"
Flaminius pointed to a man who was pacing up and down the Forum at a
little distance from them.
Flaminius pointed to a man who was pacing up and down the Forum at a
little distance from them.
Macaulay
After learning what you can
from Boswell, you will enjoy some such account as the _Encyclopædia
Britannica_ offers. While doing your reading it may be well to keep in
mind what two or three critics have said. Mr. Mowbray Morris writes:
"After all the abuse showered on the unfortunate woman it is pleasant
to know that the marriage proved a happy one in every respect. Piozzi,
who was really a well-mannered, amiable man, took every care of his
wife's fortune, and on their return to England her family and friends
were soon reconciled to him. " Mr. Leslie Stephen says: "Her love of
Piozzi, which was both warm and permanent, is the most amiable feature
of her character. " Mr. Herbert Paul, after praising Macaulay's _Life of
Johnson_, adds, "Yet, if I may say so, I can never forgive Macaulay for
his cruel and unaccountable injustice to Mrs. Thrale. "
=41= 3. =the Ephesian matron. = She cared so much for her husband that
she went into the vault to die with him, and there, in the midst of
her violent grief, fell in love with a soldier who was guarding some
dead bodies near by. For the story (told by a Latin writer, Petronius),
see Jeremy Taylor's _The Rule and Exercises of Holy Dying_, Chapter V,
section 8. --=the two pictures. = In Act III.
=42= 2. =Burke parted from him. = After twenty-seven years of
uninterrupted friendship with Johnson, says Robina Napier. --=Windham. =
The Right Hon. William Windham, a member of the Club, a friend of
Malone, Burke, Fox, and Pitt; in 1794 Secretary at War (Pitt's
ministry), in 1806 War and Colonial Secretary (Lord Grenville's
ministry); in the words of Macaulay, "the first gentleman of his age,
the ingenious, the chivalrous, the high-souled Windham. " Johnson wrote
him appreciative letters in August and October, 1784. See Boswell.
=42= 4. =Frances Burney. = In Macaulay's essay on Madame d'Arblay, he
says: "Her appearance is an important epoch in our literary history.
Evelina was the first tale written by a woman, and purporting to be a
picture of life and manners, that lived or deserved to live. " Read this
account of the "timid and obscure girl" who suddenly "found herself on
the highest pinnacle of fame," eulogized by such men as Burke, Windham,
Gibbon, Reynolds, and Sheridan.
=42= 6. =Langton. = See page 30.
=42= 10-11. =his temper. = In connection with this closing sentence let
us remember a paragraph from Boswell (1776):
"That he was occasionally remarkable for violence of temper may be
granted: but let us ascertain the degree, and not let it be supposed
that he was in a perpetual rage, and never without a club in his hand
to knock down every one who approached him. On the contrary, the truth
is, that by much the greatest part of his time he was civil, obliging,
nay, polite in the true sense of the word; so much so, that many
gentlemen who were long acquainted with him never received, or even
heard a strong expression from him. "
THE MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS AND SPEECHES OF LORD MACAULAY
CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNIGHT'S QUARTERLY MAGAZINE
By By Thomas Babington Macaulay
VOLUME I.
PREFACE.
Lord Macaulay always looked forward to a publication of his
miscellaneous works, either by himself or by those who should represent
him after his death. And latterly he expressly reserved, whenever
the arrangements as to copyright made it necessary, the right of such
publication.
The collection which is now published comprehends some of the earliest
and some of the latest works which he composed. He was born on 25th
October, 1800; commenced residence at Trinity College, Cambridge, in
October, 1818; was elected Craven University Scholar in 1821; graduated
as B. A. in 1822; was elected fellow of the college in October, 1824;
was called to the bar in February, 1826, when he joined the Northern
Circuit; and was elected member for Calne in 1830. After this last
event, he did not long continue to practise at the bar. He went to India
in 1834, whence he returned in June, 1838. He was elected member for
Edinburgh, in 1839, and lost this seat in July, 1847; and this (though
he was afterwards again elected for that city in July, 1852, without
being a candidate) may be considered as the last instance of his taking
an active part in the contests of public life. These few dates are
mentioned for the purpose of enabling the reader to assign the articles,
now and previously published, to the principal periods into which the
author's life may be divided.
The admirers of his later works will probably be interested by watching
the gradual formation of his style, and will notice in his earlier
productions, vigorous and clear as their language always was, the
occurrence of faults against which he afterwards most anxiously guarded
himself. A much greater interest will undoubtedly be felt in tracing the
date and development of his opinions.
