CICERO.* To the careful student the great Roman orator presents
himself in no less than five different points of view. He may be judged of as a statesman, a moralist, an orator, a letter- writer, and an instructor in the art of rhetoric ; but though in all of these departments he has deservedly obtained very nearly the highest renown, yet his reputation in the eyes of the generality of readers will ultimately depend on such of his speeches as devastating barbarians and fanatical monks have suffered to survive to our times. As a statesman we must say that he totally failed, save only in his able and energetic suppression of the supposed Anarchist, Catiline; and yet his political creed seems to have contained but two articles,— each of them, when considered by itself, perfectly just and apparently quite practicable, but when brought into unison, almost impossible in the then unhappy state of public and private morality. He aimed at bringing about a. close political union between the equites, or what is now termed the upper middle-class, and the old and noble gentes, who still commanded a majority in the Senate,—a design which would have been feasible and perhaps easy, had he not also essayed to check and punish the frauds and oppressions practised by these same eguites, who constituted the capitalist class, in the tributary provinces. We doubt if the money- dealing class ever forgave the zeal he exhibited in the prosecu- tion of Verres, and it might have been fortunate for him had he never published the orations he composed regarding this case, which indeed were rendered superfluous by the volun- tary exile of the culprit. Eloquence, though it has been well termed flexanimn, or ruler of the soul, has seldom, even when exerted in the cause of unquestionable justice, prevailed over the pecuniary interests of a wealthy and numerous class, and Cicero failed where a Walpole or a Chatham would not have succeeded.
* Select Speeches of Closro. Trans,ated by Herbert E. D, Claklabon, M.A. London; Blot hnen and Co. As a moralist he adopted the tenets of Socrates and Plato, and like the former may be said, as far as Western Europe is concerned, to have "brought down Philosophy from heaven, and fixed her abode among the dwellings of men," while he imitated the latter not only in his ethical compositions, but in his speeches, and thus, we think, selected a model preferable even to Demosthenes, whose elongated sentences render him sometimes wearisome, and occasionally nearly unintelligible. It will be evident to even a cursory reader of his orations that he had drunk deeply from the fountain of Hellenio philosophy, and hence Plutarch, who, though too often very inaccurate in his facts, is certainly worthy of respect as a critic, informs us that he was the first Roman orator who pointed out that justice should always triumph over expediency in a civilised community, and the first who discerned that measures of unquestionable justice will of ten fail of adoption unless supported by elevation of language and grace of delivery. The former principle con- duced much to the oratorical popularity of Fox, and the latter to that of Erskine, and both must have insured success among a people at once law-abiding, imaginative, and excitable. His adherence to the former naturally led him to uphold the sanctity of vested interest, and berme he successfully op- posed the democratic confiscation of the Campanian lands proposed by the turbulent tribune Rams; but it must have been by an eloquent appeal to the feelings of courtesy and respect for rank that he persuaded the Roman com. mons to acquiesce in the exclusive and unnecessary law of Otho, which set apart certain seats in the theatre for the use of the equites alone. In his early youth he evinced a strong taste for metrical composition, and wrote much of "what is commonly called poetry ; " how far he would have succeeded had he persevered, seems to us very uncertain, though a couple of unfortunate lines have been quoted ad nauseam by satirists and sciolists to bring ridicule, as is usual, on an honoured name. Are there no unharmonions or ill-sounding verses in the strains of Virgil, Milton, Spenser, or of Homer himself? Had he attained success in poetry he would, we believe, have been in Roman what Dryden has been in English literature, a reasoner in verse. As the poet is nearly akin to the orator, his juvenile studies and attempte exhibit their impress on his style of forensic and senatorial oratory, both in the grandeur of the ideas and imagery and the rhythmical melody. A great part of his first oration against Catiline is highly poetic, and the best transla- tion of it that we know of is in Ben Jonson's blank verse in his tragedy on this event. His rule also of ending his sentences with a long and important word shows that he possessed that sense of dignified harmony essential to the orator nearly as much as to the poet, This taste manifests itself frequently in the writings of Burke and Lord Macaulay, and in the speeches of Curran and Sheridan. Evidently a man may possess the mens divisiov and the os magnet sonaturum, and yet fail to take up a position as a poet.
Cicero had great power of work, both literary and forensic, and a powerful memory, especially for names and facts, together with unwearied industry, notwithstanding the feeble. nese of his health. There is strong reason to believe that several of his orations were written and rewritten prior to delivery ; and we are told that when about to plead for Marone, conjtintly with Hortensius and Crassus, his anxiety to equal the rhetorical renown of the former caused him to spend some sleepless nights in study and thought. The first Catilinarian oration has, how- ever, quite the style of an extempore outburst ; and the fourth must have been so, as be could not have known what penalties his colleagues in the Senate in- tended to propose. This speech is remarkably worthy of the careful attention of any student who may wish to under. stand how to weigh skilfully the arguments in favour of and against two opposing proposals, and to point out the merits and demerits of each ; while at the same time it is clear to which side the orator leaned, and that he would have no sympathy with modern philanthropists who tell us that crimes arising from political enthusiasm should be looked on as the outcome of virtuous emotions, and punished leniently, if at all. Virgil did not think so when he placed Catiline in Tartarus; nor Dante, who assigns to Brutus the next pleura to Judas in the lowest abyss of the Inferno. Yet all our information testifies to Cicero's kindness of heart and affeo. tionate disposition—rare virtues in a Roman—and this he proved by his successful opposition to the confiscation of the estates of Catiline's associates to the ruin of their unoffending heirs, holding that justice and mercy should go hand in hand. Cicero was not in the least degree an "advanced thinker." Whenever, too, he had an oppor- tunity of choice, he preferred to take the defensive side in a litigation, probably from benevolent feelings, but perhaps also because this side furnished a better scope for an eloquent appeal to human sympathy.
