CHAPTER XII THE GERMAN INVASIONS AND THE BREAK-UP OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE Section 51. Founding of Kingdoms by Barbarian Chiefs It is impossible to divide the past into distinct, clearly defined impossibility periods and prove that one age ended and another began in a par- ^^e past'?nto ticular year, such as ^;^;^ B.C., or 1453 a.d., or 1789. Men do not ^^^^^ ^^' , and cannot change their habits and ways of doing things all at once, no matter what happens. It is true that a single event, such as an important battle which results in the loss of a nation's independence, may produce an abrupt change in the government. This in turn may either encourage or discourage trade and manufactures, and modify the language and alter the interests of a people. But these deeper changes take place only very All general gradually. After a battle or a revolution the farmer will sow pia"e^gradu-^ and reap in his old way ; the artisan will take up his familiar ^^^y tasks, and the merchant his buying and selling. The scholar will study and write as he formerly did, and the household will go on under the new government just as it did under the old. 315
