his

the fame fource with many of his virtues. His mind, forcible and vehement in all its operations, roufed by great objects, or agitated by violent paffions, broke cut, on many occafions, with an impetuofity which aftonishes men of feebler fpirits, or fuch as are placed in a more tranquil fituation. By carrying fome praife-worthy difpofitions to excefs, he bordered fometimes on what was culpable, and was often betrayed into actions which expofed him to cenfure. His confidence that his own opinions were well founded, approached to arrogance; courage in afferting them, to rafhnefs; his firmnefs in adhering to them, to obftinacy; and his zeal in confuting his adverfaries, to rage and fcurrility. Accustomed himself to confider every thing as fubordinate to truth, he expected the fame deference for it from other men; and, without making any allowances for their timidity or prejudices, he poured forth, against thofe who difappointed him in this particular, a torrent of invective mingled with contempt. Regardless of any diftinction of rank or character, when his doctrines were attacked, he chastised all his adverfaries, indifcriminately, with the fame rough hand; neither the royal dignity of Henry VIII. nor the eminent learning and ability of Erafmus, fcreened them from the fame abufe with which he treated Tetzel or Eccius.

But thefe indecencies of which Luther was guilty, muft not be imputed wholly to the violence of his temper. They ought to be charged, in part, on the manners of the age. Among a rude people, unacquainted with thofe maxims, which, by putting continual reftraint on the paffions of individuals, have polished fociety, and rendered it agreeable, difputes of every kind were managed with heat, and ftrong emotions were uttered in their natural language, without referve or delicacy. At the fame time, the works of learned men were all compofed in Latin; and they were not only authorized, by the example of eminent writers in that language, to ufe their antagonists with the most illiberal fcurrility; but, in a dead tongue, indecencies of every kind ap. pear 1 fs fhocking than in a living lan

guage, whofe idioms and phrases feem grofs, because they are familiar.

In paling judgment upon the characters of men, we ought to try them by the principles and maxims of their own age, not by thofe of another. For although virtue and vice are at all times the fame, manners and cuftoms vary continually. Some parts of Luther's behaviour, which to us appear most culpable, gave no difguft to his contemporaries. It was even by fome of those qualities which we are now apt to blame, that he was fitted for accomplishing the great work which he undertook. To roufe mankind, when funk in ignorance or fuperftition, and to encounter the rage of bigotry, armed with power, required the utmoft vehemence of zeal, and a temper daring to excess. A gentle call would neither have reached, nor have excited those to whom it was addreffed. A fpirit, more amiable, but lefs vigorous than Luther's, would have fhrunk back from the dangers which he braved and furmounted. Towards the clofe of Luther's life, though without any perceptible declenfion of his zeal or abilities, the infirmities of his temper increased upon him, fo that he grew daily more peevish, more irafcible, and more impatient of contradiction. Having lived to be witness of his own amazing fuccefs; to fee a great part of Europe embrace his doctrines; and to shake the foundation of the Papal throne, before which the mightiest monarchs had trembled, he discovered, on fome occafions, fymptoms of vanity and felf-applaufe. He must have been indeed more than man, if, upon contemplating all that he actually accomplified, he had never felt any fentiment of this kind rifing in his breast.

Some time before his death, he felt his ftrength declining, his conftitution being worn out by a prodigious multiplicity of bufinefs, added to the labour of difcharging his minifterial function with unremitting diligence, to the fatigue of conftant ftudy, befides the com-1 pofition of works as voluminous as if he had enjoyed uninterrupted leifure and retirement. His natural intrepi dity did not forfake him at the approach of death; his laft converfation with his

friends

friends was concerning the happiness referved for good men in a future world, of which he spoke with the fervour and delight natural to one who expected and wished to enter foon upon the enjoyment of it. The account of his death filled the Roman Catholic party with exceffive as well as indecent joy, and damped the fpirits of all his followers; neither party fufficiently confidering that his doctrines were now fo firmly rooted, as to be in a condition to flourish, independent of the hand which firft had planted them. His funeral was celebrated, by order of the Elector of Saxony, with extraordinary pomp. He left feveral children by his wife, Catharine Bore, who furvived him towards the end of the last century, there were in Saxony fome of his defcendants in decent and honourable ftations. Robertfon.

30. Part of CICERO's Oration against

VERRES.