The articles published in Knight's Quarterly Magazine were composed
during the author's residence at college, as B. A. It may be remarked
that the first two of these exhibit the earnestness with which he
already endeavoured to represent to himself and to others the scenes and
persons of past times as in actual existence. Of the Dialogue between
Milton and Cowley he spoke, many years after its publication, as that
one of his works which he remembered with most satisfaction. The article
on Mitford's Greece he did not himself value so highly as others thought
it deserved. This article, at any rate, contains the first distinct
enunciation of his views, as to the office of an historian, views
afterwards more fully set forth in his Essay, upon History, in the
Edinburgh Review. From the protest, in the last mentioned essay, against
the conventional notions respecting the majesty of history might perhaps
have been anticipated something like the third chapter of the History
of England. It may be amusing to notice that in the article on Mitford,
appears the first sketch of the New Zealander, afterwards filled up in
a passage in the review of Mrs Austin's translation of Ranke, a passage
which at one time was the subject of allusion, two or three times a
week, in speeches and leading articles. In this, too, appear, perhaps
for the first time, the author's views on the representative system.
These he retained to the very last; they are brought forward repeatedly
in the articles published in this collection and elsewhere, and in his
speeches in parliament; and they coincide with the opinions expressed in
the letter to an American correspondent, which was so often cited in the
late debate on the Reform Bill.
Some explanation appears to be necessary as to the publication of the
three articles "Mill on Government," "Westminster Reviewer's Defence of
Mill" and "Utilitarian Theory of Government. "
In 1828 Mr James Mill, the author of the History of British India,
reprinted some essays which he had contributed to the Supplement to the
Encyclopaedia Britannica; and among these was an Essay on Government.
The method of inquiry and reasoning adopted in this essay appeared
to Macaulay to be essentially wrong. He entertained a very strong
conviction that the only sound foundation for a theory of Government
must be laid in careful and copious historical induction; and he
believed that Mr Mill's work rested upon a vicious reasoning a priori.
Upon this point he felt the more earnestly, owing to his own passion for
historical research, and to his devout admiration of Bacon, whose works
he was at that time studying with intense attention. There can, however,
be little doubt that he was also provoked by the pretensions of some
members of a sect which then commonly went by the name of Benthamites,
or Utilitarians. This sect included many of his contemporaries, who had
quitted Cambridge at about the same time with him. It had succeeded, in
some measure, to the sect of the Byronians, whom he has described in the
review of Moore's Life of Lord Byron, who discarded their neckcloths,
and fixed little models of skulls on the sand-glasses by which they
regulated the boiling of their eggs for breakfast. The members of these
sects, and of many others that have succeeded, have probably long ago
learned to smile at the temporary humours. But Macaulay, himself a
sincere admirer of Bentham, was irritated by what he considered the
unwarranted tone assumed by several of the class of Utilitarians. "We
apprehend," he said, "that many of them are persons who, having read
little or nothing, are delighted to be rescued from the sense of their
own inferiority by some teacher who assures them that the studies which
they have neglected are of no value, puts five or six phrases into their
mouths, lends them an odd number of the Westminster Review, and in
a month transforms them into philosophers;" and he spoke of them as
"smatterers, whose attainments just suffice to elevate them from the
insignificance of dunces to the dignity of bores, and to spread dismay
among their pious aunts and grand mothers. " The sect, of course, like
other sects, comprehended some pretenders, and these the most arrogant
and intolerant among its members. He, however, went so far as to apply
the following language to the majority:--"As to the greater part of
the sect, it is, we apprehend, of little consequence what they study or
under whom. It would be more amusing, to be sure, and more reputable, if
they would take up the old republican cant and declaim about Brutus and
Timoleon, the duty of killing tyrants and the blessedness of dying for
liberty. But, on the whole, they might have chosen worse. They may as
well be Utilitarians as jockeys or dandies. And, though quibbling about
self-interest and motives, and objects of desire, and the greatest
happiness of the greatest number, is but a poor employment for a grown
man, it certainly hurts the health less than hard drinking and the
fortune less than high play; it is not much more laughable than
phrenology, and is immeasurably more humane than cock-fighting. "
Macaulay inserted in the Edinburgh Review of March, 1829, an article
upon Mr Mill's Essay. He attacked the method with much vehemence; and,
to the end of his life, he never saw any ground for believing that in
this he had gone too far. But before long he felt that he had not spoken
of the author of the Essay with the respect due to so eminent a man. In
1833, he described Mr mill, during the debate on the India Bill of that
year, as a "gentleman extremely well acquainted with the affairs of our
Eastern Empire, a most valuable servant of the Company, and the author
of a history of India, which, though certainly not free from faults, is,
I think, on the whole, the greatest historical work which has appeared
in our language since that of Gibbon. "
Almost immediately upon the appearance of the article in the Edinburgh
Review, an answer was published in the Westminster Review. It was
untruly attributed, in the newspapers of the day, to Mr Bentham himself.
Macaulay's answer to this appeared in the Edinburgh Review, June, 1829.
