their royal pupil, could not infuse into his feeble and indolent
character the vigorous and independent principle of action which
renders the laborious pursuit of glory essentially necessary to
the happiness, and almost to the existence, of the hero. As soon
as time and accident had removed those faithful counsellors from
the throne, the emperor of the West insensibly descended to the
level of his natural genius; abandoned the reins of government to
the ambitious hands which were stretched forwards to grasp them;
and amused his leisure with the most frivolous gratifications. A
public sale of favor and injustice was instituted, both in the
court and in the provinces, by the worthless delegates of his
power, whose merit it was made sacrilege to question. ^3 The
conscience of the credulous prince was directed by saints and
bishops; ^4 who procured an Imperial edict to punish, as a
capital offence, the violation, the neglect, or even the
ignorance, of the divine law. ^5 Among the various arts which had
exercised the youth of Gratian, he had applied himself, with
singular inclination and success, to manage the horse, to draw
the bow, and to dart the javelin; and these qualifications, which
might be useful to a soldier, were prostituted to the viler
purposes of hunting. Large parks were enclosed for the Imperial
pleasures, and plentifully stocked with every species of wild
beasts; and Gratian neglected the duties, and even the dignity,
of his rank, to consume whole days in the vain display of his
dexterity and boldness in the chase. The pride and wish of the
Roman emperor to excel in an art, in which he might be surpassed
by the meanest of his slaves, reminded the numerous spectators of
the examples of Nero and Commodus, but the chaste and temperate
Gratian was a stranger to their monstrous vices; and his hands
were stained only with the blood of animals. ^6 The behavior of