A FAVOR SLOWLY BESTOWED. A favor which is tardily bestowed is no favor; for a favor which has been quickly granted is a more agreeable favor. WHATEVER THOU DOEST, DO IT QUICKLY. If thou intendest to do a kind act do it quickly, and then thou mayest expect gratitude: a favor grudgingly conferred causes ingratitude. THE UNGRATEFUL. The earth produces nothing worse than an ungrateful man. Shakespeare ("As You Like It," act ii. sc. 7) says:"Blow, blow, thou winter wind, Thou art not so unkind As man's ingratitude; Thy tooth is not so keen, Although thy breath be rude. As benefits forgot: As friend remember'd not." And ("Twelfth Night," act iii. sc. 1) :- FICKLENESS OF FORTUNE. Fortune is never stable, is always turning, always changing; throws down the prosperous and raises the humble. Euripides (Fr. Ino. 23) says: "Thou seest what small things are sufficient to bring down tyrants who have had a long course of prosperity; even one day pulls this man from his lofty seat and raises another. Riches have wings: for I see those who once had them falling from their high hopes." Diphilus (Fr. Com. Gr., p. 1093, M.) says :— BETTER NOT TO BE BORN. Therefore the sentiment of the Greeks is best, for they say that it is best for man not to be born, or being born, quickly to die. THE SUSPECTED. The suspected and the man really guilty seem to differ only slightly. CESAR. BORN B.C. 100-DIED B.C. 44. C. JULIUS CAESAR, the dictator, the son of C. Julius Cæsar and Aurelia, was born on the 12th July B.C. 100, and murdered on the 15th March B.C. 44. He attached himself to the popular party, and married, B.C. 83, Cornelia, the daughter of L. Cinna, one of the chief opponents of Sulla; being in consequence proscribed and obliged to conceal himself for some time in the country of the Sabines. He served for several years in the wars of Asia, but returned to Rome B. c. 78, on hearing of the death of Sulla. He became quæstor B.C. 68, prætor B.C. 62, reaching the consulship B.C. 59, when he joined Pompey and Crassus in an agreement to support one another and divide the power between themselves. This was what was called the first triumvirate; and to make his union with Pompey still more intimate, he gave him his daughter Julia in marriage. He married at the same time Calpurnia, the daughter of L. Piso, who was consul the following year. Obtaining the province of Gaul, he was occupied for nine years in its subjugation, conquering the whole of "As Fortune sometimes, while she is conferring on us one Transalpine Gaul, which had hitherto been indegood, in doing so pumps up three evils." HOW ENEMIES ARE INCREASED. pendent of the Romans, with the exception of the part called Provincia: he twice crossed the Rhine, and carried the terror of the Roman arms across When thou causeth fear to many, then is the that river, and he twice landed in Britain, which time to be on thy guard. PRESERVE EQUANIMITY. had hitherto been unknown to the Romans. While Cæsar had been thus actively engaged in Gaul, affairs in Rome had taken a turn which If fortune is favorable, be not elated; if fort- threatened a speedy rupture between him and une thunders, be not cast down. FEAR CONSCIENCE. Pompey. The ten years of Cæsar's government would expire at the end of B.C. 49, and he was therefore resolved to obtain the consulship for When about to commit a base deed, respect thy- B.C. 48, as he would otherwise be reduced to a pri self if thou hast no other witness. Diphilus, who flourished B.C. 300 (Fr.Com. Gr., p. 1091, M.), says much to the same effect : For whoever does not feel ashamed before his own con science, when he has committed a base deed, why will he feel ashamed before another who is unconscious of it?" LARGE DOWRY CAUSE OF MISCHIEF. vate station. Pompey joined the aristocratical party, and prepared to resist the proceedings of his opponent; but Cæsar crossed the Rubicon, which separated his province from Italy, and in three months subdued the whole of Italy. Having defeated his rival Pompey in the plains of Pharsalia B.C. 48, he became undisputed master of the When the dowry is too large, it is often the Roman empire. He caused himself to be procause of much mischief. BEGUN HALF DONE. claimed perpetual dictator, and had actually consented to accept the imperial throne, when he was murdered by the republican party, who hoped by Set about whatever thou intendest to do: the his death to restore the old constitution. He fell beginning is half the battle. in the Senate House on the 15th March B.C. 44. PUNISHMENT OF WICKEDNESS. The gods sometimes grant greater prosperity and a longer period of impunity to those whom they wish to punish for their crimes, in order that they may feel more acutely a change of circum stances. RIGHTS OF WAR. It is the right of war for conquerors to treat those whom they have conquered according to their pleasure. WINE. They allowed no wine or other luxuries to be imported, because they believed they had a tendency to