have for the sciences, even the most valuable, he does not give himself up entirely to them, but studies them like a prince, with that sober and discreet moderation, which [u] Tacitus admired in his father-in-law Agricola, Retinuit

, quod est difficillimum, et sapientiú modum. [cr] Tully finds a pitiful vanity in the secret joy which Demosthenes felt upon hearing himself praised by a poor herb-woman, as he was passing by. And yet he himself was much fonder of commendation than the Greek orator.

[y]This he freely owns upon an occasion where he surprisingly describes the effects of human weakness. He was returning from Sicily, where he had been quæstor, with a strong imagination that nothing was talked of in Italy hut himself, and that his quæstorship was the subject of every tongue. Passing by Puzzoli, whither the baths had drawn abundance of company, Is it long, says somebody to bim, since you left Rome? Pray, what is doing there? I, says he, in great surprise, am just come from my province. That's true, says the other, I beg pardon, from Africa. No, answers Tully, with an air of scorn and indignation, from Sicily. Why, says a third, who pretended to know more than the rest, don't you know that he has been quæstor at Syracuse ? where indeed he had not, for his province lay in a different part of the island. Tully was quite out of countenance, and to get rid of the affair, threw himself into the crowd, and so marched off: and this adventure, he adds, was more useful to him, than all the compliments he had expected could have been.

And yet it does not appear, that he was less fond of praise afterwards, than he had been before. All the world knows how carefully he laid hold of every opportunity to talk of himself

, so as to become insupportable. But nothing lets us more into his character than his [z] letter to the historian Lucceius, in which he openly and ingenuously discovers his weakness in [u] Vit. Agric. c. 4.

[y]Cic. Orat. pro Planc. n.64,66. [x] Tusc. Cuest. I. 5.n. 103. [z] Ep. 12. lib. 5.

this particular. He pressed him to write the history of
his consulship, and publish it in his life-time; to the
end, said he, that I may be the better known, and
personally enjoy my glory and reputation, ut & cæteri
virentibus nobis ex libris tuis nos cognoscant, & nos-
metipsi vivi gloriolá nostrá perfruamur. He impor-
tunes him not to keep scrupulously to the strict laws
of history, but to make some allowances to friendship,
even at the expence of truth, and not be afraid of
speaking more to his advantage than perhaps he
thought was due. Itaque te planè etiam atque etiam
rogo, ut & ornes ea rehementiùs etium quàm fortasse
sentis, & in eo leges historia negligas... amorique
nostro plusculum etiam, quam concedit veritas, lar-
giaris.

Such are almost all mankind, and often without
perceiving it themselves. For, to hear Tully talk, he
was as remote as possible from any such weakness.
[a] Nihil est in me inane, says he to Brutus, neque
enim debet. No body, [b] says he again in a letter to
Cato, was ever less fond of commendation and the
vain applauses of the people, than I am. Si quisquam
fuit-unquam remotus, & naturâ, & magis etiam (ut
mihi quidem sentire videor) ratione atque doctriná, ab
inani laude & sermonibus vulgi, ego profectò is sum.

To comprehend the better how little and mean this
vanity is, we need but open our eyes, and consider
how great and noble is the opposite conduct. A few
choice articles, which I shall liere propose, will set
the matter in a clear light.
I. TO BEAR PRAISE WITH PAIN, AND TO SPEAK

OF ONE'S SELF WITH MODESTY.
This virtue, which seems to throw a veil over the
most glorious actions, and is careful only to conceal
them, serves to set them off the more, and give them
a greater lustre.

Niger, who took the title of emperor in the east,
refused the panegyric they would have spoke in his
[a] Ad Brut. ep. 3.

[b] Ep. 4. lib. 15. ad Famil.

praise,

praise, and made himself the more descrving of it by his motives for refusing it. Nake, says he, a panegyric upon the commanders of old, that what they bave done may teach us what we should do. For it is a jest to speak in praise of a man that is alive, and especially a prince; it is not to commend him for doing well, but to flatter him in hopes of a reward. For my own part, I should chuse to be beloved whilst I live, and praised when I am dead.

