onry of that pomp, and bids them call in the
prisoner.

A soldier enters, at whose side the prisoner has been chained for years.
This soldier is a tried veteran of the Praetorian cohorts. He was
selected, that from him this criminal could not escape; and for that
purpose they have been inseparably bound. But, as he leads that other
through the hall, he looks at him with a regard and earnestness which
say he is no criminal to him. Long since, the criminal has been the
guardian of his keeper. Long since, the keeper has cared for the
prisoner with all the ardor of a new-found son's affection.

They lead that gray-haired captive forward, and with his eagle eye he
glances keenly round the hall. That flashing eye has ere now bade
monarchs quail; and those thin lips have uttered words which shall make
the world ring till the last moment of the world shall come. The stately
Eastern captive moves unawed through the assembly, till he makes a
subject's salutation to the Emperor-judge who is to hear him. And when,
then, the gray-haired sage kneels before the sensual boy, you see the
prophet of the new civilization kneel before the monarch of the old! You
see Paul make a subject's formal reverence to Nero![K]

Let me do justice to the court which is to try him. In that
judgment-hall there are not only the pomp of Rome, and its crime; we
have also the best of its wisdom. By the dissolute boy, Nero, there
stands the prime minister Seneca, the chief of the philosophers of his
time; "Seneca the saint," cry the Christians of the next century. We
will own him to be Seneca the wise, Seneca almost the good. To this sage
had been given the education of the monster who was to rule the world.
This sage had introduced him into power, had restrained his madness when
he could, and with his colleague had conducted the general
administration of the Empire with the greatest honor, while the boy was
wearing out his life in debauchery in the palace. Seneca dared say more
to Nero, to venture more with him, than did any other man. For the young
tiger was afraid of his old master long after he had tasted blood. Yet
Seneca's system was a cowardly system. It was the best of Roman morality
and Greek philosophy, and still it was mean. His daring was the bravest
of the men of the old civilization. He is the type of their
excellences, as is Nero the model of their power and their adornments.
And yet all that Seneca's daring could venture was to seduce the
b