Truth, naked, unblushing truth, the first virtue of all serious history, must be the sole recommendation of this personal narrative.

The gravest of the ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius himself, indirectly confesses that he has related whatever might redound to the glory, and that he has suppressed all that could tend to the disgrace, of religion.

The monastic studies have tended, for the most part, to darken, rather than to dispel, the cloud of superstition.

The difference of language, dress, and manners . . . severs and alienates the nations of the globe.

But the severe rules of discipline which the prudence of the bishops had instituted were relaxed by the same prudence in favour of an Imperial proselyte, whom it was so important to allure, by every gentle condescension, into the pale of the church; and Constantine was permitted, at least by a tacit dispensation, to enjoy most of the privileges, before he had contracted any of the obligations, of a Christian.

An absolute monarch, who is rich without patrimony, may be charitable without merit; and Constantine too easily believed that he should purchase the favour of Heaven if he maintained the idle at the expense of the industrious, and distributed among the saints the wealth of the republic.

The courage of a soldier is found to be the cheapest and most common quality of human nature.