military honour, is fidelity to the executive | quillity: nothing is so fatal to its establishment power. In crushing an insurrection of the as the violence exerted for its extension. In populace in a mixed government, he is not this as in other instances, it is not lawful to enslaving his fellow-citizens; he is only turn-do evil that good may come of it; and phiing the efforts of freedom into their proper losophy will at length discover, what reason channel, and preventing the contest of opinion and religion have long ago taught, that the from degenerating into that of force. Liberty only secure foundation for ultimate expedi has as much to hope from his success as tran-ence, is the present discharge of duty.

ARNOLD'S ROME.*

THE history of Rome will remain, to the lat- and evil fortune, which we observe in the naest age of the world, the most attractive, the tions of the world at this time. The brilliant most useful, and the most elevating subject of meteor of Athenian greatness disappeared from human contemplation. It must ever form the the world almost as soon as the bloody phantasbasis of a liberal and enlightened education; magoria of the French Revolution. In half-a it must ever present the most important object century after they arose, naught remained of to the contemplation of the statesman; it must either but the works of genius they had proever exhibit the most heart-stirring record to duced, and the deeds of glory they had done. the heart of the soldier. Modern civilization, The wonders of Napoleon's reign faded as rathe arts, and the arms, the freedom and the in-pidly as the triumphs of the Macedonian constitutions of Europe around us, are the bequest of the Roman legions. The roads which we travel are, in many places, those which these indomitable pioneers of civilization first cleared through the wilderness of nature; the language which we speak is more than half derived from Roman words; the laws by which we are protected have found their purest fountains in the treasures of Roman jurisprudence; the ideas in which we glory are to be found traced out in the fire of young conception in the Roman writers. In vain does the superficial acquirement, or shallow variety, of modern liberalism seek to throw off the weight of obligation to the grandeur or virtue of antiquity; in vain are we told that useful knowledge is alone worthy of cultivation, that ancient fables have gone past, and that the study of physical science should supersede that of the ancient authors. Experience, the great detector of error, is perpetually recalling to our minds the inestimable importance of Roman history. The more that our institutions become liberalized, the more rapid the strides which popular ideas make amongst us, the more closely do we cling to the annals of a state which underwent exactly the same changes, and suffered the consequences of the same convulsions; and the more that we experience the insecurity, the selfishness, and the rapacity of democratic ambition, the more highly do we come to appreciate the condensed wisdom with which the great historians of antiquity, by a word or an epithet, stamped its character, or revealed its tendency.

There is something solemn, and evidently providential, in the unbroken advance and ultimate boundless dominion of Rome. The history of other nations corresponds nearly to the vicissitudes of prosperity and disaster, of good

History of Rome. By Thomas Arnold, D. D., Head Master of Rugby School; late Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford; and member of the Archæological Society of ome. London: B. Fellowes. 1838. Blackwood's Magazine, August, 1838

queror; and the distant lustre of Babylon and Nineveh is faintly recalled by the ephemeral dynasties which have arisen, under the pressure of Arabian or Mogul conquest, in the regions of the east in modern times. But, in the Roman annals, a different and mightier system developes itself. From the infancy of the republic, from the days even of the kings, and the fabulous reigns of Romulus and Numa, an unbroken progress is exhibited which never experienced a permanent reverse till the eagles of the republic had crossed the Euphrates, and all the civilized world, from the wall of Antonius to the foot of Mount Atlas, was subjected to their arms. Their reverses, equally with their triumphs-their defeats, alike with their victories-their infant struggles with the cities of Latium, not less than their later contests with Carthage and Mithridates-contributed to develope their strength, and may be regarded as the direct causes of their dominion. It was in the long wars with the Etruscan and Samnite communities that the discipline and tactics were slowly and painfully acquired, which enabled them to face the banded strength of the Carthagenian confederacy, and in the desperate struggle with Hannibal, that the resolution and skill were drawn forth which so soon, on its termination, gave them the empire of the world. The durability of the fabric was in proportion to the tardiness of its growth, and the solidity of its materials. The twelve vul tures which Romulus beheld on the Palatine Hill were emblematic of the twelve centuries which beheld the existence of the empire of the west; and it required a thousand years more of corruption and decline to extinguish in the east this brilliant empire, which, regenerated by the genius of Constantine, found, in the riches and matchless situation of Byzantium, a counterpoise to all the effeminacy of oriental manners, and all the ferocity of the Scythian tribes.

