rescue of Rome from the Gauls; on the sacred geese of the capitol, and
Manlius who slew its assailants; on the siege of the capitol for seven
months by these Celtic invaders, and the burning and sack of the city,
and its deliverance by the great Camillus. These legends are not
legitimate history, but they show the self-devotion and bravery, the
simplicity and virtue of those primitive ages, when luxury was unknown
and crime was severely punished. It was in those days of danger and
hardship that the foundation of the future military strength of the
empire was laid. We do not read of military science, of war as an art or
trade, or even of great military ambition, for the sphere of military
operations was narrow and obscure, but of preparation for victories,
under men of genius, in the time to come. That part of Roman history
bears the same relation to the age of Marius and Sulla, that the
conquests of the Puritans over the Indians, and the difficulties with
which they contended, do to the gigantic warfare of the North and South
in the late rebellion. The Puritans laid the foundation of the military
virtues of the Americans, in their colonial state, as the Patricians of
Rome did for one hundred and fifty years after the expulsion of the
kings. Those petty wars with Volscians and Acquians brought out the
Roman character, and are the germ of subsequent greatness. They took
place in the infancy of the republic, under the rule of Patricians, who
were not then great nobles, but brave and poor citizens, animated with
patriotic zeal and characterized, like the Puritans, for stern and lofty
virtues and religious faith,--superstitious and unenlightened, yet
elevated and grand,--qualities on which the strength of man is based. It
is not puerile to dwell with delight on the legends of that heroic age,
for the philosopher sees in those little struggles the germs of imperial
power. They were small and insignificant, like the battles of the
American Revolution, when measured with the marshaling of vast armies on
the plains of Pharsalia or Waterloo, but they were great in their