He wrote the answer under the belief that he was answering Mr Bentham,
and was undeceived in time only to add the postscript. The author of the
article in the Westminster Review had not perceived that the question
raised was not as to the truth or falsehood of the result at which Mr
Mill had arrived, but as to the soundness or unsoundness of the method
which he pursued; a misunderstanding at which Macaulay, while he
supposed the article to be the work of Mr Bentham, expressed much
surprise. The controversy soon became principally a dispute as to the
theory which was commonly known by the name of The Greatest Happiness
Principle. Another article in the Westminster Review followed; and
a surrejoinder by Macaulay in the Edinburgh Review of October, 1829.
Macaulay was irritated at what he conceived to be either extreme
dullness or gross unfairness on the part of his unknown antagonist, and
struck as hard as he could; and he struck very hard indeed.
The ethical question thus raised was afterwards discussed by Sir James
Mackintosh, in the Dissertation contributed by him to the seventh
edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, page 284-313 (Whewell's
Edition). Sir James Mackintosh notices the part taken in the controversy
by Macaulay, in the following words: "A writer of consummate ability,
who has failed in little but the respect due to the abilities and
character of his opponents, has given too much countenance to the abuse
and confusion of language exemplified in the well-known verse of Pope,
'Modes of self-love the Passions we may call. '
'We know,' says he, 'no universal proposition respecting human nature
which is true but one--that men always act from self-interest. '" "It
is manifest from the sequel, that the writer is not the dupe of the
confusion; but many of his readers may be so. If, indeed, the word
"self-interest" could with propriety be used for the gratification of
every prevalent desire, he has clearly shown that this change in the
signification of terms would be of no advantage to the doctrine which he
controverts. It would make as many sorts of self-interest as there
are appetites, and it is irreconcilably at variance with the system of
association proposed by Mr Mill. " "The admirable writer whose language
has occasioned this illustration, who at an early age has mastered every
species of composition, will doubtless hold fast to simplicity, which
survives all the fashions of deviation from it, and which a man of
genius so fertile has few temptations to for sake. "
When Macaulay selected for publication certain articles of the Edinburgh
Review, he resolved not to publish any of the three essays in question;
for which he assigned the following reason:--
"The author has been strongly urged to insert three papers on the
Utilitarian Philosophy, which, when they first appeared, attracted
some notice, but which are not in the American editions. He has however
determined to omit these papers, not because he is disposed to retract a
single doctrine which they contain, but because he is unwilling to offer
what might be regarded as an affront to the memory of one from whose
opinions he still widely dissents, but to whose talents and virtues he
admits that he formerly did not do justice. Serious as are the faults of
the Essay on Government, a critic, while noticing those faults, should
have abstained from using contemptuous language respecting the historian
of British India. It ought to be known that Mr Mill had the generosity,
not only to forgive, but to forget the unbecoming acrimony with which he
had been assailed, and was, when his valuable life closed, on terms of
cordial friendship with his assailant. "
Under these circumstances, considerable doubt has been felt as to the
propriety of republishing the three Essays in the present collection.
But it has been determined, not without much hesitation, that they
should appear. It is felt that no disrespect is shown to the memory of
Mr Mill, when the publication is accompanied by so full an apology for
the tone adopted towards him; and Mr Mill himself would have been the
last to wish for the suppression of opinions on the ground that they
were in express antagonism to his own. The grave has now closed upon the
assailant as well as the assailed. On the other hand, it cannot but
be desirable that opinions which the author retained to the last, on
important questions in politics and morals, should be before the public.
Some of the poems now collected have already appeared in print; others
are supplied by the recollection of friends. The first two are published
on account of their having been composed in the author's childhood. In
the poems, as well as in the prose works, will be occasionally found
thoughts and expressions which have afterwards been adopted in later
productions.
No alteration whatever has been made from the form in which the author
left the several articles, with the exception of some changes in
punctuation, and the correction of one or two obvious misprints.
T. F. E. London, June 1860.
CONTENTS.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNIGHT'S QUARTERLY MAGAZINE.
Fragments of a Roman Tale. (June 1823. )
On the Royal Society of Literature. (June 1823. )
Scenes from "Athenian Revels. " (January 1824. )
Criticisms on the Principal Italian Writers. No. I. Dante. (January
1824. )
Criticisms on the Principal Italian Writers. No. II. Petrarch. (April
1824. )
Some account of the Great Lawsuit between the Parishes of St Dennis and
St George in the Water. (April 1824. )
A Conversation between Mr Abraham Cowley and Mr John Milton, touching
the Great Civil War. (August 1824. )
On the Athenian Orators. (August 1824. )
A Prophetic Account of a Grand National Epic Poem, to be entitled "The
Wellingtoniad," and to be Published A. D. 2824. (November 1824. )
On Mitford's History of Greece. (November 1824. )
MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS OF LORD MACAULAY.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNIGHT'S QUARTERLY MAGAZINE.
