vantage over the young, - that he has what the other covets. For the young desire to live long, but the old have done so. . . . I will not, therefore, mourn for life, as many even of the wise have done. Nor will I lament that I was born, for I think I have so lived as not to have been born in vain, and I depart out of life as from an inn, not from my home. For it is a halting-place, not a dwelling-place, that nature affords us here. O glorious day, when I shall say farewell to this mixed crowd and come to the great council and assembly yonder!

The man who could write thus, even though capable in sudden passion of cursing Cæsar in his grave, was in no deep sense of the word embittered by life. What is the Amicitia but a deliberate and splendid tribute, where personal emotion continually burns through the stately phrases attributed to a Fannius or a Scævola, to the faithful devotion of Atticus? 'Friendship, united with kindness and charity," - in this consists the consummation of all things human and divine. It is the best gift of the immortals to men. I know not even if we should except wisdom.

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That life is not life, as Ennius says, which rests not on mutual affection. What can be sweeter than to have one with whom you dare say all, as to your very self? What would be the worth of prosperity without a friend to share it? And hard indeed would it be to endure adversity, were there no one to feel it on your behalf yet more keenly than you feel it on your own."

In the playful tenderness of the messages which he sends to the family of Atticus at this time, and the zeal with which he labors to have the property of his friend in Epirus protected from the lawlessness of Antony's soldiery, Cicero surpasses himself. He is naturally rather skeptical when he first hears that his nephew Quintus, after winning for himself in the early spring the appellation of "Antony's right hand," has suffered

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a conversion to republicanism. Since the tardy divorce of the elder Quintus from Pomponia, the father and son had been living together at Rome; and the former now offers earnest pledges of fidelity to the party of his brother, while the latter, as Cicero dryly remarks to Atticus, "proposes to be a perfect Cato. . . . Heaven send he may; it would be good news for all of us; but — I will say no more." A little later, however, we find the young man received at Pozzuoli by his facile " uncle; and however free from the bitterness of age, I think we must own that our friend betrays symptoms of its weakness when we find him writing on the 10th of July, "Quintus remained with me several days, and would have stayed longer if I had asked him. I cannot begin to tell you how agreeable he made himself in all sorts of ways, and especially in those in which he used to be least satisfactory. He seemed to have experienced a total change through the influence of certain books of my own, which he had constantly in his hand, as well as of my serious conversation and counsels; and his attitude toward the republic will henceforth, I think, be all that we could desire."

However ostentatiously studious when his uncle was by, we are constrained to believe that Quintus, junior, lifted his eyebrows and indulged in a yawn when the venerable back was turned. Yet all unstable and incorrigible as he was, the youth did indeed prove himself in the end that nobler son who said, I go not, but afterwards repented and went. He held fast his allegiance from this time forward, and by selling his own life dear in the gallant defense of his father's must be held to have expiated many sins.

Two days before the date of the last letter, Cicero had visited Brutus on the island of Nesis (now Nisida) in the bay of Naples, where the latter appears to have had a residence. Cassius, then

lying off Naples with the ships and the troops which he was taking with him to Syria, was also present, but their talk ran chiefly on the Apollinarian games, which Antony's brother Caius had just exhibited in Brutus's name at Rome. Brutus, whose inveterate foible it was to be strenuous on unimportant points and apathetic about the main issue, was deeply chagrined that the games had been advertised for the Nones of July; that is to say, by the significant new name of the midsummer month, which had replaced the time-honored Quinetilis. "And it is indeed rather humiliating," observes Cicero, "for Brutus to be dating from July." The titular head of the republicans was, however, sedately satisfied with the popular applause which had greeted certain passages breathing hatred to tyrants in the plays which had been given, while the cooler commentator cannot refrain from remarking to his other self, "Yet it vexes and angers me to see the Roman mob wearing its hands out in clapping rather than in defending the republic."

The understanding had been that Cicero was to leave Italy, for his visit to Athens, in company with Brutus, when the latter should set out for his province. But Brutus continued in the most unaccountable manner to find reasons for delay, and Cicero finally departed alone, and proceeded by sea as far as Vibo, in the south of Italy, where he landed to pay his respects to the same Sicca who had entertained him in his exile, and whence he sent back to Atticus, on the 24th of July, a letter which showed plainly enough how many lingering doubts he yet had about the policy of making the voyage: "As I live, my friend, I am incessantly asking myself why on earth I have come hither. Why have I left you and those jewels of Italy, my own little villas? But the parting from yourself is the main point. And what am I running away from? Danger? I do not seriously believe

that there is any for me; and if there were, you are doing your best to recall me to it, when you say that my going will be highly applauded, if only I come back before the 1st of January. This, indeed, I shall strain every nerve to do, for I very much prefer living at home in jeopardy to dwelling at my ease in that Athens of yours. Do you, however, keep a sharp eye on the aspect of affairs, and write me how they are tending; or, better still, come and tell me. ... Greeting to Pilia and to my love and darling, Attica."

