public safety. Gratian survived those memorable events only four or
five years; but he survived his reputation; and, before he fell a
victim to rebellion, he had lost, in a great measure, the respect and
confidence of the Roman world.

The remarkable alteration of his character or conduct may not be
imputed to the arts of flattery, which had besieged the son of
Valentinian from his infancy; nor to the headstrong passions which the
that gentle youth appears to have escaped. A more attentive view of
the life of Gratian may perhaps suggest the true cause of the
disappointment of the public hopes. His apparent virtues, instead of
being the hardy productions of experience and adversity, were the
premature and artificial fruits of a royal education. The anxious
tenderness of his father was continually employed to bestow on him
those advantages, which he might perhaps esteem the more highly, as he
himself had been deprived of them; and the most skilful masters of
every science, and of every art, had labored to form the mind and body
of the young prince. The knowledge which they painfully communicated
was displayed with ostentation, and celebrated with lavish praise. His
soft and tractable disposition received the fair impression of their
judicious precepts, and the absence of passion might easily be
mistaken for the strength of reason. His preceptors gradually rose to
the rank and consequence of ministers of state: and, as they wisely
dissembled their secret authority, he seemed to act with firmness,
with propriety, and with judgment, on the most important occasions of
his life and reign. But the influence of this elaborate instruction
did not penetrate beyond the surface; and the skilful preceptors, who
so accurately guided the steps of 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