LETTER XI. To Catilius Severus. 1 AM at prefent detained in Rome (and have been fo a confiderable time) under the most alarming apprehenfions. Titus Arifto, whom I infinitely love and efleem, is fallen into a dangerous and obftinate illness, which deeply affects me. Virtue, knowledge, and good fenfe, fhine out with fo fuperior a luftre in this excellent man, that learning herself and every valuable endowment feems involved in the danger of his fingle perfon. How confummate is his knowledge both in the political and civil laws of his country! How thoroughly converfant is he in every branch of hiftory and antiquity! There is no article of science, in fhort, you would wish to be informed of, in which he is.not skilled. As for my own part, whenever I would acquaint myself with any abftrufe point of literature, I have recourfe to him, as to one who fupplies me with its most hidden treasures. What an amiable fincerity, what a noble dignity is there in his converfation! How humble, yet how graceful is his diffidence! Though he conceives at once every point in debate, yet he is as flow to decide, as he is quick to apprehend, calmly and deliberately weighing every oppofite reason that is offered, and tracing it, with a moft judicious penetration, from its fource through all its remoteft confequences. His diet is frugal, his drefs plain; and whenever I enter his chamber, and view him upon his couch, I confider the scene before me as a true image of ancient implicity, to which his illuftrious mind reflects the nobleft ornament. He places o part of his happiness in oftentation, bat refers the whole of it to confcience; and feeks the reward of his virtue, not in the clamorous applaufes of the world, but in the filent fatisfaction which refults from having acted well. In short, you will tot eafily find his equal even among our pofophers by profeffion. He frequents not the places of public difputations*, or idly amufes himself and others with rain and endless controverfies. His nobler talents are exerted to more useful purposes; in the scenes of civil and active The philofophers ufed to hold their disputa fon in the Gymnafia and Porticos, be.ng places of most public refort for walking, &c. life. Many has he affifted with his intereft, ftill more with his advice! But though he dedicates his time to the affairs of the world, he regulates his conduct by the precepts of the philofophers; and in the practice of temperance, piety, justice and fortitude he has no fuperior. It is aftonishing with what patience he bears his illness; how he ftruggles with pain, endures thirst, and quietly fubmits to the troublesome regimen neceffary in a raging fever. He lately called me, and a few more of his particular friends, to his bedfide, and begged we would ask his phyficians what turn they apprehended his distemper would take that if they pronounced it incurable, he might voluntarily put an end to his life; but if there were hopes of a recovery, however tedious and difficult, he might wait the event with patience for fo much, he thought, was due to the tears and intreaties of his wife and daughter, and to the affectionate interceffion of his friends, as not voluntarily to abandon our hopes, if in truth they were not entirely desperate. A refolution this, in my eftimation, truly heroical, and worthy of the highest applaufe. Inftances are frequent enough in the world, of rufhing into the arms of death without reflection, and by a fort of blind impulfe: but calmly and deliberately to weigh the reafons for life or death, and to be determined in our choice as either fide of the scale prevails, is the mark of an uncommon and great mind †. The general lawfulness of self-murder was a doctrine by no means univerfally received in the ble names, both Greek and Roman, having exancient Pagan world; many of the moft confideraprefly declared against that practice. Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Tully, have condemned it: even Brutus himself, though he fell by his own hands, yet in his cooler and philofophical hours, wrote a treatise wherein he highly condemned Cato, as being guilty of an act both of impiety and cowardice in deftroying himself. The judicious Virgil is allo in the fame fentiments, and reprefents fuch unhappy perfons as in a state of punishment: Proxima deinde tenent mæfli loca, qui fibi letum Themfelves anticipate the doon of death; poffeffion of my whole heart. I have heard him in the unpremeditated, as well as ftudied fpeech, plead with no lefs warmth and energy, than grace and eloquence. He abounds with just reflections; his periods are graceful and majettic; his words harmonious, and tamped with the authority of genuine antiquity. There united qualities infinitely delight you, Lot only when you are carried along, if I may fo fay, with the refiftlets flow of his charming and emphaticai elocution; but when confidered diflinct and apart from that advantage. I am perfuaded you will be of this opinion when you perafe his orations, and will not hesitate to place him in the fame rank with the acients, whom he fo happily imitates. But you will view him with ftill higher pleafure in the character of an hiftorian, where his ftyle is at once concife and clear, fimooth and fublime; and the fame energy of expreffion, though with more clonefs, runs through his harangues, which to eminently distinguishes and adorns his pleadings. But thefe are not all his excellencies; he has compofed feveral poetical. pieces in the manner of my favourite Calvus and Catullus. What strokes of wit, what sweetness of numbers, what pointed fatire, and what touches of the tender paflion appear in his verfes in the midst of which he fometimes defignedly falls into an agreeable negligence in his metre, in imitation too of thofe admired poets. He read to me, the other day, fome letters which he affured me were wrote by his wife. I fancied I was hearing Plautus or Terence in profe. If they are that lady's (as he pofitively affirms), or