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. The conscience of the credulous prince was directed by
saints and bishops; who procured an Imperial edict to punish, as a
capital offence, the violation, the neglect, or even the ignorance, of
the divine law. 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. The behavior of
Gratian, which degraded his character in the eyes of mankind, could
not have disturbed the security of his reign, if the army had not been
provoked to resent their peculiar injuries. As long as the young
emperor was guided by the instructions of his masters, he professed