Of C. Licinius Stolo and L. Sextius, to whom Rome owed her regeneration, we know scarcely any thing more than their names, and, very imperfectly, the substance of their laws. But the greatness and boldness of the plan of their legislation, their unwearied perseverance, the calmness, with which they allowed their work to proceed to its completion, while they confined themselves strictly to the paths permitted by the law, so that neither they nor the commonalty are charged with the slightest act of violence, although the annals continued for a long time afterwards to be written exclusively by the hostile party:—all this gives us the means of judging of their spirit and of their character. A revolution, which in the Greek republics or at Florence would have commenced with violence, have succeeded or failed within a few months, and been sealed with banishment and blood, was developt at Rome during five years of incessant and manly struggle, without disturbing the peace of a single citizen.

It is a piece of malice, as common as it is hateful, in the enemies of the memory of great men and of great deeds, to trace such deeds to low motives, as opposite as possible to the loftiness of their real aims; as indeed down to this day, in spite of the most convincing arguments to the contrary, it is asserted that Luther was urged to the reformation by the envy of his brother monks, by the Dominicans, and by the desire of marrying his nun.