It is remarkable that time has not yet pro

duced a history of this wonderful people com- | trived to rear up from comparatively authentic mensurate either to their dignity, their import- data, a veracious picture of the early Roman ance, or their intimate connection with modern annals. Instead of rejecting in despair the institutions. The pictured pages and matchless whole history prior to the invasion of the Gauls descriptions of Livy, indeed, will, to the end as a mass of fables, erected by the vanity of paof the world, fascinate the imagination and trician families, and adopted by the credulity subdue the hearts of men; but it is a fragment of an uninformed people, he has succeeded in only of his great work which has descended to supporting a large portion of those annals by our times; and even when complete, it came unquestionable evidence; and stripping it only, down only to the time of Augustus, and broke in some parts, of those colours which the elooff exactly at the period when nations, arrived quence of Livy has rendered immortal, for the at the stage of existence to which we have improvement and delight of mankind. It is a grown, are most interested in its continuance. common reproach against this great antiquary, The condensed wisdom, energetic expressions, that he has overthrown the whole early history and practical experience of Sallust and Taci- of Rome, but no reproach was ever more untus, apply only to detached periods of the later founded. In truth, as Dr. Arnold has justly annals; and, though not a page of their im- observed, it must be evident to every one acmortal works can be read without suggesting quainted with the subject, that he has built up reflections on the extraordinary political saga- | much more than he has destroyed, and fixed on city which they had acquired from experience, firm historic grounds a vast deal which the inor received from nature, yet we shall look in quisitive eye of modern skepticism was invain, in the fragments of this work which have clined to lay aside as entirely fictitious. No survived the wreck of time, for a connected stronger proof of this can be desired than is to detail even of the later periods of Roman story. be found in the fact, that while Ferguson began The moderns appear to have been deterred, by his history as authentic only with the exploits the exquisite beauty of these fragments of an- of Hannibal, Niebuhr has deemed it certain cient history, from adventuring at all on the that historical truth is to be found not only same field. Ferguson's is considered by the under the kings, but so early as Ancus Martius. English, and admitted by the Germans, to be It is inconceivable, indeed, how it ever could the best connected history of the Republic have been seriously believed that the annals which exists; but not only does it embrace of the kings were entirely fictitious, when the merely, with adequate fulness, the period from Cloaca Maxima still exists, a durable monuthe rise of the Gracchi to the ascent of the ment both of the grandeur of conception and throne by Augustus, but it does not contain the power of execution which at that early period views, nor is it dictated by the practical ac- had distinguished the Roman people. Two quaintance with human affairs which is neces- thousand five hundred years have elapsed sary for a real history of Roman policy. The since this stupendous work was executed, to Scotch professor has, with much ability, illus-drain the waters of the Forum and adjacent trated the contests of Sylla and Marius, of Cæ- hollows to the Tiber; and there it stands at sar and Pompey; but he lived in a pacific age, this day, without a stone displaced, still peramidst the unbroken seclusion of an academi-forming its destined service! Do any of the cal life, and, consequently, could not possibly attain those clear and decisive views of the tendency and springs of action, in civil contests, which are brought home to the minds of the most illiterate by the storms and crimes of a revolution.

