io8

a period now. Though it can no longer de-
mand the reverence it could once claim, yet
it would hardly be wise to believe that it
will never again attract the ideas and senti-
ments of admiration and devoted loyalty which
have been its heritage from the earliest times.
We are apt to think in this self-styled democra-
tic age that its clamour to prove its superiority
will be admitted by all without demur. I
doubt it. Greece, the birthplace of democracy,
doubted it and discarded it ; Rome carried
forward the democratic idea and confirmed it
by long usage and invested it with some glory.
But' then followed the age of Augustus which
showed the other Janus face of it—Empire !
The SPQR* and the eagles stared and obeyed,
for the Roman Empire had come to live —
whether it was unholy or holy—and democracy
was not to jump into its seat again. The
i8th century witnessed the great upheaval of
the French Revolution ; but this Revolution
could only destroy the French monarchy
for a short time ; and it had no effect upon
the other monarchies of Europe. But it led to
something unforeseen—the birth of an Empire
upon the summit of which stood another and a
greater Caesar. Napoleon's Empire was short-
lived, but it was surrounded with glory and
dazzled the world. Carlyle has put this in
four words : ' The Hero as King/"

*Senatus Populus que Romanus.