the funeral pile of his fon, in the oftentation of an affected grief. He is vifited upon this occafion by a furprising number of people, who though they fecretly deteft and abhor him, yet are as affiduous in their attendance upon him, as if they were influenced by à principle of real efteem and affection; or, to speak my fentiments in few words, they endeavour to recommend themselves to his favour by following his example. He is retired to his villa across the Tiber; where he has covered a vaft extent of ground with his porticos, and crowded all the fhore with his ftatues: for he blends prodigaty with coveteufnefs, and vain-glory with infamy. By his continuing there, he lays his vifitors under the great inconvenience of coming to him at this unwholefome feafon; and he seems to confider the trouble they put themselves to, as a matter of confolation, He gives oat, with his ufual abfurdity, that he defigns to marry. You must expect, therefore, to hear fhortly of the wedding of a man oppreft with forrow and years; that is, of one who marries both too foon and too late. Do you ask me why I conjectare thus? Certainly, not because he affirms it himself (for never was there fo famous a liar), but because there is no doubt that Regulus will do every thing he ought not, Farewel.

LETTER XXXVI.
To Antoninus.

THAT you have twice enjoyed the dignity of conful, with a conduct equal to that of our most illuftrious ancestors; that few (your modefty will not fuffer me to fay none) ever have, or ever will come up to the integrity and wisdom of your Afiatic administration; that in virtue, in authority, and even in years, you are the first of Romans; thefe, moft cerainly, are fhining and noble parts of your character; nevertheless, I own it is in your retired hours that I moft admire you. To feafon the feverity of bufinefs with the fprightlinefs of wit, and to temper wisdom with politeness, is as difficult as it is great; yet thefe uncommon quaEties you have moft happily united in thofe wonderful charms, which not only grace your converfation, but particularly dulinguith your writings. Your lips,

like the venerable old man's in Homer*, drop honey, and one would imagine the bee had diffufed her fweetnefs over all you compofe. These were the fentiments I had when I lately read your Greek epigrams and fatires. What elegance, what beauties fhine in this collection! how fweetly the numbers flow, and how exa&ly are they wrought up in the true fpirit of the ancients! What a vein of wit runs through every line, and how conformable is the whole to the rules of juft criticism! I fancied I had got in my hands Callimachus or Hefiod; or, if poffi ble, fome poet even fuperior to thefe : though indeed, neither of those authors excelled, as you have, in both those species of poetry. Is it poffible, that a Roman can write Greek in fo much perfection? I proteft I do not believe Athens herself can be more Attic. To own the truth, I cannot but envy Greece the honour of your preference. And fince you can write thus elegantly in a foreign language, it is paft conjecture what you could have performed in your own. Farewel.

LETTER XXXVII.
To Nafo.

A STORM of hail, I am informed, has deftroyed all the produce of my eftate in Tuscany; whilst that which I have on the other fide the Po, though it has proved extremely fruitful this feafon, yet from the exceffive cheapnefs of every thing, turns to fmall account. Laurentinum is the fingle poffeffion which yields me any advantage. I have nothing there, indeed, but a house and gardens; all the reft is barren fands; ftill, however, my best productions rife at Laurentinum. Ít is there I cultivate, if not my lands, at leaft my mind, and form many a compo fition. As in other places I can fhew you full barns; fo there I can entertain you with good store of the literary kind. Let me advise you then, if you wish for a never-failing revenue, to purchase some. thing upon this contemplative coaft. Farewel,

I

XXXVIII.

LETTER
To Lepidus.

HAVE often told you that Regulus is a man of fpirit: whatever he engages in, he is fure to execute it in a molt extraordinary manner. He chofe lately to be extremely concerned for the lofs of his fon accordingly he mourned for him in a way which no man ever mourned before. He took it into his head that he would have feveral ftatues and reprefentations of him; immediately all the artifans in Rome are fet to work. Colours, wax, brafs, filver, ivory, marble, all exhibit the figure of young Regulus. Not long ago he read, before a audience, a panegyric upon the life of his fon a large book upon the life of a boy! then a thousand tranfcribers were employed to copy this curious anecdote, which he difperfed all over the empire.

numerous

He wrote likewife a fort of circular letter

to the feveral Decurii, to defire they would choose out one of their order who had a strong clear voice, to read this eulogy to the people; and I am informed it has been done accordingly. Had this fpirit (or whatever elfe you will call an earneftnefs in executing all one undertakes) being rightly applied, what infinite good might it have produced! The misfortune is, this active caft is generally strongest in men of vicious characters for as ignorance begets rafhnefs, and knowledge infpires caution; fo modefty is apt to deprefs and weaken the great and well-formed genius, whilft boldnefs fupports and ftrengthens low and little minds. Regulus is a strong proof of the truth of this obfervation: he has a weak voice, an awkward addrefs, a thick fpeech, a flow imagination, and no memory; in a word, he has nothing but an extravagant genius and yet by the affittance of this fighty turn and much impudence, he paffes with many for a finished orator. Herennius Senecio reverfed Cato's de finition of an orator, and applied it with great juftnefs to Regulus: An orator, faid he, is a bad man unskilled in the art of fpeaking. And, in good earnest, Cato's definition is not a more exact de

