350 On the Moral Influence of History. 



. is to devour them. Thus, by the false colours 

 in which such characters are exhibited, the 

 moral judgment and the moral taste of many 

 a reade'f'is most deplorably perverted. If 

 romances and 'novels have erred in. raising the 

 notion of human virtue ?ibove its level, history 

 has more dangerously erred in the low appre- 

 ciation bf the human character, and associating 

 it with every vice. 



From the heroes of antiquity have sprung 

 the race of the wasteful conquerors of nations, 

 the disturbers of the peace of man. Achilles 

 begat Alexander and his turbulent successors ; 

 Alexander begat Julius Csesar, ^Vith the long 

 and horrid series of Roman emperors ; and 

 the bewitchery of Ca:!sar's character will never 

 cease to propagate the lust of overbearing'- do- 

 minion, without one end in view, but the 

 mere fame of extended empire and despotic 

 sway. To this we have owed the embryo at- 

 tempt of Charles V. of Austria, and of Lewis 

 XIV. of France ; and at this moment owe, 

 more perhaps than to any' other cause, the 

 present troubler of the world. An ample 

 career of solid glory lay before him; but the 

 ghost of Cassar and the dream of more than 



■ Roman empire appear to haunt his sleeping 

 and his waking hours; they have turned him 

 from all honourable course, nor will suffer him 



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