[personal] Industry Must Be Faint And Languid,

In The Productions Of The Mind, As In Those Of The Soil, The Gifts Of Nature Are Excelled By Industry And Skill . . .

[the] Emperor Of The West, The Feeble And Dissolute Valentinian, [had] Reached His Thirty-fifth Year Without Attaining The Age Of Reason Or Courage.

Whatever Evils Either Reason Or Declamation Have Imputed To Extensive Empire, The Power Of Rome Was Attended With Some Beneficial Consequences To Mankind; And The Same Freedom Of Intercourse Which Extended The Vices, Diffused Likewise The Improvements Of Social Life.

It Is Scarcely Possible That The Eyes Of Contemporaries Should Discover In The Public Felicity The Latent Causes Of Decay And Corruption. This Long Peace, And The Uniform Government Of The Romans, Introduced A Slow And Secret Poison Into The Vitals Of The Empire. The Minds Of Men Were Gradually Reduced To The Same Level, The Fire Of Genius Was Extinguished, And Even The Military Spirit Evaporated.

Persuasion Is The Resource Of The Feeble; And The Feeble Can Seldom Persuade . . .