anecdote recorded of them by Plutarch. When Cæsar was taken by pirates, he solaced himself in his disagreeable situation, by composing orations and verses. He read his verses to his captors, hoping to receive the flattering tribute of their applause; but the hardy adventurers had no ear for verse. Cæsar gave way to a momentary resentment, called them stupid barbarians, and affirmed that they deserved crucifixion. It cannot be supposed that he revenged the mortification his pride received, in a manner so tyrannical; but it is said that, as soon as he was liberated, he ordered the poor pirates to be nailed to the cross. Crucifixion, it is to be hoped, was a punishment for the want of honesty, and not of taste. Notwithstanding this vindictive spirit, it would have been happy if this ambition had been poetical rather than political. It might have saved the deluge of blood through which he waded to empire. According to his own confession, the conquest of Gaul occasioned the loss of one million two hundred thousand lives; and it is supposed, that the civil wars in which he was engaged,destroyed an equal number. Dreadful effects of pride! Two millions four hundred thousand lives destroyed by one man! Remarkable instance of the instability of human grandeur! for he enjoyed the peaceable possession of his power only five months! But the present business is to consider Cæsar in the light of a scholar, not as a soldier. If his character as a poet is disputable, his talents as an orator, and his learning and sagacity as a philosopher, are highly and justly esteemed. By a rare union of different abilities he excelled at once in the elegance of polite letters, and in the severer department of recondite science. As an orator, Cicero places him in the first rank; and Quinctilian thinks he would have rivalled Cicero, had he devoted his abilities to the rostrum or tribunal. The elegance of his language was the peculiar excellence which distinguished him as an orator. He was more attic than Cicero; and if he had transmitted his best orations down to posterity, Cicero would not have stood alone at the head of Roman orators. Cicero himself generously extols him, and thinks him equal to those who had made the study of eloquence the business of their lives. But eloquence was cultivated by Cæsar only in subservience to his ambition. He knew that the Triumviri, in the plentitude of their usurping power, could cut off the heads and hands of mere orators, and nail them to the rostrum. He knew, that though Cicero inculcated the doctrine that arms should yield to the gown, and the laurel to the tongue, it was the sword and the axe which, in his time carried all before it. Amidst all the turbulence of ambition, so extensive was his capacity, that he found both time and inclination to write two books, addressed to Cicero, on the cool and dispassionate subjects grammatical analogy. In the dedication, he paid Cicero he great compliment, though, if we may judge from his own conduct, it was insincere. He congratulated the orator on having obtained a laurel more honourable than all military triumph, as it was more glorious to extend the limits of the Roman genius, than of the empire. Cæsar wrote two books in opposition to Cicero's Laus Catonis, in which Cato Uticensis had been celebrated with all the warmth of panegyric. Cæsar considered the praise of Cato as a reflection on himself, and published his answer in two orations, to which he gave the name, AntiCatones. The speeches were in the form of accusations before a judge; and, I believe, they were conducted with temper, for Cæsar praises Cato in the midst of his invective. He was too much master of his temper to suffer it to be indecently disturbed by critical controversy, and he was sufficiently politic to know, that to deny a merit which was become notorious, would injure the cause of which he had undertaken the defence. One of the principal topics of Cæsar's satire was Cato's ebriety. But he relates an anecdote of it which redounds to the honour of Cato's general character. Cato returning one morning from a convivial meeting, in a state of inebriation, was met by some young men, who were determined to see whom they had encountered. They uncovered his face, and found it Cato. They no sooner saw him than they blushed on their own account, for having taken such a liberty with so great a man. You would have imagined that they had been detected in an improper state by Cato, and not Cato by them; so great was their confusion: and hence it is evident, that in the midst of drunkenness, Cato's character was respectable, and retained the dignity of superior virtue. Cæsar could not have paid Cato a greater compliment, or allowed him more personal authority, than by relating this story, in which Cato, even when divested of his reason by excess, was yet an awful cha racter. I imagine Cæsar, in the liberality and urbanity of a cultivated mind, conducted this controversy in a good-humoured manner, and rather more for the pleasure and amusement of it, than from a resentful desire to detract from Cato, whom his enemies allowed to be a good man and a good citizen. Every one knows that he was fond of wine; and Horace seems to think that his virtue, by which is meant his manly spirit, acquired warmth from the juice of the grape. Narratur et prisci Catonis The effect of Cæsar's knowledge in astronomy is felt at this hour, in the reformation in the Calendar. Cæsar is represented in Lucan, as saying of himself, -media inter prælia semper Stellarum cœlique plagis superisque vacavi. He was a lover of the science, and excelled in