mes
out of the abacus, the arm meeting that of Moses, both at full stretch,
with the stone tablets between.

_Eighth side._ Trajan doing justice to the Widow.

"TRAJANO IMPERADOR CHE FA JUSTITIA A LA VEDOVA."

He is riding spiritedly, his mantle blown out behind: the widow kneeling
before his horse.

Sec. CXXVIII. The reader will observe that this capital is of peculiar
interest in its relation to the much disputed question of the character
of the later government of Venice. It is the assertion by that
government of its belief that Justice only could be the foundation of
its stability; as these stones of Justice and Judgment are the
foundation of its halls of council. And this profession of their faith
may be interpreted in two ways. Most modern historians would call it, in
common with the continual reference to the principles of justice in the
political and judicial language of the period,[159] nothing more than a
cloak for consummate violence and guilt; and it may easily be proved to
have been so in myriads of instances. But in the main, I believe the
expression of feeling to be genuine. I do not believe, of the majority
of the leading Venetians of this period whose portraits have come down
to us, that they were deliberately and everlastingly hypocrites. I see
no hypocrisy in their countenances. Much capacity of it, much subtlety,
much natural and acquired reserve; but no meanness. On the contrary,
infinite grandeur, repose, courage, and the peculiar unity and
tranquillity of expression which come of sincerity or _wholeness_ of
heart, and which it would take much demonstration to make me believe
could by any possibility be seen on the countenance of an insincere man.
I trust, therefore, that these Venetian nobles of the fifteenth century
did, in the main, desire to do judgment and justice to all men; but, as
the whole system of morality had been by this time undermined by the
teaching of the Romish Church, the idea of justice had become separated
from that of truth, so that dissimulation in the interest of the state
assumed the aspect of duty. We had, perhaps, better consider, with some
carefulness, the mode in which our own government is carried on, and the
occasional difference between parliamentary and private morality, before
we judge mercilessly of the Venetians in this respect. The secrecy with
which their political and criminal trials were conducted, appears to
modern eyes like a confession of sinister in