all, that manly and unalterable consistency which in a peculiar manner marked and supported their conduct both in public and private*: these were the grand and distinguishing features of the Roman character, features which they have imprinted on their edifices, their writings, their laws, and their language, and bequeathed to posterity as an endless claim to its gratitude and admiration. That each of these qualities may have shone forth most conspicuously in other nations, and in many individuals, must be admitted; but never were they so intimately interwoven with the whole existence and being of an active people either before or since, and in consistency in particular they must be acknowledged to stand unrivalled. The Greeks, more lively and ingenious, but at the same time more changeable and fantastic, appear when compared to the Romans, as children put in contrast with men ; and Virgil has most philosophically as well as poetically struck off the characters of the two nations, when to the acuteness and subtlety of the Greeks he grants superiority in the arts and sciences, while to Roman firmness and wisdom he consigns the sceptre of the universe†.

To seek for parallels in modern history, would be a vain pursuit, though our sprightly neighbours are wont in a delirium of self-complacency, to compare themselves to the Greeks and Romans alternately, and interweave the virtues of both these renowned races, in the texture of modern French perfection.

* Maxime ipse populus Romanus animi magnitudine excellit.

+ Excudent alii, &c. Tu regere, &c.—En. VI.

Cic. Off, 1. 18.

But while we give them in unison with the voice of Europe, much of the valor and ingenuity, with all the levity, and all the vanity of the Greeks, we cannot allow them one spark of Roman magnanimity. The Roman Pontiffs have occasionally emulated the firmness of the Consuls, and the Venetian not unfrequently displayed the wisdom of the senate, while owing to the manly and generous spirit of a free government the British nation may be allowed to possess a considerable portion of the patriotism and intrepidity of the Roman people.

The ambition with which the Romans are so often charged, cannot with justice be considered as a flaw in their character, as no great nation, or illustrious individual, ever was or indeed, can well be entirely exempt from that active passion, that vivida vis animi, which always accompanies great talents, and is designed by Providence to develop and bring them into action. To which we may add, that a spirit of conquest generally originates from the necessity and success of self-defence; and it must be admitted that the far greater part of the early wars in which the republic was engaged, arose from the jealousy of the petty states in her vicinity. The subjugation of these states and their incorporation with the victors, awakened the suspicion of more distant and powerful rivals, and brought the Samnites, the Lucanians, and the Bruttii successively into the field, till the war of Pyrrhus showed the necessity of uniting Italy under one head, to prevent her jarring cities from introducing foreign powers into her provinces, and from thus sacrificing her independence to a momentary interest. This struggle tried and proved the strength of Rome, enabled her to unite all the energies of Italy, and prepared her for the more dangerous and more extensive contest with

the Carthaginians. The Punic wars originated from sound policy, which pointed out the necessity of keeping so powerful a rival at a distance from the coasts of Italy, and were at the same time the unavoidable effect of two states, whose interests and views were so opposite, coming into immediate contact. The first was an essay and a mere prelude to the second, which decided the contest, and in fact laid Carthage at the feet of her more magnanimous rival. Never did a more arduous struggle engage two powerful nations, and never did mortals witness a more splendid display of the heroic virtues than that which Rome then exhibited to the astonished universe.

The dissensions among the Greeks, and the far-famed Peloponesian war itself, sink into insignificance when compared not only with the mighty weight, and wide sweeping desolation of the second Punic war, but with the perseverance, the wisdom, the spirit, and the magnanimity with which it was prosecuted; nor is there a period in the annals of the world which furnishes more instruction, or presents human nature in a nobler point of view, than the history of this most sanguinary contest. Every page of it is a record of heroism that sets the soul in a blaze; it ought to be read over and over again, and every line committed to memory by the youth of every free state, and particularly of Britain, that they may learn how to appretiate the liberty and independence of their country, how to fight, and how to die in its defence.

The insidious policy of Macedon next engaged the attention of Rome, and the punishment she inflicted upon its temporizing despots cannot but deserve our applause. In her conduct towards

the Greeks the republic first displayed its moderation and generosity, and on the glorious day when at the Isthmian games she proclaimed the liberty of Greece by her victorious general, gave an instance of magnanimity that even now melts the soul into fond admiration. But the age of heroes and of sages was passed in Greece. Incapable alike of liberty and control, proud of their former power, and unconscious of their actual weakness, jealous of each other's prosperity, and perpetually engaged either in open hostility or secret intrigue, her states alternately flattered and insulted, invited and betrayed their benefactors, till at length they extorted from the reluctant Romans the chastisement due to folly and ingratitude. In fact, in all transactions between these two extraordinary nations the former seem uniformly to have acted like froward children spoiled by flattery and indulgence, and the latter like men habitually mild though sometimes teazed into resentment.

So far the Roman character shone unclouded; that at subsequent periods its splendor was sometimes tarnished by the ambition or the avarice of its chiefs may be admitted; but even when intoxicated by power and corrupted by luxury the city had become a vast theatre of opposite factions and turbulent passions, yet the greatness and magnanimity inherent in the national character still predominated, and shewed itself even in the vices and crimes of its perverted citizens. Though fired with lawless ambition and stained with civil blood, Marius and Sylla, Cæsar and Pompey, Augustus and Antony, were lofty and towering minds that soared far above the usual reach of human greatness, and stand yet unrivalled in the lists of fame. Even Catiline and Cinna, with much of the malignity,

have also much of the greatness of Milton's demons, and like those tremendous phantoms excite by the magnitude of their crimes our terror rather than our contempt. Nor was this magnanimity extinguished, or indeed always repressed by the despotism of the Emperors. Though subdued and chained, yet the Roman glared at his tyrant, and made him feel not unfrequently the effects of his indignation. Cherea and Sabinus, Corbulo and Vindex, displayed the courage and the virtue of Brutus and Cassius; the softer sex emulated the fame of Clelia and Lucretia; and Arria and Epicharis continued to shew the influence of Roman firmness on female minds. The imperial race itself was distinguished above all other royal lines, not only by pre-eminent vices but fortunately for mankind by preeminent virtues also; and if Caligula and Nero, Domitian and Caracalla, surpass in cruelty all other tyrants, so Titus and Trajan, Aurelius and Antoninus, excel all other monarchs in wisdom and benevolence.

Of the character of greatness which the Romans have given to their works I have already spoken; here I need only remind the reader that while in the pyramids of Egypt we admire massive vastness, and in the edifices of Greece, just proportion, in Roman structures, we applaud the union of magnitude and beauty with convenience and utility. In her temples Rome was more magnificent, because more opulent than Greece, but her temples however splendid were not her noblest works. Behold that vast amphitheatre, equal in size, but how superior in form, grace, and destination to the useless bulk of the pyramids. See those aqueducts that bestride extensive regions, and convey rivers into distant cities to re