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pregnable integrity. His heart was not yet debauched, his courage was not yet undermined by the enjoyment of power: he no fooner became a flave to the love of importance, than there feemed to be a lamentable revolution in his character. As his honours increafed, his intrepidity diminished, and confequence and cowardice kept pace with each other. They who were envious of his credit and authority, and they who defired him for a partizan, perceived where he was vulnerable, where he was practicable, and conveyed, through fuch channels as the turbulent times afforded, the bait of preferment, and the poifon of intimidation. A popular tumult was infallible: a cohort of the legionaries under arms could damp and difcomfit the nobleft efforts of his eloquence. He trembled for his palaces and villas; he dreaded the lofs of his levees, of that crowded train of admirers and dependants who, on various occafions, had been indebted to his abilities A foul which feeds upon applaufe foon fickens in retirement: it finds no confolation in that folitary dignity which great minds feel in the consciousness of rectitude. As he advanced in life, he repeatedly facrificed his true honour and fecurity for connections of the worst kind, with ftatesmen of the worst character, and was at once the dupe of their cunning and his own. It was then that his friend Brutus treated him with that haughtiness of which he complains in fome epiftles to Atticus, as being particularly offenfive to a perfon of his age and elevation, from a man fo much his junior. The young Stoic faw into the meanness of his ambition, and boldly and fcornfully rebuked him. Could he have united to his own amiable urbanity fome portion of the proud inflexibility of Cato, who difdained public honours when incompatible with public happiness, the unyielding fpirit of that illuftrious patriot would have corrected the temporizing principles of the orator, and left a fplendid pattern of political perfection in the life of this accomplished Roman.

It is generally fuppofed, that his unhappy end was owing to that eloquence by which he had been exalted. But the true caufe was, that he and Antony could not, confidering their respective views, exift together in the fame community. It was a perfonal conteft for power. The talents, indeed, of Tully, enabled him to make a very memorable attack on his opponent: yet many perifhed in the profcription by the triumvirs, who had never had the crime of eloquence to anfwer for. Certain it is, however, that as long as he confined himself to the path of real patriotifm, he had little to fear from the effects of his afperity: while it was devoted to the purpose of defending the unfortunate, and of "lafhing the hard back of arrogant iniquity," the God who had given it protected him in its exercife.

In his literary character he ftood unrivalled. The fplendour and magnitude of his intellectual powers put him far above the reach of competition. Aftranger to jealoufy (envy is out of the question, for it implies inferiority), he gloried in difplaying the excellencies of others. In his arms unfriended merit of all kinds took shelter : the palace of Cicero was the refuge of the learned from every quarter of the empire. • His

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His invectives against Verres are entitled to public favour for their eloquence and their honefty. One would think that this part of his oratorical works were as worthy of a place in our scholaftic course of learning, as the florid flattery of his orations for Marcellus and Ligarius, of the wicked, or, at leaft, unwife one, for the Manilian law, and the ingenious infincerity of that in behalf of Milo *.

It is not eafy to transfuse into an English verfion the true energy and grandeur of the Roman orator. The grace and harmony of his arrangement are impaired, the fterling value of his diction is but counterfeited. To prefent his meaning is the utmost we can effect; to give his melody were impoffible. If departed fages may be thought to converse in fome celeftial region of felicity, and to be moved with fenfations of pleasure or pain from our treatment of the monuments of their genius here on earth, the illuftrious Antient, whofe orations are before us, might thus, with fome appearance of juftice, complain: "They are enervating the vigour of the Roman ftyle, by the unanimated conftruction of a northern language: to the tame progrefs of British profe is the fpirited movement of my periods moderated. That republican vehemence with which I have agitated the Roman people even to phrenzy, must now be accommodated to the infipid neatnefs of modern eloquence, to the cold and guarded fashions of monarchical refinement.-The disappointed ftudent may well exclaim, Where is the foul of Tully which I fought for?"

The oratory of the antients owed much of its magnificence to a custom which we are indebted to for the rapture we experience, in perufing the immortal volumes which contain it. They condefcended to ftudy and to compofe. Habits of debate and daily exercise may confer that fluency of genteel expreffions, that pleafing flow of words and pretty language, which, accompanied by a readiness at reply, anda familiarity with the local cant of the House of Commons, conftitute, in our days, a Great Speaker. This, perhaps, may prove more ufeful to the several parties which our orators fupport; it may be better adapted to the defultory hoftilities of a Houfe of Parliament, but will never enable our fenators (we are talking of eloquence), without other aids, to reach the fublime excellence and glory of that talent. Few men who defire to improve in public speaking refort to the parliamentary register for affistance. It was the wife and generous wish of the statefmen of Greece and Rome to fecure the double prize of prefent victory and future fame: they harangued at once for the moment, and for posterity †.

