of the weak though faithful guide of his youth.

would kindly ease me of the trouble of my unwieldy wealth. I beseech him to restore to the imperial treasury, from whence it came, what is to me fuperfluous and cumbrous. The time and the attention, which I am now obliged to bestow upon my villa and my gardens, I shall be glad to apply to the regulation of my mind. Cæfar is in the flower of life; long may he be equal to the toils of government! His goodness will grant to his worn-out servant leave to retire. It will not be derogatory from Cæfar's greatness to have it said, that he bestowed favours on fome, who, fo far from being intoxicated with them, shewedthat they could be happy, when (at their own request) divested of them.

It is now a great many years since I first had the honour of attending your imperial majesty as preceptor. And your bounty has rewarded my labours with fuch affluence, as has drawn upon me, what I had reason to expect, the envy of many of those perfons, who are always ready to prescribe to their prince where to beltow, and where to withhold his favours. It is well known, that your illustrious anceftor, Auguftus, bestowed on his deserving favourites, Agrippa and Mæcenas, honours and emoluments, fuitable to the dignity of the benefactor, and to the services of the receivers: nor has his conduct been blamed. My employment about your imperial majefty has, indeed, been purely domeftic: I have neither headed your § 21. Speech of CHARIDEMUS, an A armies, nor afifted at your councils. But you know, Sir, (though there are some who do not seem to attend to it) that a prince may be served in different ways, some more, others less conspicuous: and that the latter may be to him as valuable as the

former.

"But what!" say my enemies, " shall " a private person, of equestrian rank, " and a provincial by birth, be advanced "to an equality with the patricians? Shall " an upflart, of no name nor family, rank " with those who can, by the statues which " make the ornament of their palaces, " reckon backward a line of ancestors, long enough to tire out the fasti? Shall " a philosopher who has written for others

precepts of moderation, and contempt " of all that is external, himseif live in "affluence and luxury? Shall he purchase "eftates and lay out money at interest? " Shall he build palaces, plant gardens, " and adorn a country at his own expence, "and for his own pleasure ??

Cæfar has given royally, as became imperial magnificence. Seneca has received what his prince bestowed; nor did he ever afk: he is only guilty of-not refufing, Cæfar's rank places him above the reach of invidious malignity. Seneca is not, nor can be, high enough to despise the envious. As the overloaded foldier, or traveller, would be glad to be relieved of his burden, so I, in this last stage of the journey of life, now that I find myself unequal to the lighteft cares, beg, that Cæfar

* The fasti, or calendars, or, if you please, almanacks, of the ancients, had, as our almanacks,

Corn. Tacit.

THENIAN Exile, at the Court of DA RIUS, on being asked his Opinion of the warlike Preparations making by that Prince against ALEXANDER.

Perhaps your Majesty may not bear the truth from the mouth of a Grecian, and an exile: and if I do not declare it now, I never will, perhaps I may never have another opportunity. - Your Majesty's numerous army, drawn from various nations, and which unpeoples the east, may seem formidable to the neighbouring countries. The gold, the purple, and the splendour of arms, which strike the eyes of beholders, make a show which furpasses the imagination of all who have not seen it, The Macedonian army, with which your Majesty's forces are going to contend, is, on the contrary, grim, and horrid of afpect, and clad in iron. The irrefißible phalanx is a body of men who, in the field of battle, fear no onfet, being practised to hold together, man to man, shield to shield, and spear to spear; so that a brazen wall might as foon be broke through. In advancing, in wheeling to right or left, in attacking, in every exercife of arms, they act as one man. They answer the flightest sign from the commander, as if his foul animated the whole army. Every foldier has a knowledge of war fufficient for a general. And this discipline, by which the Macedonian army is become so formidable, was first established, and has been all along kept up, by a fixed contempt of what your Majetty's troops are so vain of, I mean gold and filver. The bare earth serves them for beds, Whatever will fatisfy nature,

is their luxury. Their repose is always shorter than the night. Your Majesty may, therefore, judge, whether the Theffalian, Acarnanian and Ætolian cavalry, and the Macedonian phalanx-an army that has, in spite of all oppofition, overrun half the world are to be repelled by a multitude (however numerous) armed with flings, and stakes hardened at the points by fire. To be upon equal terms with Alexander, your Majesty ought to have an army composed of the same sort of troops: and they are no where to be had, but in the same countries which produced those conquerors of the world. It is therefore my opinion, that, if your Majefty were to apply the gold and filver, which now so superfluously adorns your men, to the purpose of hiring an army from Greece, to contend with Greeks, you might have some chance for success; otherwife I fee no reason to expect any thing elfe, than that your army should be defeated, as all the others have been who have encountered the irrefistible Macedonians. 2. Curtius.

his friends, he should draw praises from the same fountain from which he had been aspersed. His capital passions were ambition, and love of pleasure; which he indulged in their turns to the greatest excess; yet the first was always predominant; to which he could easily sacrifice all the charms of the second, and draw pleasure even from toils and dangers, when they ministered to his glory. For he thought Tyranny, as Cicero says, the greatest of goddesses; and had frequently in his mouth a verse of Euripides, which expressed the image of his soul, that if right and justice were ever to be violated, they were to be violated for the sake of reigning. This was the chief end and purpose of his life; the scheme that he had formed from his early youth; so that, as Cato truly declared of him, he came with fobriety and meditation to the fubversion of the republic. He used to say, that there were two things necessary, to acquire and to fupport power-foldiers and money; which yet depended mutually upon each other; with money therefore he provided foldiers, and with foldiers extorted money; and was, of all men, the most rapacious in plundering both friends and foes; sparing neither prince, nor state, nor temple, nor even private persons, who were known to possess any share of treasure. His great abilities would necessarily have made him one of the first citizens of Rome; but, difdaining the condition of a fubject, he could never rest, till he made himself a monarch. In acting this last part, his usual prudence seemed to fail him; as if the height to which he was mounted had turned his head, and made him giddy: for, by a vain oftentation of his power, he deftroyed the stability of it: and as men shorten life by living too fast, so by an intemperance of reigning, he brought his reign to a violent end. Middleton.

