Excerpt from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 5 The remarkable alteration of his chara ler or condu t, may not be imputed to the arts of flat tery, which had befieged the (on of Valentinian from his infancy; nor to the headfirong paflions which that gentle youth appears to have ef caped. A more attentive view of the life of Gratian, may perhaps fuggefi. The true caufe of the difappointment' of the public hopes. His apparent virtues, infiead of being the produ lions of experience and adverfity, were the premature and artificial fruits of a royal edu cation. The anxious tendernefs of his father was continually employed to beflow on him thofe advantages, which he might perhapsei'teem the more highly, as he himfelf had been de prive'd of them; and the molt ikilful mailers of every fcience, and of every art, had laboured to form the mind and body of the young prince( r). About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.