That the killing of Clodius (a measure indeed which no good man could lament) was preconcerted between Milo and Cicero, not many days before the fact happened, is proved by an epistle of the latter to Atticus.'

+ Hume, in his Effay on Eloquence, hath handled this point in fo mafterly a manner, that the tranflator forbears to make further remarks, and refers the fludious reader to that excellent performance."

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• The violent and abufive terms which occur in these compofitions may perhaps offend the delicacy of fome. The antients, in waging war with corruption or cruelty, had no idea that the enemy was entitled to good manners. They feldom employed their afperity by halves. Their orators in the forum, like their heroes in the field, confidered them felves as ftruggling in the fervice of the commonwealth, and were prepared and contented to perish in the cause. Confident that, fhould the ftrife prove fatal to themselves, they were to leave to future ages at once a memorial of their own greatnefs, and of the villainy of their adverfary, they pursued him with the moft ardent severity, and (to ufe the words of a celebrated modern) "would have tried the last exertion of their abilities to preferve the perishable infamy of his name, and make it immortal.”

Although Cicero poffeffes the impetuofity of Demofthenes, he hath neither his grand fimplicity nor fublime enthusiasm. He is frequently too fubtle, too artificial in his manner of reasoning: but when he hath teized us for a while with this imperfection, he fuddenly bursts forth with a splendour and majefty which make us ample compenfation. In a free ftate which hath provincial territories, his orations against Verres are well worth the ftudy of the statesman and, the fenator. The political obfervations with which they abound should be attentively confidered by a patriot Englishman. The liberty of Rome was purchased with the pillage of Afia.

If a Roman prætor, whofe province lay within fight of Italy, and whofe crimes, while recent, were within reach of Roman juftice, could, for three years, act the tyrant uncontrollably, how numerous must be the temptations to an European officer for oppreffing the human fpecies beneath the Equinoctial?

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Delinquents may escape by a deficiency of evidence, occafioned by the remoteness of the place which should supply it. Luckily for the Sicilian province, it was fo near to Italy, that Cicero could eafily collect documents and witneffes: the fufferers themselves repaired to Rome, and were confronted with the criminal. Inftances have been known (in ages lefs antient), when offenders of the firft magnitude have returned in peace from the kingdoms they had afflicted, and rioted in the fruits of unpunished rapacity. They fate in fenates; the princes of Europe adorned them with their favour; their degenerate countrymen looked on with unconcern, and, dazzled by their opulence, forgot their barbarities.

Juftice and probity are the main pillars of an empire: remove them, and, be its pride, infatuation, and infolence what they may, the speedy ruin of that empire is inevitable.'

The tranflator hath made fome retrenchments in the second and fourth orations, where the matter was fuch as would have proved more irksome than entertaining to the reader. As aids in illuftrating the following work, the annotations in the valuable edition of Cicero, published for the ufe of the University of Padua, and the famous commentaries of Afconius Pedianus, which, it is to be regretted, go no further than the middle of the third oration, have been Occafionally reforted to."

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To the learned, Mr. White's labours will not appear very important. His notes are few; fome of them are fuperficial'; and many paffages in the text are paffed over without remark or illuftration, though certainly requiring both. On comparing his work with the Latin, he will be found fometimes to degrade, and fometimes to miftake the original. Thus, p. 264, ' I affirm that throughout Sicily, fo rich, fo ancient a province, in fo many cities, fo many affluent families, Verres did not leave a fingle vale of filver, or of Corinthian, or Delian metal; that there was not a fingle precious ftone or pearl, nothing wrought in gold or ivory; not a ftatue of brafs, marble, or ivory; not a fingle piece of painting or of tapeftry, which he did not explore, infpect, and (if it pleafed him) plunder from the poffeffors." Befide the verbofity of this fentence, the three laft words, which are fuperfluous, ferve only to leffen the energy of the whole. How much better is the original; "quin conquifierit, infpexerit; quod placitum fit, abftulerit." Again, p. 266, 'Placed before thefe deities were tables, which any one might have known had been set apart for facred ufes in the oratory.' This is not the meaning of Cicero, "Ante hofce Deos erant arula, que cuivis facrarii religionem fignificare poffent." The little altars attefted the fanctity of the chapel. P. 267, That divine Cupid had no occafion for the habitation of a whore; he could eafily have been content with that ancient oratory built and confecrated by a family which adored him: he knew that he had been handed down from father to fon, and worshipped by the Heji from generation to generation.' His . tranflation is obfcure and innacurate; and the sting or point of the original is entirely loft: "Ad hereditatem facrorum, non quærebat meretricis heredem."