enervate the mind and make men less brave in battle. GAULS. The Gauls are hasty and precipitate in their resolutions. GAULS. Almost all the Gauls are fond of change, and easily excited to war, while they are at the same time attached to liberty and hate slavery. THE WISH IS FATHER TO THE THOUGHT. Men willingly believe what they wish. IMITATIVE CHARACTER OF THE GAULS. They are a race of consummate ingenuity, and possess wonderful powers to imitate whatever they see done by others. FEAR. In extreme danger, fear turns a deaf ear to every feeling of pity. TO THROW BLAME ON THE DEAD. That he knew, and was well aware, that nothing was easier than to ascribe the blame of an act to the dead. The French have a proverb, "Les mort font toujours tort." TRIVIAL CAUSES IN WAR. ONE ETERNAL NIGHT TO ALL Suns may set and rise; we, when our short day has closed, must sleep on during one never-ending night. Young, in his "Night Thoughts (No. 6), says in a very different tone: "Look nature through, 'tis revolution all; All change, no death; day follows night, and night The dying day; stars rise, and set and rise. Then melts into the Spring: soft Spring, with breath See Sir Walter Scott's lament over Pitt and Fox in the introduction to "Marmion," beginning "To mute and to material things New life revolving summer brings," etc. GROSS PLEASURES. Gross and vulgar pleasures. ' A STUPID BOOBY. In war important events are produced by trivial neither sees nor hears, and even knows not who That stupid booby of mine is so crazy that he causes. CATULLUS. BORN B.C. 87-DIED ABOUT B.C. 47. he is, or whether he exists at all. "So benumbed in his wits is my booby, that he Yea, he knows not, the oaf, who himself is or what, THE MOTE IN OUR OWN EYE. Every one has his faults, but we see not the wallet that is behind. Burns says: "O wad some power the giftie gie us So Psalm xix. 13: "Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from CAIUS VALERIUS CATULLUS, a celebrated Latin poet, was born at Sirmio, in the vicinity of Verona, B.C. 87, one year before the historian Sallust. His father was the friend of Julius Cæsar, and Catullus himself was on intimate terms of friendship with all the most illustrious men of secret faults." his age. His time was spent principally at Rome or in his villa near Tibur. It is not known when he died, but it must have been subsequently to B.C. 47, as he mentions the consulship of Vatinius. THE PLEASURE OF REST AFTER LABOR. Oh, what is more sweet than, when the mind, set free from care, lays its burden down; and, when spent with distant travel, we come back to | Floating away till they are lost to sight our home, and rest our limbs on the wished-for Beneath the glow of the empurpled light, bed? This, this alone, repays such toils as these! So from the royal halls, and far from view, Each to his home with wand'ring steps withdrew. MARTIN. SILLY LAUGHTER. A silly laugh's the silliest thing I know. SWEET MEETINGS, FAREWELL. O sweet meetings of friends, farewell. CONFOUNDING OF RIGHT AND WRONG. The confounding of all right and wrong in the wild fury of war has averted from us the gracious Tennyson ("The Princess," cant. iv.) expresses the same smile of heaven. "Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean, THE LOVE-SICK. Peer for the gods he seems to me Can hear thee sweetly speak the while, For, ever, when thy face I view, My tongue is paralyzed, and through Runs swiftly, murmurs dim arise A sudden darkness spreads, and sighs PALSIED OLD AGE. MARTIN. Till hoary age shall steal on thee, FICKLENESS OF WOMAN. The vows that woman makes to her fond lover are only fit to be written on air or on the swiftlypassing stream. DIFFICULT TO RELINQUISH A CONFIRMED PASSION. It is difficult to give up at once a long-cherished passion. THE INCONSISTENCIES OF LOVE. I hate and I love. Why I do so, thou mayest perhaps inquire: I know not; but I feel that it is so, and I am tormented. CICERO. BORN B.C. 106-DIED B.C. 43. M. TULLIUS CICERO, born on the 3d January B.C. 106, was a native of the city of Arpinum, but received his education at Rome under Greek masters, more particularly under the renowned Archias of Antioch. During the scenes of strife and bloodshed between Marius and Sulla, he identified himself with neither party, devoting his time to those studies which were essential to him as a lawyer and an orator. When tranquillity was restored, he What is granted by the gods more desirable came forward as a pleader at the age of twentythan a lucky moment? THERE IS A TIDE IN THE AFFAIRS OF MEN. THE VIRGIN. five, but thinking that there was great room for improvement in his style of composition and mode of delivery, he determined to quit Italy and visit the great fountains of arts and eloquence. He reAs the flower grows apart in the secluded gar-mained six months at Athens, and then made a dens unknown to the cattle, bruised by no plough, complete tour of Asia Minor, returning to Rome foodled by the