the whisper of a
profligate favorite; and Marcus himself blasted the fruits of this
labored education by admitting his son, at the age of fourteen or
fifteen, to a full participation of the imperial power. He lived but
four years afterward; but he lived long enough to repent a rash measure
which raised the impetuous youth above the restraint of reason and
authority.

Most of the crimes which disturb the internal peace of society are
produced by the restraints which the necessary but unequal laws of
property have imposed on the appetites of mankind by confining to a few
the possession of those objects that are coveted by many. Of all our
passions and appetites the love of power is of the most imperious and
unsociable nature, since the pride of one man requires the submission of
the multitude. In the tumult of civil discord, the laws of society lose
their force, and their place is seldom supplied by those of humanity.
The ardor of contention, the pride of victory, the despair of success,
the memory of past injuries, and the fear of future dangers all
contribute to inflame the mind and to silence the voice of pity. From
such motives almost every page of history has been stained with civil
blood; but these motives will not account for the unprovoked cruelties
of Commodus, who had nothing to wish and everything to enjoy.

The beloved son of Marcus succeeded to his father, amid the acclamations
of the senate and armies; and when he ascended the throne the happy
youth saw round him neither competitor to remove nor enemies to punish.
In this calm, elevated station it was surely natural that he should
prefer the love of mankind to their detestation, the mild glories of his
five predecessors to the ignominious fate of Nero and Domitian.

Yet Commodus was not, as he has been represented, a tiger born with an
insatiate thirst of human blood, and capable, from his infancy, of the
most inhuman actions. Nature had formed him of a weak rather than a
wicked disposition. His simplicity and timidity rendered him the slave
of his attendants, who gradually corrupted his mind. His cruelty, which
at first obeyed the dictates of others, degenerated into habit, and at
length became the ruling passion of his soul.

Upon the death of his father, Commodus found himself embarrassed with
the command of a great army, and the conduct of a difficult war against
the Quadi and Marcomanni. The servile and profligate youths whom Marcus
had banished so