That his mind was really free, at this moment, from any special apprehension or preoccupation about his own fate appears equally from the cheery tone of another letter, written on the same abortive voyage. Before reaching Vibo he had landed at Velia, near which place was the ancestral estate of his and our old friend Trebatius. The lawyer was not there, but had placed his house at the disposition of Cicero, who was charmed with the situation, and wrote him from the spot: "I liked Velia none the less when I found how much you were beloved there; although what does that signify? You are always popular.

.. But if you take my advice with your customary docility, you will hold on to these paternal acres, the Velienses, for some reason or other, seem to fear that you will sell, and never desert the noble river Heles and the house of Papirius. The lotus-trees about the latter are, I know, a great attraction, even to strangers, but if you were to cut them down you would get a much freer view; and, in short, I think it a very good. thing, especially in times like these, to have, not merely a refuge of some sort in a city where you are known and loved, but a house and field of your own in a remote and lovely spot. I may like, my dear Trebatius, to avail myself of this haven yet."

In another letter to the same friend, written a week later at Rhegium, now

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Reggio, opposite Messina in Sicily, Cicero says that he had occupied himself on shipboard with writing a little treatise on the Topics of Aristotle, which book he now sends back to Trebatius. From Reggio he did actually cross to Sicily, and after passing one night at Syracuse put out to sea, but only to be driven back to the mainland of Italy by bad weather. He never had the pied marin, and now, on disembarking at the promontory of Leucopetra, he was met by intelligence which altered all his "While waiting plans. there," he writes to Atticus on the 18th of August, “until the wind should favor me (I had been welcomed and made delightfully at home in the villa of my friend Valerius), there came some of the prominent citizens of Reggio, just arrived from Rome, one of whom had been staying with Brutus at Naples, and had left him there. They brought news to this effect: Brutus and Cassius have published an edict; there will be a full meeting of the Senate on the 1st of September, private letters having been sent by Brutus and Cassius to all men of senatorial and prætorian rank, urging them to be present; the general expectation is that Antony will make concessions, that affairs will be arranged, and that our people will return to Rome. They added that I too was wanted, and that there were some unpleasant remarks about my absence. Of course I instantly abandoned all thoughts of the voyage, which had never, by Jove, altogether smiled on me. I must say, however, that when I came to read your letters I was rather surprised at your tremendous volte-face. It is all right, of course, though, if you did not positively suggest my going, you certainly highly approved it, provided only I were back at the New Year; that is to say, I might

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avoid the lesser danger, but must be ready to leap into the flames. However rash such a course, no exception can be taken to it: first, because it approves itself to my own judgment; and secondly, because, even if I were acting on yours, no real responsibility rests on an adviser beyond that of being consistent with himself. What did amaze me very considerably was this remark of yours: Come, then, you who desire an euthanasy, will you abandon your country? As if I ever did abandon, or had any thought of abandoning it!"

Cicero goes on for several pages, as we are all apt to do when once started in this strain, and he certainly had some excuse for his testiness. Atticus thought so, at all events, for there is no trace of a lasting cloud upon their grand cordiality. Cicero mentions, toward the end of the same letter, having seen Brutus at Velia. When the latter arrived with two transport ships off the mouth of the little river on which the villa of Trebatius stood, and heard of Cicero's presence, he came ashore for an interview which proved their last. which proved their last. Brutus passed on with his command to meet the shade of Cæsar at Philippi, and Cicero repaired to Rome.

Once again, in spite of the overshadowing predominance of Antony, he was welcomed on his arrival by a certain show of popular enthusiasm. The Senate met on the day assigned, and the republican opposition was organized. Calpurnius Piso, the father-in-law of Cæsar, made a patriotic address on the 1st of September; Cicero followed him on the morrow with a very noble speech, containing an elaborate review and criticism of Antony's course during the last five months. This address came afterward to be classed as the first Philippic; but in truth its tone was studiously mod

document," he remarks to Atticus of the letter, "but I do not exactly see what it amounts to or whither it tends."

erate in comparison with that of the terrible diatribes which followed. Such as it was, however, the speech of September 2d sufficed clearly to reveal to Antony the person of his most dangerous foe, and to concentrate upon Cicero his deadliest purposes of revenge. Antony retired to Tivoli, and spent six weeks, with all the assistance he could command, in working up, and rendering as insulting and stinging at all points as possible, his reply to the attack in question. Not an inconsiderate speech, not an inconsistent act, not a reckless bonmot, of Cicero's was forgotten. He was even accused of having been privy to the great conspiracy: but neither then nor at any subsequent time has this charge been considered worthy of serious attention, and Cicero's manner of disposing of it, though not conciliatory, must be held conclusive: "If I had been invited to the 15th of March banquet, there would have been no leavings.”