FRAGMENTS OF A ROMAN TALE. (June 1823. )
It was an hour after noon. Ligarius was returning from the Campus
Martius. He strolled through one of the streets which led to the Forum,
settling his gown, and calculating the odds on the gladiators who were
to fence at the approaching Saturnalia. While thus occupied, he overtook
Flaminius, who, with a heavy step and a melancholy face, was sauntering
in the same direction. The light-hearted young man plucked him by the
sleeve.
"Good-day, Flaminius. Are you to be of Catiline's party this evening? "
"Not I. "
"Why so? Your little Tarentine girl will break her heart. "
"No matter. Catiline has the best cooks and the finest wine in Rome.
There are charming women at his parties. But the twelve-line board and
the dice-box pay for all. The Gods confound me if I did not lose two
millions of sesterces last night. My villa at Tibur, and all the
statues that my father the praetor brought from Ephesus, must go to
the auctioneer. That is a high price, you will acknowledge, even for
Phoenicopters, Chian, and Callinice. "
"High indeed, by Pollux. "
"And that is not the worst. I saw several of the leading senators this
morning. Strange things are whispered in the higher political circles. "
"The Gods confound the political circles. I have hated the name of
politician ever since Sylla's proscription, when I was within a moment
of having my throat cut by a politician, who took me for another
politician. While there is a cask of Falernian in Campania, or a girl in
the Suburra, I shall be too well employed to think on the subject. "
"You will do well," said Flaminius gravely, "to bestow some little
consideration upon it at present. Otherwise, I fear, you will soon renew
your acquaintance with politicians, in a manner quite as unpleasant as
that to which you allude. "
"Averting Gods! what do you mean? "
"I will tell you. There are rumours of conspiracy. The order of things
established by Lucius Sylla has excited the disgust of the people, and
of a large party of the nobles. Some violent convulsion is expected. "
"What is that to me? I suppose that they will hardly proscribe the
vintners and gladiators, or pass a law compelling every citizen to take
a wife. "
"You do not understand. Catiline is supposed to be the author of the
revolutionary schemes. You must have heard bold opinions at his table
repeatedly. "
"I never listen to any opinions upon such subjects, bold or timid. "
"Look to it. Your name has been mentioned. "
"Mine! good Gods! I call Heaven to witness that I never so much as
mentioned Senate, Consul, or Comitia, in Catiline's house. "
"Nobody suspects you of any participation in the inmost counsels of the
party. But our great men surmise that you are among those whom he has
bribed so high with beauty, or entangled so deeply in distress, that
they are no longer their own masters. I shall never set foot within
his threshold again. I have been solemnly warned by men who understand
public affairs; and I advise you to be cautious. "
The friends had now turned into the Forum, which was thronged with
the gay and elegant youth of Rome. "I can tell you more," continued
Flaminius; "somebody was remarking to the Consul yesterday how loosely a
certain acquaintance of ours tied his girdle. 'Let him look to himself;'
said Cicero, 'or the state may find a tighter girdle for his neck. '"
"Good Gods! who is it? You cannot surely mean"--
"There he is.
"
Flaminius pointed to a man who was pacing up and down the Forum at a
little distance from them. He was in the prime of manhood. His
personal advantages were extremely striking, and were displayed with an
extravagant but not ungraceful foppery. His gown waved in loose folds;
his long dark curls were dressed with exquisite art, and shone and
steamed with odours; his step and gesture exhibited an elegant
and commanding figure in every posture of polite languor. But his
countenance formed a singular contrast to the general appearance of
his person. The high and imperial brow, the keen aquiline features, the
compressed mouth; the penetrating eye, indicated the highest degree of
ability and decision. He seemed absorbed in intense meditation. With
eyes fixed on the ground, and lips working in thought, he sauntered
round the area, apparently unconscious how many of the young gallants
of Rome were envying the taste of his dress, and the ease of his
fashionable stagger.
"Good Heaven! " said Ligarius, "Caius Caesar is as unlikely to be in a
plot as I am. "
"Not at all. "
"He does nothing but game; feast, intrigue, read Greek, and write
verses. "
"You know nothing of Caesar. Though he rarely addresses the Senate,
he is considered as the finest speaker there, after the Consul. His
influence with the multitude is immense. He will serve his rivals in
public life as he served me last night at Catiline's. We were playing at
the twelve lines. (Duodecim scripta, a game of mixed chance and skill,
which seems to have been very fashionable in the higher circles of
Rome. The famous lawyer Mucius was renowned for his skill in it. --"Cic.
