has promised the kingdom
of heaven to the poor; and they will advance with more diligence in the
paths of virtue and salvation, when they are relieved by my assistance
from the load of temporal possessions. Take care," pursued the monarch,
in a more serious tone, "take care how you provoke my patience and
humanity. If these disorders continue, I will revenge on the magistrates
the crimes of the people; and you will have reason to dread, not
only confiscation and exile, but fire and the sword." The tumults of
Alexandria were doubtless of a more bloody and dangerous nature: but a
Christian bishop had fallen by the hands of the Pagans; and the public
epistle of Julian affords a very lively proof of the partial spirit of
his administration. His reproaches to the citizens of Alexandria are
mingled with expressions of esteem and tenderness; and he laments, that,
on this occasion, they should have departed from the gentle and generous
manners which attested their Grecian extraction. He gravely censures
the offence which they had committed against the laws of justice
and humanity; but he recapitulates, with visible complacency, the
intolerable provocations which they had so long endured from the impious
tyranny of George of Cappadocia. Julian admits the principle, that
a wise and vigorous government should chastise the insolence of the
people; yet, in consideration of their founder Alexander, and of Serapis
their tutelar deity, he grants a free and gracious pardon to the guilty
city, for which he again feels the affection of a brother. [128]

[Footnote 127: Julian. Epist. xliii.]

[Footnote 128: Julian. Epist. x. He allowed his friends to assuage his
anger Ammian. xxii. 11.]

After the tumult of Alexandria had subsided, Athanasius, amidst the
public acclamations, seated himself on the throne from whence his
unworthy competitor had been precipitated: and as the zeal of the
archbishop was tempered with discretion, the exercise of his authority
tended not to inflame, but to reconcile, the minds of the people. His
pastoral labors were not confined to the narrow limits of Egypt. The
state of the Christian world was present to his active and capacious
mind; and the age, the merit, the reputation of Athanasius, enabled him
to assume, in a moment of danger, the office of Ecclesiastical Dictator.
[129] Three years were not yet elapsed since the majority of the bishops
of the West had ignorantly, or reluctantly, subscribed the Confessi