his own (which he abfolutely denies), either way he deferves equal applaufe; whether for writing to politely himfelf, or for having fo highly improved and refined the genius of his wife, whom he married young and uninftructed. His works are never out of my hands; and whether I fit down to write any thing myself, or to revife what I have already wrote, or am in a difpofition to amufe myself, I conftantly take up this agree able author and as often as I do fo, he is ftill new. Let me ftrongly recommend him to the fame degree of intimacy with you; nor be it any prejudice to his merit that he is a cotemporary writer. Had he flourished in fome dilant age, not only his works, but the very pictures and ftatues of him, would have been paffic ately enquired after; and fhall we th from a fort of fatiety, and merely beca he is prefent among us, fuffer his tale to languish and fade away unhonou and unadmired? It is furely a very p verio and envious difpofition, to with indifference upon a man worthy the highed approbation, for no oth reafon bat because we have it in power to fee him and to converse w him, and not only to give him our a plaufe, but to receive him into our frien lap. Farewel. LETTER X. To Cornelius Tacitus. In aufw HAVE frequent debates with a learn and judicious perfon of my acquain ance, who admires nothing to much the eloquence of the bar as concifenc I agree with him, where the caufe v admit of this manner, it may be proper enough purfued; but infift, that to on what is material to be mentioned, or ca flightly to touch upon thofe points whi fhould be ftrongly inculcated, and urg home to the minds of the audience, is effect to defert the caufe one has unde taken. In many cafes a copious mann of expreflion gives ftrength and weig to our ideas, which frequently make in preffions upon the mind, as iron do upon folid bodies, rather by repcat frokes than a fingle blow. to this be ufually has recourfe to auth rities; and produces Lyfias amongit t Grecians, and Cato and the two Grace among our own countrymen, as inftanc in favour of the concifc flyle. In retur I tame Demofthenes, Lichynes, Hitp rides, a d many others, in oppofition Lyilas; while I confront Cato ard th Gracchi, with Cafar, Pollio, Celiu and above all Cicero, whole longeft on tion is generally cheemed the belt. It in good compofitions, as in every thin elfe that is valuable; the more there of them, the better. You may obferv in flatues, baffo-relievos, pictures, an the bodies of men, and even in anima and trees, that nothing is more gracef than magnitude, if it is accompanied wit proportion. The fame holds true i peading; and even in books, a larg Volume" carries fmething of beauty an authorit Η iz Kramagant time; for if he be abridged of that, no Sensa emang ingetanon car jy be fixed upon the al is, and much acvocate, though certainly a very great age or me ime one is chargeable upon the jadge. The anie very per- ierie of the laws is, I am iure, on my - fat my opi- fe, which are by no means fparing of abe auctions to their the crator's time: it is not brevity, bet tet nem. Tas an enlarged scope, a fill attention to every the harangues of thing material, which they recommend. CTCe And now is it pofble for an advocate to acquit himself of that day, unless in the mot nignificant caries, if he affects to Wance be concise? Let me add what experience, The that onerring guide, has taught me : it mele tevered has frequently been my province to act both as an advocate and a judge, as I have often affted as an affor, where I have ever found the judgments of mankind are to be fuenced by different appucations; and that the lightest circumunces often produce the not important consequences. There is to vas a variety in the dipositions and undertandings of men, that they feldom agree in their opinions about any one point in debate before them; or if they do, it is generally from the movement of different pasmons. Braces, as every man naturally favours his own discoveries, and when he hears an argument made afe of which had before occurred to himself, will certay embrace it as extremely con vincing, the orator therefore should fɔ adapt himself to his audience as to throw out something to every one of them, that he may receive and approve as his owa peculiar thought. I remember when Regelas and I were concerned together in a came, ne laid to me, You feem to think it nectary to init upon every point; whereas I always take aim at my adver fary's throat, and there I cloicly preis him. (Tis true, he tenaciously holds whatever part he has once fixed upon; but the misfortune is, he is extremely apt to make the right place.) I anfaered, It might pooly happen that what he took for what he called the throat, was in reality fome other part. As for me, faid I, who do not pretend to direct my aim with so much certainty, I attack every part, and puth at every opening; in short, to ufe à vulgar pro wen tracted when he The me erHistory LÍM which alowed my a. Cuent is mad no Za Du smer, and zels us be capoved for whole ace of Gineins: by which 9 10 nue crations arist & mer full sra mai recefectiv am is much tv atered and trees wat je verwarm compraed za inge vaume, zorgt í mat Je me but it is De 3 a pre difference beappearing and of componThe immen. I acenowedge, has I may be true; neLa serie moet I may te miata si pofbe a pracing me be well received by Meadence & Hem not merr enough Vroomams in the reader; ft a good 116 Courant be a za utaing for * 100 100 Tagen, the Y and Duke of the pect that is for real le mai mare of the beforations ex1, DC Coton which have te ar sé antyemediates courie; and We we are fure they were te boca a al: a fentice in for sale from the oration Kat Veren & certain mechanic tame? 01, I'm coliged fur sent me : yes, I it cannot then le se te terer approach a besser mates as he runs of compoba, tze mure persones be in his It; kwam working- aowever, that he the sexthey nangrace in port of The Præter was affiiied by en a