Nam, cum dicatur, tunica præsente molesta,

Ure manum; plus est dicere, Non facio.

It is to be understood that Martial was no friend to violence, and least of all to self-violence. He was not ambitious to think with the sages of Abdera, a city of Thrace, whose very air was thought to teem with stupidity or madness. He therefore pronounces it less bold spontaneously to burn a limb, than to refuse to do so: especially where the torturing tunic, lined with various combustibles, must be expected as the immediate consequence. The last word of the epigram, which the elliptic idiom of the Latin language uses in the sense of sacrificing, has given rise to the conjecture that Martial alludes to some Christian criminal, admired even by enemies, and placed on a higher pinnacle of self-devotion than Mucius, for refusing facere, to offer incense to the heathen deities. At all events, the drift is philosophical, in raising passive above active courage.

ON CICERO.

THERE is no work of more universal acceptance, from the time of its publication down to this period, than Dr. Middleton's History of Cicero's Life, which is, in fact, the history of Cicero's times. Nor could it be otherwise. From the first advancement of that eminent man to public magistracies, there was not any thing of moment transacted in the state, in which he did not bear an eminent part. From the very time of his birth, the crisis of the Roman affairs was preparing; and for sixty years, the events which passed in succession were the most important, the characters of the persons who conducted, or were affected by them, the most dignified and interesting to be met with in the annals of Rome, or perhaps of the world.

Dr. Middleton had an honourable object in view; to rescue the character of Cicero from the obloquy cast on it by the writers who curried favour in the court of the emperors by misrepresenting the characters and motives of all the great patriots. Thus Dio opens his forty-fourth book in the following

manner:

Ὁ μὲν οὖν Καῖσας ταυθ' οὕτως ὡς καὶ ἐπὶ τοὺς Πάρθους spaτεύσων ἔπραξεν οἶςρος δὲ τισὶν ἀλιτηριώδης, φθόνῳ τε τοῦ προσω ήκοντος, καὶ μίσει τοῦ προτετιμημένου σφῶν, προσπεσών, ἐκεινόν,

τε ἀνόμως ἀπέκλεινε, καινὸν ἀνοσίου δόξης ὄνομα προσλαβὼν, καὶ τὰ ψηφισθέντα διεσκέδασε τάσεις τε αὖθις ἐξ ὁμονοίας, καὶ που λέμους ἐμφυλίους τοῖς Ῥωμαίοις παρεσκεύασεν.

The opposition of Dio's character and principles to those of the republican party is evident throughout his work, and so clearly to be accounted for, that his testimony becomes of none effect. He flourished under the most tyrannical of the emperors, by whom he was advanced to great dignity. He was the creature of despotic power, and endeavoured to prove his gratitude by blasting every name connected with the interests of patriotism. The writings of Cicero, if allowed their fair influence, were likely to revive the ancient zeal and spirit of liberty, so long the peculiar characteristic of the Romans. The entire bearing of Dio's history is to establish the preference of absolute monarchy, rather than a free government on the principles of democracy, as most in unison with the interests of the Roman state.

The character of Cicero, as a moral writer, cannot be mistaken. In point of style, we find an elegance, a spirit, and a dignity, which render the form of virtue visible, and therefore amiable; and the sentiments which that style embodies are such as prove that he was sincerely inspired with the love of that intrinsic excellence his pencil could so well delineate.

Nothing in all ancient literature gives so clear an insight into the history of the times in question as Cicero's letters to Atticus. They render the intrigues of the crisis obvious, the motives and interests of the parties intelligible: they illustrate what we learn from other authors, and explain what other authors have left in uncertainty, or tell

what they have omitted. Diodorus Siculus commences his work by stating the obligations of mankind to historians : — Τοῖς τὰς κοινὰς ἱςορίας πραγματευσαμένοις μεγάλας χάριας απονέμειν δίκαιον πάντας ἀνθρώπους, ὅτι τοῖς ἰδίοις πόνοις ὠφελῆσαι τὸν κοινὸν βίον ἐφιλοτιμήθησαν·

If the general historian be so great a benefactor, those who have left records of their genuine mind, who have detailed in familiar correspondence the views and the policy of their contemporaries, whether friendly or hostile, the accidental conference in the forum, or the unguarded table-talk at the banquet, are entitled to a large portion of our thanks. The sunshine of history is too often obscured by mists, and the day closes prematurely: when the darkness is thus superinduced, memoirs and correspondence become the gas-lights of times past.

To understand the condition of Rome at the time of Cicero's birth, it is necessary to have some general idea of the government from its first institution by Romulus. Cicero himself celebrates the Roman constitution as the most perfect of all governments; and in his theory we may nearly trace the beau idéal of our own:-"Statuo esse optime constitutam rempublicam, quæ ex tribus generibus illis, regali, optimo, et populari confusa modice, nec puniendo irritet animum immanem ac ferum, nec omnia prætermittendo, licentia cives deteriores reddat." Fragm. de Rep. 2.

Their king was elected by the people, as the head of the republic, to be their leader in war, the guardian of the laws in peace. The senate was his council, chosen also by the people, by whose advice he was obliged to govern himself in all his measures. The sovereignty was lodged in the

body of the citizens, or the general society, whose prerogative it was to enact laws, create magistrates, declare war, and receive appeals in all cases, both from the king and the senate. Some writers have denied this right of appeal to the people. Let us see what Cicero says on the subject:-" Nam cum a primo urbis ortu, regiis institutis, partim etiam legibus, auspicia, cæremoniæ, comitia, provocationes, patrum consilium, equitum peditumque descriptio, tota res militaris, divinitus esset constituta; tum progressio admirabilis, incredibilisque cursus ad omnem excellentiam factus est, dominatu regio republica liberata.”—Tusc. Quæst. lib. iv. cap. 1.

Seneca quotes a passage from his Treatise on the Republic, in confirmation of this doctrine :-" Cum Ciceronis libros de Rep. prehendit hinc philologus aliquis, hinc grammaticus, hinc philosophiæ deditus: alius alio curam sibi mittit. . . . Præterea notat, eum quem nos dictatorem dicimus, et in historiis ita nominari legimus, apud antiquos magistrum populi vocatum. . . . Provocationem ad populum etiam a regibus fuisse. Id ita in Pontificialibus libris aliqui putant, et Fenestella."-Senec. ep. 108. Valerius Maximus gives an instance confirmed by Livy:-" M. Horatius, interfectæ sororis crimine a Tullo rege damnatus, ad populum provecto judicio, absolutus est."-Val. Max. lib. viii. cap. 1.

By the revolution in the government, their old constitution was not changed, but restored to its primitive state. The name of king was abolished, but the power was retained. The difference was, that instead of choosing a single person for life, they chose two annually under the designation of consuls, invested with all the prerogatives and ensigns of royalty, and presiding as the kings had