ind,_ and no heart al all, with master-subtlety achieving
mastery of the world.--Alas! a boy in his late teens and early
twenties, so nearly friendless, and with enemies so many and so
great... A boy "up aginst" so huge and difficult circumstances
always, that (you would say) there was no time, no possibility,
for him to look ahead: in every moment the next agonizing
perilous step that must be taken vast enough to fill the whole
horizon of his mind, of any human mind perhaps;--ay, so vast and
compelling that every day with wrenches and torsion that horizon
must be pushed back and back to contain them,--a harrowing
painful process, as we may read on his busts... As to the
proscriptions, Dio, a writer, as Mr. Baring-Gould says, "never
willing to allow a good quality to one of the Caesars, or to put
their conduct in other than an unfavorable light," says that
they were brought about mainly--"by Lepidus and Anthony, who,
having been long in honor under Julius Caesar, and having held
many offices in state and army, had acquired many enemies. But
as Octavian was associated with them in power, an appearance of
complicity attached to him. But he was not cruel by nature, and
he had no occasion for putting many to death; moreover, he had
resolved to imitate the example of his adoptive father. Added to
this, he was young, was just entering on his career, and sought
rather to gain hearts than to alienate them. No sooner was he in
sole power than he showed no signs of severity, and at that time
he caused the death of very few, and saved very many. He
proceeded with the utmost severity against such as betrayed their
[proscribed?] masters or friends; but was most favorable to such
as helped the proscribed to escape."

It was that "appearance of complicity" that wrote the anguish on
his face: the fact that he could not prevent, and saw no way but
to have a sort of hand in, things his nature loathed. In truth
he appears to us now rather like a pawn, played down the board by
some great Chess-player in the Unseen: moving by no volition or
initiative of its own through perils and peace-takings to
Queenhood on the seventh square. But we know that he who would
enter the Path of Power must use all the initiative, all the
volition, possible in any human being, to attain the balance, to
master the personality, to place himself wholly and unreservedly
in the power, under the control, of the Higher thing that is
"within and yet wit