“Those, [c] (says M. Nicole in his moral essays) “ who have heard the two greatest officers of this age “ (M. le Prince, and M. de Turenne) talk of the war, “ have always been ravished with the modesty of their “ discourse. No body ever observed the least word

to fall from them upon this subject, which could be

suspected of vanity. They have been ever seen to “ do justice to all the world besides, and never to “themselves; and one would often imagine, when

they heard them give an account of battles, in which “ their valour and conduct had the greatest share, “ either that they had not been present, or that they “ had been only idle spectators. Those persons, “ whom we see so ful} of occasions wherein they “ have signalized themselves, as to deafen all the " world with their accounts of thein, as in the case " of Cicero's consulship, do thereby shew, that vir

tue is scarce natural to them, and that they have “ been obliged to take a great deal of pains to work пр

their souls to the condition they are so glad to "appear in. But there is far more greatness in mak

ing no reflection upon our greatest actions, so that

they may seem to fall from us with no constraint, * and spring so naturally from the disposition of our

souls, that it does not observe them."

II. HEARTILY TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE REPUTA

TION OF OTHERS. [d] Scipio Africanus, tliat he might .procure his brother the command in the important war which was

[c] Second Traité de la Charité (d) Liv. I. 37. & de l'Amour propre, ch. 5.

to

to be made against Antiochus the great, engaged to serve under him, as one of his lieutenants. In this subaltern post, he was so far from endeavouring to divide the honour of the victory with his brother, that he made it both a duty and a pleasure to leave the glory of it entirely to him, and to make him his equal in

every respect, by the defeat of an eneiny no less formidable than Hannibal ; and by the title of Asiaticus, as glorious as that of Africanus.

[c] M. Aurelius, from a like delicacy, and as generous a disregard of glory, denied himself the pleasure of attending upon his daughter Lucilla into the east, whom he married to Lucius Verus, at that time engaged in the war with Parthia, lest his presence should check the growing reputation of his son-inlaw, and seem to draw upon himself the honour of putting an end to that important war to the other's prejudice.

We know with what fidelity and submission [f] Cyrus referred all the glory of his exploits to his uncle and father-in-law Cyaxeres; with what carefulness [8] Agricola, who completed the conquest of Britain, honoured his superiors with all his successes; and with what modesty he gave up part of his own reputation to advance theirs.

[h] Plutarch gives an account of the moderation of his conduct in the discharge of the commisson he was entrusted with by his own city, who had sent him as their deputy to the proconsul of the province. His colleague being obliged to stay behind by the way, he discharged the commission alone, and succeeded in it. At his return, when upon the point of giving a public account of his deputation, his father advised him not to speak of himself in his own name as single, but as though his colleague had been present, and they had concerted and executed the whole together. And his motive for giving bim this wise advice was, because [C] Vit. M. Aural.

[g] Tacit. in Vit. Agric. [] Xenoph. in Cyrop.

[b] Plut. in Præc. Reip. Ger.

[i] such a procedure was not only equitable and humane, but would lessen the glory of the success, which usually afflicts and enflames envy.

[h] What Tully says of the perfect union which subsisted betwixt him and Hortensius, and the mutual care they took to assist one another at the bar, to communicate reciprocally what they knew, and to proinote each other's credit, is a very rare example in persons of the same profession, and at the same time very worthy of imitation. [1] An historian observes, that Atticus their common friend was the band of this intimate union; and it was by bis means that the emulation of glory, in these two famous orators, was not impaired by any mean sentiments of envy and jealousy.

[m] Lelius, the intiinate friend of the second Scipio, had twice pleaded in a very important cause, and the judges had twice ordered a more ample enquiry. The parties exhorting him not to be discouraged, he persuaded thein to put their affair into the hands of Galba, who was a fitter person than he to plead for them, as he spoke with more force and vehemence. In short, Galba, at a single hearing, carried all the voices, and absolutely gained his cause. Such a disinterested disposition in point of reputation must be owned to have something very great in it. But, says Cicero, it was then customary to do justice to another's merit without scruple. Erat omnino tum mos, ut faciles essent in suum cuique tribuendo.

I have always admired the ingenuity and candour of Virgil

, who was under no apprehension, by introducing Horace to Mæcenas, of raising himself a rival, that inight contend with him for wit and genius ; and if not entirely carry away, at least divide with him the favours and good graces of their common protec

[i] Ου γαρ μόνον επιεικες το τοιύ. [!] Efficiebat, ut inter quos tanta τον και φιλάνθρωπός εςιν, αλλά και το laudis esset emulatio, nulla interλυπον τον φθόνον αφαιρεί της δόξης. cederet obtrectatio, essetque tralium