hout him"' The Voice of his Soul, that speaks
also through the lips of his Teacher; whether that Teacher be
embodied visibly before men or not. He obeys; he follows the
gleam; he sufferes, and strives, and makes no question; and his
striving is all for more power to obey and to follow. In this, I
think, we have our clue to the young Octavian.--'Luck' always
favored him; not least when, in dividing the world, Anthony
chose the East, gave Lepidus Africa, and left the most difficult
and dangerous Italy to the youngest partner of the three.

He had two friends, men of some genius both: Vipsanius Agrippa
the general, and Cilnius Maecenas the statesman. Both appear to
us as great personalities; the master whom they served so
loyally and splendidly remains and Impersonality,--which those
who please may call a 'cold abstraction.' While Octavian was
away campaigning, Maecenas, with no official position, ruled Rome
on his behalf; and so wisely that Rome took it and was well
content. As for those campaigns, 'luck' or Agrippa won them for
him; in Octavian himself we can see no qualities of great
generalship. And indeed, it is likely he had none; for he
was preeminently a man of peace. But they always were won.
Suetonius makes him a coward; yet he was one that, when occasion
arose, would not think twice about putting to sea in an open boat
during a storm; and once, when he heard that Lepidus was
preparing to turn against him, he rode alone into that general's
camp, and took away the timid creature's army without striking a
blow: simply ordered the soldiers to follow him, and they did.
If he seems now a colorless abstraction, he could hardly have
seemed so then to Lepidus' legions, who deserted their own
general--and paymaster--at his simple word of command. Or to
Agrippa, or to Maecenas, great men who desired nothing better
than to serve him with loyal affection. Maecenas was an
Etruscan; a man of brilliant mind and culture; reputed somewhat
luxurious when he had nothing to do, but a very dynamo when there
was work.--A man, be it said, of great ideals on his own account:
we see it in his influence on Virgil and Horace. In his last
years some coldness, unexplained, sprung up between him and his
master; yet when Maecenas died, it was found he had made
Augustus his sole heir.--But now Augustus is still only Octavian,
moving impassively and impersonally to his great destiny; as if
no thing of flesh and blood and common h