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tched out a plan of it, which, fhort as it is, feems to be the best that can be formed for the defign of a perfect hiftory.

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"He declares it to be the first and "fundamental law of hiftory, that it hould neither dare to fay any thing that was falfe, or fear to fay any thing that was true, nor give any juft fufpicion ci"ther of favour or difaffection; that in the relation of things, the writer fhould ob"ferve the order of time, and add alfo the defcription of places: that in all great and memorable tranfactions he hould first explain the councils, then "the acts, laftly the events; that in coun"cils he fhould interpole his own judg"ment, or the merit of them; in the acts, "should relate not only what was done, but how it was done; in the events “should shew, what share chance, or rafh“neis, or prudence had in them; that in regard to perfons, he fhould defcribe "not only their particular actions, but the "lives and characters of all thofe who "bear an eminent part in the ftory; that he fhould illuftrate the whole in a clear, “eafy, natural stile, flowing with a per"petual smoothness and equability, free "from the affectation of points and fen"tences, or the roughness of judicial "pleadings."

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We have no remains likewife of his poetry, except fome fragments occafionaily interfperfed through his other writings; yet thefe, as I have before obferved, are fuficient to convince us, that his poetical genius, if it had been cultivated with the fame care, would not have been inferior to his oratorial. The two arts are so nearly allied, that an excellence in the one feems to imply a capacity for the other, the fame qualities being effential to them both; a fprightly fancy, fertile invention, flowing and numerous diction. It was in Cicero's time, that the old rufticity of the Latin mufe firit began to be polished by the ornaments of drefs, and the harmony of numbers; but the height of perfection to which it was carried after his death by the fucceeding generation, as it left no room for a mediocrity in poetry, fo it quite eclipfed the fame of Cicero. For the world always judges of things by compariton, and becaufe he was not fo great a poet as Virgil and Horace, he was decried as none at all; especially in the courts of Antony and Auguftas, where it was a compliment to the fovereign, and a fashion consequently among their flatterers, to

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make his character ridiculous wherever it lay open to them; hence flowed that perpetual raillery which fubfits to this day, on his famous verfes:

Cedant arma toga, concedat laurea linguæ, O fortunatam natam me Confule Romam.

And two bad lines picked out by the malice of enemies, and tranfmitted to pofterity as a fpecimen of the reit, have ferved to damn many thousands of good ones. For Plutarch reckons him among the most eminent of the Roman Poets; and Pliny the younger was proud of emulating him in his poetic character; and Quintilian feems to charge the cavils of his cenfurers to a principle of malignity. But his own verfes carry the fureit proof of his merit, being written in the best manner of that age in which he lived, and in the file of Lucretius, whofe poem he is faid to have revised and corrected for its publication, after Lucretius's death. This however is certain, that he was the conftant friend and generous patron of all the celebrated pocts of his time; of Acc'us, Archias, Chilius, Lucretius, Catullus, who pays his thanks to him in the following lines, for fome favour that he had received from

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But poetry was the amufement only, and relief of his other ftudies; eloquence was his diflinguifhed talent, his fovereign attribute: to this he devoted all the faculties of his foul, aud attained to a degree of perfection in it, that no mortal ever furpaffed; fo that, as a polite hiftorian obferves, Rome had but few orators before him, whom it could praife; none whom it could admire. Demofthenes was the pattern by which he formed himself; whom he emulated with fuch fuccefs, as to merit what St. Jerom calls that beautiful eloge: Demofthenes has fnatched from thee the glory of being the first: thou from Demofthenes, that of being the only orator. The genius, the capacity, the ftile and manner of them both were much the fame; their eloquence of that great, fub