T-fors, five of whom were fenators, and the rut knights. With these he was obliged to conful, before at pronounces fentence. I verb, verb, I leave no stone unturned. As in agriculture, it is not my vineyards, or my woods alone, but my fields alfo that I cultivate; and (to purfue the allufion) as I do not content myself with fowing those fields with only one kind of grain, but employ feveral different forts: fo in my pleadings at the bar, I fpread at large a variety of matter like fo many different feeds, in order to reap from thence whatever may happen to hit: for the difpofition of your judges is as precarious and as little to be ascertained, as that of foils and feafons. I remember the comic writer Eupolis mentions it in praife of that excellent orator Pericles, that On his lips perfuafion hung,. But could Pericles, without the richest His mighty words like Jove's own thunder roll; Greece hears, and trembles to her inmoft foul. But it is not the concife and the referved, ; * Aristophanes. one the fault arifes from an excess, in the other from a deficiency; an error which if it be not a fign of a more correct, yet is certainly of a more exalted genius. When I fay this, I would not be underftood to approve that everlasting talker + mentioned in Homer, but that other t defcribed in the following lines : Frequent and foft as falls the winter fnow, Thus from his lips the copious periods flow. Not but I extremely admire him too §, of whom the poet fays, Few were his words, but wonderfully ftrong. Yet if I were to choose, I fhould clearly Farewel. + Therfites, Iliad ii. v. 212. LETTER XI. To Catilius Severus AM at prefent detained in Rome (and have been fo a confiderable time) under the moft alarming apprehenfions. Titus Arifto, whom I infinitely love and efteem, is fallen into a dangerous and obftinate illness, which deeply affects me. Virtue, knowledge, and good fenfe, fhine out with fo fuperior a luftre in this excellent man, that learning herself and every valuable endowment feems involved in the danger of his fingle perfon. How confummate is his knowledge both in the political and civil laws of his country! How thoroughly converfant is he in every branch of history and antiquity! There is no article of fcience, in fhort, you would wish to be informed of, in which he is.not skilled. As for my own part, whenever I would acquaint myfelf with any abftrufe point of literature, I have recourfe to him, as to one who fupplies me with its most hidden treasures. What an amiable fincerity, what a noble dignity is there in his converfation! How humble, yet how graceful is his diffidence! Though he conceives at once every point in debate, yet he is as flow to decide, as he is quick to apprehend, calmly and deliberately weighing every oppofite reafon that offered, and tracing it, with a moft judicious penetration, from its fource through all its remoteft confequences. His diet is frugal, his drefs plain; and whenever I enter his chamber, and view him upon his couch, I confider the scene before me as a true image of ancient fimplicity, to which his illuftrious mind reflects the nobleft ornament. He places no part of his happiness in oftentation, bat refers the whole of it to confcience; and feeks the reward of his virtue, not in the clamorous applaufes of the world, but in the filent fatisfaction which refults from having acted well. In short, you will not eafily find his equal even among our philofophers by profeffion. He frequents not the places of public difputations, nor idly amufes himself and others with rain and endless controverfies. His nobler talents are exerted to more useful purposes; in the scenes of civil and active •The philofophers ufed to hold their difputa foes in the Gymnafia and Porticos, be.ng places of most public refort for walking, &c. life. Many has he affifted with his intereft, ftill more with his advice! But though he dedicates his time to the affairs of the world, he regulates his conduct by the precepts of the philofophers; and in the practice of temperance, piety, juftice and fortitude he has no fuperior. It is aftonishing with what patience he bears his illness; how he struggles with pain, endures thirft, and quietly fubmits to the troublesome regimen neceffary in a raging fever. He lately called me, and a few more of his particular friends, to his bedfide, and begged we would ask his phyficians what turn they apprehended his distemper would take that if they pronounced it incurable, he might voluntarily put an end to his life; but if there were hopes of a recovery, however tedious and difficult, he might wait the event with patience: for fo much, he thought, was due to the tears and intreaties of his wife and daughter, and to the affectionate interceffion of his friends, as not volunta rily to abandon our hopes, if in truth they were not entirely defperate. A refolution this, in my eftimation, truly heroical, and worthy of the highest applaufe. Inftances are frequent enough in the world, of rufhing into the arms of death without reflection, and by a fort of blind impulfe: but calmly and deliberately to weigh the reafons for life or death, and to be determined in our choice as either fide of the fcale prevails, is the mark of an uncommon and great mind ble names, The general lawfulness of self-murder was a doctrine by no means univerfally received in the ancient Pagan world; many of the moft confideraboth Greek and Roman, having exprefly declared against that practice. Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Tully, have condemned it: even Brutus himself, though he fell by his own hands, yet in his cooler and philofophical hours, wrote a treatife wherein he highly condemned Cato, as being guilty of an act both of impiety and cowardice in deftroying himself. The judicious Virgil is alfo in the fame fentiments, and reprefents fuch unhappy perfons as in a state of punishment: Proxima deinde tenent moefti loca, qui fibi letum Themfelves anticipate the doom of death; |