virtues. 



214 ROMAN PHILOSOPHY. 



the most part he retired from public business, and gave himself up to 

 the composition of those works, which, while they mitigated his 

 political sorrows, have secured his literary celebrity. 



The murder of Caesar, which took place in the following year, once 

 more brought him on the stage of public affairs ; but, as we intend 

 our present paper to be an account of his private life and literary 

 character, we reserve the sequel of his history, including his unworthy 

 treatment of Brutus, his coalition with OctaVius, his orations against 

 Antonius, his proscription and death, for another department of our 

 private work. On the whole, antiquity may be challenged to produce an indivi- 

 dual more virtuous, more perfectly amiable than Cicero. None interest 

 more in their life, none excite more painful emotions in their death. 

 Others, it is true, may be found of loftier and more heroic character, 

 who awe and subdue the mind by the grandeur of their views, or the 

 intensity of their exertions. But Cicero engages our affections by the 

 integrity of his public conduct, the correctness of his private life, the 

 generosity, 1 placability, and kindness of his heart, the playfulness of 

 his temper, the warmth of his domestic attachments. In this respect 

 his letters are invaluable. " Here we may see the genuine man with- 

 out disguise or affectation, especially in his letters to Atticus ; to 

 whom he talked with the same frankness as to himself, opened the 

 rise and progress of each thought ; and never entered into any affair 

 without his particular advice." 2 



Apologies for It must, however, be confessed that the publication of this corre- 

 Stenc 0n in s P on dence has laid open the defects of his political character. Want 

 public life, of firmness has been repeatedly mentioned as his principal failing ; 

 and insincerity is the natural attendant on a timid and irresolute mind. 

 On the other hand it must not be forgotten that openness and candour 

 are rare qualities in a statesman at all times, and while the duplicity of 

 weakness is despised, the insincerity of a powerful, but crafty mind, 

 though incomparably more odious, is too commonly regarded with 

 feelings of indulgence. Cicero was deficient, not in honesty, but in 

 moral courage; his disposition too was conciliatory and forgiving; 

 and much which has been referred to inconsistency, should be attri- 

 buted to the generous temper which induced him to remember the 

 services rather than the neglect of Plancius, and to relieve the exiled 

 and indigent Verres. 8 Much too may be traced to his professional 

 habits as a pleader ; which led him to introduce the licence of the 

 forum into deliberative discussions, and (however inexcusably) even 

 into his correspondence with private friends. 



Some writers, as Lyttleton, have considered it an aggravation of 

 Cicero's inconsistencies, that he was so perfectly aware of what was 

 philosophically upright and correct. It might be sufficient to reply, 



1 His want of jealousy towards his rivals was remarkable ; this was exemplified 

 in his esteem for Hortensius, and still more so in his conduct towards Calvus. See 

 Ad Fam. xv. 21. * Middleton, vol. ii. p. 525, 4to. 



3 Pro Plane. ; Middleton, vol. i. p. 108. 