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lime, and comprehenfive kind, which dignified every fubject, and gave it all the force and beauty of which it was capable; it was that roundness of fpeaking, as the ancients call it, where there was nothing either redundant or deficient; nothing either to be added or retrenched: their perfections were in all points fo tranfcendent, and yet fo fimilar, that the critics are not agreed on which fide to give the preference. Quintillian indeed, the moft judicious of them, has given it on the whole to Cicero; but if, as others have thought, Cicero had not all the nerves, the energy, or, as he himself calls it, the thunder of Demofthenes, he excelled him in the copioufnefs and elegance of his diction, the variety of his fentiments, and, above all, in the vivacity of his awit, and finartnefs of bis raillerys Demofthenes had nothing jocofe or facetious in him; yet, by attempting fometimes to jeft, fhewed, that the thing itself did not difpleafe, but did not belong to bim: for, as Longinus fays, wherever he affected to be pleasant, he made himself ridiculous; and if he happened to raise a laugh, it was chiefly upon himself. Whereas Cicero, from a perpetual fund of wit and ridicule, had the power always to pleafe, when he found himself unable to convince, and could put his judges into good humour, when he had caufe to be afraid of their feverity; fo that, by the opportunity of a well-timed joke, he is faid to have preferved many of his clients from manifeft ruin.

Yet in all this height and fame of his eloquence, there was another fet of orators at the fame time in Rome, men of parts and learning, and of the firft quality; who, while they acknowledged the fuperiority of his genius, yet cenfured his diction, as not truly attic or claffical; fome calling it loofe and languid, others timid and exuberant. These men affected a minute and faftidious correctnefs, pointed fentences, fhort and concife periods, without a fyllable to fpare in them, as if the perfection of oratory confifted in a frugality of words, and in crowding our fentiments into the narrowest compafs. The chief patrons of this tafte were M. Brutus, Licinius, Calvus, Afinius, Pollio, and Salluft, whom Seneca feems to treat as the author of the obfcure, abrupt, and fententious file. Cicero often 1idicules thefe pretenders to attic elegance, as judging of eloquerce not by the force of the art, but their own weakness; and refolving to decry what they could not attain, and to admire nothing but what they

could imitate; and though their way of fpeaking, he fays, might please the car of a critic or a fcholar, yet it was not of that fublime and fonorous kind, whofe end was not only to inftruct, but to move an audience; an eloquence, born for the multitude; whofe merit was always fhewn by its effects of exciting admiration, and extorting fouts of applause; and on which there never was any difference of judgment between the learned aud the populace.

This was the genuine eloquence that prevailed in Rome as long as Cicero lived: his were the only speeches that were relifhed or admired by the city; while those attic orators, as they called themselves, were generally defpifed, and frequently deferted by the audience, in the midst of their harangues. But after Cicero's death, and the ruin of the republic, the Roman oratory funk of courfe with its liberty, and a falfe fpecies univerfally prevailed; when inftead of that elate, copious, and flowing eloquence, which launched out freely into every fubject, there fucceeded a guarded, dry, fententious kind, full of laboured turns and ftudied points; and proper only for the occafion on which it was employed, the making panegyrics and fervile.compliments to their tyrants. This change of ftile may be observed in all their writers, from Cicero's time to the younger Pliny; who carried it to its utmoft perfection, in his celebrated panegyric on the emperor Trajan; which, as it is juftly admired for the elegance of diction, the beauty of fentiments, and the delicacy of its compliments, fo it is become in a manner the ftandard of fine speaking to modern times, where it is common to hear the pretenders to criticism, defcanting on the tedious length and fpiritlefs exuberance of the Ciceronian periods. But the fuperiority of Cicero's eloquence, as it was acknowledged by the politeft age of free Rome, fo it has received the most authentic confirmation that the nature of things can admit, from the concurrent fenfe of na tions; which neglecting the productions. of his rivals and contemporaries, have preferved to us his ineftimable remains, as a fpecimen of the most perfect manner of speaking, to which the language of mortals can be exalted: fo that, as Quintilian declared of him even in that early age, he has acquired fuch fame with pol terity, that Cicero is not reckoned fo much the name of a man, as of eloquence itfelf.

