Recover}/ of the '^ Cicero de Republican' [Feb. Ij 



■4 



nioje intelligent among tlic French, 

 and that they possess a greater sym- 

 pathy for their fellow-creatures in 

 affliction. In travelling in a voiture 

 from Le Mans to Alencon, we over- 

 took a peasant fioing to a village on 

 the road ; the driver accommodated 

 the poor fellow with a seat gratui- 

 tously, though it was the only vacant 

 one in the vehicle. After proceeding 

 about two leagues, the driver was 

 again accosted by a poor woman with 

 an infant at her l)reast, who had tra- 

 velled on foot a considerable distance, 

 on her way to visit a sick husband 

 quartered in a remote i)art of the pro- 

 vince. She had no sooner told her 

 artless tale, than the peasant promptly 

 ijuitted his seat; and all the passen- 

 gers, who were French, drew forth 

 their purses in behalf of the poor suf- 

 ferer, the driver contributing his mite 

 to the charitable contribution. Here 

 there was no disgust at coming in con- 

 tact with rags and wretchedness, no 

 s(|ueamishness, no ostentation ! and 

 this little incident, combined w ith simi- 

 lar ones, left an impression extremely 

 lavourable to the French chiiracter. 

 'J'he amusements of the peasantry are 

 not ciilculated to blunt the best feel- 

 ings of the heart, whicli is the ease 

 with too many of what we denominate 

 sports ; and they do not disgrace them- 

 selves by pugilistic exhibitions for the 

 benefit of profligates and pickpockets ; 

 on the contrary, their recreations prin- 

 cipally consisting of music and dan- 

 cing, are calculated to soften the 

 asperity of society. But, as I have 

 already trespassed too long on your 

 columns, it remains for me to thank 

 you for the space which you have 

 allowed nie to occupy in your respect- 

 able publication; but, previously to 

 parting, 1 must beg to state, lliat in my 

 last eommunicalion I should have said, 

 " that almost every seliool has a parti- 

 cular dress for the scholars," and not 

 that all the schools wear the same dress. 

 Again, in nsy remarks on crime, it 



should have been Mens. , and 



n<it Mont, as I quite forget the name, 

 though the circumstance is still fresh in 

 my recollection. 



For the Mmrthly 31agazitie. 



RECOVEKY nf the " CICERO UE 

 . UEPUBLICA." 



AFTER a silence of 2000 years, the 

 voice of Cicero again breathes 

 truth and wisdom from sacred Rome. 

 Centuries have obscured his remains 

 but once more wc may hear the words 



of the man who " spoke for every age 

 and every country ;" and how a|)pro- 

 priately for each grave impression 

 and noble sense do we find him in the 

 Vatican Library ; above all, how aptly 

 do wc accjuir^ his corroborative testi- 

 mony upon that most difficult and 

 momentous of all concerns, the govern- 

 ment of a people at a perilous moment, 

 when almost every just principle and 

 fair institution, — the one to encourage, 

 and the other to realize, political 

 prosperity, — is either here doubted, 

 there disputed, and elsewhere decried 

 and abolished ; w hile the brave and 

 virtuous advocates of liberty and 

 general happiness are either despe- 

 rately struggling, or have desperately 

 fallen. Yet the rules of prudence are 

 few and simple, and have neither been 

 seldom retold nor feebly proved. Wc 

 have the assurance of history, that, to 

 jierpctuute their truth to every distant 

 genet ation of posterity, they have been 

 written with the blood of every peo- 

 ple, marked in the ruins of every 

 fortification, and traced in the desola- 

 tion of every land. Few persons are 

 content to learn wisdom from ano- 

 ther's misfortunes; each one, regard- 

 less of his fellow's fate, will have his 

 Ovvn experience; and, though not one 

 in a thousand pervade the dangerous 

 trial, "J ct the infatuation prevails. So 

 is it with nations : scarcely one is care- 

 ful enough to retain the advantages its 

 own ancestry have laboriously be- 

 queathed, or its neighbours painfully 

 established. Every affirmation of the 

 cause inspires its hope of extended 

 good ; and upon such a subject, and 

 at such a time, the student hi\ils 

 Cicero's enforcing word with infinite 

 applause. 



Angelus Mains, %vho has discovered 

 and edited these long and e.irnestly 

 desired remains, was known to the 

 classical world, — betbre his publica- 

 tion of the present treatise, with its 

 very instructive preface and excellent 

 comments, — as the editor of " the 

 Fragments of Six Unpublished Ora- 

 tions of Cicero," with ancient notes, 

 also unpublished, — a book, as a com- 

 jiilation of scanty remains and un- 

 connected sentences, unattractive, 

 unless to the very curious scholar. 



The entertaining observations which 

 precede these Dialogues informs us, 

 that the Bobbian Monastery was 

 IbtMided among the Appeniues of 

 Liguria, by St. Columbanns, in 612, 

 and early rose into estimation for the 

 value of its nianuscriptal library, and 



the 



