in haste when unawares in a mountain glen he comes upon a snake. But Hector saw him and rebuked him, 'Fair art thou to look upon, Paris, but nothing worth. Surely the Greeks will scorn us if they think that thou art our bravest warrior, because thou art of stately presence. But thou art a coward, and yet thou daredst to go across the sea and carry off the fair Helen. Why dost thou not stand and abide the onset of her husband, and see what manner of man he is? Little, I ween, would thy harp and thy long locks, and thy fair face avail when thou wert lying in the dust! A craven race are the sons of Troy, or they would have stoned thee ere this.'

LVI.

A follower of Pythagoras had bought a pair of shoes from a cobbler, for which he promised to pay him on a future day. He went with his money on the day appointed, but found that the cobbler had in the interval departed this life. Without saying anything of his errand, he withdrew secretly, rejoicing at the opportunity thus unexpectedly afforded him of gaining a pair of shoes for nothing. His conscience, however, says Seneca, would not suffer him to remain quiet under such an act of injustice; so, taking up the money, he returned to the cobbler's shop, and, casting in the money, said, 'Go thy ways, for though he is dead to all the world besides, yet he is alive to me.'

LVII.

Cato was unfortunate enough to live at a time when avarice, luxury, and ambition prevailed at Rome, when

religion and the laws were disregarded, and when the whole appearance of the State was so changed and disfigured that if one of the former generation had risen from the dead he would hardly have recognised the Roman people. Cato was one of a few who supported the cause of virtue, who could neither be allured by promises nor terrified by threats, and who would not flatter the great at the expense of the truth. Though his countrymen were too depraved to be influenced by his example, they could not do otherwise than admire him in their hearts.

LVIII.

While Athens was governed by the thirty tyrants, Socrates, the philosopher, was summoned to the Senate House, and ordered to go with some other persons, whom they named, to seize one Leon, a man of rank and fortune, whom they determined to put out of the way, that they might enjoy his estate. This commission Socrates positively refused. will not willingly,' said he, assist in an unjust act.' Charicles sharply replied, 'Dost thou think, Socrates, to talk in this high tone and not to suffer?''Far from it,' replied he, 'I expect to suffer a thousand ills, but none so great as to do unjustly.'

'I

LIX.

King Porus, in a battle with Alexander the Great, being severely wounded, fell from the back of his elephant. The Macedonian soldiers, supposing him dead, pushed forward, in order to despoil him of his rich clothing and accoutrements; but the faithful elephant standing over the body of

his master, boldly repelled every one who dared to approach, and while the enemy stood at bay, took the bleeding Porus up on his trunk, and placed him again on his back. The troops of Porus came by this time to his relief, and the king was saved; but the elephant died of the wounds which it had received in the heroic defence of its master.

LX.

In this almost hopeless danger one of the military tribunes, Publius Decius Mus, discovered a little hill above the enemy's camp, and asked leave to lead a small body of men to seize it, since he would be likely thus to draw off the Samnites, and while they were destroying him, as he fully expected, the Romans could get out of the valley. Hidden by the wood, he gained the hill, and there the Samnites saw him, to their great amazement; and while they were considering whether to attack him, the other Romans were able to march out of the valley. Finding he was not attacked, Decius set guards, and, when night came on, marched down again as quietly as possible to join the army, who were now on the other side of the Samnite camp.

LXI.

Two years later the two consuls, Titus Veturius and Spurius Posthumius, were marching into Campania, when the Samnite commander, Pontius Herennius, sent forth people disguised as shepherds to entice them into a narrow mountain pass near the city of Caudium, with only one way out, which the Samnites blocked up with trunks of trees.

As soon as the Romans were within this place

the other end was blocked in the same way, and thus they were all closed up at the mercy of their enemies. What was to be done with them? asked the Samnites; and they went to consult old Herennius, the father of Pontius, the wisest man in the nation. Open the way and let them all go free,' he said. 'What!' without gaining any advantage?' Then kill them all.' He was asked to explain such extraordinary advice. He said that to release them generously would be to make them friends and allies for ever; but if the war was to go on, the best thing for Samnium would be to destroy such a number of enemies at a blow.

LXII.

Caesar was in his chair, in his consular purple, wearing a wreath of bay, wrought in gold. The honour of the wreath was the only distinction which he had accepted from the Senate with pleasure. He retained a remnant of youthful vanity, and the twisted leaves concealed his baldness. Antony, his colleague in the consulship, approached with a diadem, and placed it on Caesar's head, saying, 'The people give you this by my hand.' He answered in a loud voice 'that the Romans had no king but God,' and ordered that the diadem should be taken to the Capitol, and placed on the statue of Jupiter. The crowd burst into an enthusiastic cheer; and an inscription on a brass tablet recorded that the Roman people had offered Caesar the crown by the hands of the consul, and that Caesar had refused it.

LXIII.

After the execution of Sabinus, the Roman general, who suffered death for his attachment to the family of Germanicus, his body was exposed to the public upon the precipice of the Gemoniae, as a warning to all who should dare to befriend the house of Germanicus: no friend had courage to approach the body; one only remained truehis faithful dog. For three days the animal continued to watch the body; his pathetic howlings awakening the sympathy of every heart. Food was brought him, but on taking the bread, instead of obeying the impulse of hunger, he fondly laid it on his master's mouth, and renewed his lamentations; days thus passed, nor did he for a moment quit the body.

LXIV.

In the winter season a commonwealth of ants was busily employed in the management and preservation of their corn, which they exposed to the air in heaps round about their little country habitation. A grasshopper who had chanced to outlive the summer, and was ready to starve with cold and hunger, approached them with great humility, and begged that they would relieve his necessity with one grain of wheat or rye. One of the ants asked him how he had disposed of his time in summer, that he had not taken pains, and laid in a stock, as they had done. 'Alas! gentlemen,' says he, 'I passed away the time merrily and pleasantly, in drinking, singing, and dancing, and never once thought of winter.' If that be the case,' replied the ant, laughing, all I have to say is, that they who drink, sing, and dance in the summer, must starve in winter.'