breezes, strengthened by the rays after an absence of two years, B.C. 77. His great of the sun, and nourished by the rains of heaven; talents, developed by such careful and judicious many a boy and girl have desired to pluck it; when training under the most cultivated masters, could the same flower, plucked by some tiny hand, has not fail to command success. Though possessed lost its beauty, no boys or girls have desired it; so of no family influence, he was elected quæstor B.C. is the virgin, while she remains so, while she is 76, and, having Sicily as his province, he disbeloved by her friends, but when she has lost her charged his trust so faithfully that he gained the chaste flower, she is neither pleasing to the youth love and esteem of all the Sicilians. He undertook nor beloved by the girls. some years afterwards the prosecution of Verres, who had been prætor of Sicily, and was charged with many flagrant acts of extortion. This prosecution was successful, and Verres, despairing of being able to defend himself, went into voluntary exile. He was appointed consul B.C. 63, and gained great glory by suppressing the conspiracy formed by Catiline and his accomplices for the subversion of the commonwealth. For this great service THE RISING BREEZE. As when at early dawn the western breeze 444 zens. NATURAL ABILITIES AND EDUCATION CON- I add this also, that nature without education has oftener raised man to glory and virtue, than education without natural abilities. We find the very opposite statement made by Critias in his elegies (Fr. 6 Sc.): There are more men ennobled by study than by nature." And Epicharmus (Stob. xxix. 54) has the same idea:"Friends, study gives more than a noble nature." LITERATURE. For the other employments of life do not suit all time, ages, or places; whereas literary studie employ the thoughts of the young, are the deligh fort and refuge of adversity, our amusement å of the aged, the ornament of prosperity, the com home, no impediment to us abroad, employ ou thoughts on our beds, attend us on our journeys and do not leave us in the country. he was honored with the title of Pater Patriæ, | many, and such severe struggles, nor exposed myfather of his country. His good fortune, however, self to the daily attacks of these abandoned citiat last failed him, and he was compelled to yield to the storm that broke upon him. He quitted Rome B.C. 58, and crossed over to Greece. His 、correspondence during the whole period of his exile presents the melancholy picture of a man crushed and paralyzed by a sudden reverse of fortune. The following year he was recalled, and we then find him employing the greater part of his time in pleading causes or living in the country, where he composed his two great political works, the De Republicâ and the De Legibus. He was appointed pro-consul of Cilicia, and his administration of that province gained him great honor. At the close of the year he returned to Rome, where he fell, as he says, into the very flame of civil discord, and found war had broken out between Pompey and Cæsar. After much vacillation he joined Pompey, but after the battle of Pharsalia B.C. 48, he threw himself on the mercy of the conqueror, by whom he was forgiven. Cicero was now at liberty to follow his own pursuits without interruption, and accordingly, until the death of Cæsar B.C. 44, devoted himself with assiduity to literary studies. During these years he composed nearly the whole of his most important works on rhetoric and philosophy. However, he paid constant attention to public affairs. From the beginning of the year B.C. 43 to the end of April, Cicero was at the height of his glory; within this space the last twelve Philippics were all delivered, and listened to with rapturous applause. Octavius, however, joined with Lepidus and Antony, usurping the whole power of the state, and their first step was to make out a list of the pro- potencie of life in them to be as active as that Soule wi scribed, among whom Cicero was marked for immediate destruction. He made an attempt to escape, but thinking it vain, submitted to his fate. The assassins cut off his head and hands, which were conveyed to Rome, and by the orders of Antony nailed to the rostra. ARTS. All the arts, which have a tendency to raise man in the scale of being, have a certain common bond of union, and are connected, if I may be allowed to say so, by blood relationship with one another. LITERATURE. Do you imagine that I could find materials for my daily speeches on such a variety of subjects, if I did not improve my mind by literary pursuits; or that I could bear up against such a strain, if I did not relieve it occasionally by philosophical inquiries ? GLORY AND HONOR ONLY DESIRABLE. For, if I had not been thoroughly convinced from my youth upwards by the precepts of many philosophers, and by my own literary investigations, that there is nothing in this life really worthy of being desired except glory and honor, and