Heliogabalus was declared emperor; and Macrinus, shortly afterwards, fell a sacrifice. We shall not pursue this abandoned prince through the career of vice, debauchery, and profligacy, which he almost instantly commenced; it is enough to observe, that, about three years after his elevation to the imperial dignity, at the express desire of Moesa, who foresaw that the Romans would not much longer endure his criminalities, he adopted his cousin Alexianus, then only about thirteen years of age, as his successor;, who in consequence assumed, with great pomp, the name of Alexander Severus: a step, however, which Heliogabalus soon afterwards repented of; and gave full proof of such repentance by repeated attempts to murder him. In all these he was unsuccessful; and, in less than twelve months after he had adopted him, evincing the same diabolical disposition, was slain by the enraged soldiery, and Alexander declared emperor in his stead.

The drama before us (as our author denominates it) commences at the time when Heliogabalus, having been raised to the imperial dignity, was indulging himself in every species of excess, and even bestiality. It opens with the following note from Mamæa to Ulpian, a celebrated civilian, who flourished at this period, and a part of whose labours are generally conceived to have enriched the Theodosian code.

The shame and misfortunes of Rome have reached their height. Read, sagacious Ulpian.'

This note incloses two letters, which had been put into her possession by Cynisca, a confidential domestic, who had received them from Gordius, a detester of such practices; and which develop, in glowing colours, much of the dissolute and scandalous depravity of the emperor, of which a considerable portion might have been merely glanced at, and not minutely detailed, without any loss either of general interest or delicacy. The cause of virtue and morality is, however, through the whole of the history, pointedly espoused, and warmly supported. As a contrast to the above disgusting picture, we shall select the following letter from Ulpian to Sylvinus, a fictitious character, but represented as the worthy tutor of Alexian. The former had received from the latter a treatise of his own, on the principles of the young prince's education.

How happy are you, my dear Sylvinus! you escape, by thinking, from the horrors which surround us: you envelop yourself in your principles; you take refuge in literature. While the storm roars round us on every side, you cultivate in peace this young plant entrusted to your care, and under the shadow of which we must one day repose. You open its flow. ers, you prepare its fruits. You create an avenger, a prop for humanity, under the very eye of her most cruel enemy, Alex.

ian shall be the consolation and the delight of the world, of which Heliogabalus is now the reproach and terror. That which the senate, that which the people of Rome are no longer able to accomplish for themselves, thanks to your guidance, a young hero shall execute. He is the only man whom I can trace out in the midst of a host of slaves. He has drawn from the study of the Greek writers, whom you have committed to him, this premature magnanimity which promises us an Epaminondas. He will unite with it the soul of a Cato.-With avidity have I just devoured the treatise you have composed for him. This treatise on the Augustal institution is a subject al together new. You have concentrated, as in a luminous focus, all the multitudinous rays of that philosophy to which we owe our Trajans and our Marcus-Aureliuses. You have selected, purified, embellished the maxims of the Athenian and Roman moralists. You have done for political, what I have done for civil law. You have reduced the science of princes to a small number of axioms founded on the purest reason, and whose results are fertile and immense. Perhaps the whole might yet be reduced to a single word to will what is good. He who wills, performs.-I am going to communicate, or rather to present this treatise to the august Mamaa, since you have given me permission. She has a soul in unison with your own. principles are by no means new to her. Let us confirm her in this purity of sentiment. Let us multiply barriers around her, at whose foot the corruption by which she is encircled must fall without reaching her.-O! my dear Sylvinus! Mamæa is at present virtuous. If, on some future day, the intoxication of power (alas! what numbers has it not corrupted!) should deprave the severity of her manners, I will recall her to herself by making her re-peruse your writings.-Do not let us deceive ourselves, Sylvinus: the epoch in which Alexian must be raised to the empire cannot be distant. By what means I know not for we have reached that point whence we cannot be reseued from tyranny but by herself. At this epoch, believe me, it will be the skilful Mamæa, who, in conjunction with Masa, will hold the reins of government. Alexian is extremely young; and respect for his mother is the prime virtue she has inculcated on him.-Thanks to your philosophic conversations, to the virtuous counsels of respectable senators; thanks to their own principles, we have nothing but what is great to expect from these illustrious women. Nevertheless let us watch; and foster from time to time the fruitful seed implanted in their bosom. Your treatise is a lesson still more useful to the mother than to the son. Never may she wander from the principles of wisdom it contains!'

Thus educated, we already pre-conceive much of the cha

racter of Alexian: it is delineated at full length in Letter VII. from Sylvinus to Mamæa.

'I, first of all,' says he, 'pause to contemplate those exterior traits, that physiognomy which reveals the secret dispositions of the soul never was there a form more deeply imprinted* with the sacred character of virtue than that of my pupil. Benevolence unites with austerity on his countenance-it is the happy alliance of vigour and grace. His eyes glisten with active fire, humanity breathes (respire) on his forehead, and tranquillity in his smile. His make is tall, well formed, and robust, his attitude firm and masculine; and, what is more striking still, under this severe but tempered appearance he conceals a mind the most soft, a heart the most tender, He, in some measure, resembles the gods whom we begin with fearing, and finish with adoring. His memory is prodigious, and ever present; his vivacity, though extreme, is well moderated; nothing can equal his penetration. To all these gifts of body and mind, he adds that which still embellishes and augments them-a sersible heart; the life of the meanest citizen will ever be sacred to him; he will govern by clemency.These qualities, which he has received from nature, he has developed by philosophy: he is already familiar with that of the Grecks our masters in ethics, as well as in the arts, and who first founded politics on the basis of justice. It is on this account, perhaps, that Alexian prefers their idioms and their authors. In effect, he is less skilful in the Latin than in the Greek tongue; either that the former ravishes by its native charms, by its p. rpetual elegance, by its richness, by its flexibility, by its everlasting harmony; or, that he prefers conversing with the great men of Athens and of Sparta still living in their works, to the degenerate successors of those of Rome. He has, moreover, put into verse the chief events of their lives.→→ The study of the polite arts attempers these sublime meditations: from the example of Themistocles and Epaminondas, Alexian has cultivated music; yet with a suppression which I cannot but approve, he has never exercised this talent but in his private apartments he never parades with it on the public theatre, like our comic emperors. Instructed in the art of our Apelles and our Euclids, like our ancient chieftains, he already studies countenances and prospects, as well as draws plans. science of numbers, indispensable in the military art, is not less so in the cabinet. He will learn to discriminate, to analyse, to estimate all the elements of the real grandeur of states, elements concerning which we are so often deceived, for want of

