CHAPTER 4.III.The Actor Unmasked.
"In intoxication," says the proverb, "men betray their real characters." There is a no less honest and truth-revealing intoxication in prosperity, than in wine.

The varnish of power brings forth at once the defects and the beauties of the human portrait.
The unprecedented and almost miraculous rise of Rienzi from the rank of the Pontiff's official to the Lord of Rome, would have been accompanied with a yet greater miracle, if it had not somewhat dazzled and seduced the object it elevated.

When, as in well-ordered states and tranquil times, men rise slowly, step by step, they accustom themselves to their growing fortunes.

But the leap of an hour from a citizen to a prince--from the victim of oppression to the dispenser of justice--is a transition so sudden as to render dizzy the most sober brain.

And, perhaps, in proportion to the imagination, the enthusiasm, the genius of the man, will the suddenness be dangerous--excite too extravagant a hope--and lead to too chimerical an ambition.