was to the other an adequate counterpart, each reciprocally that perfect
mirror which reflected, as it were _in alia materia,_ those incommunicable
attributes of grandeur, that under the same shape and denomination never
upon this earth were destined to be revived. Rome has not been repeated;
neither has Caesar. _Ubi Caesar, ibi Roma_--was a maxim of Roman
jurisprudence. And the same maxim may be translated into a wider meaning;
in which it becomes true also for our historical experience. Caesar and
Rome have flourished and expired together. The illimitable attributes of
the Roman prince, boundless and comprehensive as the universal air,--like
that also bright and apprehensible to the most vagrant eye, yet in parts
(and those not far removed) unfathomable as outer darkness, (for no
chamber in a dungeon could shroud in more impenetrable concealment a deed
of murder than the upper chambers of the air,)--these attributes, so
impressive to the imagination, and which all the subtlety of the Roman
[Footnote: Or even of modern wit; witness the vain attempt of so many
eminent sort, and illustrious _Antecessors_, to explain in self-
consistency the differing functions of the Roman Caesar, and in what sense
he was _legibus solutus_. The origin of this difficulty we shall soon
understand.] wit could as little fathom as the fleets of Caesar could
traverse the Polar basin, or unlock the gates of the Pacific, are best
symbolized, and find their most appropriate exponent, in the illimitable
city itself--that Rome, whose centre, the Capitol, was immovable as
Teneriffe or Atlas, but whose circumference was shadowy, uncertain,
restless, and advancing as the frontiers of her all-conquering empire. It
is false to say, that with Caesar came the destruction of Roman greatness.
Peace, hollow rhetoricians! Until Caesar came, Rome was a minor; by him,
she attained her majority, and fulfilled her destiny. Caius Julius, you
say, deflowered the virgin purity of her civil liberties. Doubtless, then,
Rome had risen immaculate from the arms of Sylla and of Marius. But, if it
were Caius Julius who deflowered Rome, if under him she forfeited her