s
himself, was obliged to trundle off in the dusk. Tarquinius might be a very
superb fellow; but we doubt whether he ever saw a farthing rushlight. And,
though it may be thought that plots and conspiracies would flourish in
such a city of darkness, it is to be considered, that the conspirators
themselves had no more candles than honest men: both parties were in the
dark.

Being up then, and stirring not long after the lark, what mischief did the
Roman go about first? Now-a-days, he would have taken a pipe or a cigar.
But, alas for the ignorance of the poor heathen creatures! they had neither
one nor the other. In this point, we must tax our mother earth with
being really _too_ stingy. In the case of the candles, we approve of her
parsimony. Much mischief is brewed by candle-light. But, it was coming it
too strong to allow no tobacco. Many a wild fellow in Rome, your Gracchi,
Syllas, Catilines, would not have played "h---- and Tommy" in the way they
did, if they could have soothed their angry stomachs with a cigar--a pipe
has intercepted many an evil scheme. But the thing is past helping now. At
Rome, you must do as "they does" at Rome. So, after shaving, (supposing the
age of the _Barbati_ to be passed), what is the first business that our
Roman will undertake? Forty to one he is a poor man, born to look upwards
to his fellow-men--and not to look down upon anybody but slaves. He goes,
therefore, to the palace of some grandee, some top-sawyer of the Senatorian
order. This great man, for all his greatness, has turned out even sooner
than himself. For he also has had no candles and no cigars; and he well
knows, that before the sun looks into his portals, all his halls will be
overflowing and buzzing with the matin susurrus of courtiers--the "mane
salutantes."[4] it is as much as his popularity is worth to absent himself,
or to keep people waiting. But surely, the reader may think, this poor man
he might keep waiting. No, he might not; for, though poor, being a citizen,
he is a gentleman. That was the consequence of keeping slaves. Wherever
there is a class of slaves, he that enjoys the _jus suffragii_ (no
matter how poor) is a gentleman. The true Latin word for a gentleman is
_ingentius_--a freeman and the son of a freeman.

Yet even here there _were_ distinctions. Under the Emperors, the courtiers
were divided into two classes: with respect to the superior class, it was
said of the sovereign--that he _saw_ them, (_videbat