But we have hitherto been confidering the exterior part of Cicero's character, and fhall now attempt to penetrate the receffes of his mind, and difcover the real fource and principle of his actions, from a view of that philofophy which he profeed to follow, as the general rule of his life. This, as he often declares, was drawn from the academic fect; which derived its origin from Socrates, and its name from a celebrated gymnafium, or place of exercise in the fuburbs of Athens, called the Academy, where the profeffors of that school ufed to hold their lectures and philofophical difputations. Socrates was the firft who banished phyfics out of philby, which till his time had been the fole object of it, and drew it off from the obscure and intricate inquiries into nature, and the conftitution of the heavenly bodies, to questions of morality; of more immediate ufe and importance to the happiness of man, concerning the true notions of virtue and vice, and the natural difference of good and ill; and as he found the world generally prepoffeffed with falfe notions on thofe fubjects, fo his method was not to affert any opinion of his own, but to refute the opinions of others, and attack the errors in vogue; as the firft ftep towards preparing men for the reception of truth, or what came the nearest to it, probability. While he himself therefore profeffed to know nothing, he used to fift out the feveral doctrines of all the pretenders to science, and then tease them with a feries of questions, fo contrived as to reduce them, by the course of their answers, to an evident abfurdity, and the impoffibility of defending what they had at first affirmed.

But Plato did not strictly adhere to the method of his mafter Socrates, and his followers wholly deferted it: for inftead of the Socratic modefty of affirming nothing, and examining every thing, they turned philofophy, as it were, into an art, and formed a fyftem of opinions, which they delivered to their difciples, as the peculiar tenets of their fect. Plato's nephew Speufippus, who was left the heir of his fchool, continued his lectures, as his fucceffors alfo did in the academy, and preferved the name of academics; whilft Ariftotle, the most eminent of Plato's fcholars, retired to another gymnafium, called the Lyceum; where, from a cuftom which he and his followers obferved, of teaching and difputing as they walked in the portico's of the place, they obtained

the name of Peripatetics, or the Walking Philofophers. These two fects, though differing in name, agreed generally in things, or in all the principal points of their philofophy: they placed the chief happiness of man in virtue, with a competency of external goods; taught the existence of a God, a providence, the immortality of the foul, and a future ftate of rewards and punishments.

This was the itate of the academic fchool under five fucceffive mafters, who governed it after Plato; Speufippus, Xenocrates, Polemo, Crates, Crantor; till Arcefilas the fixth difcarded at once all the fyitems of his predeceffors, and revived the Socratic way, of affirming nothing, doubting of all things, and expofing the vanity of the reigning opinions. He alledged the neceffity of making this refor mation, from that obfcurity of things, which had reduced Socrates, and all the ancients before him, to a confeffion of their ignorance: he obferved, as they had all likewife done, that the fenfes were narrow, reafon infirm, life short, truth immersed in the deep, opinion and custom every where predominant, and all things involved in darkness. He taught therefore, "That there was no certain "knowledge or perception of any thing "in nature, nor any infallible criterion of "truth and falfehood; that nothing was fo “deteslable ‘as rafhnefs, nothing fo fcan"dalous to a philofopher, as to profess "what was either falfe or unknown to "him; that we ought to affert nothing "dogmatically, but in all cafes to fuf"pend our affent; and instead of pretend

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ing to certainty, content ourselves with "opinion, grounded on probability, which "was all that a rational mind had to ae"quiefce in." This was called the new academy, in diftinction from the Platonic, or the old which maintained its credit down to Cicero's time, by a fucceffion of able mafters; the chief of whom was Carneades, the fourth from Arcefilas, who carried it to its utmoft height of glory, and is greatly celebrated by antiquity for the vivacity of his wit, and force of his eloquence.

