LIFE AND WRITINGS OF CICERO.

DR. BARTON.-HENRY ARLINGTON.

H. Good morning, my dear Doctor, I have waited upon you, at this early hour, to display a purchase which I recently made, and to ask your opinion respecting it. I have here the entire works of Cicero, in one stout octavo, by a German scholar of the name of Nobbe.

Dr. B. I have seen the edition, Henry, and am disposed to think very favourably of it, both as regards the text itself, and the typographical execution of the volume. I examined it at Parker's, yesterday, in company with Ashton, of Brasen-Nose.-But do tell me, how stands your acquaintance with the life and writings of "the man of Arpinum?"

H. I am not as much at home there, Doctor, as I ought to be. With the general outlines of his character and labours, I am as well acquainted, probably, as most young men of my age are; but still there are many points about which I would like to consult you, when you are perfectly at leisure for the task. Indeed, Doctor, to be candid, I wish you would favour me with a conversation about Cicero, similar to the one in which Sallust was our theme.

Dr. B. With all my heart, Henry, for I happen to be quite at leisure just now, as the delegates of the press will not meet to-day, owing to the indisposition of the Cambden Professor of History, Dr. Cardwell.

H. I regret the cause, my dear Doctor, and yet cannot but deem myself extremely fortunate in finding you thus disengaged. With your permission, I will occupy this comfortable, old-fashioned arm-chair, and will place my Cicero on the table between us as a sort of connecting tie.

Dr. B. There is no need, my dear boy, of any such tie in the present case, as a far more powerful one already exists. Besides, I know not how it is, but whoever occupies that plain old seat where you are now reclining, seems endeared to me by what Gaisford would call the “genius sedilis," for it was there that my old friend Copleston of Oriel used to sit, and discourse of "high philosophy," before he was transferred to that more elevated sphere of action, which he honours by his talents, and

adorns by his numerous virtues. God grant, my dear Henry, that your own career may be as distinguished and successful a one.

H. If patient industry, and a conscientious discharge of duty, can gain for me an honourable name, I trust I shall never disappoint your expectations, my own and my father's friend, although I can never hope to attain to that lofty superiority, which has been reached by the eminent individual whose name you have just mentioned.—Let us proceed, now, my dear Doctor, to Cicero.

Dr. B. Marcus Tullius Cicero was born in the 103d year before the Christian era, at Arpinum, a Latin city, the inhabitants of which enjoyed the rights of Roman citizenship, and the privilege, consequently, of voting at the comitia. The birth-year of Cicero was also that of Pompey, who was a few months his junior;1 while Arpinum, the orator's natal place, was likewise famous for having produced the celebrated Marius, the well-known opponent of Sylla, and the deliverer at the same time and Scourge of his country.

H. Was it not Pompey who made some allusion to this circumstance, Doctor, of Arpinum's having produced both a Cicero and a Marius.

Dr. B. It was. He took occasion once to remark, in a public speech, that Rome was under the strongest obligations to this municipium, because two citizens had come forth from it, who had each in his turn preserved Italy from ruin.2 And Valerius Maximus makes a similar remark H. I remember his words: " Conspicuae felicitatis Arpinum unicum, sive literarum gloriosissimum contemtorem, sive abundantissimum fontem intueri velis."3

mus,

Dr. B. Yes, that used to be a favourite quotation with Russell. of Magdalen. The contemtor literarum is Marius, the fons abundantissiCicero. Our orator was of a family, which, though it had never borne any of the great offices of the republic, was yet very ancient and honourable; of principal distinction and nobility in that part of Italy in which it resided, and of equestrian rank from its first admission to the freedom of Rome. It appears, that the father of Cicero, having his ambition probably excited, by the successful career of his fellow-townsman Marius, was the first who thought of obtaining some degree of lustre for his family, by bestowing a careful education on his two sons Marcus and Quintus, and one which might enable them to enjoy the highest offices in the gift of the Roman people.

1. Cicero was born on the third of January, (Ep. ad Att. 7, 5,) and Pompey on the last of September following. Pigh. Ann. Plin. 37, 2.

2. Cic. de Leg. 2. 2. 3.

3. Val. Max. 2, 2, 4.

4. "Haec est mea, et hujus fratris mei germana patria: hinc enim orti stipe antiquissima sumus: hic sacra, hic genus, hic majorum multa vestigia." Cic. de Leg. 2, 2, 3.

H. But how could they procure this education at Arpinum ?

Dr. B. They obtained it at Rome, in the dwelling of Caius Aculeo, their maternal uncle, and an eminent lawyer of the day; and their cousins, the young Aculeos, were educated with them, according to a method approved of by Crassus, the celebrated orator, and by the very instructers whom he himself had employed. The language and literature of Greece formed, of course, a prominent part of their early studies, and in this they were carefully instructed by the poet Archias, who came to resiïe at Rome when Cicero was only five years of age, and to whose fostering` care the latter beautifully alludes in the memorable oration where he defends the poet's citizenship.

