MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 223 



on the arbitrary determinations of its present head, than on the tra- 

 dition of settled maxims, were accommodated to the views of each 

 successive master, according as he hoped by sophistry or concession to 

 overcome the repugnance which the mind ever will feel to the doc- 

 trines of universal scepticism. 



And in these continual changes it is pleasing to observe, that the 

 interests of virtue and good order were uniformly promoted ; interests 

 to which the Academic doctrines were certainly hostile, if not neces- 

 sarily fatal. Thus, although we find Carneades, in conformity to the 

 plan adopted by Arcesilas, 1 opposing the dogmatic principles of the 

 Stoics concerning moral duty, 2 and studiously concealing his private 

 views even from his friends; 3 yet, by allowing that the suspense of 

 judgment was not always a duty, that the wise man might sometimes 

 believe though he could not know ; 4 he, in some measure, restored the 

 authority of those great instincts of our nature which his predecessor 

 appears to have discarded. Clitomachus pursued his steps by inno- 

 vations in the same direction ; 5 Philo, who followed next, attempting piuio and 

 to reconcile his tenets with those of the Platonic school, 6 has been ac- Antiochus - 

 countecl the founder of a fourth Academy while, to his successor 

 Antiochus, who embraced the doctrines of the Porch, 7 and maintained 

 the fidelity of the senses, it has been usual to assign the establishment 

 of a fifth. 



We have already observed, that Cicero in early life inclined to the 

 systems of Plato and Antiochus, which, at the time he composed the 

 bulk of his writings, he had abandoned for that of Carneades and 

 Philo. 8 Yet he was never so entirely a disciple of the New Academy, 

 as to neglect the claims of morality and the laws. He is loud in his 

 protestations, that truth is the great object of his search : " Ego enim," Mixed 

 he says, " si aut ostentatione aliqua adductus, aut studio certandi, ad Philosophy 



i \- * 1-11- i- T I.-.' ofCicero. 



hanc potissimum philosophiam me apphcavi; non modo stultitiam 

 meam, sed etiam mores et naturam condemnandam puto .... Itaque, 

 nisi ineptum putarem in tali disputatione id facere quod, quum de 

 republica disceptatur, fieri interdum solet, jurarem per Jovem deos- 

 que Penates, me et ardere studio veri reperiendi, et ea sentire quas 

 dicerem." 9 And, however inappropriate this boast may appear, he at 



1 De Nat. Deor. i. 25 ; Austin, contra Acad. iii. 17 ; Xumen. apud Euseb. 

 Prsep. Evang. xiv. 6. 



2 De Fin. ii. 13, v. 7 ; Lucullus, 42; Tusc. Quaest. v. 29. 



3 Lucullus, 45. 



4 Lucullus, xxi. 24. For an elevated moral precept of his, see de Fin. ii. 18. 



5 J Ai/?7p V TOIS rpifflv cupeVeo't Siarptyas, ei/ re TT? 'A/caSTj^cuKf? ical TlepnraTT]- 

 TiK?7 /ecu ~2,TCtiiKrj. Diogenes Laertius, lib. iv. sub. fin. [" A man versed in the 

 three schools the Academic, the Peripatetic, and the Stoic." Editor.'] 



6 " Philo, magnus vir, negat in libris duas Academias esse ; erroremque eorum 

 qui ita putdrunt coarguit." Acad. Quaest. i. 4. [" Philo, a great man, denies in 

 his writings that there are two Academies ; and refutes the error of those who have 

 entertained that opinion." Editor^] 



7 De Fin. v. 5 ; Lucullus, xxii. 43. 8 Acad. Quaest. i. 4 ; de Nat. Deor. i. 7. 

 9 Lucullus, 20 ; see also de Nat. Deor. i. 7 ; de Fin. i. 5. [" For my own part, 



