sent. As to the name of a farmer of the revenue, the Greeks ought not to hold it in such contempt, because, without their assistance, they could not have paid the tax indiscriminately imposed upon them by Sylla. Now that the Greeks are fully as severe as our farmers are, in the collection of the public revenue, may be concluded from this, that the Caunians1 some time ago, who inhabit the islands that were annexed by Sylla to the division of Rhodes, petitioned the senate that they might pay their taxes to us, rather than to the Rhodians. They therefore who always have been taxed, ought not to hold the name of a tax-gatherer with horror, nor ought they to despise him, without whom they can not pay their taxes; nor ought they who have petitioned for him to reject him. The Asiatics ought at the same time to reflect, that were they not under our government, no calamity of foreign war and domestic discussion would ever have been absent from them. And since this government can not be supported without taxes, they ought cheerfully to purchase for themselves, with some part of their incomes, an uninterrupted peace and tranquillity. When once they come to endure with patience the profession and name of a farmer of the revenue, your prudent measures and conduct will be able to make other annoyances seem lighter to them. They will come, not to reflect so much in making their compositions upon the Censorian Law, but rather upon the advantage of settling the business, and upon their freedom from molestation. You can likewise continue what you have always so admirably done, to put them in mind how much dignity there is in the office of a farmer of the revenue, and how much we owe to that order. So that, apart from force and the influence of authority, and of the fasces, you will bring the publicans into favor and credit with the Greeks. may even entreat those whom you have so highly obliged, and who owe their all to you, that by their compliance they will suffer us to cherish and continue those intimate connections that subsist between us and the farmers of the

revenue.

You

But why do I exhort you to those measures which you are not only able to do of your own accord without the in

'The Caunians were subjects of the government of Quintus, inhabiting part of Caria in Asia Minor.

structions of any one, but which in a great degree you already have happily executed. For the most honorable and considerable bodies of our empire never cease to pay me their daily thanks, which are the more agreeable, because the Greeks do the same. Now it is a matter of great difficulty to bring together in good will those whose interests, whose advantages, and whose natures, I had almost said, are repugnant. But what I have here written, I have written not for your instruction (for wisdom such as yours stands in need of no man's instructions), but the recording of your merits delights me as I write. In this letter, however, I have been longer than I intended or supposed that I

should be.

There is one thing which I shall not cease to recommend to you, for so far as in me lies I will not suffer an exception to your praises. All who come from that region, while they praise your virtue, your integrity, and your humanity, even in their highest commendations make one exception, your anger; a vice, which in private and every day life seems to be the defect of an inconstant and weak mind; but when a passionate behavior is joined to sovereign power, nothing can be more monstrous.' I shall not, however, endeavor to

1 "Anger is so uneasy a guest in the heart, that he may be said to be born unhappy who is of a rough and choleric disposition. The moralists have defined it to be a desire of revenge for some injury offered. Men of hot and heady tempers are eagerly desirous of vengeance, the very moment they apprehend themselves injured; whereas the cool and sedate watch proper opportunities to return grief for grief to their enemies. By this means it often happens that the choleric inflicts disproportionato punishments upon slight and sometimes imaginary offenses, but the temperately revengeful, have leisure to weigh the merits of the case, and thereby either to smother their secret resentments or to seek proper and adequate reparations for the damages they have sustained. Weak minds are apt to speak well of the man of fury, because when the storm is over he is full of sorrow and repentance, but the truth is, he is apt to commit such ravages during his madness, that when he comes to himself, he becomes tame, then for the same reason that he ran wild before, 'only to give himself ease,' and is a friend only to himself in both extremities. Men of this unhappy make, more frequently than any others, expect that their friends should bear with their infirmities. Their friends should in return desire them to correct their infirmities. The common excuses that they can not help it, that it was soon over, that they harbor no malice in their hearts, are arguments for pardoning a bull or a mastiff, but shall never reconcile me to an intellectual savage. Why indeed should any one imagine, that persons independent upon him should

give you the sentiments of the best instructed men, concerning the passion of anger, both because I am unwilling that this letter should be too long, and because you can easily learn them from the writings of many men. Still I do not think that one thing which is proper to a letter should be neglected, namely, that he to whom we write should be made acquainted with those things of which he is ignorant. Now I am told almost by every body, that when you are free from anger, nothing can be more agreeable than you are; but when the impudence or perverseness of another has excited you, you are under such violent agitations that your kindly disposition is sought for in vain.

As, therefore, a certain desire of glory as well as interest, and fortune, have concurred to lead us into that walk of life, by which we become the perpetual subject of conversation among mankind, we ought to do and to strive all we can that no conspicuous vice may be said to attach to us.1 I do venture into his society who hath not yet so far subdued his boiling blood, but that he is ready to do some thing the next minute which ho can never repair, and hath nothing to plead in his own behalf but that he is apt to do mischief as fast as he can! Such a man may be feared, he may be pitied, but he can not be loved."-Dr. Johnson, Rambler, No. 129.

