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While some perhaps, who strain'd to look so far,
Thought all beyond it little worth the care;
And others, stung by envy, pride, or hate,
Quench'd these bad passions in their conqueror's fate.

To the same act, by different motives led,

In one man's death alone were all agreed;

1901

That mountain once remov'd, the level plain, Where all might pass, would bless their sight again: Vain hope! the opening prospect but disclos'd, How still beyond it loftier Alps oppos'd.

1906

Nor all who to the work of slaughter press'd,
Glow'd with the generous ardour they profess'd;
Their worthless tale at last too plainly shews,
They less were virtue's friends, than Cæsar's foes;
But all, exalted by their leader's name,
1911
Brav'd the same danger, and partook his fame;
Yet truth, that weighs ere she confers applause,
Not always blends the agents with the cause:
Round the same banners rang'd, too oft she sees
The people's guardians, and the people's lees;

And

And heaven-born freedom's glittering flag unfurl'd, Wave o'er the chiefs and miscreants of the world.

By wild distraction were Rome's councils rent, And anarchy succeeded government;5

5

' Frænumque solvit pristinum licentia. PHED. Fab. ii. This must always happen, when any form of government is demolished, before some other plan to replace it is arranged and settled. We cannot expect to find a palace magnificent and commodious in all its

parts rise up at once without materials or workmen, merely because we see the removal of a building which before occupied the same place. In Great Britain, where the people live under the mildest government, and the most admirable constitution in the world, all measures for the security of liberty have been examined with great precaution, and have been ratified gradually they are therefore likely to be firm and permanent. The lamentable condition of a neighbouring kingdom furnishes a living example how much easier it is to destroy, than to establish. That state has passed suddenly from an absolute monarchy to a kind of government which comes under no known denomination, but most nearly approaches to anarchy. There, the revolution was sudden, and the execution violent. Time only can discover whether it will ever come to any sober settlement, and sagacity finds it difficult to predict what that settlement may be: Whatever structure may rise out of the present ruins, will be cemented with the blood of the natives. Arbitrary commitments to a fortified state-prison were undoubtedly a great grievance; they have given place to sentence and execution without trial or commitment; and which alternative is preferable? All we know with certainty is, that the grievances complained of before, are now multiplied in tenfold proportion, under the name and pretence of reformation.

As if, herself unwilling to be free,

1921

She felt no tyrant, yet no liberty."

Effect appear'd the cause.

Alas! the crime

Was less in him, than the corrupted time;

Nor was ambition to one breast confin'd,

1925

Where hundreds more were Cæsars in their mind. Then what avail'd to pull one tyrant down,

When liberty and virtue both were gone?
When men like Cato, and firm Brutus, stood
More wonder'd at, than lov'd, for being good;
Where venal honours were not merit's meed, 1931
But gold or favour bade the claim succeed;
Where once-priz'd honest poverty was shame,
And publick spirit a derided name.

Thus in the palsied frame how oft we see

1935

The form remain, but lost the energy!

Reason abhors society's disgrace,

That last of rules,—a lawless populace.

• Vivit tyrannis, tyrannus occidit! Cic. Epist. ad Attic. xiv. 9.

Where

1940

Where each base upstart, busy, blind, and rude,
Disdains the noble, and insults the good;
Where two concurring wills are rarely found,
But ignorance and discord harsh abound.
The hapless state which mourns her vigour gone,
And her best laws by her worst sons o'er-thrown,
Will find at last she must submit to one;
Some head must govern, some compulsion bind
The jarring passions of perplex'd mankind;
And states have seen, as states will ever see,
The extreme of licence end in tyranny.

M. Æ. LEPIDUS.

A. U. C. 711.

Ten years the last triumvirs held their rule;

But shallow Lepidus, ambition's fool,

1947

1951

Though small the power the pageant e'er possess'd,' The mightier two of that small power divest.

"In Shakspeare's Julius Cæsar, Lepidus is well compared to an ass loaded with ingots.

By

LEPIDUS

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