As for his personal appearance, it was given in a saga; but I have not
consulted it myself, and am no judge of its authenticity. The
traditional description of him is that of a man almost beardless--a rare
case among the Goths--with masses of golden ringlets, and black eyebrows
over 'oculos caesios,' the blue grey eyes common to so many conquerors. A
complexion so peculiar, that one must believe it to be truly reported.

His tragic death, and the yet more tragic consequences thereof, will be
detailed in the next lecture.

LECTURE V--DIETRICH'S END.

I have now to speak to you on the latter end of Dietrich's reign--made so
sadly famous by the death of Boethius--the last Roman philosopher, as he
has been called for centuries, and not unjustly. His De Consolatione
Philosophiae is a book good for any man, full of wholesome and godly
doctrine. For centuries it ranked as high as the highest classics;
higher perhaps at times than any book save the Bible, among not merely
scholars, but statesmen. It is the last legacy of the dying old world to
the young world which was trampling it out of life; and therefore it is
full of sadness. But beneath the sadness there is faith and hope; for
God is just, and virtue must be triumphant and immortal, and the absolute
and only good for man. The whole story is very sad. Dietrich was one of
those great men, who like Henry VIII, Elizabeth, Napoleon, or the late
Czar Nicholas, have lived too long for their own honour. The old heathen
would have attributed his misadventures to a [Greek text], an envy of the
Gods, who will not abide to see men as prosperous as they themselves are.
We may attribute it more simply and more piously to the wear and tear of
frail humanity. For it may be that very few human souls can stand for
many years the strain of a great rule. I do not mean that they break
down from overwork, but that they are pulled out of shape by it; and
that, especially, the will becomes enormously developed at the expense of
the other powers of the soul, till the man becomes, as he grows older,
imperious, careless of, or irritated by counsel, determined to have his
own way because it is his own way. We see the same tendency in all
accustomed for a long while to absolute rule, even in petty matters;--in
the old ship's captain, the old head of a factory, the old master of
hounds; and we do not blame them for it. It is a disease incident to
their calling, as pedantry is to