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34 FOMAN DA VS.
speech to flow freely. His inclination to " generalize "
reveals itself in everything. This is why he gave less
heed to men than to mankind. And the conclusion in
which he has verified his observations of it, is : it is so
contemptible, it would be unworthy of hate, were it not
at the same time dangerous.
Arrived at this conclusion, he does not believe it
worth while to examine the various mixtures of vanity,
envy, craft and stupidity, that meet him in the manifold
changing revelations of the essential nature of man.
Such a study as that, would farther embitter the dark
moodiness with which he feels himself suffering. Only
from the point of view of precaution, as more or less dan-
gerous, would they merit scrutiny. But the simplest
way is to observe caution towards all, and to find a sys-
tem that may cast the burden of this upon those who
are to be watched. This system he has found, without
trouble. And the panting anxiety in which it holds the
world, forms the contrast at once explicit and sharp, to
the repose of his own brow.
Tiberius is one of the great commanders Rome pos-
sessed. Since the death of Marius, no one had saved
the empire from such threatening dangers as he had.
That and other things that redound to his honor, we are
disposed to forget in his crimes ; especially as the great
deeds he achieved never were executed in a brilliant
fashion. What Frenchmen call la inise en scene, the art
of bringing a thing upon the boards, he despised. Julius
Caesar understood that art, thoroughly ; and farther on,
we shall see an Otho, whose life was an Atellan farce,
put on the cothurnus and tragic mask, and play the
falling hero so well, that he can cheat the very muse of
history of her tears. There is something of theory
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