served her. The firmness of character, and deep political sagacity of the Romans, seem to have borne an exact proportion to each other. That foreseeing wisdom, that penetrating policy, which led Montesquieu to observe, that they conquered the world by maxims and principles, seem in reality to have insured the success of their conquests, almost more than their high national valour, and their bold spirit of enterprise.

What was it which afterwards plunged Rome into the lowest depths of degradation, and finally blotted her out from among the nations? It was her renouncing those maxims and principles. It was her departure from every virtuous and self-denying habit. It was the gradual relaxation of private morals. It was the substitution of luxury for temperance, and of a mean and narrow selfishness for public spirit. It was a contempt for the sober manners of the ancient republic, and a dereliction of the old principles of government, even while the forms of that government were retained. It was the introduction of a new philosophy more favourable to sensuality; it was the importation, by her Asiatic proconsuls, of every luxury which could pamper that sensuality. It was, in short, the evils resulting from those two passions which monopolized their souls-the lust of power, and the lust of gold. These passions operated on each other, as cause and effect, action and re-action ; and produced that rapid corruption which Sallust describes with so much spirit" Mores majorum non paulatim ut antea, sed torrentis modo precipitati." Profligacy, venality, peculation, oppression, succeeded to that simplicity, patriotism, and high-minded disinterestedness on which this nation had once so much valued itself, and which had attracted the admiration of the world. So that Rome, in the days of her pristine severity of manners, and Rome in the last period of her freedom, exhibits a stronger contrast than will be found between almost any two countries.

This depravation does not refer to solitary instances, to the shamelessness of a Verres, or the profligacy of a Piso, but to the general practice of avowed corruption, and systematic venality. By the just judgment of Providence, the enjoyment of the spoils brought home from the conquered nations, corrupted the conquerors; and at length compelled Rome, in her turn, both to fly before her enemies, and to bow down her head under the most intolerable domestic yoke. Rome had no more the spirit to make any faint struggle for liberty after the death of Cæsar, than Greece after that of Alexander, though to each the occasion seemed to present itself. Neither state had virtue enough left to deserve, or even to desire, to be free. The wisdom of Cato should, in the case of Rome, have discovered this; and it should have spared him the fruitless attempt to restore liberty to a country which its vices had enslaved, and have preserved him, even on his own principles, from self-destruction.

Among the causes of the political servitude of Rome may be reckoned, in a considerable degree, the institution of the pretorian bands, who, in a great measure, governed both the Romans and the emperors. These pretorian bands presented the chief difficulty in the way of good emperors, some of whom they destroyed for attempting to reform them; and of the bad emperors, they were the electors.

In perusing the Roman history, these and other causes of the decline and fall of the empire should be carefully shown; the tendency of private

vices to produce factions, and the tendency of factions to overthrow liberty; a spirit of dissension, and a rapid deterioration of morals, being, in all states, the most deadly, and, indeed, the inseparable symptoms of expiring freedom. The no less baneful influence of arbitrary power, in the case of the many profligate and cruel emperors who succeeded, should be clearly pointed out.

It is also a salutary lesson on the hunger of conquest, and the vanity of ambition, to trace the Roman power, by its vast accession of territory, losing in solidity what it gained in expansion; furnishing a lasting example to future empires, who trust too much for the stability of their greatness to the deceitful splendour of remote acquisition, and the precarious support of distant colonial attachment.

Above all, the fall of Rome may be attributed, in no small degree, to the progress, and, gradually, to the prevalence of the Epicurean philosophy, and to its effect in taking away that reverence for the gods, which alone could preserve that deep sense of the sanctity of oaths for which Rome, in her better days, had been so distinguished. She had originally established her political system on this fear of the gods; and the people continued, as appears from Livy, to practise the duties of their religion (such as it was) more scrupulously than any other ancient nation. The most amiable of the Roman patriots attributes the antecedent success and grandeur of his country to their conviction, "that all events are directed by a Divine power;"† and Polybius, speaking merely as a politician, accuses some, in his old age, of rashness and absurdity, for endeavouring to extirpate the fear of the gods; declaring, that what others held to be an object of disgrace, he believed to be the very thing by which the republic was sustained. He illustrates his position by adducing the conduct of the two great states, one of which, from its adoption of the doctrines of Epicurus, had no sense of religion left, and consequently no reverence for the solemnities of an oath, which the other retained in its full force. 'If, among the Greeks," says he, "a single talent only be intrusted to those who have the management of any of the public money, though they give ten written sureties, with as many seals, and twice as many witnesses, they are unable to discharge the trust reposed in them with integrity; while the Romans, who in their magistracies and embassies, disburse the greatest sums, are prevailed on, by the single obligation of an oath, to perform their duty with inviolable honesty."+