Niebuhr is universally allowed to have opened a new era in the early history of the Republic. Before his time historians were content with adopting, without examination, the legends which, in the Roman annals, passed for the narrative of real events, and, despairing of adding any thing to their beauty, simply presented their readers with a translation of Livy and Dionysius. Dissatisfied with such a mode of recording the progress of so celebrated a people, Ferguson rejected the early legends altogether, and passing, in the most cursory and unsatisfactory manner over the first five hundred years of Roman story, professed himself unable to discover firm historic ground till he came down to the second Punic war. But neither of these methods of treating the subject suited the searching eye and inquisitive mind of the German historian. Possessed of extraordinary learning, and a matchless faculty of drawing, with intuitive sagacity, important historical and political conclusions from detached and, to ordinary observers, unmeaning details of subordinate historians, he has con

edifices of Paris or London promise an equal duration? From the moment that we beheld that magnificent structure, formed of the actual stone of the eternal city, all doubts as to the authenticity of Roman annals, so far, at least, as they portray a powerful flourishing kingdom anterior to the Republic, vanished from our minds. If nothing else remained to attest the greatness of the kings at this period but the Cloaca Maxima and the treaty with Carthage in the first year of the Republic, it would be sufficient to demonstrate that the basis of the early history of the kings was to be found in real events. And this Niebuhr, after the most minute and critical examination, has declared to be his conviction.

Doubtless, the same historic evidence does not exist for the romantic and captivating par of early Roman history. We cannot assert that we have good evidence that Romulus fought, or that Numa prayed; that Ancus conquered, or that Tarquin oppressed; that the brethren of the Horatii saved their country, or Curtius leaped headlong into the gulf in the Forum. The exquisite story of Lucretia; the heart-stirring legend of Corioli; the invasion of Porsenna, the virtue of Cincinnatus, the siege of Veix, the deliverance of Camillus, are probably all founded in some degree on rea. events, but they have come down to our times

:

glowing with the genius of the ancient histori- | no other people will ever either emulate their ans, and gilded by the colours which matchless fame, or approach to their achievements. eloquence has communicated to the additions Notwithstanding the high place which we with which the fondness of national or family have assigned to Niebuhr in the elucidation vanity had clothed the artless narrative of and confirmation of early Roman history, early times. Simplicity is the invariable cha- nothing can be more apparent than that his racteristic of the infancy of the world. Homer work never will take its place as a popular and Job are often in the highest degree both history of the Republic, and never rival in pathetic and sublime; but they are so just general estimation the fascinating pages of because they are utterly unconscious of any Livy. No one can read it for half an hour such merits, and aimed only at the recital of without being satisfied of that fact. Invalureal events. The glowing pages and beautiful able to the scholar, the antiquary, the philoloepisodes of Livy are as evidently subsequent gist, it has no charms for the great mass of additions as the pomp and majesty of Ossian readers, and conveys no sort of idea to the unare to the meager ballads of Caledonia. learned student of the consecutive chain of But it is of no moment either to the great events even among the very people whose hisobjects of historical inquiry or the future tory it professes to portray. In this respect it improvement and elevation of the species, labours under the same fault which is, in a less whether the Roman legends can or cannot be degree, conspicuous in the philosophic pages supported by historical evidence. It is suffi- of Sir James Mackintosh's English history; cient that they exist, to render them to the end that it pre-supposes an intimate acquaintance of the world the most delightful subject of study with the subject in the reader, and is to all, for youth, not the least useful matter for con- not nearly as well versed in it as himself, templation in maturer years. They may not either in great part unintelligible, or intolerably be strictly historical, but rely upon it they are dull. Heeren, whose labours have thrown founded in the main upon a correct picture of such a flood of light on the Persian, Egyptian, the manners and ideas of the time. Amadis and Carthaginian states, has justly remarked of Gaul is not a true story, but it conveys, that Niebuhr, with all his acuteness, is to be nevertheless, a faithful though exaggerated regarded rather as an essayist on history, than picture of the ideas and manners of the chi- an actual historian. He has elucidated with valrous ages. There is, probably, the same extraordinary learning and skill several of the truth in the Roman legends that there is in most obscure subjects in Roman annals; and Achilles and Agamemnon-in Front de Bœuf, on many, especially the yital subjects of the Richard Cœur de Lion, and Ivanhoe. We will Agrarian law, struck out new lights, which, if not find in Roman story a real Lucretia or Vir- known at all to the later writers of the empire, ginia, any more than in British history a had been entirely lost during the change of genuine Rebecca or Jeanie Deans; but the manners and ideas consequent on the Gothic characters are not the less founded in the conquests. But his work is in many places actual manners and spirit of the times. It is so obscure, and so much overloaded with of little moment to us whether Romulus watch- names, and subjects, and disquisitions, in great ed the twelve emblematic vultures on the Pa- part unknown to readers, even of fair classilatine Hill, or Numa consulted Egeria in the cal attainments and extensive general knowshades of the Campagna, or Veie was stormed ledge, that it never can take its place among through the mine sprung in the Temple of the standard histories of the world. He is Juno, or the Roman ambassador thrust his totally destitute of two qualities indispensable hand into the fire before Porsenna, or Lucretia, to a great historian, and particularly conspithough guiltless in intent, plunged the dagger cuous in the far-famed annalists of antiquity in her bosom rather than survive the honour-powers of description, and the discriminatof her house. It is sufficient that a people have existed, to whom the patriotic devotion, the individual heroism, the high resolves, the undaunted resolution portrayed in these immortal episodes, were so familiar, that they had blended with real events, were believed to be true, because they were felt to be credible, and formed part of their traditional annals. No other people ever possessed early legends of the same noble, heart-stirring kind as the Romans, because none other were stamped with the character destined to win, and worthy to hold, the empire of the world. To the latest times the history of infant Rome, with all its attendant legends, must, therefore, form the most elevating and useful subject for the instruction of youth, as affording a faithful picture, if not of the actual events of that interesting period, at least of the ideas and feelings then prevalent amongst a nation called to such exalted destinies; and without being embued with a similar spirit, we may safely assert