Orat. " i. 50. )--Immense stakes. He laughed all the time, chatted with
Valeria over his shoulder, kissed her hand between every two moves, and
scarcely looked at the board. I thought that I had him. All at once
I found my counters driven into the corner. Not a piece to move,
by Hercules. It cost me two millions of sesterces. All the Gods and
Goddesses confound him for it! "
"As to Valeria," said Ligarius, "I forgot to ask whether you have heard
the news. "
"Not a word. What? "
"I was told at the baths to-day that Caesar escorted the lady home.
Unfortunately old Quintus Lutatius had come back from his villa in
Campania, in a whim of jealousy. He was not expected for three days.
There was a fine tumult. The old fool called for his sword and his
slaves, cursed his wife, and swore that he would cut Caesar's throat. "
"And Caesar? "
"He laughed, quoted Anacreon, trussed his gown round his left arm,
closed with Quintus, flung him down, twisted his sword out of his hand,
burst through the attendants, ran a freed-man through the shoulder, and
was in the street in an instant. "
"Well done! Here he comes. Good-day, Caius. "
Caesar lifted his head at the salutation. His air of deep abstraction
vanished; and he extended a hand to each of the friends.
"How are you after your last night's exploit? "
"As well as possible," said Caesar, laughing.
"In truth we should rather ask how Quintus Lutatius is. "
"He, I understand, is as well as can be expected of a man with a
faithless spouse and a broken head. His freed-man is most seriously
hurt. Poor fellow! he shall have half of whatever I win to-night.
Flaminius, you shall have your revenge at Catiline's. "
"You are very kind. I do not intend to be at Catiline's till I wish to
part with my town-house. My villa is gone already. "
"Not at Catiline's, base spirit! You are not of his mind, my gallant
Ligarius. Dice, Chian, and the loveliest Greek singing girl that was
ever seen. Think of that, Ligarius. By Venus, she almost made me adore
her, by telling me that I talked Greek with the most Attic accent that
she had heard in Italy. "
"I doubt she will not say the same of me," replied Ligarius. "I am just
as able to decipher an obelisk as to read a line of Homer. "
"You barbarous Scythian, who had the care of your education? "
"An old fool,--a Greek pedant,--a Stoic. He told me that pain was no
evil, and flogged me as if he thought so. At last one day, in the middle
of a lecture, I set fire to his enormous filthy beard, singed his face,
and sent him roaring out of the house. There ended my studies. From that
time to this I have had as little to do with Greece as the wine that
your poor old friend Lutatius calls his delicious Samian. "
"Well done, Ligarius. I hate a Stoic. I wish Marcus Cato had a beard
that you might singe it for him. The fool talked his two hours in the
Senate yesterday, without changing a muscle of his face. He looked as
savage and as motionless as the mask in which Roscius acted Alecto. I
detest everything connected with him. "
"Except his sister, Servilia. "
"True. She is a lovely woman. "
"They say that you have told her so, Caius"
"So I have. "
"And that she was not angry. "
"What woman is? "
"Aye--but they say"--
"No matter what they say. Common fame lies like a Greek rhetorician.
You might know so much, Ligarius, without reading the philosophers. But
come, I will introduce you to little dark-eyed Zoe. "
"I tell you I can speak no Greek. "
"More shame for you. It is high time that you should begin. You will
never have such a charming instructress. Of what was your father
thinking when he sent for an old Stoic with a long beard to teach you?
There is no language-mistress like a handsome woman. When I was at
Athens, I learnt more Greek from a pretty flower-girl in the Peiraeus
than from all the Portico and the Academy. She was no Stoic, Heaven
knows. But come along to Zoe. I will be your interpreter. Woo her in
honest Latin, and I will turn it into elegant Greek between the throws
of dice. I can make love and mind my game at once, as Flaminius can tell
you.
"Well, then, to be plain, Caesar, Flaminius has been talking to me about
plots, and suspicions, and politicians. I never plagued myself with such
things since Sylla's and Marius's days; and then I never could see much
difference between the parties. All that I am sure of is, that those who
meddle with such affairs are generally stabbed or strangled. And, though
I like Greek wine and handsome women, I do not wish to risk my neck for
them. Now, tell me as a friend, Caius--is there no danger? "
"Danger! " repeated Caesar, with a short, fierce, disdainful laugh: "what
danger do you apprehend? "
"That you should best know," said Flaminius; "you are far more intimate
with Catiline than I. But I advise you to be cautious. The leading men
entertain strong suspicions. "
Caesar drew up his figure from its ordinary state of graceful relaxation
into an attitude of commanding dignity, and replied in a voice of
which the deep and impassioned melody formed a strange contrast to
the humorous and affected tone of his ordinary conversation. "Let them
suspect. They suspect because they know what they have deserved. What
have they done for Rome? --What for mankind? Ask the citizens--ask the
provinces. Have they had any other object than to perpetuate their
own exclusive power, and to keep us under the yoke of an oligarchical
tyranny, which unites in itself the worst evils of every other system,
and combines more than Athenian turbulence with more than Persian
despotism? "
"Good Gods! Caesar. It is not safe for you to speak, or for us to listen
to, such things, at such a crisis. "
"Judge for yourselves what you will hear. I will judge for myself what
I will speak. I was not twenty years old when I defied Lucius Sylla,
surrounded by the spears of legionaries and the daggers of assassins.