1 66 'It is methinks an unreasonable thing, that heroic virtue should, as it seems to be at present, be confined to a certain order of men and bo attainable by none but those whom fortune has elevated to the most conspicuous stations. I would have every thing to be esteemed as heroic which is great and uncommon in the circumstances of the man who performs it. Thus there would be no virtue in human life, which every one of the species would not have a pretense to arrive at, and an ardency to exert. Since fortune is not in our power, let us be as little as possible in hers. Why should it be necessary that a man should be rich to be generous? If we measured by the quality and not the quantity of things, the particulars which accompany an action is what should denominate it mean or great.

"The highest station of human life is to be attained by each man that pretends to it; for every man can be as valiant, as generous, as wise, and as merciful, as the faculties and opportunities which he has from Heaven and fortune will permit. He that can say to himself, I do as much good, and am as virtuous as my most earnest endeavors will allow me, whatever is his station in the world, is to himself possessed of the highest honor.

"If ambition is not thus turned, it is no other than a continual succession of anxiety and vexation. But when it has this cast, it invigorates the mind and the consciousness of its own worth is a reward, which it is not in the power of envy, reproach, or detraction, to take from it.

not now insist on this consideration, that in human nature at large, and especially at our time of life, it is very difficult for a man to alter his disposition, or suddenly to pluck out a failing that has settled into a habit. But my advice to you is this, if you can not altogether avoid this, but passion takes possession of your mind before reason can take precautions that it should not invade it, you should undergo a course of preparation, and be every day meditating that resistance inust be offered to anger, and the more violently it affects the mind, the more diligently must you restrain your tongue; which merit sometimes appears to me not less than that of never being angry at all; because the latter virtue is not solely the proof of self-respect, but sometimes of a lethargic temperament. But when you are touched with anger, to control both your temper and your language, even to hold your peace, and to keep under command all excitement and irritation of mind; these are the properties, if not of consummate wisdom, yet of extraordinaay understanding.

They say that in this respect you are become much more pliable and gentle. None of your violent emotions of passion are stated to me; none of your imprecating expressions, and opprobrious behavior, all which are as repugnant to authority and dignity as they are reproachful to learning and good breeding. For if angry passions are implacable, the utmost cruelty is involved, and if placable,' an excess of weakness; which, however, as a comparison of evils, is preferable to the cruelty.

Thus the seat of solid honor is in a man's own bosom, and no one can want support who is in possession of an honest conscience, but he who would suffer the reproaches of it for other greatness."-The Tatler, No. 202.

1 "Another form of a passionate disposition arising indeed from the same cause, is that which involves the next error which I have stated with respect to resentment-the disproportion of the anger and the offense. He who does not pause even to weigh the circumstances, can not be supposed to pause to measure the extent of injury. He feels that he is injured, and all his anger bursts out instantly on the offender. It is this disproportion, indeed, which is the chief evil of what is commonly termed passion. Some cause of slight displeasure there may be even where anger in its violence would be immoral and absurd. Yet such is the infirmity of our nature, that it is often no slight triumph over our weakness to forgive a trifle with as much magnanimity as that with which we have forgiven greater injuries."-Dr. Brown's Moral Philosophy, Lect. 63.

That the first year of your government gave rise to a great deal of talk upon this subject might be owing to your unexpectedly encountering that injustice, avarice, and insolence of individuals, which seemed intolerable. The second year, however, was more gentle; because both habit and reason, and, if I mistake not, my letters rendered you more mild and patient. Now your third year ought to admit of such amendment, as that no person may be able to utter the slightest reproach.

And on this subject I address you in the terms neither of exhortation nor precept, but of brotherly entreaty, that you employ your whole abilities, care, and concern, in accumulating praise from all quarters.' If our situation were one of mediocrity as to public conversation and discourse, nothing pre-eminent would be required of you, nothing beyond the ordinary conduct of others. But by reason of the splendor and magnitude of the concerns in which we are engaged, unless we derive the highest glory from these functions, we seem scarcely capable of avoiding the deepest condemnation. We are so situated, that while all good men are our friends, they also require and expect from us, all application and virtue; in the mean while, all the reprobate part of mankind, because with them we have declared eternal war, seem to be satisfied with the slightest ground for condemning us.

Wherefore, since such a theater as Asia has been assigned you for the display of your virtues, a theater most celebrated by fame, most ample in extent, most distinguished by discernment, but naturally so noisy that its expressions and intimations reach even to Rome, I pray you to strive and labor to appear, not only adequate to these conditions, but by your merits to have surpassed them all; and as fortune has fixed my share of the public administration in Rome, and

1 "Make not the consequence of virtue the ends thereof. Be not beneficent for a name or cymbal of applause, nor exact and just in commerce for the advantages of trust and credit, which attend the reputation of true and punctual dealing. For these rewards, though unsought for, plain virtue will bring with her. To have other objects in good actions sours laudable performances, which must have deeper roots, motives, and instigations, to give them the stamp of virtues."-Sir Thomas Browne's Christian Morals, Book i. chap. 10.