n improvement, had not
yet opened a seventh seal. (See _Historical Illustrations_, pp.
91-168.)]

[nn] {391} _She saw her glories one by one expire_.--[MS. M.]

[461] [Compare Macaulay's _Lays of Ancient Rome_, "Prophecy of Capys,"
stanza xxx.--

"Blest and thrice blest the Roman
Who sees Rome's brightest day,
Who sees that long victorious pomp
Wind down the Sacred Way,
And through the bellowing Forum,
And round the Suppliant's Grove,
Up to the everlasting gates
Of Capitolian Jove."]

[no] _The double night of Ruin_----.--[MS. M.]

[462] [The construction is harsh and puzzling. Apparently the subject of
"hath wrapt" is the "double night of ages;" the subjects of "wrap," the
"night of ages" and the "night of Ignorance;" but, even so, the sentence
is ambiguous. Not less amazing is the confusion of metaphors. Rome is a
"desert," through which we steer, mounted, presumably, on a camel--the
"ship of the desert." Mistaken associations are, as it were,
stumbling-blocks; and no sooner have we verified an association,
discovered a ruined temple in the exact site which Livy's "pictured
page" has assigned to it--a discovery as welcome to the antiquarian as
water to the thirsty traveller--than our theory is upset, and we
perceive that we have been deluded by a mirage.]

[463] {392} Orosius gives 320 for the number of triumphs [i.e. from
Romulus to the double triumph of Vespasian and Titus (_Hist._, vii. 9)].
He is followed by Panvinius; and Panvinius by Mr. Gibbon and the modern
writers.

[np]
_Alas, for Tully's voice, and Titus' sway_
_And Virgil's verse; the first and last must be_
_Her Resurrection_----.--[MS. M.]

[464] Certainly, were it not for these two traits in the life of Sylla,
alluded to in this stanza, we should regard him as a monster unredeemed
by any admirable quality. The _atonement_ of his voluntary resignation
of empire may perhaps be accepted by us, as it seems to have satisfied
the Romans, who if they had not respected must have destroyed him. There
could be no mean, no division of opinion; they must have all thought,
like Eucrates, that what had appeared ambition was a love of glory, and
that what had been mistaken for pride was a real grandeur of
soul.--("Seigneur, vous changez toutes mes idees, de la facon dont je
vous vois agir. Je croyois que vous aviez de l'ambition, mais aucun
amour pour la gloire; je voyois bien que votre ame etoit haute