eful zeal of the Christians, the
deliverer of the Church has been decorated with every attribute of a
hero and even of a saint, while the discontent of the vanquished party
has compared Constantine to the most abhorred of those tyrants who by
their vice and weakness dishonored the imperial purple. The same
passions have in some degree been perpetuated to succeeding generations,
and the character of Constantine is considered, even in the present age,
as an object either of satire or of panegyric. By the impartial union of
those defects which are confessed by his warmest admirers, and of those
virtues which are acknowledged by his most implacable enemies, we might
hope to delineate a just portrait of that extraordinary man which the
truth and candor of history should adopt without a blush. But it would
soon appear, that the vain attempt to blend such discordant colors and
to reconcile such inconsistent qualities must produce a figure monstrous
rather than human, unless it is viewed in its proper and distinct
lights, by a careful separation of the different periods of the reign of
Constantine.

The person as well as the mind of Constantine had been enriched by
nature with her choicest endowments. His stature was lofty, his
countenance majestic, his deportment graceful, his strength and activity
were displayed in every manly exercise, and from his earliest youth to a
very advanced season of life he preserved the vigor of his constitution
by a strict adherence to the domestic virtues of chastity and
temperance. He delighted in the social intercourse of familiar
conversation; and though he might sometimes indulge his disposition to
raillery with less reserve than was required by the severe dignity of
his station, the courtesy and liberality of his manners gained the
hearts of all who approached him. The sincerity of his friendship has
been suspected; yet he showed on some occasions that he was not
incapable of a warm and lasting attachment. The disadvantage of an
illiterate education had not prevented him from forming a just estimate
of the value of learning; and the arts and sciences derived some
encouragement from the munificent protection of Constantine. In the
dispatch of business, his diligence was indefatigable; and the active
powers of his mind were almost continually exercised in reading,
writing, or meditating, in giving audience to ambassadors, and in
examining the complaints of his subjects. Even those who censured