fluence the conversational language of the higher classes became in the greatest degree refined, and the Latin tongue purified morally as well as æsthetically. His dialogues present us with conversations on all the worthiest subjects of thought, and enlivened with the culture of all the preceding ages, and their powerful influence is shown in the literature of the golden age of Roman thought, of which Cicero was the fit progenitor.

In oratory he combined the powers of the most celebrated Athenians, uniting the force of Demosthenes with the elegance of Isocrates. There is a florid exuberance in his style that sometimes offends against just taste, but his melody of language, brilliancy of expression, extensive knowledge, and thorough acquaintance with human nature, gave his speeches a charm which is almost as convincing to modern readers as it was to his Roman audiences.

FROM THE ORATIONS AGAINST VERRES.

As it happened Verres came on that very day to Messana. The matter is brought before him. He was told that the man was a Roman citizen; was complaining that at Syracuse he had been confined in the stone quarries, and how he, when he was actually embarking on board ship and uttering violent threats against Verres, had been brought back by them, and reserved in order that he might himself decide what should be done with him.

He thanks the men, and praises their good will and diligence in his behalf. He, himself, inflamed with wickedness and frenzy, came into the forum. His eyes glared; cruelty was visible in his whole countenance; all men waited to see what steps he was going to take; what he was going to do; when all of a sudden he orders the man to be seized, and to be stripped and bound in the middle of the forum, and the rods to be got ready. The miserable man cried out that he was a Roman citizen; a citizen also of the mu nicipal town of Cosa; that he had served with Lucius Pretius, a most illustrious Roman knight, who was living as a trader at Panor'mus, and from whom Verres might know that he was speaking the truth.

Then Verres says that he has ascertained that he was sent into Sicily by the leaders of the runaway slaves, in order to act as a spy; a matter as to which there was no evidence, no trace, nor even the slightest suspicion in the mind of any one. Then he orders the man to be most violently scourged on all sides,—in the middle of the forum of Messana, a Roman citizen, O judges, was beaten with rods! while, in the meantime, no groan was heard, no other expression was heard from that wretched man, amid all his pain, and between the sounds of the blows, except these words: "I am a citizen of Rome!"

He fancied that by this one statement of his citizenship he could ward off all blows, and remove all torture from his person. He not only did not succeed in averting by his entreaties the violence of the rods, but as he kept on repeating his entreaties, and the assertion of his citizenship, a cross-a cross, I say—was got ready for that miserable man, who had never witnessed such a stretch of power.

O the sweet name of Liberty! O the admirable privileges of our citizenship! O Porcian law! O Sempronian laws! O power of the tribunes, bitterly regretted by and at last restored to the Roman people! in a town of our confederate allies - a Roman citizen should be bound in the forum and beaten with rods, by a man who only had the fasces and axes through the kindness of the Roman people!

If the bitter entreaties and the miserable cries of that man had no power to restrain you, were you not moved even by the weeping and loud cries of the Roman citizens who were present at the time? Did you dare to drag any one to the cross who said he was a Roman citizen?-Guthrie.

NATURE AND ART IN HARMONY.

How wonderful is the vegetable creation! Where there is not a stock, there is not a bough, no, nor a leaf, which does not operate in preserving and propagating its own nature, yet all is beauty. Let us pass from nature to the arts: In a ship what is more necessary than the sides, the keel, the prow, the stern, the yards, the sails, the masts? Yet altogether they appear so comely that they seem as designed not for preservation only, but for beauty.

Pillars support porticoes and temples, yet they are not more graceful than they are useful. It was not beauty, but necessity, that contrived the noble cupola of the Capitol, and of other sacred

structures. For in the contrivance how to let the rain off on each side of the edifice, the very form in which this was brought about, created the lofty appearance it makes; so that, though the Capitol stood in the heavens, where no rain could fall, the majesty of its structure would be lost without its cupola.

The same observation holds good with regard to eloquence, almost through all its parts; for there wit and harmony almost attend utility, and, I may say, necessity. For the steps and divisions of periods were first introduced for recovering the breath, and sparing the lungs; and yet in their own nature they are so musical that, though one's lungs were inexhaustible, yet we should not wish for a continuation of its style without any stops. Such a sympathy exists betwixt what is agreeable to our ears and what is not only possible but easy for our lungs.-Guthrie.

EXTRACT FROM LETTER TO MARCUS MARIUS.

While you were employing the rest of the day in these various polite amusements which you have the happy privilege to plan out for yourself, we alone had the mortification of tamely enduring those dramatical representations to which Martius, it seems, our professed critic, had given his infallible sanction. But as you will have the curiosity, perhaps, to require a more particular account, I must tell you that, though our entertainments were very magnificent indeed, yet they were by no means such as you would have relished, at least if I may judge of your taste by my own.

Some of those actors who had formerly distinguished themselves with great plays, but had long since retired, I imagined, in order to preserve the reputation they had raised, were now again introduced upon the stage, as in honor, it seems, of the festival.

Among them was my old friend Esopus, but so different from what he was that the whole audience cried that he ought to be excused from acting any more, for when he was pronouncing the celebrated "If I deceive, be Jove's dread vengeance hurled," etc., the poor old man's voice left him, and he had not strength to go through with the speech.

As to the other parts of our theatrical entertainment you know the nature of them so well that it is scarce necessary to mention them. The enormous parade with which they were attended, and which, I dare say, you would very willingly have spared, destroyed all the grace of the performance. What pleasure could it afford to

the judicious spectator to see a thousand mules prancing about the stage in the tragedy of Clytemnestra? or whole regiments accoutred in foreign armor, in that of the Trojan Horse?

In a word, what man of sense could be entertained with viewing a mock army drawn up on the stage in battle array? These, I confess, are spectacles extremely well adapted to captivate vulgar eyes, but undoubtedly would have had no charm in yours.—Melmoth.

THE EARLIER ROMAN HISTORIANS.

PROSE, far more than poetry, was in accordance with the genius of the Romans. They lacked ideality or imaginative power, and held the useful in far higher esteem than the beautiful. They were vigorous and just thinkers, but not inclined to philosophy or intellectual invention; their practical disposition giving them a much stronger bias to historical and legal pursuits than to culture of the imagination.

History, moreover, had the advantage over other branches of literature, that it was not left to the hands of slaves and freedmen, being considered as a pursuit worthy of the noblest Roman; its first writers, Fabius Pictor, Cincius Alimentus and others being of equestrian families.

The first historical labors were of the nature of simple annals, and were largely devoted to the transfer of poetic legends into prose, as their most popular vehicle. Neglecting ornament, they cared only to be intelligible, and considered that the chief excellence of a writer was brevity, their works being destitute of picturesque detail or political reflection.

Fa'bius Pic'tor, a contemporary of Nævius, the dramatic artist, and a member of the noble family of the Fabii, was the most ancient of Roman historians. This is unfortunate, as later historians have copied freely from him, and have repeated his heterogeneous mass of facts and fables; which latter might have been entirely avoided had he possessed the judgment and care to investigate the important original records then in existence.