OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

137

The monstrous vices of the son have cast a chap.

shade on the purity of the father’s virtues. It_

has been objected to Marcus, that he sacrificed to his sonthe happiness of millions to a fond partiality for J“ s mm0 ‘a worthless boy ; and that he chose a successorin his own family, rather than in the republic.Nothing, however, was neglected by the anxiousfather, and by the men of virtue and learningwhom he summoned to his assistance, to expandthe narrow mind of young Commodus , to cor-rect his growing vices, and to render him wor-thy of the throne, for which he was designed.

But the power of instruction is seldom of muchefficacy, except in those happy dispositionswhere it is almost superfluous. The distastefullesson of a grave philosopher was, in a moment,obliterated by the whisper of a profligate fa-vourite ; and Marcus himself blasted the fruitsof this laboured education, by admitting his son,at the age of fourteen or fifteen, to a full partici-pation of the imperial power. He lived but fouryears afterwards; but he lived long enough torepent a rash measure, which raised the impe-tuous youth above the restraint of reason andauthority.

Most of the crimes which disturb the internal Accession peace of society, are produced by the restraintswhich the necessary, but unequal laws of pro- mod,ls -perty have imposed on the appetites of man-kind, by confining to a few the possession ofthose objects that are coveted by many. Of allour passions and appetites, the love of power isof the most imperious and unsociable nature,since the pride of one man requires the submis-