they are derived. For had I not, by deeply pondering the precepts of philosophy, and the lessons of the historian and the poet, imbued my mind with an early and intimate conviction, that nothing in life is worthy of strenuous pursuit but honour and renown, and for the attainment of these, the extremes of bodily torture, and all the terrors of exile and of death, ought to be regarded as trifles, never should I have engaged in such a series of deadly conflicts for your safety, nor have exposed myself to these daily machinations of the most profligate of mankind. But the literature, the wisdom, the consentaneous voice of antiquity, all teem with glorious examples examples, which would have been for ever buried in oblivion, but for the redeeming light of letters. How many instances of heroic daring and devotedness are pictured on the Greek and Roman page, not for our study only, but also for our imitation! With these illustrious models incessantly before my eyes, I have laboured to form my mind and character, by intense meditation on their excellence.

From CICERO's Oration for the Poet Archias.

2. THE ROMAN PEOPLE ADJURED BY THE EXAMPLE OF THEIR ANCESTORS TO AVENGE THE OUTRAGES COMMITTED BY MITHRIDATES.

THE slightest insult to a merchant or the captain of the smallest naval craft was enough to rouse your ancestors to war, what then ought to be your indignation at the simultaneous butchery of so many thousand Roman citizens at the bidding of this tyrant. Corinth, the brightest luminary of Greece, was threatened with extinction merely for having given a somewhat haughty reception to your ambassadors; and will you allow impunity to a despot who has dared to subject to the chain and to the scourge, and at last to a death of excruciating torture, a consular ambassador of the Roman people? Your ancestors would not brook the slightest infringement of the liberty of a Roman citizen, and will you not avenge his blood? A merely verbal insult to the sacred character of an ambassador invoked their

vengeance, and shall the torture and death of an ambassador himself appeal in vain to yours? Beware, Romans, lest, as it was most honourable in your ancestors to bequeath to you so magnificent a monument of national glory, beware lest you incur proportionate disgrace in failing to guard and preserve the inviolability of this glorious bequest.

CICERO's Oration for the Manilian Law.

3. THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF C. POMPEY.

AND now what language can do justice to the military prowess of Cneius Pompey! What form of panegyric can be devised worthy of him, unknown to you, or not familiar to the universe! For the qualifications of a commander are not confined within the narrow circle to which popular opinion restricts them— assiduity in business, intrepidity in danger, vigour in action, promptitude to achieve, and wisdom to provide; all which unite in this one man, and in a degree not to be found in all other commanders ever seen or heard of. Attest it Italy, the liberation of which the victorious Sylla himself attributed to his valour and assistance-attest it Sicily, rescued from the many dangers which encompassed it, not by the terror of his arms, but by the promptitude of his councils-attest it Africa, saturated with the blood of the countless hordes with which it was oppressed-attest it Gaul, over the bodies of whose slaughtered sons our legions entered Spain-attest it Spain herself, which has so often seen the overwhelming forces of his enemies subdued and prostrated by his victorious arm— again and again attest it Italy, which, when oppressed by the foul and devastating servile war, with outstretched arms entreated his return; at the mere rumour of his approach that war pined and sickened, as his arrival was its deathblow and extermination. In short, attest it every land and every distant tribe and nation-attest it every wave of the ocean, the wide expanse of waters, and every port and bay of its remotest shores.

And to what must we attribute the quickness of his opera

tions, the incredible rapidity of his movements; for it is by no extraordinary propulsive power of the oar, no newly discovered art of navigation, nor by any novel agency of the winds of heaven that he is borne so rapidly to the remotest shores; but the customary causes of detention which operate with others have no influence with him. Avarice does not seduce to rapine, passion to licentious indulgence, the charms of nature do not detain for admiration, the splendid curiosities of art for inspection, not even exhaustion itself for necessary repose. Statuary, painting, in short all the ornamental arts of Greece, the objects of the incontrollable rapacity of others, have not power even to arrest his attention. Accordingly wherever he appears the inhabitants gaze upon him as on a being suddenly dropped from the skies, and not as an agent from the distant metropolis of the Roman empire. Now at length foreign nations begin to credit the boasted abstinence of our ancestors, from which they had hitherto withheld their assent as from a fabulous legend of antiquity. Now at length the splendour of the Roman name flashes conviction on their minds, and demonstrates the reasonableness of that decision by which their ancestors preferred submission to the just and tempered government of Rome to the uncontrolled command of other nations. CICERO on the Manilian Law.

