262 



ROMAN PHILOSOPHY. 



His appear- and commenced his exertions as a pleader at the bar. At Rome, the 

 pursuits of a lawyer and of an advocate were kept much more distinct 

 than they usually have been in modern times. It required the labour 

 of many years to qualify a man to practise as a jurist ; and the con- 

 tinued and tedious comparison of texts, and cases, and precedents, was 

 preliminary to the formation of that character of an authorised and 

 solemn expositor of law, which is most nearly expressed by the modern 

 term of a chamber-counsel. A few hours' study, on the contrary, such 

 as could give a smattering of the terms of art, and a sketch of the 

 general principles of law, was all that was thought necessary by the 

 ancient Romans for the qualification of an advocate or pleader at the 

 bar. 



We are informed by the unknown author of the ' Dialogue on the 

 Causes of the Decline of Eloquence,' that Seneca distinguished himself 

 during the short period whilst he practised at the bar, by the weight 

 and pointedness of his remarks ; but that he was as deficient in his 

 pleadings, as he afterwards showed himself to be in his writings, in" 

 that uniform progression and flow of thought, which is almost inse- 

 parable from the character of eloquence. His success, however, was 

 such, that he became desirous of advancing himself in public. He 



Quaestor. discharged the duties of the qusestorate, and became at length a dis- 

 tinguished favourite in the court of Claudius. But in consequence of 

 an imputed familiarity with Julia, the daughter of Germanicus, he, 

 with some others, fell into disgrace, and was banished to the island of 



Banishment. Corsica. His conduct during exile deserves to be remarked, as illus- 

 trative of the tendency of that philosophy which he advocated and pro- 

 fessed. In his letters to his own friends, he boasts of the opportunities 

 now allowed him for retirement and study, and makes an ostentatious 

 display of the means of wisdom and independence which were afforded 

 him by solitude and retreat ; he vaunted that his happiness was inde- 

 pendent of external circumstances, and that a wise man could find a 

 home and a country in any quarter of the earth. In his letters to the 

 emperor, however, his submissions are abject ; and his solicitations 

 for leave to return are unqualified, spiritless, and pitiful. Lord Boling- 

 broke, in his Reflections on Exile,' has adopted the spirit and the style 

 of Seneca's Stoical letters ; and we know that the magnanimity of this 

 modem courtier and philosopher was on a par with that of his ancient 

 prototype. Cicero, on the contrary, though the occasion of his banish- 

 ment reflected honour rather than disgrace upon his character, instead 

 of playing off the idle jargon of words, or making any hypocritical 

 boast, or affecting an indifference to the regard and esteem of his 

 countrymen, gave way too much to the painfulness of an exile which 

 was unjustly inflicted upon him ; and indulged in expressions of sensi- 

 bility, which, however natural, and however amiable, have been reflected 

 upon as amongst the blemishes of his character. Cicero, however, 

 with whatever frankness he may have unbosomed his own feelings of 

 weakness during exile, was recalled by the unsolicited and spontaneous 