The

*In the original, plus éminemment empreinte, more prominently imprinted or en gravena phraseology for which we thought the Irish had obtained an exclusive patent.

having appreciated and combined them according to their just value. And here I ought not to conceal one defect-but it is the only one-of a mind greedy after knowledge. I pardon it, on account of his extreme youth; and experience alone will cure him of these chimæras. Bewildered by a vain science, he has plunged himself into the shades of judicial astrology: he has composed a treatise on divination: he consults and projects horoscopes: he believes in fatality. But even this error is that of men destined for great things; and by how many qualities is it not atoned for! Frugality, temperance, punctual discharge of duty, respect for the good, abhorrence of the wicked, private economy, public generosity, prudence, and courage: these are all his own!'

The whole bank of virtues or vices being before him, every dramatist or novelist, in the creation of his hero, is at liberty to draw upon it for good or bad qualities, as he pleases; and those who are not minutely acquainted with the real character of Alexander Severus may think that the present author, in the article of mental and moral excellencies, has indulged in this liberty with no unsparing hand. Yet so truly virtuous and enlightened was that admirable prince, that the character before us but little, if in any respect, exceeds the truth; and his present biographer is, in almost every instance, countenanced by some prior historian who has treated of his reign. It is not, perhaps, so easy to defend him as to the necessity of so minute ardetail of his corporeal and mental powers, of his height, features, and figure, in a private letter to his mother. We remember an observation of the present lord-chancellor, delivered in Lincoln's inn hail, after a long, elaborate, and witty reply from a gentleman who constitutes no part of the bar-that it was possessed of no small degree of merit, but appeared rather directed to the overflowing crowd of by-standers, than to himself: the observation may, we fear, with equal propriety, be applied on the present occasion; in which this most excellent character of a most excellent prince. however faithfully drawn, and minutely detailed, appears far less designed for the information of his mother, to whom it is immediat ly addressed, than for that of readers at the distance of about sixteen hundred years from the period in which it is pretended to have been written.

The letter which succeeds, forms a perfect contrast, and gives, as may well be supposed, a history of the infancy, edu cation, and character, of Heliogabalus. Through this disgusting narration, we need not, nor can consent to follow the author, who makes him first of all the slave of moral turpitude, in consequence of his initiation into the priesthood of the sun, whose pontiff, as already observed, he was afterwards elected, and whose priests and priestesses were adepts in every species of

debauchery and concupiscence. There could surely be no necessity for entering into the subject with so much amplitude; and we disapprove of the narrative, on not less than three accounts; first, because such descriptions, be the ultimate object what it may, have in themselves an evil tendency; next, because such obscenities, as applied to the temple of Emesa, are by no means countenanced in history; and lastly, because it forms a sort of apology for the dissolute and libidinous life of this abandoned emperor, and diminishes, in a considerable degree, the horror which the ingenuousness of the juvenile mind naturally experi ences, at the idea of native and voluntary depravity. In effect, both princes were devoted to the same deity, and educated within the precincts of the same temple. Whatever, therefore, were the seductions to which the one was exposed, were those to which the other was exposed equally; and it is just as unfair to the character of Alexander Severus to insinuate that he became virtuous, because he had an education that would not suffer him to be otherwise, as to represent Heliogabalus becoming vicious, through perpetual seduction, and the force of example.

Unable to enter into all the private debauchery and public orgies of this imperial delinquent, we shall transcribe the following narrative, in consequence of his having failed in his attempt: it refers to the latter period of his reign.

Aquilia Severa, Vestal, to Mamra.

In the name of the gods and by their supreme majesty, by the sacred fire which I feed on the altars of Vesta, in the name of offended religion and public modesty outraged, grant me an asylum in your palace: it may, perhaps, be more respected than the sanctuary of any other divinity. I fly for refuge to your virtue. Will Heliogabalus dare, if you place yourself before me, to select me for the companion, or rather for the victim, of his infamies? He nevertheless has dared to propose to a virgin, devoted to the worship of the gods, to enter his impure bed: he offers me the title of empress, as if he were able to annul that of Vestal Listen to his misdeeds;—

I was watching one night near the sacred altar: my holy hands rekindled its fires: they threw forth nothing but pale sparklings. O unlucky presage! the flame appeared livid and dying. Doubled was the mysterious obscurity of the temple: by the sad glimmering of the reflected rays which trembled from this melancholy light, I scarcely distinguished the images of the deity, who seemed to cast an angry aspect around her. Such presages, the darkness of night, the nods of motioning shadows, who followed every movement of my torch, itself on the point of expiring, the humidity of the place, which froze my senses already struck with terror, the hollow and monotouous echo of my steps, and even my own taciturn self-collec