I Was Never Less Alone Than When

My English Text Is Chaste, And All Licentious Passages Are Left In The Decent Obscurity Of A Learned Language.

When A Public Quarrel Is Envenomed By Private Injuries, A Blow That Is Not Mortal Or Decisive Can Be Productive Only Of A Short Truce, Which Allows The Unsuccessful Combatant To Sharpen His Arms For A New Encounter.

It Was Among The Ruins Of The Capitol That I First Conceived The Idea Of A Work Which Has Amused And Exercised Nearly Twenty Years Of My Life.

Julian Sincerely Abhorred The System Of Oriental Despotism Which Diocletian, Constantine, And The Patient Habits Of Four Score Years, Had Established In The Empire. A Motive Of Superstition Prevented The Execution Of The Design Which Julian Had Frequently Meditated, Of Relieving His Head From The Weight Of A Costly Diadem; But He Absolutely Refused The Title Of Dominus Or Lord, A Word Which Was Grown So Familiar To The Ears Of The Romans, That They No Longer Remembered Its Servile And Humiliating Origin.

The Revolution Of Ages May Bring Round The Same Calamities; But Ages May Revolve Without Producing A Tacitus To Describe Them.