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ing eye, which, touching on every subject, brings those prominently forward only which, from their intrinsic importance, should attract the attention of the reader. He works out every thing with equal care and minuteness, and, in consequence, the impression produced on the mind of an ordinary reader, is so confused, as to amount almost to nothing. Like Perele or Waterloo, in the imitation of nature, (and landscape painting, and historical description in this particular are governed by the same principles,) he works out the details of each individual object with admirable skill; but there is no breadth of general effect on his canvas, and he wants the general shade and subdued tones, which in Claude, amidst an infinity of details, not less faithfully portrayed, rivet the eye of the spectator on a few brilliant spots, and produce on the mind even of the most unskilled the charm of a single emotion.

Niebuhr's history, however, with all its merits and defects, comes only down to the com

of Johnson ceases to pass for a witty paradox: | Revolution to the eternal execration of mankind "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." There is no writer on America who has brought Dr. Arnold has now fairly set himself to forward such a host of facts decisive against work with this noble task, and he is, in many republican institutions as Miss Martineau, respects, peculiarly fitted for the undertaking. whom the liberals extol as the only author who Long known to the classical world as an ac- has given a veracious account of the transatcomplished scholar, and the learned editor of lantic democracies; and we desire no other the best edition of Thucydides extant, he is witness but Dr. Arnold to the facts which destill more familiar to many of our readers as monstrate that it was the extravagant pretenthe energetic head-master of Rugby school; sion and ambition of the commons, which, in and is to this hour looked up to with mingled the end, proved fatal to the liberties of Rome, sentiments of awe and affection by many of The Campagna of Rome, the fields of Latium, the most celebrated characters of the age. the Alban Mount, the Palatine Hill, were famiThe first volume of the great work in which liar to the childhood of us all; and not the least he is engaged alone is published, which brings | delightful hours of the youth of many of us down the history of the Republic to the burn- have been spent in exploring the realities of ing of Rome by the Goths, but it affords a fair that enchanting region. We transcribe with specimen of the spirit and ability with which pleasure Dr. Arnold's animated and correct the remainder is likely to be carried on. In description of it, drawn from actual observamany respects he has shown himself ad- tion with the hand of a master. mirably calculated for the great but difficult "The territory of the original Rome during task which he has undertaken. His classical its first period, the true Ager Romanus, could be attainments, both in Greek and Roman litera-gone round in a single day. It did not extend ture, are of the very highest order; his industry is indefatigable, and he possesses much of that instinctive glance or natural sagacity which enabled Niebuhr, amidst the fictions and chaos of ancient annals, to fix at once on the outlines of truth and the course of real events. His powers of description are of no ordinary kind, as our readers will at once perceive from the extracts we are about to lay before them; and many of his reflections prove that he is endowed with that faculty of drawing general conclusions from particular events, which, when not pushed too far, is the surest sign of the real genius for philosophical history.

