406 ROBESPIERRE 3 
We cannot be surprised to find that the glimmering shadows of 
antiquity afforded so much food for contemplation to Robespiérre, 
whilst thousands of the well-educated and sober-minded classes of 
society, even of the present day, cling with pertinacity to ancient 
institutions, which they would fain introduce in these modern 
times, had they Robespiérre’s power to do so. The laws, customs, 
and exploits of antiquity, being indelibly impressed upon our me- 
mory whilst at school, when the mind and heart are alike suscepti- 
ble of the most noble and sublime impressions, we are led to sup- 
pose that the world in which we live, and all those human beings 
by whom we are surrounded, are endowed with virtues similar to 
those ascribed to the ancients ; but we have no sooner arrived at a 
mature age, and entered on the busy scenes of life, than, alas! we 
find all our joyful anticipations to be deceptive and groundless: we 
nevertheless cherish the recollection of those happy days; and as 
we have reason to be proud of them, so do we return to those feel- 
ings with satisfaction, for they were both genuine and human, 
The hopes may be belied by others, but the feelings are our own, 
and may be carefully fostered within our bosoms, despite the me- 
lancholy trials, numerous disappointments, and fatal vicissitudes of 
life. 
All the states of Europe have more or less framed their moral 
and political institutions after the model of the Roman empire, in 
its decline ; and the multitudinous forms of despotism—from the 
pompous titles attached to majesty, as introduced by the senator 
Sextus Pacuvius, down to the assumption of divine authority, as 
claimed by Caligula—all the resources from which the state’s reve- 
nues were derived—from the taxes already introduced by Caligula, 
extending to the civil laws of the Byzantines—together with all the 
ceremonies constituting court etiquette, and the proceedings of 
courts of law and justice, have been introduced into, and amalga- 
mated with, the public affairs of the various modern states of Eu- 
rope, to which they have proved as salutary as they were fatal to 
Rome. The various moral, legal, and political institutions which 
prevailed in Rome, when she was rapidly progressing towards her 
ruin, are studied by statesmen and men of business; while the glo- 
rious and sublime events of her early days are cast into the shade, 
and treated as fit subjects of inquiry by schoolboys! At school we 
read much of Lycurgus and Solon ; in practical life we take Justi- 
nian for our guide. At school we are impressed with the virtues of 
Epaminondas, Aristides, and Socrates ; whilst in after life we find 
it not less desirable to possess the wealth of a Seneca and the good 
fortune of a Sejanus. 
