On the Moral Influence af.'Histury. 345 



formers, or of the whole Patrician and eques- 

 trian orders, or of the Roman armies, the. stan- 

 dard of character through the extent of that 

 vast empire? And how impotent even of mischief 

 must their vices be, great as these vices were, 

 when we contemplate the millions whom all 

 their wantonness of rule could but lightly ap- 

 proach, whose very obscurity was their pre- 

 servative at once from being corrupted by their 

 example, and crushed by their oppression ? 

 Be pleased to recollect what I before observed, 

 that virtue is naturally modest and retired, 

 while vice is impudent and obtruding ; it is of 

 the character of the letter, therefore, to seize 

 almost the whole field of prominent and am- 

 bitious action to itself ; and to this field history 

 almost wholly confines herself, while she either 

 knows not, or deigns, not to notice the quiet 

 life of the unambitious many,' .with whom, 

 however, both virtue and happiness are moro 

 likely to be found. 



. No mistake is more common, though none 

 more injurious both to religion and morals, than 

 the false idea of happiness which the pipud 

 display of wealth and power before our eyes, 

 and the exhibition of hardly any thing else in 

 liistory, occasion. Yet the only happiness 

 which deserves the name, 13 within the reach 

 of |he raanv, as well as the few, it is derived 



3 



