300 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, unless it is viewed in its proper and distinct lights, by L- a careful separation of the different periods of the reign of Constantine. IJis virtues. The pcrsou, as well as the mind of Constantine, had been enriched by nature with her choicest endowments. His stature was lofty, his countenance majestic, his de- portment graceful ; his strength and activity were dis- played in every manly exercise ; and from his earliest youth, to a very advanced season of life, he preserved the vigQur of his constitution by a strict adherence to the domestic virtues of chastity and temperance. He delighted in the social intercourse of familiar conversa- tion ; and though he might sometimes indulge his dis- position to raillery with less reserve than was required by the severe dignity of his station, the courtesy and liberality of his manners gained the hearts of all who approached him. The sincerity of his friendship has been suspected ; yet he showed, on some occasions, that he was not incapable of a warm and lasting attach- ment. The disadvantage of an illiterate education had not prevented him from forming a just estimate of the value of learning ; and the arts and sciences derived some encouragement from the munificent protection of Constantine. In the despatch of business, his diligence was indefatigable ; and the active powers of his mind were almost continually exercised in reading, writing, or meditating, in giving audience to ambassadors, and in examining the complaints of his subjects. Even those who censured the propriety of his measures were compelled to acknowledge, that he possessed magna- nimity to conceive, and patience to execute, the most arduous designs, without being checked either by the prejudices of education, or by the clamours of the mul- titude. In the field, he infused his own intrepid spirit into the troops, whom he conducted with the talents of a consummate general ; and to his abilities, rather than to his fortune, we may ascribe the signal victories which he ol)tained over the foreign and domestic foes of the republic. He loved glory, as the reward, perhaps as
