or THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

215

“ Plato, Plato , what a task for a philosopher!” chap.

Yet even this speculative philosophy, which_

men of business are too apt to despise, had fill-ed the mind of Julian with the noblest precepts,and the most shining examples ; had animatedhim with the love of virtue, the desire of fame,and the contempt of death. The habits of tem-perance recommended in the schools, are stillmore essential in the severe discipline of a camp.

The simple wants of nature regulated the mea-sure of his food and sleep. Rejecting with dis-dain the delicacies provided for his table, he sa-tisfied his appetite with the coarse and commonfare which was allotted to the meanest soldiers.

Daring the rigour of a Gallic winter he neversuffered a fire in his bed-chamber; and after ashort and interrupted slumber, he frequentlyrose in the middle of the night from a carpetspread on the floor, to dispatch any urgent bu-siness, to visit his rounds, or to steal a few mo-ments for the prosecution of his favourite stu-dies. 1 The precepts of eloquence, which he hadhitherto practised on fancied topics of declama-tion, were more usefully applied to excite or toassuage the passions of an armed multitude;and although Julian, from his early habits ofconversation and literature, was more familiarlyacquainted with the beauties of the Greek lan-guage, he had attained a competent knowledge

* The private life of Julian in Gaul , and the severe discipline whichhe embraced, are displayed by Ammianiis (xvi, 5), who professes topraise, and by Julian himself, who affects to ridicule (Mesopogon,p. 340), a conduct, which, in a prince of the house of Constantine,might justly excite the surprise of mankind.