that, in the pursuit of these, even bodily torture, death, and banishment are of little account, never would I have rushed in your defence to so Jeremy Taylor thus speaks of literature: "Books are a guide in youth and an entertainment fo age. They help us to forget the crossness of men and thing compose our cares, and lay our disappointments asleej When we are weary of the living, we may repair to the deal who have nothing of peevishness, pride, or design in the conversation.” And Addison says: "Books are the legacies that genius leaves to mankind, i be delivered down from generation to generation, as presen to the posterity of those who are yet unborn." And Milton says: "Books are not absolutely dead things, but doe contain whose progeny they are." A POET. I have always learned from the noblest an wisest of men, that a knowledge of other thing is acquired by learning, rules, and art, but that poet derives his power from nature herself,-th the qualities of his mind are given to him, if may say so, by divine inspiration. Wherefo rightly does Ennius regard poets as under t special protection of heaven, because they see to be delivered over to us as a beneficent gift the gods. Let then, judges, this name of poe which even the very savages respect, be sacred your eyes, men as you are of the most cultivate mind. Rocks and deserts re-echo to their voic even the wildest animals turn and listen to t music of their words; and shall we, who hay been brought up to the noblest pursuits, not yiel to the voice of poets? to herald thy praise!" And with reason did he | brought against a man of the purest and holiest say so; for if the Iliad had never existed, the character, falls away at once and vanishes. same tomb which covered his body would have also buried his name. PRAISE. We are all excited by the love of praise, and it is the noblest spirits that feel it most. VIRTUE. So Titus i. 15: "Unto the pure all things are pure." THE POPULAce. The common rabble estimate few things according to their real value, most things according to the prejudices of their minds. PUNISHMENT OF THE PERJURED AND THE LIAR. For virtue wants no other reward for all the labors and dangers she undergoes, except what she derives from praise and glory; if this be deThe same punishment, which the gods inflict on nied to her, O judges, what reason is there why For it the perjured, is prepared for the liar. we should devote ourselves to such laborious pur-wrapped up, but the perfidy and malice of the act is not the form of words, in which the oath is suits, when our life is so brief, and its course THE PERJURED AND THE LIAR. The man, who has once deviated from the truth, is usually led on by no greater scruples to commit perjury than to tell a lie. narrowed to so small a compass? Assuredly, if that excite the wrath and anger of the immortal our minds were not allowed to look forward to the gods against men. future, and if all our thoughts were to be terminated with our life, there would be no reason why we should weary ourselves out with labors, submit to all the annoyances of cares and anxiety, and fight so often even for our very lives. In the noblest there resides a certain virtuous principle, which day and night stimulates a man to glorious deeds, and warns him that the recollection of our names is not to be terminated by time, but must be made boundless as eternity. THE PLEASURES OF HOPE. Everything in which I have been engaged in this world, as the wisest of men think, will be regarded in after ages as belonging to my soul; at present, at all events, I delight myself with such thoughts and hopes. So Romans viii. 24:— "For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?" THE VOICE of god. THOU SHALT NOT KILL. The connection of blood is of great power. It is a most undeniable portent and prodigy that there should be one having the human shape, who should so exceed the beasts in savage nature as to deprive those of life, by whose means he has himself beheld this most delicious light of life. So Genesis ix. 5: "And surely your blood of your lives will I require: at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man." GUILTY CONSCIENCE. It is the terror that arises from his own dishonest and evil life that chiefly torments a man: his This ought almost to be regarded as the voice wickedness drives him to and fro, racking him to and words of the immortal gods, when the globe it-madness; the consciousness of bad thoughts and self, the air and the earth, shake with an unusual ing Furies that inwardly gnaw his life away; worse deeds terrifies him: these are the never-dyagitation and prophesy to us in accents that we have never before heard and which seem incredi- wicked children for their behavior to their parwhich day and night call for punishment on AN ADVANTAGE TO WHOM. L. Cassius, whom the Roman people used to re "For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the gard as the best and wisest of judges, inquired |