosophers," "fantasy," "translation," "terrestrial," "intellectual," "Czar," "annihilate," "ridiculous," "rejoinder," "sedentary." 4. Find in the model one simple, one compound, and one complex sentence. 5. One loose and one periodic sentence. 6. Two antitheses. 7. Explain in one paragraph the point of some old book of current interest. VI. Model III Theodor Mommsen's "Law of National Expansion," in view of the present war, is interesting. In his _History of Rome_, which was published in 1857, he says in substance that a young nation which has both vigor and culture is sure to absorb older nations whose vigor is waning and younger nations whose civilization is undeveloped, just as an educated young man is sure to supplant an old man in his dotage and to get the better of a muscular ignoramus. That nations, as well as individuals, should do this is, in Mommsen's opinion, not only inevitable but right. In ancient times the Romans were the only people in whom were combined a superior political organization and a superior civilization. The result was that they subdued the Greek states of the East, which were ripe for destruction, and dispossessed the people of lower grades of culture in the West. The union of Italy was accomplished through the overthrow of the Samnite and Etruscan civilizations. The Roman Empire was built upon the ruins of countless secondary nationalities which had long before been marked out for destruction by the levelling hand of civilization. When Latium became too narrow for the Romans, they cured their political ills by conquering the rest of Italy. When Italy became too narrow, Cæsar crossed the Alps. So far Mommsen. The conclusions drawn from his "law" by some of his successors are ingenious. They amount to this: As Rome grew in power and culture, so Brandenburg, since the days of the Great Elector, has been expanding in spirit and in territory. That illustrious prince began by absorbing Prussia. Frederick the Great added Silesia and a slice of Poland. Wilhelm I obtained Schleswig, Holstein, Alsace, and Lorraine by war, and Saxony and Bavaria by benevolent assimilation. The present Kaiser has already acquired Belgium by the former and Austria by the latter process. Like the Rome of Cæsar, the German Empire is now at war on the one hand with decadent civilizations and on the other with a horde of barbarians. What Greece and Carthage were to Rome, France and England are to Germany, while Russia is the modern counterpart of the Gauls, Britons, and Germans of the _Commentaries_. Such at least is what certain writers think the Germans think. VII. Notes and Exercises