In her subsequent total dereliction of this integrity, what a lesson does Rome hold out to us, to be careful not to lose the influences of a purer religion! to guard, especially, against the fatal effects of a needless multiplication of oaths, and the light mode in which they are too frequently administered! The citizens of Rome, in the days of the younger Cato, had no resource left against this pressing evil, because it was in vain to inculcate a reverence for their gods, and to revive the influence of their religion. But, if even the belief of false gods had the power of conveying political and moral benefits, which the dark system of atheism annihilated, how earnestly should we endeavour to renovate and diffuse the ancient * Nulla unquam respublica sanctior, nec bonis exemplis ditior fuit. + See Montagu on the Rise and Fall of Ancient Republics.

Hampton's Polybius, vol. ii. book 6, on the Excellences of the Roman Government.

deference for the true religion, by teaching, systematically and seriously, to our youth, the divine principles of that Christianity which, in better times, was the honourable practice of our forefathers, and which can alone restore a due veneration for the solemnity of oaths!*

CHAPTER IX.

Characters of historians, who were concerned in the transactions which they record. Of the modern writers of ancient history, the young reader will find that Rollin † has, in one respect, the decided superiority; we mean, in his practice of intermixing useful reflections on events and characters. But we should strongly recommend the perusal of such portions of the original ancient historians as a judicious preceptor would select. And, in reading historians or politicians, ancient or modern, the most likely way to escape theories and fables, is to study those writers who were themselves actors in the scenes which they record.

Among the principal of these is THUCYDIDES, whose opportunities of obtaining information, whose diligence in collecting it, and whose judgment and fidelity in recording it, have obtained for him the general suffrage of the best judges; who had a considerable share in many of the events which he records, having been an unfortunate, though meritorious, commander in the Peloponnesian war, of which he is the incomparable historian; whose chronological accuracy is derived from his early custom of preparing materials as the events arose; and whose genius confers as much honour, as his unmerited exile reflects disgrace, on his native Athens. In popular governments, and in none perhaps so much as in those of Greece, the ill effects of mismanagement at home have been too frequently charged on those who have had the conduct of armies abroad; and where a sacrifice must be made, that of the absent is always the most easy. The integrity and patriotism of Thucydides, however, were proof against the ingratitude of the republic. His work was as impartial as if Athens had been just; like Clarendon, he devoted the period of his banishment to the composition of a history, which was the glory of the country that banished him. A model of candour, he wrote not for a party or a people, but for the world; not for the applause of his age, but the instruction of posterity. And though his energy, spirit, and variety must interest all readers of taste, statesmen will best know his value, and politicians will look up to him as a master.-XENOPHON, the Attic bee, equally admirable in whatever point of view he is considered; a consummate general, historian, and philosopher; who carried on the historic series of the Greek revolutions from the period at which Thucy

*The admirable Hooker observes, that even the falsest religions were mixed with some truths which had "very notable effects." Speaking of the dread of perjury in the ancient Romans, he adds, "it was their hurt untruly to attribute so great power to false gods, as that they were able to prosecute, with fearful tokens of divine revenge, the wilful violation of oaths and execrable blasphemies, offered by deriders of religion even unto those false gods. Yet the right belief which they had, that to perjury vengeance is due, was not without good effect, as touching the course of their lives who feared the wilful violation of oaths."-Ecclesiastical Polity.

The writer forbcare to name living authors.

dides discontinued it; like him, was driven into banishment from that country, of which he was so bright an ornament—

And with his exiled hours enrich'd the world!

