The "dislimning" and unmoulding of
some mighty pageantry in the heavens has its own appropriate grandeurs, no
less than the gathering of its cloudy pomps. The going down of the sun is
contemplated with no less awe than his rising. Nor is any thing portentous
in its growth, which is not also portentous in the steps and "moments" of
its decay. Hence, in the second place, we might presume a commensurate
interest in the characters and fortunes of the successive emperors. If the
empire challenged our first survey, the next would seem due to the Caesars
who guided its course; to the great ones who retarded, and to the bad ones
who precipitated, its ruin.
Such might be the natural expectation of an inexperienced reader. But it
is _not_ so. The Caesars, throughout their long line, are not interesting,
neither personally in themselves, nor derivatively from the tragic events
to which their history is attached. Their whole interest lies in their
situation--in the unapproachable altitude of their thrones. But,
considered with a reference to their human qualities, scarcely one in the
whole series can be viewed with a human interest apart from the
circumstances of his position.
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