We must not however imagine, that thefe academics continued doubting and fluctuating all their lives in fcepticism and irrefolution, without any precife opinions, or fettled principle of judging and acting: no; their rule was as certain and confiftent as that of any other feet, as it is frequently explained by Cicero, in many parts of his works." We are not of that fort," 3 A

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fays he," whofe mind is perpetually wan"dering in error, without any particular "end or object of its purfuit: for what "would fuch a mind or fuch a life indeed "be worth, which had no determinate "rule or method of thinking and acting? "But the difference between us and the "reft is, that whereas they call fome "things certain, and others uncertain; we "call the one probable, the other improba"ble. For what reafon then, fhould not "i puriue the probable, reject the contrary, "and, declining the arrogance of affirming, "avoid the imputation of rafhness, which "of all things is the fartheft removed "from wifdom?" Again; "we do not pre"tend to say that there is no fuch thing " as truth; but that all truths have fome "falfehood annexed to them, of fo near a "refemblance and fimilitude, as to afford "no certain note of diftinction, whereby "to determine our judgment and affent: "whence it follows alfo of course, that "there are many things probable; which, "though not perfectly comprehended, yet "on account of their attractive and fpe"cious appearance, are fufficient to go"vern the life of a wife man." In another place, there is no difference, fays he, "between us, and thofe who pretend to know things; but that they never doubt "of the truth of what they maintain: "whereas we have many probabilities, "which we readily embrace, but dare "not affirm. By this we preferve our judgment free and unprejudiced, and "are under no neceffity of defending what " is prefcribed and enjoined to us; where"as in other feats, men are tied down to "certain doctrines, before they are capa"ble of judging what is the best; and in "the most infirm part of life, drawn "either by the authority of a friend, or "charmed with the first mafter whom "they happen to hear, they form a judg. "ment of things unknown to them; and "to whatever fchool they chance to be "driven by the tide, cleave to it as fast as "the oyster to the rock."

Thus the academy held the proper mediem between the rigid ftoic, and the indifference of the fceptic: the ftoics embraced all their doctrines, as fo many fixed and immutable truths, from which it was infamous to depart; and by making this their point of honour, held all their difciples in an inviolable attachment to them. The fceptics, on the other hand, obferved a perfect neutrality towards all opinions; main

taining all of them to be equally uncertain; and that we could not affirm of any thing, that it was this or that, fince there was as much reafon to take it for the one as for the other, or for neither of them; and wholly indifferent which of them we thought it to be: thus they lived, without ever engaging themselves on any fide of a queftion, directing their lives in the mean time by natural affections, and the laws and customs of their country. But the academics, by adopting the probable inftead of the certain, kept the balance in an equal poife between the two extremes, making it their general principle to ob ferve a moderation in all their opinions; and as Plutarch, who was one of them, tells us, paying a great regard always to that old maxim,

Mudio àyas ;--ne quid nimis.

As this fchool then was in no particular oppofition to any, but an equal adverfary to all, or rather to dogmatical philosophy in general, fo every other fect, next to itself, readily gave it the preference to the reft; which univerfal conceffion of the fecond place, is commonly thought to infer a right to the firft: and if we reflect on the state of the heathen world, and what they themfelves fo often complain of, the darkness that furrounded them, and the infinite dif fenfions of the best and wifeft on the fundamental queftions of religion and morality, we muft neceffarily allow, that the academic manner of philofophizing was of all others the moft rational and modeft, and the beft adapted to the discovery of truth, whofe peculiar character it was to encourage enquiry; to fift every ques tion to the bottom; to try the force of every argument, till it had found its real moment, or the precife quantity of its weight.

This it was that induced Cicero, in his advanced life and ripened judgment, to defert the old academy, and declare for the new; when, from a long experience of the vanity of those fects who called themfelves the proprietors of truth, and the fole guides of life, and through a defpair of finding any thing certain, he was glad, after all his pains, to take up with the prebable. But the genius and general cha racter of both the academies was in fome meafure ftill the fame: for the old, though it

profeffed to teach a peculiar fyftem of doctrines, yet it was ever diffident and cautious of affirming; and the new, only

