208 ON THE NATIONAL CHARACTER OF THE ROMANS. 



that corruption, the progress of which was so extremely rapid. It 

 is certain, however, from all experience, that to weaken the sanctity 

 of the marriage tie is to go very far towards the poisoning of all the 

 springs of social virtue. 



The national character was entirely changed between the age 

 of Pyrrhus and that of Sylla ; what, therefore, was the cause of this 

 transition? In the first period Rome was weak in numbers; but she 

 was strong in the heroism of her children. The sway of her common- 

 wealth extended not over many distant provinces : on the con- 

 trary, the loss of a battle or two placed her very capital in danger 

 of beint; taken. Her sons were, at this time, poor ; but they 

 attached little importance to wealth : witness the examples of 

 Regulus, of Curius, and of Cincinnatus ; and they felt themselves 

 invincible in what they regarded as the fortunes of their city, but 

 which, in fact, was their own self-denying virtue. Their supersti- 

 tion, however, supported their enthusiasm, and was, in its turn, 

 the cause of their success ; for it was chiefly this which preserved 

 their virtue in its strict and uncompromising severity. When, 

 however, this healthful circulation was impeded in the body politic, 

 the fortitude and virtue of ancient Rome were lost and forfeited. 



At the second period, Rome had become saturated with wealth ; 

 but it was not the wealth brought into a country by mercantile 

 enterprise — an occupation which expands the heart and mind, 

 brings men into contact with their own species, and convinces them 

 that one rank is indispensably necessary to another. It was not the 

 wealth produced by active and laborious industry, under the 

 guidance of intelligence and ingenuity. It was wealth won alone 

 by war and plunder ; and as well might we expect the pirate or 

 the bandit to sit down and enjoy his ill-obtained booty with the 

 sobriety and discretion of an industrious artizan, as that wealth, 

 won like that of Rome, should have failed to demoralize her people! 



The Romans were now become too rich and luxurious to continue 

 what they had formerly been, a nation of soldiers. A few soaring 

 spirits, it is true, forsook luxury for the superior attractions of 

 ambition. A universal genius, like Csesar's, united every thing 

 within itself, and shone in all alike superior. He was at once the 

 first in literature, the first in arms, and the first in dissipation : we 

 must not, however, forget that the age of Caesar was also the age 

 of Cataline : that his virtues were his own — his vices those of the 

 times in which he lived. 



With the monster Cataline, whose name I have just mentioned, 

 it is, indeed, wonderful to think how many of the noble and dii^ni- 



