But the scanty wisdom of man, on entering into an affair which looks well at first, cannot discern the poison that is hidden in it, as I have said above of hectic fevers. 
     
Therefore, if he who rules a principality cannot recognize evils until they are upon him, he is not truly wise; and this insight is given to few. 
     
And if the first disaster to the Roman Empire should be examined, it will be found to have commenced only with the enlisting of the Goths; 
     because from that time the vigour of the Roman Empire began to decline, and all that valour which had raised it passed away to others. 

High