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the more fcrupulous and fceptical of the two; this appears from the writings of Plato, the firit mafter of the old, in which, as Cicero obferves, nothing is abfolutely affirmed, nothing delivered for certain, but all things freely inquired into, and both fides of the question impartially difcuffed. Yet there was another reafon that recommended this philofophy in a peculiar man. ner to Cicero, its being, of all others, the beft fuited to the profeffion of an orator; fince by its practice of difputing for and against every opinion of the other fects, it gave him the best opportunity of perfecting his oratorical faculty, and acquiring a habit of fpeaking readily upon all subjects. He calls it therefore the parent of elegance and copioufnefs; and declares, that he owed all the fame of bis eloquence, not to the mechanic rules of the rhetoricians, but to the enlarged and generous principles of the academy.

veral writings, that perplexes the generality of his readers: for wherever they dip into his works, they are apt to fancy themfelves poffeffed of his fentiments, and to quote them indifferently as fuch, whether from his Orations, his Dialogues, or his Letters, without attending to the peculiar nature of the work, or the different perfon that he affumes in it.

His orations are generally of the judicial kind; or the pleadings of an advocate, whofe bufinefs it was to make the best of his caufe; and to deliver, not fo much what was true, as what was ufeful to his cli ent; the patronage of truth belonging in fuch cafes to the judge, and not to the pleader. It would be abfurd therefore to require a fcrupulous veracity, or ftrict declaration of his fentiments in them: the thing does not admit of it; and he himself for bids us to expect it; and in one of thofe orations frankly declares the true nature of them all." That man," fays he, "is much "mistaken, who thinks, that in these ju"dicial pleadings, he has an authentic " fpecimen of our opinions; they are the " fpeeches of the caufes and the times; "not of the men or the advocates: if the "caufes could fpeak of themselves, no

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This fchool, however, was almoft defert ed in Greece, and had but few difciples at Rome, when Cicero undertook its patronage, and endeavoured to revive its drooping credit. The reafon is obvious: it impofed a hard task upon its scholars, of difputing against every fect, and on every question in philofophy; and if it was dif body would employ an orator; but we ficult, as Cicero fays, to be mafter of any are employed to fpeak, not what we one, how much more of them all? which was "would undertake to affirm upon our auincumbent on those who profeffed them- "thority, but what is fuggefted by the felves academics. No wonder then that it" caufe and the thing itfelf." Agreeably loft ground every where, in proportion as to this notion, Quintilian tells us, "that eafe and luxury prevailed, which naturally" thofe who are truly wife, and have spent difpofed people to the doctrine of Epicu- "their time in public affairs, and not in ras; in relation to which there is a smart "idle difputes, though they have refolved. faying recorded of Arcefilas, who being "with themselves to be ftrict and honest aked, why fo many of all felts went over to "in all their actions, yet will not fcruple the Epicureans, but none ever came back from "to ufe every argument that can be of them, replied, that men might be made "fervice to the caufe which they have eunuchs, but eunuchs could never be made men "undertaken to defend." In his oraagain. tions, therefore, where we often meet with the fentences and maxims of philosophy, we cannot always take them for his own, but as topics applied to move his audience, or add an air of gravity and probability to his fpeech.

This general view of Cicero's philofophy, will help us to account, in fome meafure, for that difficulty which people frequently complain of in difcovering his real fentiments, as well as for the miftakes which they are apt to fall into in that fearch; fince it was the diftinguishing principle of the academy to refute the opinions of others, rather than declare any of their own. Yet the chief difficulty does not lie here; for Cicero was not fcrupulous on that head, nor affected any obfcurity in the delivery of his thoughts, when it was his bufinefs to explain them; but it is the variety and different characters of his fe

His letters indeed to familiar friends, and especially thofe to Atticus, place the real man before us, and lay open his very heart; yet in these fome diftinction mult neceffarily be observed; for in letters of compliment, condolence, or recommen. dation, or where he is foliciting any point of importance, he adapts his arguments to the occafion; and ufes fuch as would induce his friend the most readily to grant 3 A 2

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