The Voice Of History Is Often Little

[the] Operation Of The Wisest Laws Is Imperfect And Precarious. They Seldom Inspire Virtue, They Cannot Always Restrain Vice.

If The Emperor Had Capriciously Decreed The Death Of The Most Eminent And Virtuous Citizen Of The Republic, The Cruel Order Would Have Been Executed Without Hesitation By The Ministers Of Open Violence Or Of Specious Injustice. The Caution, The Delay, The Difficulty With Which He Proceeded In The Condemnation And Punishment Of A Popular Bishop, Discovered To The World That The Privileges Of The Church Had Already Revived A Sense Of Order And Freedom In The Roman Government.

Let Us Read With Method, And Propose To Ourselves An End To Which Our Studies May Point. The Use Of Reading Is To Aid Us In Thinking.

A Heart To Resolve, A Head To Contrive, And A Hand To Execute.

If A Man Were Called To Fix The Period In The History Of The World During Which The Condition Of The Human Race Was Most Happy And Prosperous, He Would, Without Hesitation, Name That Which Elapsed From The Death Of Domitian To The Accession Of Commodus.