摘自《前車可鑑──西方思想文化的興衰》How Should We Then
Live? ----The Rise And Decline Of Western Thought And Culture ，222頁，薛華（Francis August Schaeffer）著/梁祖永、梁壽華、姚錦燊、劉灝明譯，宣道出版社，2015年五版。
吉本（Edward Gibbon，1737-1794）在他的《羅馬帝國衰亡史》（Decline and Fall of the Roma Empire，1776-1788）中說，下面五點是促成羅馬帝國覆亡的主要原因：第一，好炫耀和奢侈（就是富足）；第二，貧富極度懸殊（這可以在國與國之間、民族與民族之間或在一國之內出現這種情況）；第三，縱欲；第四，藝術畸形的發展，以贗品代替真品，把狂熱當做才能；第五，人人都想依賴國家生活而不事生產。以上聽來都很熟悉，我們從第一章起，經過-段漫長的道路後，現在又返回到羅馬的時代。
Edward
Gibbon (1737-1794) in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire said that the
following five attributes marked Rome at its end: first, a mounting love of
show and luxury (that is, affluence); second, a widening gap between the very
rich and the very poor (this could be among countries in the family of nations
as well as in a single nation); third, an obsession with sex; fourth,
freakishness in the arts, masquerading as originality, and enthusiasms
pretending to be creativity; fifth, an increased desire to live off the state.
It all sounds so familiar. We have come a long road since our first chapter,
and we are back in Rome.