it; but there is reason to believe, that, in the Julian Calendar, he was assisted or directed by Sosigenes, the astronomer, who had derived his knowledge from the banks of the Nile. It is probable that superstition, and not ignorance only, prevented the reformation from taking place, before Cæsar gave it the sanction of his authority, and received, in return, the whole honour of the invention. Cæsar's Commentaries are too well known to admit of much animadversion upon them. They are evidently formed on the model of Xenophon's Anabasis. Their language is pure, and flows with that ease and perspicuity, which has induced readers unanimously to compare it to a gentle and beautiful river, whose surface is smooth, and waters pellucid. They who lament the want of political observations in them, and of masterly strokes of animated eloquence, should remember, that Cæsar professed only to write commentaries, and not a just and legitimate* history. There is not much remaining of this great man's compositiont; but there is enough to induce us to lament that he did not use the pen more than the sword. Poggius maintains, with great force of argument, that in military merit, his first object, he was greatly inferior to Scipio. Pliny the elder seems to think vigour of mind the distinguishing character of Cæsar. He means not firmness and resolution only; but a peculiar celerity and irresistible force, which can be compared to nothing more aptly than to fire. He could, at the same time, read and write, and listen with attention. He has been known to dictate to his amanuenses six or seven letters at once. Who but must lament that ambition stole him from the Muses? He might have spent all his fire, and acquired immortal fame, in composing an epic poem, or the history of his country, without shedding a drop of blood, or breaking one widow's or orphan's heart; and with the praise and delight of all posterity. Knox's Winter Evenings. $62. On the Character and Style of PLINY the YOUNGER. The character of PLINY the younger, in whatever light it is viewed, is pleasing. The elegance of his writings resulted from the habitual elegance of his mind and manners. Considered as a man of letters, and a man of the world, he may be said, more than any of the ancients, to deserve the epithet of All accomplished. It has, indeed, been objected, that his letters are too elaborate. Ease, the characteristic of the epistolary style, is said to be sacrificed to studied ornament: but it should be remembered by the censurers of Pliny, that there are beauties of art as well as of nature; and that art, even when misplaced, as it usually is in familiar letters, may produce an agreeable work, as nature may bring forth something anomalous, which, though termed a monster by the naturalists, may yet be beautiful. The perusal of Pliny's letters. excites a pleasure more similar to that which arises from a view of an elegant *Justum legitimamque historiam: a classical mode of expression; but naturalized by Bishop Warburton and Bishop Hurd. + Besides those already mentioned, Cæsar wrote the following works, which are lost-Nine capital Orations, besides some smaller ones, on particular occasions; several books of Epistles, at least sixteen; Libri Auspiciorum; Auguralia, and some affirm that he translated Aratus's Phæno Other things are attributed to him, but, it is supposed, erroneously. mena. ૨ parterre, the formal gardening of the old school, than to that which is derived from contemplating the ruder beauties of uncultivated nature, or the ornamented land scape. Pliny is among those few ancient authors, who have been translated into English without losing much of their original grace. Lord Orrery and Mr. Melmoth seem to have resembled him in their manners, as well as in their style. The task was natural to them; for, while they expressed the author's idea they appear to have expressed their own. Both the translations have uncommon merit; and, if a preference be given to Melmoth's, it must, at the same time, be acknowledged, that a very great share of praise is due to that of Lord Orrery. The panegyric of Trajan has, like the epistles, been censured as stiff, laboured, and affected; but if the beauties of the composition can excuse the appearance of labour in the epistles, with much greater reason ought they to justify it in a formal oration. At an advanced period of literature, when taste becomes too capricious and depraved to endure the graces of nature and simplicity, there is no resource left for an author who would acquire popularity, but to labour in the invention of ingenious thoughts and new conceits, and in bestowing on his productions the nicest polish of art. Panegyrical pieces of eloquence are commonly of all others the most difficult, because their subjects are of all others the most barren. What may be said in very high praise of any man, may usually be comprehended in few words, if truth only and unembellished facts are plainly represented. Whenever, therefore, it is required, by the ceremonies of a public solemnity, to expatiate on the virtues of particular persons, and those persons not the most meritorious, the orator soon finds himself under a necessity of supplying the deficiency of matter by ingenious turns and laboured ornaments. The compositions of Pliny, whether epistolary or oratorical, are not likely to please the common or superficial reader. Sounding periods, and animated expressions, are required by the vulgar, rather than the less obvious beauties of correctness, refinement, or delicacy. The passions and the imagination of those whose intellects and judgment