Dr. Middleton holds that Cicero formed his style on the mcdel of Demosthenes, and he certainly admired him,—as who would not P But we confess we have never been able to discern a likeness so close as to deserve the name of imita- tion, and consider him more akin to Plato and Xenophon. There is a democratic vulgarity too often prominent in the great Attic orator from which the Roman, who, even in his greatest excitement, always speaks like a gentleman, is re- markably free ; hence we have always found his speeches much pleasanter reading, and this, we think, is no improper critical test. It is but fair, however, to add that the Roman possessed some very important advantages over the Athenian. E.g., he could, without being accused of cant or hypocrisy, appeal to the undying principles of justice in public affairs and morality in private life, the purity of his own 'character being admitted by all, and the more conspicuous in a very corrupt state of society. Further—and this will surprise some— there was more freedom of speech in aristocratic Rome than in democratic Athens. In the latter State an orator might pro- pose a measure, and succeed in carrying it, but should the people change their mind, he was liable to a criminal prosecu- tion on the charge of "having deceived the people;" in other words, he might say what he pleased, but also expect the consequences. To illustrate this system, had Great Britain been governed by Athenian jurisprudence after the General Election of 1886, Mr. Gladstone would have been brought to trial for "having attempted to deceive the House of Commons," and if convicted would either have been heavily fined or banished. On the other hand, Roman law took cognisance only of overt acts. Once, and once only, did the Roman people lose their regard for Cicero, and this under the very exceptional circumstances of the Clodian reign of terror, and but for a time. The pure morality which Cicero both inculcated and practised, and his good- humoured courtesy to his fellow-citizens, especially to the younger men, gave him an additional advantage over Demosthenes, who could not justly claim such qualities, and fought the battle of Hellenic freedom with his arms fettered. The Romans bore from Cicero what the Athenians would not have borne from Demosthenes, and did not bear from Socrates. The Attic orator, too, was deficient in what Niebuhr, per- haps somewhat exaggeratively, terms Cicao's chiefest talent, namely, wit. There are certainly some specimens of this in his orations, but we do not think he was much indebted to it for his reputation as a public speaker, his talent being rather for gentle sarcasm. His wit will be best learned from the study of his letters and the anecdotes handed down by Plutarch. But Cicero was more than an eloquent declaimer he was a logician of a high order, and his speech in defence of Milo furnishes the best example we know of what is called "speaking to evidence," or the accurate weighing of probabilities. Had it been delivered as it has come down to us it would most probably have secured an acquittal,—at least modern lawyers have succeeded in similar cases. If it be asked to what qualities Cicero owed his fame as an orator, we should answer : to his sincere love of his country, or rather of humanity, grandeur of ideas, harmony of language, purity and correctness of diction, grace of delivery, and high moral sentiment, together with extensive and, for the time, accurate learning. And if it be asked how he acquired these qualifications, or any of them, we can only say that he must have anticipated Lord Eldon's recipe for forensic success, "Live like a hermit, and work like a horse."
Mr. Blakiston has made a very judicious selection of orations for translation, and his book will be of much use to any one acquainted with the ordinary facts of Roman history who may wish to know also the sentiments of a great statesman and debater ; but to the real student of Latin literature we fear it will give but little help. He pro- fesses to have aimed at avoiding the "conventional dialect of the class-room, and also the slipshod slanginess of modern English," and in the former he has certainly succeeded, but has fallen, we think, into the use of many phrases ill-suited to the dignity of the oratorical style. As the pleading for Murena is justly considered one of Cioero's best productions, we venture to add our own attempt at rendering into English (not by any means that of so-called good society) an anti- thetical passage,—viz. :— "But, waiving this point, to return to a comparison of studies and employments, how can it be doubted that renown for military skill confers a more dignified claim to the consulship than that for knowledge of jurisprudence P You rise before dawn to give opinions to your clients, he does the same to reach his point of action promptly with his army; the crowing of cooks wakes you, the blast of the clarion him ; you draw up a brief, he a line of battle ; you provide against the surprise of your clients, he against the surprise of cities and camps. He understands and knows how tho forces of the enemy are to be checked, you, how a neighbour's rain-droppings are to be averted ; he is employed in pushing forward the boundaries of our State, you in fixing those of private persons. And doubtless (for I must express what I really feel) valour in war transcends all the other good qualities. It is this which has elevated the Roman name; it is this which has bestowed perpetual renown on this our city ; this has subjugated the world to our Empire ; all these illustrious pursuits of ours, all our occupations of civil life, and even our energy and reputation for legal eminence, are pro- tected and safeguarded by valour in the field, and as soon as even a suspicion of invasion has burst upon us, our other pursuits at once sink into obscurity."
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