4. THE BEGINNING OF THE FIRST PHILIPPIC OF DEMOSTHENES. HAD we been convened, Athenians! on some new subject of debate, I had waited till most of your usual counsellors had declared their opinions. If I had approved of what was proposed by them, I should have continued silent; if not, I should then have attempted to speak my sentiments. But since those very points, on which those speakers have oftentimes been heard already, are at this time to be considered, though I have arisen first, I presume I may expect your pardon; for, if they on former occasions had advised the proper measures, you would not have found it needful to consult at present.

First then, Athenians! however wretched the situation of

our affairs at present seems, it must not by any means be thought desperate. What I am now going to advance may possibly appear a paradox; yet it is a certain truth, that our past misfortunes afford a circumstance most favourable to our future hopes. And what is that? even that our present difficulties are owing entirely to our total indolence and utter disregard of our own interest. For were we thus situated, in spite of every effort which our duty demanded, then indeed we might regard our fortunes as absolutely desperate. But now, Philip hath only conquered your supineness and inactivity; the state he hath not conquered. You cannot be said to be defeated; your force hath never been exerted.

If there is a man in this assembly, who thinks that we must find a formidable enemy in Philip, while he views on one hand the numerous armies which surround him, and on the other the weakness of our state, despoiled of so much of its dominions, I cannot deny that he thinks justly. Yet let him reflect on this; there was a time, Athenians! when we possessed Pydna, Potidea, and Methone, and all that country round; when many of the states now subjected to him were free and independent, and more inclined to our alliance than to his. If Philip, at that time weak in himself and without allies, had desponded of success against you, he would never have engaged in those enterprises which are now crowned with success, nor could have raised himself to that pitch of grandeur at which you now behold him. But he knew well that the strongest places are only prizes laid between the combatants, and ready for the conqueror. He knew that the dominions of the absent devolve naturally to those who are in the field; the possessions of the supine to the active and intrepid. Animated by these sentiments he overturns whole nations. He either rules universally as a conqueror, or governs as a protector; for mankind naturally seek confederacy with such as they see resolved, and preparing not to be wanting to themselves.

If you, my countrymen, will now at length be persuaded to entertain the like sentiments; if each of you be disposed to approve himself a useful citizen, to the utmost that his station and abilities enable him; if the rich will be ready to con

tribute, and the young to take the field; in one word, if you will be yourselves, and banish those hopes which every single person entertains, that the active part of public business may lie upon others, and he remain at his ease; you may then, by the assistance of the gods, recall those opportunities which your supineness hath neglected, regain your dominions, and chastise the insolence of this man.

But when, O my countrymen! will you begin to exert your vigour? Do you wait till roused by some dire event? till forced by some necessity? What then are we to think of our present condition? To free men, the disgrace attending on misconduct is, in my opinion, the most urgent necessity. Or say, is it your sole ambition to wander through the public places, each inquiring of the other, 'What new advices?' Can anything be more new than that a man of Macedon should conquer the Athenians, and give law to Greece? Is Philip dead?' 'No-but he is sick.' Pray, what is it to you whether Philip is sick or not? Supposing he should die, you would raise up another Philip, if you continue thus regardless of your

interest.

Many, I know, delight more in nothing than in circulating all the rumours they hear as articles of intelligence. Some cry, Philip hath joined with the Lacedemonians, and they are concerting the destruction of Thebes. Others assure us, he hath sent an embassy to the king of Persia; others, that he is fortifying places in Illyria. Thus we all go about framing our several tales. I do believe, indeed, Athenians! that he is intoxicated with his greatness, and does entertain his imagination with many such visionary projects, as he sees no power rising to oppose him. But I cannot be persuaded that he hath so taken his measures, that the weakest among us (for the weakest they are who spread such rumours) know what he is next to do. Let us disregard their tales. Let us only be persuaded of this, that he is our enemy; that we have long been subject to his insolence; that whatever we expected to have been done for us by others, hath turned against us; that all the resource left us is in ourselves; and that, if we are not inclined to carry our arms abroad, we should be forced