are weak, are often strong and lively. Their mental appetite, like their corporeal, unaccustomed to niceties, learns to prefer coarse viands to the dainties of luxury. An uncultivated mind perhaps feels, from the rude ballad of an itinerant singer, as much pleasure as that which arises to an improved taste from the polished pieces of an Horace or a Pindar. It is, therefore, no derogation from the merits of Pliny, that he is not universally admired. His elegance is too subtle and refined for the vulgar eye. Though great genius may be displayed in hewing even a rough statue, or in sketching an imperfect picture, yet the judicious connoisseur will always feel a pleasure in examining those works of sculpture or painting which have received the highest polish, and have been finished with the nicest traits of the pencil. Such writers as Homer and Shakspeare I must admire with all their imperfections on their heads; but yet, as imperfections are not of themselves laudable, it is surely consistent with reason to admire those also, who, like Pliny, are even painfully solicitous to avoid them. Longinus, with all the ardour of genius, prefers faulty eminence to faultless mediocrity; but neither he, nor any other sensible critic, has pronounced correctness a fault. It is possible that the judgment may approve, while the heart and imagination remain unaffected. But we read to be moved, to be entertained, to be delighted. Mere approbation is a frigid sentiment. An animated work, therefore, which excites warm emotions, attended with occasional disgust, is read in preference to another, which is insipid though correct, and dull though judicious. But where genius is united with correct taste, the judgment, the heart, and the imagination, are at once fully satisfied. Such a combination existed in the minds of Pliny and Addison. It must, indeed, be remarked, to the honour of Addison, that he is far more natural than Pliny. He has all the elegance of the polite Roman, without the affectation. "The elegance of Pliny's manners,' says Melmoth," adds force to the most interesting, at the same time that it enlivens the commonest, subjects. But the polite and spirited turn of his epistles is, by no means, their principal recommendation: they receive a much higher value, as they exhibit one of the most amiable and animating characters in all antiquity. Pliny's whole life seems to have been employed in the exercise of every generous and social affection." Who then, I ask, will not forgive the blemishes of his writings, especially as the blemishes are blended with so much beauty? Knox's Essays. § 63. Of the Introduction, Improvement, and Fall of the Arts at Rome. The city of Rome, as well as its inhabitants, was in the beginning rude and unadorned. Those old rough soldiers looked on the effects of the politer arts as things fit only for an effeminate people; as too apt to soften and unnerve men; and to take from that martial temper and ferocity, which they encouraged so much and so universally in the infancy of their state. Their houses were (what the name they gave them signified) only a covering for them, and a defence against bad weather. These sheds of theirs were more like the caves of wild beasts, than the habitations of men; and were rather flung together as chance led them, than formed into regular streets and openings: their walls were half mud, and their roofs, pieces of wood stuck together; nay, even this was an after improvement; for in Romulus's time, their houses were only covered with straw. If they had any thing that was finer than ordinary, that was chiefly taken up in setting off the temples of their gods; and when these began to be furnished with statues (for they had none till long after Numa's time) they were probably more fit to give terror than delight; and seemed rather formed so as to be horrible enough to strike an awe into those who worshipped them, than handsome enough to invite any one to look upon them for pleasure. Their design, I suppose, was answerable to the materials they were made of: and if their gods were of earthen ware, they were reckoned better than ordinary; for many of them were chopt out of wood. One of the chief ornaments in those times, both of the temples and private houses, consisted in their ancient trophies: which were trunks of trees cleared of their branches, and so formed into a rough kind of posts. These were loaded with the arms they had taken in war, and you may easily perceive what sort of ornaments these posts must make, when half decayed by time, and hung about with old rusty arms, besmeared with the blood of their enemies. Rome was not then that beautiful Rome, whose very ruins at this day are sought after with so much pleasure; it was a town, which carried an air of terror in its appearance; and which made people shudder, whenever they first entered within its gates. Spence. $ 64. The Condition of the ROMANS in the Second PUNIC War. Such was the state of this imperial city, when its citizens had made so great a pro. gress in arms as to have conquered the better part of Italy, and to be able to engage in a war with the Carthaginians; the strongest power then by land, and the absolute masters by sea. The Romans, in the first Punic war, added Sicily to their dominions. In the second, they greatly increased their strength, both by sea and land; and acquired a taste of the arts and elegancies of life, with which till then they had been totally unacquainted. For though before this they were masters of Sicily (which in the old Roman geography made a part of Greece) and of several cities in the eastern