uman impulses, but a
cosmic force acting;--which indeed the Impersonal Man always is.

What he did, seems to have done, or could not help doing, always
worked out right, whether it carries for us an ethical look or
no. The problems and difficulties that lay between that time and
Peace flowed to him: and as at the touch of some alchemical
solvent, received their solution. We get one glimpse of the
inner man of him, of his beliefs or religion. He believed
absolutely in his _Genius_ (in the Roman sense); his luck, or
his Karma, or--and perhaps chiefly--that God-side of a man which
Numaism taught existed:--what we should call, the Higher Law, the
Warrior, and the Higher Self. There, as I think, you have the
heart of his mystery; he followed that, blindly,--and made no
mistakes. In the year 29 B.C. it led him back to Rome in
Triumph, having laid the world at his feet. He had been the
bridge over that chasm in the cycles; the Path through all the
tortuosities of that doubtful and wayward time; over which the
Purposes of the Gods had marched to their fulfilment. He had
been strong as destiny, who seemed to have little strength in his
delicate body. With none of Caesar's dash and brilliance, he had
repeated Caesar's achievement; and was to conquer further in
spiritual

"regions Caesar never knew."

With none of Anthony's soldiership, he had easily brought Anthony
down.--Why did Cleopatra lose Actium for Anthony?

We face the almost inexplicable again in the whole story of
Octavian's dealings with Cleopatra. She is one of the characters
history has most venomously lied about. Mr. Wiegand has shown
some part of the truth about her in his biography; but I do not
think he has solved the whole problem; for he takes the easy
road of making Octavian a monster. Now Augustus, beyond any
question, was one of the most beneficent forces that ever
appeared in history; and no monster can be turned, by the mere
circumstance of success achieved, into that. Cleopatra had made
a bid to solve the world-problem on an Egyptian basis: first
through Caesar, then through Anthony. We may dismiss the idea
that she was involved in passionate attachments; she had a grand
game to play, with World-stakes at issue. The problem was not to
be solved through Caesar, and it was not to be solved through
Anthony; but it had been solved by Octavian. There was nothing
more for her to do, but step aside and be no hindrance to the man
who