n as Hadrian's passion was either gratified or disappointed, he
resolved to deserve the thanks of posterity, by placing the most exalted
merit on the Roman throne. His discerning eye easily discovered a
senator about fifty years of age, blameless in all the offices of life;
and a youth of about seventeen, whose riper years opened a fair prospect
of every virtue: the elder of these was declared the son and successor
of Hadrian, on condition, however, that he himself should immediately
adopt the younger. The two Antonines (for it is of them that we are
now peaking,) governed the Roman world forty-two years, with the same
invariable spirit of wisdom and virtue. Although Pius had two sons, he
preferred the welfare of Rome to the interest of his family, gave his
daughter Faustina, in marriage to young Marcus, obtained from the senate
the tribunitian and proconsular powers, and, with a noble disdain,
or rather ignorance of jealousy, associated him to all the labors of
government. Marcus, on the other hand, revered the character of his
benefactor, loved him as a parent, obeyed him as his sovereign, and,
after he was no more, regulated his own administration by the example
and maxims of his predecessor. Their united reigns are possibly the only
period of history in which the happiness of a great people was the sole
object of government.

Titus Antoninus Pius has been justly denominated a second Numa. The
same love of religion, justice, and peace, was the distinguishing
characteristic of both princes. But the situation of the latter opened
a much larger field for the exercise of those virtues. Numa could
only prevent a few neighboring villages from plundering each other's
harvests. Antoninus diffused order and tranquillity over the greatest
part of the earth. His reign is marked by the rare advantage of
furnishing very few materials for history; which is, indeed, little more
than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.
In private life, he was an amiable, as well as a good man. The native
simplicity of his virtue was a stranger to vanity or affectation.
He enjoyed with moderation the conveniences of his fortune, and the
innocent pleasures of society; and the benevolence of his soul displayed
itself in a cheerful serenity of temper.

The virtue of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was of severer and more
laborious kind. It was the well-earned harvest of many a learned
conference, of many a patient lecture, and ma