Dr. Arnold, it is well known, is a whig-perhaps, we may add, an ultra-liberal. So far from objecting to his book on this account, we hail it with the more satisfaction that it does come from an author of such principles, and therefore that it can safely be referred to as a work in which the truth of ancient events is not likely to be disguised or perverted to answer the views at least of the conservative party | in Great Britain. We are satisfied from many instances, in the volume before us, that he is of an inquisitive, searching turn of mind, and that he would deem himself dishonoured if he concealed or altered any well-ascertained facts in Roman history. More than this we do not desire. We not only do not dislike, we positively enjoy, his occasional introduction of liberal views in what we may call Roman politics. We see in them the best guarantee that the decisive instances against democratic principles, with which all ancient history, and, most of all, Roman history, abounds, will not be perverted in his hands, and may be relied on as authentic facts against his principles. Provided a writer is candid, ingenuous, and liberal, we hold it perfectly immaterial to the ultimate triumph of truth what is the shade of his political opinions. The cause is not worth defendng which cannot he supported by the testimony of an honest opponent. Every experienced awyer knows the value of a conscientious but unwilling witness. Enough is to be found in their apologist, Thiers, to doom the French

beyond the Tiber at all, nor probably beyond the Anio; and on the east and south, where it had most room to spread, its limit was between five and six miles from the city. This Ager Romanus was the exclusive property of the Roman people, that is of the houses; it did not include the lands conquered from the Latins, and given back to them again when the Latins became the plebs or commons of Rome. According to the augurs, the Ager Romanus was a peculiar district in a religious sense; auspices could be taken within its bounds which could be taken nowhere without them.

"And now, what was Rome, and what was the country around it, which have both acquired an interest such as can cease only when earth itself shall perish? The hills of Rome are such as we rarely see in England, low in height, but with steep and rocky sides. In early times the natural wood still remained in patches amidst the buildings, as at this day it grows here and there on the green sides of the Monte Testaceo. Across the Tiber the ground rises to a greater height than that of the Roman hills, but its summit is a level, unbroken line; while the heights, which opposite to Rome itself rise immediately from the river, under the names of Janiculus and Vaticanus, then swept away to some distance from it, and return in their highest and boldest form at the Mons Marius, just above the Milvian bridge and the Flaminian road. Thus to the west the view is immediately bounded; but to the north and north-east the eye ranges over the low ground of the Campagna to the nearest line of the Apennines, which closes up, as with a gigantic wall, all the Sabine, Latin, and Volcian lowlands, while over it are still distinctly to be seen the high summits of the central Apennines, covered with snow, even at this day, for more than six months in the year. South and south-west lies the wide plain of the Campagna; its level line succeeded by the equally level line of the sea, which can only be distinguished from it by the brighter light reflected from its waters. Eastward, after ten miles of plain, the view is bounded by the Alban hills, a cluster of high bold points rising out of the Campagna, like Arran