"_Forma mentis æterna._"--TACITUS. There is no doubt that this great Roman Wall, from Tyne to Solway, this mighty relic of a mighty people, gains a wonderful hold on the affections of those who follow its course, stirring the imagination and quickening the pulses in a way that could hardly be expected from a mere crumbling ruin. All who have learnt to know and to love it will admit this; it unites them all in one common bond; though built to place a barrier between the dwellers of the north and the south, certainly nowadays it draws many of them closer together! What is the secret of this attraction? The fact that the Wall is the mightiest antiquity of Britain is not of itself sufficient to account for the glamour it sheds. We must seek a more subtle reason; and the true {2} source of its attraction is that it stands for a great ideal. As we follow it in its unfaltering course from sea to sea, and mark how bravely it has withstood the ravages of time and the hand of the destroyer, it dawns upon us that it stands for something permanent, something eternal, something in the very nature of man which can never die. We see that these stones, of Wall, and Fort, and Castle, are signs of the strength and endurance, the discipline, obedience and devotion to duty of the men who conceived the whole idea, and of the men who carried out the conception. Although it is now definitely ascertained that Hadrian built the Wall, yet we must go back to Agricola for the source of the inspiration. It was he who laid the foundations of a righteous Roman rule in Britain. It was he who saw that the petty chieftains of the southern parts must be educated to sink their differences, and to unite in allegiance to the Roman Empire. It was he who, by his own disinterested and unselfish conduct, gave to the British chiefs an example of public-spirited loyalty to principle which was a thousand times more valuable than precept. And it was he who built the first line of Forts from Tyne to Solway. As I followed the Wall, this was the refrain which repeated itself over and over again in my {3} ears, and echoed in the streets of the deserted forts: these words of Tacitus which form part of the tribute paid by a distinguished son to his distinguished father: "Only the fashion of the soul remains." Yes, the Wall is a ruin; the "defenced cities" have become "heaps"; and the might and glory of Rome have long been laid in the dust; but the great and good qualities of men like Agricola and Hadrian shine down the ages, and remain a source of inspiration and of strength for ever. Agricola was the finer character, and he had the advantage of escaping the temptations which imperial dignities bring; but in Hadrian, also, we see that devotion to a sense of duty, that clear perception of justice, that wisdom in administration, which are of the qualities that endure, and leave their mark on future ages. "Only the fashion of the soul remains."