Cato, as we learn from Nonius, compofed a treatife upon rhetoric, for the ufe of his fon, wherein he defined an orator to be, a good man killed in the art of fpeaking.

fcription of a true orator, than Senecio's is of the character of this man. Would you make a fuitable return to this letter? let me know if you, or any of my friends in your town have with an air of pleafantry mouthed (as Demosthenes calls it) this melancholy piece to the people, like a ftroller in the market-place. For fo abfurd a performance muft move rather laughter than compaffion; and indeed the coinpofition is as puerile as the fubject. Farewel.

LETTER XXXIX.

To Arrianus.

MY advancement to the dignity of an

Augurt is indeed an honour that justly merits the congratulation you give me; not only as it is highly glorious to teftimony of the approbation of fo wife receive, even in the flighteft instances, a and judicious a prince; but as it is also an ancient and facred inftitution, which has this high and peculiar privilege annexed to it, that it is for life. Other facerdotal honours, though they may, perhaps, equal this ia dignity, yet as they are given, fo they may be taken away : but fortune has no farther power over this, than to bestow it. What recommends this dignity to me ftill more, is,

that I have the honour to fucceed fo il

luftrious a perfon as Julius Frontinus. He for many years, upon the nominationday of proper perfons to be received into the facred college, conftantly propofed me, as if he had a view to my being his fucceffor; and fince it has actually proved fo in the event, I am willing to

look upon it as fomething more than accident. But the circumftance, it seems, that most pleases you in this affair, is, that Tully enjoyed the fame pott; and you rejoice (you tell me) to find that I honour, as I endeavour to do in thofe of follow his fteps as closely in the paths of eloquence. I wish, indeed, as I had the advantage to be admitted earlier into the Cicero, fo I might, in my more advanced facred college and confular office than

Their bufinefs was to interpret dreams, ora. cles, prodigies, &c. and to foretel whether any ac tion fhould be fortunate or prejudicial to particu lar perfons, or to the whole commonwealth. Upon this account they very often occafioned the dif placing of magiftrates, the deferring of public affemblies, &c. Kennet's Rom. Antiq. p. 67.

years,

years, catch fome fpark, at least, of his divine genius! The former, as it is in the gift of man, may happen to me and to many; but the latter is an attainment much too high for my hopes, and in the dipofal of heaven alone. Farewel.

I

LETTER XL.

To Cornelius Tacitus.

REJOICE that you are fafely arrived in Rome; for though I am always defirous to fee you, I am more particularly fo now. I purpose to continue a few days longer at my houfe at Tufculum, in order to finish a work which I have upon my hands. For I am afraid, fhould I put a ftop to this defign now that it is fo tearly completed, I fhall find it difficult. to refume it. In the mean while, that I may lose no time, I send this letter before me to requeft a favour of you, which I hope thortly to afk in perfon. But before I inform you what my requeft is, I mut let you into the occafion of it. Being lately at Comum, the place of my nativity, a young lad, fon to one of my neighbours, made me a vifit. I asked him whether he ftudied oratory, and where he told me he did, and at Mediolanum. And why not here? Becafe (izid his father, who came with him) we have no mafters. "No! (faid I), farely it nearly concerns you who "are fathers (and very opportunely fe"veral of the company were fo) that fons fhould receive their educa"tion here, rather than any where elfe. "For where can they be placed more agreeably than in their own country, " or intrated with more fafety and lefs expence than at home and under the "eye of their parents? Upon what very ezly terms might you, by a general "contribution, procure proper mafters, "if you would only apply towards the railing a falary for them, the extraor"dinary expence it cofts you for your “foes jours, lodgings, and whatever elle you pay for upon account of their being abroad; as pay, indeed, you must "in fact a czle for every thing. Though "I have no children myself, yet I fhall ingly contribute to a defign fo begriculi to (what I look upon as a

agreeable it will be to me. You can "undertake nothing that will be more "advantageous to your children, nor more acceptable to your country. "They will by this means receive their "education where they receive their "birth, and be accustomed from their "infancy to inhabit and affect their na"tive foil. May you be able to procure "profeffors of fuch diftinguifhed abili"ties, that the neighbouring towns shall "be glad to draw their learning from

hence; and as you now fend your "children to foreigners for education, "may foreigners in their turn flock "hither for their inftruction.”

you the rife of this affair, that you might I thought proper thus to lay open to be the more fenfible how agreeable it will be to me, if you undertake the office all the earnestness a matter of fo much I request. I intreat you therefore, with importance deferves, to look out, amongit the great numbers of men of letters which the reputation of your genius brings to you, proper perfons to whom we may apply for this purpose; but withthem on my part. For I would leave it out entering into any agreement with entirely free to the parents to judge and

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