Mr. White indulges himself too often in the ufe of colloquial or vulgar expreffions. The phrafe fenfelefs being, in particular, occurs much too frequently; yet, on the whole, this tranflation has merit, being generally faithful without languor; and in many paffages, efpecially of the fifth and fixth orations, both elegant and animated. As a proof of this aflertion, we fhall infert that noble peroration, which is inferior to nothing in Roman éloquence.

And now, Almighty Jupiter, thine aid I implore against the ruffian who wrefted out of royal hands an offering worthy of thy glorious temple, worthy of the Capitol, and of that fortrefs of the world, an offering worthy of regal munificence, which at the behest of kings was fashioned for thine honour, which was vowed and confecrated by kings to thy divinity; that impious wretch, who from thine altar at Syracufe tore away the hallowed and beauteous image of thy godhead: thee, Juno, queen of Heaven, whofe most holy and ancient fanes at Samos and at Malta he ftripped of every ornament, with equal profanation: thee too, Minerva, whofe renowned and fanctified abode at Athens he pillaged of yaft treasures of devoted gold,

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and whofe Syracufan temple now exhibits little elfe than naked roofs and plundered walls: thee too, Latona, thee Apollo, thee Diana, I implore, whofe temple, nay, whofe ancient and divine domicil at Delos he defpoiled, when invading at dead of night that awful habitation: thee alfo, Apollo, whose statue at Chios fell a prey to his rapacity; and on thee, O Diana, again and again I call, whofe holy fane at Perga was violated by the miscreant, whofe celeftial effigies he feized at Segefta, an image which had twice been dedicated in that city, first by its pious citizens, and a fecond time by Scipio Africanus on his victory: and thee, Mercury, erected by Scipio in the gymnafium at Tyndarus, as a guardian god to the young men of that community, but lately fent by Verres to the palæftra of fome villa: thee, Hercules, whom this facrilegious robber at midnight attempted, with an armed band of flaves, to ravish from the citizens of Agrigentum: thee, moft holy Mother of the Gods, in whofe auguft and awful temple at Enguini the profligate left nothing but the name of Scipio, and the veftiges of violated worship: you, Pollux and Caftor, who from that fane which adorns the Roman forum are perpetual witnesses of our political proceedings, of the most important counfels of our Senate, of the legislation of the people, of the diftribution of equity in all our tribunals, aid me against him who converted your hallowed manfion into a fcene of extortion and unparalleled iniquity and you, celeftials, who, at the celebration of the annual games, `are drawn in folemn ftate through ways defigned for that illuftrious ceremony, in the fuperintendance of which facred works this rapacious criminal confulted his cupidity, and wronged religion of the fplendour which is due to it: thee Ceres, thee Proferpine, whofe holy rites contain the grandeft and moft fecret myfteries of human worship, to whom we owe the fuftenance and regulation of life, by whom the first example of laws and manners, of mildness and civilization were fet forth and diffeminated among the fons of men; whofe religious folemnities, received from the Greeks and cherished in this country, are held by the Roman people in fuch exalted estimation, that, far from feeming to be adopted from other nations, they appear amongst us as if in their original and native refidence; you, who have fuffered from the hands of Verres fuch pollution and violation, when he dared to carry off, from the oratory at Catina, an image of Ceres, which the laws interdicted any, but the female fex, not only to touch, but even to look upon, with that other from the fhrine and temple at Enna, which in its workmanship was fo divinely fair, that beholders thought it to be either Ceres herself, or her effigies formed by fome hand in Heaven, and conveyed to earth for human adoration; you, moft holy goddeffes, again and again I implore and appeal to, who inhabit the lakes and groves of Enna, who prefide over all Sicily, which hath appointed me its advocate, by whom tillage was invented, and the bleffings of it fpread through every region of the globe, and whofe divinity is worshipped in every clime and nation: and I fupplicate and befeech all other heavenly powers with whofe temples and rites the mifcreant, by unutterable outrage and audacity, hath waged an inceffant and facrilegious war, that if in this impeachment my cares and counfels have been uniformly directed to the falvation of our allies, to the dignity of the Roman people, to my own integrity Ff4

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