Repository: UIHistories Project: Sophograph - 1889 [PAGE 21]

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nobleness. Mai are the kin: I emperors, though they bear the marks >i $. ho have not committed gle act n thy c article of the riches ind fame bestowed upon them, or ho have gained their seem g renown and attained to their lofty positions by unji and unworthy means. uch men in not be counted among the high and the noble of the world. They are really the ordinary men, and those whom they have trampled down and buiT their fortunes upon are the true nobles. l e t us turn to history for examples of those, who have professed nobility and possessed it not and those who have had all the good qualities that should belong to a noble character. We may take, as the best examples of the base ness of some princes, several of the minor Roman emperorg. /leliogabaim one of the later emperors, was the most ignoble ruler that ever sat upon a throne. 1 Te was an avaricious and corrupted noble, who was raised to the head of the empire by the soldiers. The army was then the supreme power in the nation; and the most unfit to choose a ruler. They placed men upon the throne and pulled them down without the least discretion. They were ever looking after their own interests instead of those of their country. Thus they placed I leliogabalus upon the throne in the hope of gainin^ a special benefac tor. Perhaps their hopes were in a measure realized, but the welfare of the country was far from being secured. His cruelty and tyranny were unbounded md the ignominious debauchery, which he entered into, has never been equaled by any ruler. Little better were Caracalla and M imiant who were crowned by the soldiery and who proved themselves the basest and most brutal of men 1 hough these rulers are of small importance in the histoi of the Roman Empire, vet they are good examples of the degeneracy of those who should be the noblest. Augustus Casar, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aureliu are fit e jles of true noblemen. Augustus strove through man\ j ears of misfortunes to place himself at the head of the Roman world. It was not personal ambition, but the good of a mighty nation that moved him to do it By the ^ at strength of character which he show i in accomplishing his desigi he gained the love and admiration of the people*. When they w con vine that he was the strongest man of the nation, they * not loath to make h i chief rul< Ph< high i n once attained, his only ambition was to make his country the i a I the strong the worl had cv. know This he lid lira: wort) eans, an se of its \ iimns accomplishment he has ga an al ne and a hi; place among the noble ones ol earth. Antonmns I was on f the noblest of | and 1 \\ a life that * ^

ah unimpeachable. II iw neofund and the golden age ol e imp* rule »me, All, the lult ol i blameless I haps elius si Id nol be < om Ian « M e I pern i the c Ihriitiam Hut tin tl si w In ation a n to main c j secuti i reli 1* hat tr t,> ti, e tut \ \