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II.
TIBERIUS.
IN the Hall of Emperors of the Capitoline gallery,
one is surrounded by the fullest collection of antique
busts of the emperors, that (as far as I know) is to be
found. It is a high-born company, but there is cause to
question if it be as good as it is select. From the mar-
ket, where the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius
warns us not to forget the lights of the empire in its
shadows, the sunshine falls upon many a mighty brow
and able profile, and the prevailing impression of the
lords of Rome is of undeniable strength and developed
character—developed in good and evil. One is tempted
to believe that " the natural selection ’’
has in general
asserted its right, whether it were the predecessor’s will,
or votes of the senators, or arms of the legions, or the
life-guards’ thirst for gold, that opened the way to the
place of honor of the world’s empire. Faces that say
nothing, are not many.
Nor are the nobly eloquent many either; and one
seems, on one’s entrance into the Hall of Emperors, to
have taken a step downward on the scale of humanity,
if one have lately stood among the statues of the law-
givers, heroes, philosophers and poets, of the old republic.
Many of these art has idealized, and some, the chisel has
freely invented ; but on most of them, their own life has
stamped the seal of lofty or profound nature. If you
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