" -II. "under whose auspicious influence the fiercest & HA P. "barbarians were united by an equal govern"ment and common language: They affirm, "that with the improvement of arts, the human "species was visibly multiplied. They cele છે "brate the increasing splendor of the cities, the beautiful face of the country, cultivated and "adorned like an immense garden; and the long festival of peace, which was enjoyed by "so many nations, forgetful of their ancient "animosities, and delivered from the apprehen"sion of future danger *.". Whatever suspicions may be suggested by the air of rhetoric and declamation, which seems to prevail in these passages, the substance of them is perfectly a greeable to historic truth. courage; It was scarcely possible that the eyes of contem- Decline of poraries should discover in the public felicity the latent causes of decay and corruption. This long peace, and the uniform government of the Romans, introduced a slow and secret poison into the vitals of the empire. The minds of men were gradually reduced to the same level, the fire of genius was extinguished, and even the mihtary spirit evaporated. The natives of Europe were brave and robust. Spain, Gaul, Britain, and Illyricum. supplied the legions with excellent soldiers, and constituted the real strength of the monarchy. Their personal valour remained, but they no longer possessed that public courage which is nourished by the love of independence, * Among many other passages, see Pliny, (Hist. Natur. iii. 5.) Aristides, (de Urbe Roma,) and Tertullian, (de Anima, c. 30.) 11. CHAP dence, the sense of national honour, the presence of danger, and the habit of command. They received laws and governors from the will of their sovereign, and trusted for their defence to a mercenaryo army zdfThe posterity of their boldest leaders was contented with the rank of citizens and subjects. 10 The most aspiring spirits resorted to the court or standard of the emperors; and the deserted provinces, deprived of political strength or union, insensibly sunk into the languid indif ference of private life.st band darw bettummerT Of genius. IsThe love of letters, almost inseparable from peace and refinement, was fashionable among the subjects of Hadrian and the Antonines, who were themselves men of learning and curiosity. It was diffused over the whole extent of their empire; the most northern tribes of Britons had acquired artaste for rhetoric; Homer as well as: Virgil b. were transcribed and studied on the banks of the Rhine and Danube; and the most liberal rewards sought out the faintest glimmerings of literary merit*The sciences of physic and astronomy : were *Herodes Atticus gave the sophist Polemo above eight thousand pounds for three declamations. See Philostrat, 1. i. p. 558. The Antonines founded a school at Athens, in which professors of losophy, Politics, and the four great sects of phi were at the public expence for the instruction of youth. The salary of a philosopher was ten thousand drachmæ, between three and four hundred pounds a year. Similar establishments were formed in the other great cities of the empire. See Lucian in Eunuch. tom. ii. p. 353. edit, Reitz, Philostrat. ii. p. 566. Hist. August. p. 21. Dion Cassius, 1. lxxi. p. 1195. Juvenal himself, in a morose satire, which in every line bertrays his own disappointment and envy, is obliged, however, to say, Juvenes, circumspicit et agitat vos, Materiamque sibi Ducis indulgentia quærit. Sat. vii. 20. 11. were successfully cultivated by the Greeks the cu a p. observations of Ptolemy and the writings of Galen are studied by those who have improved their discoveries and corrected their errors; but if we except the inimitable Iacian,Tthis ages of indolence passed away without having produced sa single writer of original genius, or who excelled in the arts of elegant composition: The authority of Plato and Aristotle, of Zeno and Epicurus, still reigned in the schools and their systems, transmitted with blind deference from one generation of disciples to another, precluded every generous attempt to exercise the powers, or en large the limits, of the human mind. The beauties of the poets and orators, instead of kindling a fire like their own, inspired only cold and ser vile imitations or if any ventured to deviate from those models, they deviated at the same time from good sense and propriety. On the revival of letters, the youthful vigour of the ima gination, after a long repose, national emulation, a new religion, new languages, and a new world, called forth the genius of Europe. But the provincials of Rome, trained by an uniform artificial foreign education, were engaged in a very unin a very equal competition with those bold ancients, who, by expressing their genuine feelings in their native tongue, had already occupied every place of honour. The name of Poet was almost forgot ten; that of Orator was usurped by the sophists. A cloud of critics, of compilers, of commenta tors, darkened the face of learning, and the decline of genius was soon followed by the co corrup tion of taste. The The sublime Longinus, who in somewhat a later period, and in the court of a Syrian queen, preserved the spirit of Ancient Athens, observes and laments this degeneracy of his contemporaries, which debased their sentiments, enervated their courage, and depressed their talents. "In "the same manner," says he, " as some children "always remain pigmies, whose infant limbs "have been too closely confined; thus our ten"der minds, fettered by the prejudices and habits of a just servitude, are unable to expand "themselves, or to attain that well-proportioned greatness which we admire in the ancients; "who, living under a popular government, wrote with the same freedom as they acted *" This diminutive stature of mankind, if we pursue the metaphor, was daily sinklng below the old standard, and the Roman world was indeed peopled by a race of pigmies; when the fierce giants of the north broke in, and mended the puny breed. They restored a manly spirit of freedom; and after the rovolution of ten centuries, freedom became the happy parent of taste and science. ર હે Longin. de Sublim. c. 43. p. 229. edit. Toll. Here too we may say of Longinus, "his own example strengthens all his laws." Instead of proposing his sentiments with a manly buldness, he insinuates them with the most guarded caution; puts them into the mouth of a friend, and, as far as we can collect from a corrupted text, makes a shew of refuting them himself, J sem ab ad atm-cel Las Of the Constitution of the Roman Empire, in the TH *་་ III. Idea of a monarchy. HE obvious definition of a monarahy seems CHAP. to be that of a state, in which a single person, by whatsoever name he may be distinguished, is entrusted with the execution of the laws, the management of the revenue, and the command of the army. But, unless public liberty is protected by intrepid and vigilant guardians, the authority of so formidable a magistrate will soon degenerate into despotism. The influence of the clergy, in an age of superstition, might be usefully employed to assert the rights of mankind; but so intimate is the connection between the throne and the altar, that the banner of the church has very seldom been seen on the side of the people. A martial nobility and stubborn commons, possessed of arms, tenacious of property, and collected into constitutional assemblies form the only balance capable of preserving a free constitution against enterprises of an aspiring prince. Every barrier of the Roman constitution had been levelled by the vast ambition of the Dic tator; every fence had been extirpated by the cruel hand of the Triumvir. After the victory of Actium, the fate of the Roman world depended on the will of Octavianus, surnamed Cæsar, by his uncle's adoption, and afterwards Augustus, by Situation of Augus tus. |