It is probable that, like most misers, he was always complaining of poverty, and even denied himself necessaries which he could have well afforded. Those who credited these complaints, recorded his poverty and lamented over it with mistaken kindness; while others, who more critically considered his actual means, would better appreciate them and reveal the true state of the case. There is an anecdote recorded of him by his friend and cotemporary, Vasari, which though it may not be wholly true, has probably some foundation. This characteristic anecdote is to the effect, that having received a payment of sixty crowns in copper, he carried it home on foot in sultry weather, and the over-fatigue brought on a fever, of which he died. It is not, as Gibbon has shrewdly remarked, of much importance whether an anecdote of a person is actually true or false; for it almost equally displays the character of the person of whom it is recorded. A tale of liberality is not told of a known miser; nor an instance of penuriousness of a liberal man. An anecdote, to be received, must at least be probable and have an air of verisimilitude. Neither, considering the character of Correggio, is there any such inconsistency in the story as to render it incredible. The objection that sixty crowns in copper would weigh two hundred pounds, and therefore be an impossible weight for a man to carry, is a mere quibble. It only proves that the quantity is exaggerated, and not that the main story is false. The character of VESPASIAN has been painted in the brightest colours. Avarice alone sullied his virtues. This must have been no slight or temporary blot, or his eulogist and client, Tacitus, would not have recorded it. It was too palpable and notorious to be concealed, and the historian found himself, however reluctantly, compelled to confess it. [Illustration: VESPASIAN. (_From a coin in the Museum of Florence._)[42] ] It is not improbable, that he inherited this vice; for his father, having saved money in the business of a collector of the revenue and retired from the office, was unable to resist the love of gain, and subsequently acquired a considerable fortune by lending money at usurious interest. The prudence and sagacity with which the young Vespasian regulated his conduct during the dangerous reigns of the brutal Caligula and Nero, indicates his penetration and sagacity. It must have been by no trifling tact and ingenuity that he escaped death for the heinous offence of appearing inattentive while the Emperor Nero was singing. The same shrewdness and insight into character enabled him while in a private station to redeem his ruined fortune by horse-dealing; a science always notorious for its unscrupulous scheming and dishonest sharp practice; and in which the hawk-nosed Syrian Arabs have ever excelled all other nations.