The time is come, Fathers, when that which has long been wished for, towards allaying the envy your order has been fubject to, and removing the imputations against trials, is (not by human contrivance but fuperior direction) effectually put in our power. An opinion has long prevailed, not only here at home, but likewife in foreign countries, both dangerous to you and pernicious to the ftate, viz. that in profecutions, men of wealth are always fafe, however clearly convicted. There is now to be brought upon his trial before you, to the confufion, I hope, of the propagators of this flanderous imputation, one whofe life and actions condemn him in the opinion of all impartial perfons, but who, according to his own reckoning, and declared dependence upon his riches, is already acquitted; I mean Caius Verres. If that fentence is paffed upon him which his crimes deferve, your authority, Fathers, will be venerable and facred in the eyes of the public: but if his great riches fhould bias you in his favour, I fhall ftill gain one point, viz. to make it apparent to all the world, that what was wanting in this cafe was not a criminal nor a profecutor, but juftice and adequate punishment.

To pafs over the fhameful irregularities of his youth, what does his quæf torfhip, the first public employment he held, what does it exhibit, but one continued fcene of villanies? Cneius Carbo plundered of the public money by his own treafurer, a conful stripped and betrayed, an army deferted and reduced to want, a province robbed, the civil and religious rights of a people violated. The employment he held in Afia Minor and Pamphylia, what did it produce, but the ruin of thofe countries? in which houfes, cities, and temples, were robbed by him. What was his conduct in his prætorship here at home? Let the plundered temples, and public works neglected, that he might embezzle the money intended for carrying them on, bear witnefs. But his prætorship in Sicily crowns all his works of wickedness, and finishes a lafting monument to his infamy. The mischiefs done by him in that country during the three years of his iniquitous adminiftration, are fuch, that many years, under the wifeft and beft of prætors, will not be fufficient to reftore things to the condition in which he found them. For it is notorious, that, during the time of his tyranny, the Sicilians neither enjoyed the protection of their own original laws, of the regulations made for their benefit by the Roman fenate upon their coming under the protection of the commonwealth, nor of the natural and unalienable rights of men. His nod has decided all caufes in Sicily for thefe three years; and his decifions have broke all law, all precedent, all right. The fums he has, by arbitrary taxes and unheardof impofitions, extorted from the induftrious poor, are not to be computed. The moft faithful allies of the commonwealth have been treated as enemies. Roman citizens have, like flaves, been put to death with tortures. The most atrocious criminals, for money, have been exempted from the deferved punifhments; and men of the most unexceptionable characters condemned, and banished, unheard. The harbours, though fufficiently fortified, and the gates of ftrong towns, opened to pirates and ravagers: the foldiery and failors belonging to a province under the proM m 2

tection

tection of the commonwealth, ftarved to death whole fleets, to the great detriment of the province, fuffered to perish: the ancient monuments of either Sicilian or Roman greatnefs, the ftatues of heroes and princes, carried off; and the temples ftripped of the images. The infamy of his lewdnefs has been fuch as decency forbids to defcribe; nor will I, by mentioning particulars, put those unfortunate perfons to fresh pain, who have not been able to fave their wives and daughters from his impurity. And thefe his atrocious crimes have been committed in fo public a manner, that there is no one who has heard of his name, but could reckon up his actions. -Having, by his iniquitous fentences, filled the prifons with the most induftrious and deferving of the people, he then proceeded to order numbers of Roman citizens to be ftrangled in the gaols; fo that the exclamation, "I am a citizen of Rome!" which has often, in the most diftant regions, and among the most barbarous people, been a protection, was of no fervice to them, but, on the contrary, brought a fpeedier and more fevere punishment upon them.

I ask now, Verres, what you have to advance against this charge? Will you pretend to deny it? Will you pretend, that any thing falfe, that even any thing aggravated, is alledged against you? Had any prince or any ftate committed the fame outrage against the privilege of Roman citizens, fhould we not think we had fufficient ground for declaring immediate war against them? What punishment ought, then, to be inflicted upon a tyrannical and wicked prætor, who dared, at no greater diftance than Sicily, within fight of the Italian coaft, to put to the infamous death of crucifixion that unfortunate and innocent citizen, Publius Gavius Cofanus, only for his having afferted his privilege of citizenship, and declared his intention of appealing to the juftice of his country against a cruel oppreffor, who had unjustly confined him in prifon at Syracufe, from whence he had just made his escape? The unhappy man, arrested as he was going to embark for his native country, is brought

before the wicked prætor. With eyes darting fury, and a countenance diftorted with cruelty, he orders the helpless victim of his rage to be ftripped, and rods to be brought; accufing him, but without the leaft fhadow of evidence, or even of fufpicion, of having come to Sicily as a fpy. It was in vain that the unhappy man cried out, "I am a Roman citizen; I have ferved under "Lucius Pretius, who is now at Pa

66

normus, and will atteft my inno"cence." The blood-thirsty prætor, deaf to all he could urge in his own defence, ordered the infamous punishment to be inflicted. Thus, Fathers, was an innocent Roman citizen publicly mangled with fcourging; whilft the only words he uttered amidit his cruel fufferings, were, "I am a Roman ci"tizen!" With thefe he hoped to defend himself from violence and infamy: but of fo little fervice was this privilege to him, that while he was thus afferting his citizenship, the order was given for his execution for his execu tion upon the cross!

