STUDY XII. 385 



were there at Rome no hearts opprefled with ter- 

 ror, and no eye overflowing, for the lofs of a fon, 

 of a father, of a hufband, of a lover ? Were the 

 flaves, who conftituted by far the greateft part of 

 her inhabitants, were they happy ? Was the Ge- 

 neral of the Roman army himfelf happy, crowned 

 with laurels as he was, and mounted on a trium- 

 phal car, around which, in conformity to a mili- 

 tary Law, his own foldiers were finging fongs, in 

 which his faults were expofed, to prevent his 

 waxing proud, and forgetting himfelf? And when 

 Providence permitted Paulus Emilius to triumph 

 over a King of the Macedonians, and his poor 

 children, who (Iretched out their little hands to 

 the Roman People, to excite companion, it was 

 fo ordered, that the conqueror mould, at that very 

 ieafon, fuffer the lofs of his own children, that no 

 one man might be allowed to triumph with impu- 

 nitv over the tears of Mankind. 



J 



This very People, however, fb difpofed to pur- 

 fue their own glory, through the calamities of 

 others, were obliged, in order to diffemble the hor- 

 ror of it, to veil the tears of the Nations with the 

 intereft of the Gods, as we difguife with fire the 

 flefn of the animals which is to ferve us for food. 

 Rome, following the order of deftiny, was to be- 

 come, at length, the capital of the World. She 

 armed her ambition with a ceieflial reafon, in order 



vol. in. c c to 



