service against the public enemies; and the especial privilege of the Patrician or the rich Plebeian was not so much a large estate or an exalted office, as a foremost place upon the battle-field. It is singular to observe the connection between these different distinctions of the Roman freeman: the prominent part in the conflict was rewarded by the larger share of spoils and lands, and the increase of wealth led to the expansion and security of liberties. It is from these divisions and occupations among the early Romans that some general idea of the spirit which animated their lives is to be obtained; nor need the limits of their own territory be crossed, to seek after distant influences or foreign knowledge. It is true, that, under the last kings, the narrow intercourse, which had scarcely begun under the first, 15 with stranger nations, was extended throughout Italy and beyond the seas, the beginning, as it seems, of the wider relations to which Rome, last and greatest of heathen nations, was called. Long years, however, elapsed before any traces are to be found, either amongst the forces or amongst the purposes of Rome, of any interference from abroad with the progress she obeyed, as a state in which various systems were blended, and various races reconciled, almost from its origin. The spirit of a people, indeed, is the growth neither of a year nor a century. It signifies their habits of memory, action, thought, and hope, for ever changing, and, until the end draws nigh, for ever re 15 See Livy's remarks touching the possibility of Numa's having heard of Pythagoras, I. 18. newing themselves. It is impossible to be sure that we comprehend it fully, even when we can observe it with our own eyes, or lay our own hands, as it were, upon the great heart in which it throbs and heaves. But when we are obliged to go back in search of principles and desires that no longer exist together, though many may yet separately survive, it is almost impossible to be sure that we understand them at all. The virtues, however, of the early Romans were so congenial to their circumstances and their laws, as to be distinguishable with comparative certainty. No merit, in such a state as theirs, could have been esteemed greater than energy, the power to win a battle or make a fortune, on which the freeman's rights, in great degree, depended. It needed to be tempered by obedience, if it belonged to one of an inferior class; if to one of a superior, it was tempted and commanded to show itself in authority, sometimes just, oftener fierce, and always overpowering. To these characteristics of a rude nation must be added the confidence which was alone able to turn their energy, in any of its possessors, to the increase of partial or general prosperity. It was valued and sought, or the Patricians would have never granted the Valerian laws in order to give it to the Plebeians; but it could not yet be created in the lower classes, however naturally it was felt amongst the higher. Other principles were too numerous and too plain to need definition; yet one remark may be made about them all, that they were praised in proportion to the show or the noise they made, rather than the truth which they con tained. The temple which Numa dedicated to Faith was to that which is seen, not to that which is unseen. Horatius, the conqueror of the Curiatii, slew his sister for lamenting her lover's death; but he was acquitted by acclamation of his crime. Tullia, the daughter of the good king Servius, drove over the corpse of her father, whom she had urged her husband, Tarquin, to murder; but none the less was she proclaimed the queen, and he the king of Rome. The daughter who fed her father from her own breast, that he might not die in his dungeon, was of “a sweeter," but a solitary, "ray." Yet there were probably other deeds, as worthy in our eyes, which have been left untold, because less noble in the eyes of those who witnessed them. The virtue, the confidence, and the energy of early Rome all flowed in one channel of patriotism. Neither father nor mother was so venerable a parent to the Roman as his country,16 to which his affections, in manhood at least, were given out from an ardent heart. The highest duty was that which the Commonwealth required; the highest knowledge was that which rendered the duty acceptable and useful." It is in setting this standard before our minds that the importance of liberty to the part which Rome was appointed to sustain in the heathen world becomes apparent; yet it may be equally evident, that, though her work might be wrought, her perfection 16" Antiquior parens, ..... ma 17"Eas artes quæ efficiunt ut jor ei profecto quam parenti debetur usui civitati simus." Ibid., II. 20. gratia." Cic., Rep., III. 48, Frag. could never be accomplished, through the exercise of merely political or public freedom. While the most rapid progress towards strength and dominion was achieved by the state, there was scarcely any made towards individual excellence. The character of the Romans did not seem to develope or improve itself, except so far as they were soldiers or citizens in the mass, until the fortunes of the Commonwealth began to reel. Yet the resolution of their patriotism was none the less admirable, according to their times; and there were few, even among the old Patricians, who would not have laid down power and life to save the liberty for which Brutus condemned his children. This, at least, may be remembered in their behalf; for though history is not to be made an apology for one class or another, it should certainly give a hearing to both the sides, according to which its judgments are to be formed. Sir Philip Sidney said, in a Christian age, that his chiefest honor was to be a Dudley": Valerius or Brutus, even in heathen Rome, would have thought that to be a Roman was their highest praise. There was an old tradition that Numa owed much of his wisdom to the teachings of the philosopher Pythagoras. Common accounts of chronology close Numa's reign near a century before Pythagoras's birth; 19 but the philosophy which bears the name of 18 18" Although the dates of his [Pythagoras's] birth and death are wholly uncertain," says Mr. Clinton," yet all authorities agree that he flourished B. C. 540-510, in |