O liberty!O found once delightful to every Roman ear!-O facred privilege of Roman citizenship!-once facred-now trampled upon !—But what then! Is it come to this? Shall an inferior magiftrate, a governor who holds his whole power of the Roman people, in a Roman province, within fight of Italy, bind, fcourge, torture with fire and red-hot plates of iron, and at the last put to the infamous death of the crofs, à Roman citizen? Shall neither the cries of innocence expiring in agony, nor the tears of pitying spectators, nor the majelty of the Roman com monwealth, nor the fear of the justice of his country, restrain the licentious and wanton cruelty of a monster, who, in confidence of his riches, ftrikes at the root of liberty, and sets mankind at defiance?

I conclude with expreffing my hopes, that your wifdom and juftice, Fathers, will not, by fuffering the atrocious and unexampled infolence of Caius Verres to efcape the due punishment, leave room to apprehend the danger of a total fubverfion of authority, and intro

duction

mind which he difplayed in all his conduct. His fpirit was bold and enterprifing, yet guided by, prudence. His ambition, which was exorbitant, and lay little under the restraints of justice, and still lefs under thofe of humanity, ever fubmitted to the dictates of reafon and found policy. Born in an age when the minds of men were intractable and unacquainted with fubmiffion, he was yet able to direct them to his purpofes; and, partly from the afcendant of his vehement difpofition, partly from art and diffimulation, to establish an unlimited monarchy. Though not infenfible to generofity, he was hardened againft.compaffion, and feemed equally oftentatious and ambitious of eclat in his clemency and his feverity. The maxims of his adminftration were fevere; but might have been useful, had they been folely employed in preferving order in an established government: they were ill calculated for foftening the rigours which under the moft gentle management are infeparable from conqueft. His attempt against England was the laft enterprize of the kind, which, during the courfe of feven hundred years, has fully fucceeded in Europe; and the greatnefs of his genius broke through thofe limits, which firft the feudal inftitutions, then the refined policy of princes, have fixed on the feveral ftates of Christendom. Though he rendered himself infinitely odious to his English fubjects, he tranfmitted his power to his pofterity, and the throne is ftill filled by his defcendants; a proof that the foundation which he laid was firm and folid, and that amongst all his violences, while he feemed only to gratify the prefent paffion, he had ftill an eye towards futurity. Died September 9, 1087, aged 63 *.

Hume.

$34. Another Character of WILLIAM the Conqueror.

From the tranfactions of William's reign, he appears to have been a prince of great courage, capacity, and ambition; politic, cruel, vindictive, and rapacious; fern and haughty in his deportment, referved and jealous in his

Smollett fays, 61.

difpofition. He was fond of glory, and, though parfimonious in his household, delighted much in oftentation. Though fudden and impetuous in his enterprizes, he was cool, deliberate, and indefatigable, in times of danger and dif ficulty. His afpect was nobly fevere and imperious, his ftature tall and portly; his conftitution robuft, and the compofition of his bones and mufcles. ftrong; there was hardly a man of that age, who could bend his bow, or handle his arms. Smollett.

§ 35. Another Character of WILLIAM the Conqueror.

The character of this prince has feldom been fet in its true light; fome eminent writers having been dazzled fo much by the more shining parts of it, that they have hardly feen his faults; while others, out of a strong deteftation of tyranny, have been unwilling to allow him the praise he deferves.

He may with juftice be ranked among the greateft generals any age has produced. There was united in him activity, vigilance, intrepidity, caution, great force of judgment, and never-failing prefence of mind. He was strict in his difcipline, and kept his foldiers in perfect obedience; yet preferved their affection. Having been from his very childhood continually in war, and at the head of armies, he joined to all the capacity that genius could give, all the knowledge and skill that experience could teach, and was a perfect master of the military art, as it was practifed in the times wherein he lived. His conftitution enabled him to endure any hardfhips, and very few were equal to him in perfonal ftrength, which was an excellence of more importance than it is now, from the manner of fighting then in ufe. It is faid of him, that none except himself could bend his bow. His courage was heroic, and he poffeffed it not only in the field, but (which is more uncommon) in the cabinet, attempting great things with means that to other men appeared totally unequal to fuch undertakings, and fteadily profecuting what he had boldly refolved; being never disturbed or disheartened by difficulties, in the courfe of his enterprizes;

but