and how far at times he dared to be the impostor. In the ceremonies of
his pageants, in the ornaments of his person, were invariably introduced
mystic and figurative emblems. In times of danger he publicly professed
to have been cheered and directed by divine dreams; and on many
occasions the prophetic warnings he announced having been singularly
verified by the event, his influence with the people was strengthened by
a belief in the favour and intercourse of Heaven. Thus, delusion of
self might tempt and conduce to imposition on others, and he might not
scruple to avail himself of the advantage of seeming what he believed
himself to be. Yet, no doubt this intoxicating credulity pushed him
into extravagance unworthy of, and strangely contrasted by, his soberer
intellect, and made him disproportion his vast ends to his unsteady
means, by the proud fallacy, that where man failed, God would interpose.
Cola di Rienzi was no faultless hero of romance. In him lay, in
conflicting prodigality, the richest and most opposite elements of
character; strong sense, visionary superstition, an eloquence and
energy that mastered all he approached, a blind enthusiasm that mastered
himself; luxury and abstinence, sternness and susceptibility, pride to
the great, humility to the low; the most devoted patriotism and the most
avid desire of personal power. As few men undertake great and desperate
designs without strong animal spirits, so it may be observed, that with
most who have risen to eminence over the herd, there is an aptness, at
times, to a wild mirth and an elasticity of humour which often astonish
the more sober and regulated minds, that are "the commoners of life:"
And the theatrical grandeur of Napoleon, the severe dignity of
Cromwell, are strangely contrasted by a frequent, nor always seasonable
buffoonery, which it is hard to reconcile with the ideal of their
characters, or the gloomy and portentous interest of their careers. And
this, equally a trait in the temperament of Rienzi, distinguished his
hours of relaxation, and contributed to that marvellous versatility with