were carried, however, by the progress of civilization to a certain
intellectual altitude, which the popular religion had not strength to
ascend--but from inherent disproportion remained at the base of the
general civilization, incapable of accompanying the other elements in
their advance;--thirdly, that this polished condition of society, which
should naturally with the evils of a luxurious repose have counted upon
its pacific benefits, had yet, by means of its circus and its gladiatorial
contests, applied a constant irritation, and a system of provocations to
the appetites for blood, such as in all other nations are connected with
the rudest stages of society, and with the most barbarous modes of
warfare, nor even in such circumstances without many palliatives wanting
to the spectators of the circus;--combining these considerations, we have
already a key to the enormities and hideous excesses of the Roman
Imperator. The hot blood which excites, and the adventurous courage which
accompanies, the excesses of sanguinary warfare, presuppose a condition of
the moral nature not to be compared for malignity and baleful tendency to
the cool and cowardly spirit of amateurship, in which the Roman (perhaps
an effeminate Asiatic) sat looking down upon the bravest of men,
(Thracians, or other Europeans,) mangling each other for his recreation.
When, lastly, from such a population, and thus disciplined from his
nursery days, we suppose the case of one individual selected, privileged,
and raised to a conscious irresponsibility, except at the bar of one
extra-judicial tribunal, not easily irritated, and notoriously to be
propitiated by other means than those of upright or impartial conduct, we
lay together the elements of a situation too trying for poor human nature,
and fitted only to the faculties of an angel or a demon; of an angel, if
we suppose him to resist its full temptations; of a demon, if we suppose
him to use its total opportunities. Thus interpreted and solved, Caligula
and Nero become ordinary men.