22. The Character of JULIUS CESAR. Cæfar was endowed with every great and noble quality, that could exalt human nature, and give a man the ascendant in fociety; formed to excel in peace, as well 25 war; provident in council; fearless in action; and executing what he had refolved with an amazing celerity: generous beyond measure to his friends; placable to his enemies; and for parts, learning, eloquence, scarce inferior to any man. His orations were admired for two qualities, which are seldom found together, strength and elegance; Cicero ranks him among the greatest orators that Rome ever bred; and Quinctilian says, that he spoke with the same force with which he fought; and if he had devoted himself to the bar, would have been the only man capable of rivalling Cicero. Nor was he § 23. CALISTHENES's Reproof of CLEa mafter only of the politer arts; but converfant alfo with the most abstruse and critical parts of learning; and, among other works which he published, addressed two books to Cicero, on the analogy of language, or the art of speaking and writing correctly. He was a most liberal patron of wit and learning, wheresoever they were found; and out of his love of those talents, would readily pardon those who had employed them against himself; rightly judging, that by making fuch men

ON's Flattery to ALEXANDER, on whom he had proposed to confer Divinity by

Vote.

If the king were present, Cleon, there would be no need of my answering to what you have just proposed: he would himself reprove you for endeavouring to draw him into an imitation of foreign absurdities, and for bringing envy upon him by such, unmanly flattery. As he is absent, I take upon me to tell you, in his name, that no praise

not extenuated, wherein he was worthy; nor his offences inforced, for which he fuffered death.

Here comes his body, mourned by Mark Antony; who, though he had no hand in his death, shall receive the benefit of his dying, a place in the common-wealth; as, which of you shall not? With this I depart -That, as I flew my best lover for the good of Rome, I have the fame dagger for myself, when it shall please my country to need my death. Shakespeare.

26. A Comparison of CESAR with CATO. As to their extraction, years, and eloquence, they were pretty nigh equal. Both of them had the fame greatness of mind, both the same degree of glory, but in different ways: Cæfar was celebrated for his great bounty and generosity; Cato for his unfullied integrity: the former became renowned by his humanity and compassion; an auftere severity heightened the dignity of the latter. Cæfar acquired glory by a liberal, compaffionate, and forgiving temper; as did Cato, by never bestowing any thing. In the one, the miferable found a fanctuary, in the other, the guilty met with a certain destruction. Cæfar was admired for an eafy yielding temper; Cato for his immoveable firmness; Cæfar, in a word, had formed himself for a laborious active life; was intent upon promoting the interest of his friends, to the neglect of his own; and refused to grant nothing that was worth accepting; what he defired for him felf, was to have fovereign command, to be at the head of armies, and engaged in new wars, in order to display his military talents. As for Cato, his only study was moderation, regular conduct, and, above all, rigorous severity: he did not vie with the rich in riches, nor in faction with the factious; but, taking a nobler aim, he contended in bravery with the brave, in modelty with the modest, in integrity with the upright; and was more defirous to be virtuous, than appear fo: so that the less he courted fame, the more it followed him. Sallust, by Mr. Rofe.

$27. CAIUS MARIUS to the ROMANS, bewing the Abfurdity of their hesitating to confer on him the Rank of General, merely on Account of his Extraction.

It is but too common, my countrymen, to observe a material difference between the behaviour of those who stand candidates for places of power and trust, before and

after their obtaining them. They folicit them in one manner, and execute them in another. They set out with a great appearance of activity, humility, and moderation; and they quickly fall into floth, pride, and avarice. It is, undoubtedly, no easy matter to discharge, to the general fatiffaction, the duty of a fupreme commander, in troublesome times. I am, I hope, duly sensible of the importance of the office I propose to take upon me for the fervice of my country. To carry on, with effect, an expensive war, and yet be frugal of the public money; to oblige those to serve, whom it may be delicate to offend; to conduct, at the fame time, a complicated variety of operations; to concert measures at home, answerable to the state of things abroad; and to gain every valuable end, in spite of oppofition from the envious, the factious, and the disaffected to do all this, my countrymen, is more difficult than is generally thought.

But befides the disadvantages which are common to me with all others in eminent stations, my case is, in this respect, peculiarly hard-that whereas a commander of Patrician rank, if he is guilty of a neglect or breach of duty, has his great connections, the antiquity of his family, the important services of his ancestors, and the multitudes he has, by power, engaged in his interest, to screen him from condign punishment, my whole safety depends upon myself; which renders it the more indispensably necessary for me to take care that my conduct be clear and unexceptionable. Besides, I am well aware, my countrymen, that the eye of the public is upon me; and that, though the impartial, who prefer the real advantage of the commonwealth to all other confiderations, favour my pretenfions, the Patricians want nothing fo much as an occafion against me. It is, therefore, my fixed resolution, to use my best endeavours, that you be not difappointed in me, and that their indirect designs against me may be defeated.

I have, from my youth, been familiar with toils and with dangers. I was faithful to your interest, my countrymen, when I ferved you for no reward, but that of honour. It is not my design to betray you, now that you have conferred upon me a place of profit. You have committed to my conduct the war against Jugurtha. The Patricians are offended at this. But where would be the wisdom of giving fuch a command to one of their honourable body?