parts of Italy, which were inhabited by colonies from Greece, and were adorned with the pictures, and statues, and other works, in which that nation delighted, and excelled the rest of the world so much; they had hitherto looked upon them with so careless an eye, that they had felt little or nothing of their beauty. This insensibility they preserved so long, either from the grossness of their minds, or perhaps from their superstition, and a dread of reverencing foreign deities as much as their own; or (which is the most likely of all) out of mere politics, and the desire of keeping up their martial spirit and natural roughness, which they thought the arts and elegancies of the Grecians would be but too apt to destroy. However that was, they generally preserved themselves from even the least suspicion of taste for the polite arts, pretty far into the second Punic war; as appears by the behaviour of Fabius Maximus in that war, even after the scales were turned on their side. When that general took Tarentum, he found it full of riches, and extremely adorned with pictures and statues. Among others, there were some very fine colossal figures of the gods, represented as fighting against the rebel giants. These were made by some of the most eminent masters in Greece; and the Jupiter, not improbably, by Lysippus. When Fabius was disposing of the spoil, he ordered the money and plate to be sent to the treasury at Rome, but the § 65. MARCELLUS attacks SYRACUSE, and sends all its Pictures and Statues to ROME. Marcellus had indeed behaved himself very differently in Sicily, a year or two before this happened. As he was to carry on the war in that province, he bent the whole force of it against Syracuse. There was at that time no one city which belonged to the Greeks, more elegant, or better adorned, than the city of Syracuse; it abounded in the works of the best masters. Marcellus, when he took the city, cleared it entirely, and sent all their statues and pictures to Rome. When I say all, I use the language of the people of Syracuse; who soon after laid a complaint against Marcellus before the Roman senate, in which they charged him with stripping all their houses and temples, and leaving nothing but bare walls throughout the city. Marcellus himself did not at all disown it, but fairly confessed what he had done and used to declare that he had done so, in order to adorn Rome, and to introduce a taste for the fine arts among his countrymen. Such a difference of behaviour in their two greatest leaders, soon occasioned two different parties in Rome. The old people in general joined in crying up Fabius. -Fabius was not rapacious, as some others were; but temperate in his conquests. In what he had done, he had acted, not only with that moderation which becomes a Roman general, but with much prudence and foresight. "These fineries," they cried, "are a pretty diversion for an idle "effeminate people: let us leave them to "the Greeks. The Romans desire no "other ornaments of life, than a simpli“city of manners at home, and fortitude 46 against our enemies abroad. It is by "these arts that we have raised our name "so high, and spread our dominions so far: "and shall we suffer them now to be ex"changed for a fine taste, and what they "call elegance of living? No, great Ju"piter, who presidest over the capitol! let 66 "the Greeks keep their arts to themselves, "and let the Romans learn only how to conquer and to govern mankind.”—Another set, and particularly the younger people, who were extremely delighted with the noble works of the Grecian artists that had been set up for some time in the temples and porticos, and all the most public places in the city, and who used frequently to spend the greatest part of the day in contemplating the beauties of them, extolled Marcellus as much for the pleasure he had given them. "We shall now," said they, "no longer be reckoned among "the Barbarians. That rust, which we "have been so long contracting, will soon "be worn off. Other generals have conquered our enemies, but Marcellus has "conquered our ignorance. We begin "to see with new eyes, and have a new "world of beauties opening before us. "Let the Romans be polite, as well as "victorious; and let us learn to excel the "nations in taste, as well as to conquer "them with our arms." Whichever side was in the right, the party for Marcellus was the successful one; for, from this point of time we may date the introduction of the arts into Rome. The Romans by this means began to be fond of them; and the love of the arts is a passion, which grows very fast in any breast wherever it is once entertained. We may see how fast and how greatly it prevailed in Rome, by a speech which old Cato the censor made in the senate, not above seventeen years after the taking of Syracuse. He complains, in it, that their people began to run into Greece and Asia; and to be infected with a desire of playing with their fine things: that as to such spoils, there was less honour in taking them, than there was danger of their being taken by them: that the gods brought from Syracuse, had revenged the cause of its citizens, in spreading this taste among the Romans: that he heard but too many daily crying up the ornaments of Corinth and Athens; and ridiculing the poor old Roman gods; who had hitherto been propitious to them: and who, he hoped, would still continue so, if they would but let their statues remain in peace upon their pedestals. Spence. § 66. The ROMAN Generals, in their several Conquests, convey great Numbers of Pictures and Statues to ROME. It was in vain too that Cato spoke |