About this time the emperor Hadrian, visiting this island, erected a Wall, justly wonderful, and left Julius Severus his deputy in Britain.... Virius Lupus did not perform many splendid actions, for his glory was intercepted by the unconquerable Severus, who, having rapidly put the enemy to flight, _repaired the Wall of Hadrian_, now become ruinous, and restored it to its former perfection. Had he lived, he intended to extirpate the very name of the barbarians. The supposition that Hadrian built the Wall is consistent with the accounts which historians give us of his attachment to architectural undertakings. One writer, of great research, says of him— [Sidenote: HADRIAN A GREAT BUILDER.] No prince, perhaps, ever raised so many public and private edifices as Hadrian. In every city of note, throughout the empire, some erection perpetuated his memory: bridges, aqueducts, temples, and palaces, rose on every hand. Many cities, likewise, were either wholly built or repaired by him. _Building seems, indeed, to have been a main feature in his system of government._ He was the first who appointed that each cohort should have its quota of masons, architects, and all kinds of workmen needed for the erection and adornment of public edifices.—_Hist. Rome_, _Tract Soc. London 277_. It is perhaps needless to pursue the subject further. More might easily be said; but I was unwilling, on a point of so much importance, to say less. The reader will not fail to perceive what an impressive view the works of the mural barrier, considered as one vast scheme, and not as a series of after-thoughts, give of the mighty conceptions and energies of imperial Rome. In taking leave of those renowned men, Hadrian and Severus, it may be allowable to advert to the testimony which, before departing this life, they are said to have given as to the vanity of all earthly things. Hadrian, who used to say, that an emperor should be like the sun, visiting all the regions of the earth, found himself then, in darkness. His knowledge of the Eleusinian mysteries gave him no peace; he addressed his soul in these words:— Animula, vagula, blandula Hospes, comesque corporis Quæ nunc abibis in loca Pallidula, rigida, nudula? Nec ut soles dabis joca. These lines are thus happily imitated by Prior— Poor, little, pretty, fluttering thing, Must we no longer live together? And dost thou prune thy trembling wing, To take thy flight thou know’st not whither? Thy humorous vein, thy pleasing folly, Lies all neglected, all forgot; And, pensive, wavering, melancholy, Thou dread’st and hop’st thou know’st not what. [Sidenote: DEATH OF HADRIAN AND SEVERUS.]