H. Do you not think, Doctor, that he rates somewhat too highly the merits of this Archias? Dodgson, of Christ-Church, one of Dean Ireland's scholars, insists that the poet was only an individual of second. rate abilities.

Dr. B. Why, I am inclined to think so myself. But vanity, you know, was the great failing in Cicero's character, and Archias most probably, in the true spirit of his country and his age, had ministered so abundantly to the personal feelings of the Roman orator, as to entitle him in the eyes of the latter to a more than ordinary return of the language of praise. Be this, however, as it may, we cannot but admire the kind feeling so strongly displayed in his spirited eulogium upon the character and abilities of his early preceptor.-But let us proceed. Cicero is said to have attracted, at an early period, the attention of the two greatest orators of their day, Licinius Crassus and Marcus Antonius, who did not disdain to interest themselves in behalf of a youth so conspicuous for zeal and the early development of talent. He had already given a proof of this ability by his poem of Pontius Glaucus, which he is said to have composed while still almost a boy, and which existed as late as the time of Plutarch.2

H. But, Doctor, you surely would not consider Cicero's poetry a very safe standard by which to estimate his intellectual excellence.

Dr. B. I am well aware, my young friend, of the difference of opinion which exists in relation to the poetry of Cicero, and that it is very much the fashion with modern scholars to deny him any merit in this species of writing. He has been often ridiculed on account of an unlucky line, that occurred in a poem which he composed on the subject of his consulship; and I have no doubt you can quote it for me.

H. "O fortunatam natam me consule Romam."

Dr. B. Right. You remember probably the sarcasm of Juvenal, that,

1. "Cumque nos cum consobrinis nostris, Aculeonis filiis, et ea disceremus, quae Crasso placerent, et ab iis doctoribus, quibus ille uteretur erudiremur." De Orat. 2, 1.

2. Plut. Vit. Cic. 2.

3. Sat. 10, 123, seq.

B

if he had uttered every thing in this way, he would have been safe from the swords of Antony's followers; and also Quintilian's language, who censures the line as an example of defective versification; still, I cannot, I confess, see the justice of condemning a writer for a single line of poetry, and it appears to me, that, if our modern bards were tried by this ordeal, a large number, who have obtained very comfortable quarters on Parnassus, would be compelled to descend to the plain. Voltaire, in the preface to his Catilina, places Cicero by the side of the best poets of his time, and thinks he may even dispute the palm with Lucretius himself.2 H. Allow me to ask, Doctor Barton, whether you would consider Voltaire as a very strong authority in the present case?

Dr. B. I know what you mean by your question, Henry. The worką which my friend Dr. Wynter, of St. John's College, recommended you to read, has given you a very low opinion of Voltaire's general accuracy, and I confess, that, in matters of real scholarship, his authority is of no weight whatever. As a poet, however, he may be allowed to give us his opinion respecting a brother poet, and may be considered a much safer guide in matters of taste than where learning and research are demanded.

H. Perhaps, Doctor, some light may be thrown upon this subject by the estimation in which Cicero's poetry was held among his contemporaries.

Dr. B. Strange as it may appear to you, Cicero's contemporaries all thought that his poem entitled Marius, an extract from which appears in the treatise on Divination,a and on which by-the-bye Voltaire's opinion is founded, was a production that had the fairest chance of descending to posterity. Indeed, the alliance between oratory and the poetic art is so strict, that it is difficult to excel in one, without having at the same time some disposition for the other. Both demand, in fact, the very same qualities, an ardent imagination, a fertile invention, and grandeur and elevation of style. Thus, for example, the genius of Demosthenes was essentially tragic, and he appears as much of a poet as an orator, in some of those strains of continued eloquence, which no human effort has yet surpassed, and which have covered his name with one undying blaze of glory. We must bear in mind, too, that, in Cicero's days, the ancient rusticity of the Latin muse was only beginning to assume a more polished exterior, and to familiarize itself insensibly with harmony of numbers and

1. Inst. Or. 9, 4, 41.

2. "Ce que peu de personnes savent, c'est que Cicéron était encore un des premiers poètes d'un siècle où la belle poèsie commençait à naître. Il balançait a reputation de Lucrèce. Y-a-t-il rien de plus beau que ces vers qui nous sont restès de son poème sur Marius, et qui font tant regretter la perte de cet ouvrage ?"

3. Lettres de quelques Juifs, à M. de Voltaire. 3 tom. 12 mo. 4. Cic. de Div. 1, 47