tian education. He, in whom
every Catholic sees the shadow of the future Anti-Christ, was all but the
pattern-man of philosophical virtue. Weak points in his character he had,
it is true, even in a merely poetical standard; but, take him all in all,
and I cannot but recognize in him a specious beauty and nobleness of moral
deportment, which combines in it the rude greatness of Fabricius or
Regulus with the accomplishments of Pliny or Antoninus. His simplicity of
manners, his frugality, his austerity of life, his singular disdain of
sensual pleasure, his military heroism, his application to business, his
literary diligence, his modesty, his clemency, his accomplishments, as I
view them, go to make him one of the most eminent specimens of pagan
virtue which the world has ever seen.(24) Yet how shallow, how meagre,
nay, how unamiable is that virtue after all, when brought upon its
critical trial by his sudden summons into the presence of his Judge! His
last hours form a _unique_ passage in history, both as illustrating the
helplessness of philosophy under the stern realities of our being, and as
being reported to us on the evidence of an eye-witness. "Friends and
fellow-soldiers," he said, to use the words of a writer, well fitted, both
from his literary tastes and from his hatred of Christianity, to be his
panegyrist, "the seasonable period of my departure is now arrived, and I
discharge, with the cheerfulness of a ready debtor, the demands of
nature.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} I die without remorse, as I have lived without guilt. I am
pleased to reflect on the innocence of my private life; and I can affirm
with confidence that the supreme authority, that emanation of the divine
Power, has been preserved in my hands pure and immaculate.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} I now offer my
tribute of gratitude to the Eternal Being, who has not suffered me to
perish by the cruelty of a tyrant, by the secret dagger of conspiracy, or
by the slow tortures of lingering disease. He has given me, in the midst
of an honourable career, a splendid and glorious departure from this
world, and I hold it equally absurd, equally base, to solicit, or to
decline, the stroke of fate.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~}

"He reproved the immoderate grief of the spectators, and conjured them not
to disgrace, by unmanly tears, the fate of a prince who in a few moments
would be united with Heaven and with the stars. The spectators were
silent; and Julian entered into a metaphys