Do you suppose that I stand in awe of his paltry successors, who have
inherited a power which they never could have acquired; who would
imitate his proscriptions, though they have never equalled his
conquests? "
"Pompey is almost as little to be trifled with as Sylla. I heard a
consular senator say that, in consequence of the present alarming state
of affairs, he would probably be recalled from the command assigned to
him by the Manilian law. "
"Let him come,--the pupil of Sylla's butcheries,--the gleaner of
Lucullus's trophies,--the thief-taker of the Senate. "
"For Heaven's sake, Caius! --if you knew what the Consul said"--
"Something about himself, no doubt. Pity that such talents should be
coupled with such cowardice and coxcombry. He is the finest speaker
living,--infinitely superior to what Hortensius was, in his best
days;--a charming companion, except when he tells over for the twentieth
time all the jokes that he made at Verres's trial. But he is the
despicable tool of a despicable party. "
"Your language, Caius, convinces me that the reports which have been
circulated are not without foundation. I will venture to prophesy that
within a few months the republic will pass through a whole Odyssey of
strange adventures. "
"I believe so; an Odyssey, of which Pompey will be the Polyphemus, and
Cicero the Siren. I would have the state imitate Ulysses: show no
mercy to the former; but contrive, if it can be done, to listen to
the enchanting voice of the other, without being seduced by it to
destruction. "
"But whom can your party produce as rivals to these two famous leaders? "
"Time will show. I would hope that there may arise a man, whose genius
to conquer, to conciliate, and to govern, may unite in one cause an
oppressed and divided people;--may do all that Sylla should have done,
and exhibit the magnificent spectacle of a great nation directed by a
great mind. "
"And where is such a man to be found? "
"Perhaps where you would least expect to find him. Perhaps he may be
one whose powers have hitherto been concealed in domestic or literary
retirement. Perhaps he may be one, who, while waiting for some adequate
excitement, for some worthy opportunity, squanders on trifles a genius
before which may yet be humbled the sword of Pompey and the gown
of Cicero. Perhaps he may now be disputing with a sophist; perhaps
prattling with a mistress; perhaps" and, as he spoke, he turned away,
and resumed his lounge, "strolling in the Forum. "
*****
It was almost midnight. The party had separated. Catiline and Cethegus
were still conferring in the supper-room, which was, as usual, the
highest apartment of the house. It formed a cupola, from which windows
opened on the flat roof that surrounded it. To this terrace Zoe had
retired. With eyes dimmed with fond and melancholy tears, she leaned
over the balustrade, to catch the last glimpse of the departing form of
Caesar, as it grew more and more indistinct in the moonlight. Had he
any thought of her? Any love for her? He, the favourite of the high-born
beauties of Rome, the most splendid, the most graceful, the most
eloquent of its nobles? It could not be. His voice had, indeed, been
touchingly soft whenever he addressed her. There had been a fascinating
tenderness even in the vivacity of his look and conversation. But such
were always the manners of Caesar towards women. He had wreathed a sprig
of myrtle in her hair as she was singing. She took it from her dark
ringlets, and kissed it, and wept over it, and thought of the sweet
legends of her own dear Greece,--of youths and girls, who, pining away
in hopeless love, had been transformed into flowers by the compassion
of the Gods; and she wished to become a flower, which Caesar might
sometimes touch, though he should touch it only to weave a crown for
some prouder and happier mistress.
She was roused from her musings by the loud step and voice of Cethegus,
who was pacing furiously up and down the supper-room.
"May all the Gods confound me, if Caesar be not the deepest traitor, or
the most miserable idiot, that ever intermeddled with a plot! "
Zoe shuddered. She drew nearer to the window. She stood concealed from
observation by the curtain of fine network which hung over the aperture,
to exclude the annoying insects of the climate.
