35 



•which might rouse them to a sense of their degraded con- 

 dition. He affected to mix with the people. He profes- 

 sed the manners and sentiments, and afl'ected the garb of 

 a private citizen; as was, in after times, practised by Cos- 

 mo de Medici. He invited famiUarity: he made a parade 

 of m'banity, and seemed to feel the charms, and delight 

 in the intercourse of private friendship. He let the reins 

 of government flow loose, on the necks of the governed; 

 and wished to form the Roman people to the oblivion of 

 past liberty, and the habitvide of servile obedience, by 

 luxury, sensual indulgences, and the comforts and bland- 

 ishments of peace. In such a scheme, the fine arts were 

 not forgotten or excluded; they were part of his plan; 

 they were ancillary to his purpose. Notwithstanding all 

 the care and policy of Augustus, the seeds of liberty were 

 not wholly stifled: there was a latent effort, an uncon- 

 ouerable tendency to vigour and vegetation. Through all 

 tne super-incumbent oppression, there was a lively, though 

 afflicting memory of the past, which no arts of blandish- 

 ment, no influence of teiTor, could wholly eradicate. This 

 spirit led Virgil, though a court poet, to place Cato, as a 

 lawgiver, among the good and just in the Elysian shades. 

 This spirit emboldened Horace, though the favourite of the 

 usurper,* and a man of worldly prudence, to allude, with- 

 out fear, to his having borne arms, in the ranks of those 

 who fought for freedom. This spirit taught an annalist to 



E 2 call 



* He used to call him, " lepidissimiini homimcionem." 



