Augustus's clemency, and moderation to his enemies.

derates, the order and manner of the design, and who it was to do the deed. Cinna, upon this, fixed his eye upon the ground, without any reply, not for his wordsake, but as in a confusion of conscience; and so Augustus went on. "What," says he, "may be your design in all this? Is it that you would pretend to step into my place? The commonwealth were in an ill condition, if only Augustus were in the way betwixt you and the government. You were cast the other day in a cause, by one of your own freemen; and do you expect to find a weaker adversary of Cæsar? But what if I were removed? there is Æmilius Paulus, Fabius Maximus, and twenty other families of great blood and interest, that would never bear it." To cut off the story short, (for it was a discourse of above two hours, and Augustus lengthened the punishment in words, since he intended that should be all)." Well, Cinna," says he, "the life I gave to you once as an enemy, I will now repeat it to a traitor, and to a parricide, and this shall be the last reproach I will give you. For the time to come, there shall be no other contention betwixt you and me, than which shall outdo the other in point of friendship." After this Augustus made Cinna consul, (an honour which he confessed he durst not so much as desire,) and Cinna was ever affectionately faithful to him: he made Cæsar his sole heir; and this was the last conspiracy that ever was formed against him.

The moderation of Augustus was the excellency of his mature age; for in his youth he was passionate and sudden, and he did many things which afterward he looked back upon with trouble. After the battle of Actium, so many navies broken in Sicily, both Roman

Arius's son examined.

and strangers; the Perusian altars, (where 300 lives were sacrificed to the ghost of Julius,) his frequent proscriptions, and other severities; his temperance at last seemed to be little more than a weary cruelty. If he had not forgiven those that he conquered, whom should he have governed? He chose his very lifeguard from among his enemies, and the flower of the Romans owed their lives to his clemency. Nay, he only punished Lepidus himself with banishment, and permitted him to wear the ensigns of his dignity, without taking the pontificate to himself, so long as Lepidus was living; for he would not possess it as a spoil, but as an honour. This clemency it was that secured him in his greatness, and ingratiated him to the people, though he laid his hand upon the government before they had thoroughly submitted to the yoke; and this clemency it was, that has made his name famous to posterity. This is it, that makes us reckon him divine, without the authority of an apotheosis. He was so tender and patient, that though many a bitter jest was broken upon him (and contumelies upon princes are most intolerable of all injuries), yet he never punished any man upon that subject. It is then generous to be merciful, when we have it in our power to take revenge.

A son of Titus Arius being examined, and found guilty of parricide, was banished Rome, and confined to Marseilles, where his father allowed him the same annuity that he had before; which made all people conclude him guilty, when they saw that his father had yet condemned the son that he could not hate. Augustus was pleased to sit upon the fact, in the house of Arius, only as a single member of the council, that was to exa

Instance of a merciful judgment.

mine it if it had been in Cæsar's palace, the judgment must have been Cæsar's, and not the father's. Upon a full hearing of the matter, Cæsar directed that every man should write his opinion, whether guilty or not, and without declaring his own, for fear of a partial vote. Before the opening of the books, Cæsar passed an oath, that he would not be Arius's heir: and, to shew that he had no interest in his sentence, as appeared afterward, for he was not condemned to the ordinary punishment of parricides, nor to a prison, but, by the mediation of Cæsar, only banished Rome, and confined to the place which his father should name: Augustus insisting upon it, that the father should content himself with an easy punishment; and arguing, that the young man was not moved to the attempt by malice, and that he was but half resolved in the fact, for he wavered in it, and therefore to remove him from the city, and from his father's sight, would be sufficient. This is a glorious mercy, and worthy of a prince, to make all things gentler wherever he comes. How miserable is that man in himself, who, when he has employed his power in rapine and cruelty upon others, is yet more unhappy in himself? He stands in fear both of his domestics and of strangers, the faith of his friends and the piety of his children, and flies to actual violence to secure him from the violence he fears. When he comes to look about him, and to consider what he has done, what he must, and what he is about to do, what with the wickedness and with the torments of his conscience, many times he fears death, oftener he wishes for it, and lives more odious to himself than to his subjects: whereas, on the contrary, he that takes a care of the public, though of one

Clemency is a royal virtue.

part more perhaps than another, yet there is not any part of it, but he looks upon as a part of himself. His mind is tender and gentle, and even where punishment is necessary and profitable, he comes to it unwillingly, and without any rancour or enmity in his heart. Let the authority, in fine, be what it will, clemency becomes it, and the greater the power, the greater is the glory of it. It is a truly royal virtue, for a prince to deliver his people from other men's anger, and not to oppress them with his own.

Orators should begin with temper.

EPISTLES.

CERTAIN GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THE VOICE.

You say well, that in speaking, the very ordering of the voice (to say nothing of the actions, countenances, and other circumstances that accompany it), is a consideration worthy of a wise man. There are, that prescribe certain modes of rising and falling: nay, if you will be governed by them, you shall not speak a word, move a step, or eat a bit, but by rule; and these perhaps are too critical. Do not understand me yet, as if I made no difference betwixt entering upon a discourse loud or soft, for the affections do not naturally rise by degrees; and, in all disputes, or pleadings, whether public or private, a man should properly begin with modesty and temper, and so advance by little and little, if need be, into clamour and vociferation. And as the voice rises by degrees, let it fall so too: not snapping off upon a sudden, but abating, as upon moderation; the other is unmannerly and rude. He that has a precipitate speech, is commonly violent in his manners : beside, that there is in it much of vanity and emptiness; and no man takes satisfaction in a flux of words without choice, where the noise is more than the value. Fabius was a man eminent both for his life and learning, and no less for his eloquence. His speech was rather easy