The duel between the two merciless antagonists was now fairly engaged, and the spirit of the old wrestler rose with every round. The second Philippic was merely written out in the study, and afterward published as a sort of pamphlet, but the remaining twelve were delivered in the Senate as occasion arose during the winter sessions of 710-711 (44-43 B. C.); Antony being by this time in open rebellion, and civil war raging both in Lombardy and the East. The fourteen Philippics, which might much better be called, as at first they were, the Orationes Antonianæ, will not only remain famous to the end of time as vehicles of ferocious invective, but more nobly famous for the passion of love and loyalty to the old Roman state which throbs through their long periods in pulses of fire, for the resistless force and the consummate splendor of the language in which they are embodied. Their analysis, however, like that of the other public speeches of the great orator, lies outside the modest scope of my

own endeavor, which has merely been to obtain a just insight into the character of the man Cicero, through a sympathetic study of his private correspondence.

He left the city in October for one more autumn villeggiatura in those realms of Paradise that lie south of Rome, and the last letters to Atticus belong to this period. long to this period. There are frequent allusions to Octavian, who at this time was literally at swords' points with Antony, being in command of a large detachment of republican troops. "Valde puer". He is nothing but a boyis the key-note to Cicero's comments upon the man of destiny, whose imperial airs merely amuse the gray-haired statesman; whose confidence and friendship he cultivates as a matter of policy; for whom he expresses in public a ceremonious regard, but whose suggestions he is apt, in the intimacy of his letters to Atticus, to treat with a sort of fretful indulgence. "Last evening," he writes from Pozzuoli on the 2d of November, "I got a letter from Octavian. He has great projects. He has quite won over the legions of Casilinum and Calatia, which is not so very wonderful, since he has given the men five hundred denarii a head. He now proposes to try the other colonies. His evident intention is to conduct a campaign against Antony, and, for all I can see, hostilities may break out any day. Who then is to be our leader? Think of Octavian's name and of his unripe years! Fancy his requesting me to give him a private interview at Capua or thereabouts! So puerile to imagine that such an interview could be private! I replied that it seemed to me both impracticable and unnecessary. What would you have? He proclaims himself our head, and expects our support. I have urged his going to Rome, where I think he is already popular with the lower orders, and will, if he prove stanch, have the 1 About eighty dollars.

Boni with him also. But, O Brutus, where are you? and what a glorious opportunity you have let slip!" "He has courage enough, that stripling," he writes from Arpinum a week afterward, "but so little authority!" Three months later, however, even Cicero has dropped the name of Octavian, and is talking of the "boy Cæsar.”

He must have remained at the old homestead very nearly a month, for his last letter to Atticus is dated there early in December. There had been several notes, written at intervals of a few days, and containing clear and minute directions for the final adjustment of his affairs, the settlement of all claims against his estate, and the regular payment of the boy Cicero's allowance. And finally : "To return, then, to the republic. You have made many sagacious political observations in your day, dear Atticus, but nothing wiser than this in your last let ter: The youth's power is great, and just at present he is pushing Antony hard; nevertheless we must wait the event.'... Here goes, then, for the hottest of the fire! It is baser to fall in private than in public, . . . and could I stay away when Marcellus is there? Not that I care about this, or that it signifies. What I do care for you will presently see. Assum igitur."

It was thus that Cicero answered to his name upon the roll-call of honor, gathered his robe about him, and stepped proudly down yet once again into the arena of his true victories. We shall miss henceforth his unlimited and uncalculating confidences to Atticus, but we are glad to think that the two old comrades were together during that final winter of desperate fighting in the Senate and on the field. Not that the busy pen had fallen idle. There are

1 Lepidus, the future triumvir, was Master of the Horse at the time of Cæsar's death. In former days he had been intimately connected with Brutus and Cassius, having, like the latter, married one of Brutus's sisters. But he

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letters in abundance, more than we can conceive his finding time to write : letters of brisk encouragement and vehement faith to Decimus Brutus and Cassius in the field; letters of eloquent reasoning and earnest, even pathetic exhortation to Lucius Plancus, the child of an early friend, who held a command on the Riviera, in Transalpine. Gaul, where it was hoped he might offer a successful resistance to Lepidus,1 and who, with Decimus Brutus, had been designated by Cæsar as consul for that year 712 which Cicero would never After thanking Plancus very graciously for the profuse expressions of personal regard contained in a letter just received from him, Cicero writes on one occasion: "On the other hand, your profession and promise of loyalty to the republic afford me a far more exquisite pleasure than did the private protestations which preceded it. And so once more, dear Plancus, as in the letter to which you have so handsomely replied, I do not merely exhort, but as a suppliant beseech you to throw yourself with your whole soul and all the force of your being into the cause of the republic. There is no such harvest of glory to be gathered elsewhere; nor is there in the whole range of human affairs aught brighter and nobler than to have deserved well of your country. For up to the present time the remarkably sound sense and good feeling which you have shown encourage me to speak freely - your success appears to me to have been somewhat a matter of luck; not won without merit on your part, certainly, but largely helped by fortune and opportunity. But if you are able to succor the state in these most critical days, it will be essentially and entirely your own doing. Words

was Antony's first important conquest. An arrangement was concluded between them within three days after Cæsar's death, whereby Lepidus was made Pontifex Maximus, and his daughter betrothed to the son of Antony.