"And you too! " continued Cethegus, turning fiercely on his accomplice;
"you to take his part against me! --you, who proposed the scheme
yourself! "
"My dear Caius Cethegus, you will not understand me. I proposed the
scheme; and I will join in executing it. But policy is as necessary to
our plans as boldness. I did not wish to startle Caesar--to lose his
co-operation--perhaps to send him off with an information against us to
Cicero and Catulus. He was so indignant at your suggestion that all my
dissimulation was scarcely sufficient to prevent a total rupture. "
"Indignant! The Gods confound him! --He prated about humanity, and
generosity, and moderation. By Hercules, I have not heard such a lecture
since I was with Xenochares at Rhodes. "
"Caesar is made up of inconsistencies. He has boundless ambition,
unquestioned courage, admirable sagacity. Yet I have frequently observed
in him a womanish weakness at the sight of pain. I remember that once
one of his slaves was taken ill while carrying his litter. He alighted,
put the fellow in his place and walked home in a fall of snow. I wonder
that you could be so ill-advised as to talk to him of massacre,
and pillage, and conflagration. You might have foreseen that such
propositions would disgust a man of his temper. "
"I do not know. I have not your self-command, Lucius. I hate
such conspirators. What is the use of them? We must have
blood--blood,--hacking and tearing work--bloody work! "
"Do not grind your teeth, my dear Caius; and lay down the carving-knife.
By Hercules, you have cut up all the stuffing of the couch. "
"No matter; we shall have couches enough soon,--and down to stuff
them with,--and purple to cover them,--and pretty women to loll
on them,--unless this fool, and such as he, spoil our plans. I had
something else to say. The essenced fop wishes to seduce Zoe from me. "
"Impossible! You misconstrue the ordinary gallantries which he is in the
habit of paying to every handsome face. "
"Curse on his ordinary gallantries, and his verses, and his compliments,
and his sprigs of myrtle! If Caesar should dare--by Hercules, I will
tear him to pieces in the middle of the Forum. "
"Trust his destruction to me. We must use his talents and
influence--thrust him upon every danger--make him our instrument while
we are contending--our peace-offering to the Senate if we fail--our
first victim if we succeed. "
"Hark! what noise was that? "
"Somebody in the terrace--lend me your dagger. "
Catiline rushed to the window. Zoe was standing in the shade.
from Boswell, you will enjoy some such account as the _Encyclopædia
Britannica_ offers. While doing your reading it may be well to keep in
mind what two or three critics have said. Mr. Mowbray Morris writes:
"After all the abuse showered on the unfortunate woman it is pleasant
to know that the marriage proved a happy one in every respect. Piozzi,
who was really a well-mannered, amiable man, took every care of his
wife's fortune, and on their return to England her family and friends
were soon reconciled to him. " Mr. Leslie Stephen says: "Her love of
Piozzi, which was both warm and permanent, is the most amiable feature
of her character. " Mr. Herbert Paul, after praising Macaulay's _Life of
Johnson_, adds, "Yet, if I may say so, I can never forgive Macaulay for
his cruel and unaccountable injustice to Mrs. Thrale. "
=41= 3. =the Ephesian matron. = She cared so much for her husband that
she went into the vault to die with him, and there, in the midst of
her violent grief, fell in love with a soldier who was guarding some
dead bodies near by. For the story (told by a Latin writer, Petronius),
see Jeremy Taylor's _The Rule and Exercises of Holy Dying_, Chapter V,
section 8. --=the two pictures. = In Act III.
=42= 2. =Burke parted from him. = After twenty-seven years of
uninterrupted friendship with Johnson, says Robina Napier. --=Windham. =
The Right Hon. William Windham, a member of the Club, a friend of
Malone, Burke, Fox, and Pitt; in 1794 Secretary at War (Pitt's
ministry), in 1806 War and Colonial Secretary (Lord Grenville's
ministry); in the words of Macaulay, "the first gentleman of his age,
the ingenious, the chivalrous, the high-souled Windham. " Johnson wrote
him appreciative letters in August and October, 1784. See Boswell.
=42= 4. =Frances Burney. = In Macaulay's essay on Madame d'Arblay, he
says: "Her appearance is an important epoch in our literary history.
Evelina was the first tale written by a woman, and purporting to be a
picture of life and manners, that lived or deserved to live. " Read this
account of the "timid and obscure girl" who suddenly "found herself on
the highest pinnacle of fame," eulogized by such men as Burke, Windham,
Gibbon, Reynolds, and Sheridan.
=42= 6. =Langton. = See page 30.
=42= 10-11. =his temper. = In connection with this closing sentence let
us remember a paragraph from Boswell (1776):
"That he was occasionally remarkable for violence of temper may be
granted: but let us ascertain the degree, and not let it be supposed
that he was in a perpetual rage, and never without a club in his hand
to knock down every one who approached him. On the contrary, the truth
is, that by much the greatest part of his time he was civil, obliging,
nay, polite in the true sense of the word; so much so, that many
gentlemen who were long acquainted with him never received, or even
heard a strong expression from him. "
THE MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS AND SPEECHES OF LORD MACAULAY
CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNIGHT'S QUARTERLY MAGAZINE
By By Thomas Babington Macaulay
VOLUME I.
PREFACE.
