the wisest, can attain! Yet, till we are thus fortunate, we know not
the true divinity of contemplation, nor the all-sufficing mightiness of
conscience; nor can we retreat with solemn footsteps into that Holy of
Holies in our own souls, wherein we know, and feel, how much our nature
is capable of the self-existence of a God!

But to return to the things and thoughts of earth. Those considerations,
and those links of circumstance, which, in a similar situation have
changed so many honest and courageous minds, changed also the mind of
Adrian. He felt in a false position. His reason and conscience shared in
the schemes of Rienzi, and his natural hardihood and love of enterprise
would have led him actively to share the danger of their execution. But
this, all his associations, his friendships, his private and household
ties, loudly forbade. Against his order, against his house, against the
companions of his youth, how could he plot secretly, or act sternly?
By the goal to which he was impelled by patriotism, stood hypocrisy and
ingratitude. Who would believe him the honest champion of his country
who was a traitor to his friends? Thus, indeed,

"The native hue of resolution
Was sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought!"

And he who should have been by nature a leader of the time became only
its spectator. Yet Adrian endeavoured to console himself for his present
passiveness in a conviction of the policy of his conduct. He who takes
no share in the commencement of civil revolutions, can often become,
with the most effect, a mediator between the passions and the parties
subsequently formed. Perhaps, under Adrian's circumstances, delay was
really the part of a prudent statesman; the very position which cripples
at the first, often gives authority before the end. Clear from the