] and driven every laudable
science into exile, that nought which was worthy and honest might anywhere
be seen. Mighty surely was the testimony which we gave of our patience;
and as our forefathers had beheld the ultimate consummation of liberty, so
did we of bondage, since through dread of informers and inquisitions of
State, we were bereft of the common intercourse of speech and attention.
Nay, with our utterance we had likewise lost our memory; had it been
equally in our power to forget, as to be silent.
Now indeed at length our spirit returns. Yet, though from the first dawn
of this very happy age begun by the reign of Nerva, he blended together
two things once found irreconcilable, public liberty and sovereign power;
and though Trajan his adopted successor be daily augmenting the felicity
of the State; insomuch that for the general security not only hopes and
vows are conceived, but even firm assurance follows these vows, and their
full accomplishment is seen; such however is the frailty of man and its
effects, that much more slow is the progress of the remedies than of the
evils; and as human bodies attain their growth by tedious degrees, and are
subject to be destroyed in an instant, so it is much easier to suppress
than to revive the efforts of genius and study.
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