The conductor and narrator of a retreat, more honourable and more celebrated than the victories of other leaders; a writer, who is considered, by the first Roman critic, as the most exquisite model of simplicity and elegance; and who, in almost all the transactions which he relates, magna pars fuit.-POLYBIUS, trained to be a statesman in the Achæan league, and a warrior at the conquest of Carthage; the friend of Scipio, and the follower of Fabius; and who is said to be more experimentally acquainted with the wars and politics of which he treats, than any other Greek. He is, however, more authentic than entertaining; and the votaries of certain modern historians, who are satisfied with an epigram instead of a fact, who like turns of wit better than sound political reflections, and prefer an antithesis to truth, will not justly appreciate the merit of Polybius, whose love of authenticity induced him to make several voyages to the places of which his subjects led him to speak.—CÆSAR, of whom it would be difficult to say, whether he planned his battles with more skill, fought them with more valour, or described them with more ability; or whether his sword or pen executed his purposes with more celerity and effect; but, who will be less interesting to the general reader, than to the statesman and soldier. His Commentaries, indeed, will be perused with less advantage by the hereditary successor of the sovereign of a settled constitution, than by those who are struggling with the evils of civil commotion.— JOINVILLE, whose life of his great master, Saint Louis, is written with the spirit of the ancient nobles; and the vivid earnestness of one who saw with interest what he describes with fidelity; having been companion to the king in the expeditions which he records.-PHILIPPE DE COMINES, who possessed, by his personal concern in public affairs, all the avenues to the political and historical knowledge of his time, and whose Memoirs will be admired while acute penetration, sound sense, and solid judgment survive. -DAVILA, who learned the art of war under that great master, Henry the Fourth of France, and whose history of the civil wars of that country furnishes a variety of valuable matter; who possesses the happy talent of giving interest to details, which would be dry in other hands; who brings before the eyes of the reader, every place which he describes, and every scene in which he was engaged; while his intimate knowledge of business and of human nature, enables him to unveil with address the mysteries of negotiations and the subtleties of statesmen. This excellent work is disgraced by the most disgusting panegyrics on the execrable Catherine de Medici; an offence against truth and virtue, too glaring to be atoned for by any sense of personal obligation. In consequence of this partiality, he speaks of the massacre of Saint Bartholomew as slightly as if it had been a merely common act of necessary rigour on a few criminals, an execution being the cool term by which he describes that tremendous deed.*-GUICCIARDINI, a diplomatic historian, a lawyer, and a patriot; whose tedious orations and florid

Who can help regretting that the lustre of one of the most elegant works of antiquity, Quintilian's Institution of an Orator, should be in a similar manner tarnished by the most preposterous panegyrics on the emperor Domitian?

style cannot destroy the merit of his great work, the value of which is enhanced by the piety and probity of his own mind.-SULLY, the intrepid warrior, the able financier, the uncorrupt minister, who generally regulated the deep designs of the consummate statesman by the inflexible rules of religion and justice; whose Memoirs should be read by ministers, to instruct them how to serve kings; and by kings, to teach them how to choose ministers.-CARDINAL DE RETZ, who delineates with accuracy and spirit the principal actors in the wars of the Fronde, in which he himself had been a chief agent; who develops the dissimulation of courts with the skilfulness of an adept in the arts which he unfolds, yet affecting, while he portrays the artifices of others, a simplicity the very reverse of his real character; while his levity in writing retains so much of the licentiousness, and want of moral and religious principles, of his former life, that he cannot be safely recommended to those whose principles of judgment and conduct are not fixed. Yet his characters of the two famous cardinal prime ministers may be read with advantage by those whose business leads them to such studies. The reader of De Retz will find frequent occasion to recognise the homage which even impiety and vice pay to religion and virtue; while the abundant corruptions of popery will call forth from every considerate protestant devout sensations of gratitude to Heaven for having delivered us from the tyranny of a system, so favourable to the production of the rankest abuses in the church, and the grossest superstition in the people.-TEMPLE, the zealous negotiator of the Triple Alliance, and worthy, by his spirit and candour, to be the associate of De Witt in that great business which was transacted between them with the liberal spirit and honourable confidence of private friendship. His writings gave the clearest insight into the period and events of which he treats; and his easy, though careless style, and well-bred manner, would come, almost more than any other, under the description of what may be called the genteel, did not his vanity a little break the charm. None, however, except his political writings, are meant to be recommended; his religious opinions being highly exceptionable and absurd. Yet it is but justice to add, that his unambitious temper, his fondness for private life, his enjoyment of its peace, and his taste for its pleasures, render his character interesting and amiable. The manners painting CLARENDON, the amiable chancellor, the exemplary minister, the inflexible patriot, who stemmed, almost singly, the torrent of vice, corruption, and venality; and who was not ashamed of being religious in a court which was ashamed of nothing else; whom the Cabal hated for his integrity, and the court for his purity; a statesman who might have had statues erected to him in any other period but that in which he lived; would have reformed most other governments but that to which he belonged; and been supported by almost any king but him whom he had the misfortune to serve. Clarendon, the faithful biographer of his own life, the majestic and dignified historian of the grand rebellion; whose periods sometimes want beauty, but never sense, though that sense is often wrapped up in an involution and perplexity which a little obscure it; whose style is weighty and significant, though somewhat retarded by the stateliness of its march, and somewhat incumbered with a redundancy of words.-TORCY, whose Memoirs, though they may be thought to bear rather hard on the famous plenipotentiaries with whom he negotiated, and