Lord Macaulay always looked forward to a publication of his
miscellaneous works, either by himself or by those who should represent
him after his death. And latterly he expressly reserved, whenever
the arrangements as to copyright made it necessary, the right of such
publication.
The collection which is now published comprehends some of the earliest
and some of the latest works which he composed. He was born on 25th
October, 1800; commenced residence at Trinity College, Cambridge, in
October, 1818; was elected Craven University Scholar in 1821; graduated
as B. A. in 1822; was elected fellow of the college in October, 1824;
was called to the bar in February, 1826, when he joined the Northern
Circuit; and was elected member for Calne in 1830. After this last
event, he did not long continue to practise at the bar. He went to India
in 1834, whence he returned in June, 1838. He was elected member for
Edinburgh, in 1839, and lost this seat in July, 1847; and this (though
he was afterwards again elected for that city in July, 1852, without
being a candidate) may be considered as the last instance of his taking
an active part in the contests of public life. These few dates are
mentioned for the purpose of enabling the reader to assign the articles,
now and previously published, to the principal periods into which the
author's life may be divided.
The admirers of his later works will probably be interested by watching
the gradual formation of his style, and will notice in his earlier
productions, vigorous and clear as their language always was, the
occurrence of faults against which he afterwards most anxiously guarded
himself. A much greater interest will undoubtedly be felt in tracing the
date and development of his opinions.
The articles published in Knight's Quarterly Magazine were composed
during the author's residence at college, as B. A. It may be remarked
that the first two of these exhibit the earnestness with which he
already endeavoured to represent to himself and to others the scenes and
persons of past times as in actual existence. Of the Dialogue between
Milton and Cowley he spoke, many years after its publication, as that
one of his works which he remembered with most satisfaction. The article
on Mitford's Greece he did not himself value so highly as others thought
it deserved. This article, at any rate, contains the first distinct
enunciation of his views, as to the office of an historian, views
afterwards more fully set forth in his Essay, upon History, in the
Edinburgh Review. From the protest, in the last mentioned essay, against
the conventional notions respecting the majesty of history might perhaps
have been anticipated something like the third chapter of the History
of England. It may be amusing to notice that in the article on Mitford,
appears the first sketch of the New Zealander, afterwards filled up in
a passage in the review of Mrs Austin's translation of Ranke, a passage
which at one time was the subject of allusion, two or three times a
week, in speeches and leading articles. In this, too, appear, perhaps
for the first time, the author's views on the representative system.
These he retained to the very last; they are brought forward repeatedly
in the articles published in this collection and elsewhere, and in his
speeches in parliament; and they coincide with the opinions expressed in
the letter to an American correspondent, which was so often cited in the
late debate on the Reform Bill.
Some explanation appears to be necessary as to the publication of the
three articles "Mill on Government," "Westminster Reviewer's Defence of
Mill" and "Utilitarian Theory of Government. "
In 1828 Mr James Mill, the author of the History of British India,
reprinted some essays which he had contributed to the Supplement to the
Encyclopaedia Britannica; and among these was an Essay on Government.
The method of inquiry and reasoning adopted in this essay appeared
to Macaulay to be essentially wrong. He entertained a very strong
conviction that the only sound foundation for a theory of Government
must be laid in careful and copious historical induction; and he
believed that Mr Mill's work rested upon a vicious reasoning a priori.
Upon this point he felt the more earnestly, owing to his own passion for
historical research, and to his devout admiration of Bacon, whose works
he was at that time studying with intense attention. There can, however,
be little doubt that he was also provoked by the pretensions of some
members of a sect which then commonly went by the name of Benthamites,
or Utilitarians. This sect included many of his contemporaries, who had
quitted Cambridge at about the same time with him. It had succeeded, in
some measure, to the sect of the Byronians, whom he has described in the
review of Moore's Life of Lord Byron, who discarded their neckcloths,
and fixed little models of skulls on the sand-glasses by which they
regulated the boiling of their eggs for breakfast. The members of these
sects, and of many others that have succeeded, have probably long ago
learned to smile at the temporary humours. But Macaulay, himself a
sincere admirer of Bentham, was irritated by what he considered the
unwarranted tone assumed by several of the class of Utilitarians. "We
apprehend," he said, "that many of them are persons who, having read
little or nothing, are delighted to be rescued from the sense of their
own inferiority by some teacher who assures them that the studies which
they have neglected are of no value, puts five or six phrases into their
mouths, lends them an odd number of the Westminster Review, and in
a month transforms them into philosophers;" and he spoke of them as
"smatterers, whose attainments just suffice to elevate them from the
insignificance of dunces to the dignity of bores, and to spread dismay
among their pious aunts and grand mothers. " The sect, of course, like
other sects, comprehended some pretenders, and these the most arrogant
and intolerant among its members. He, however, went so far as to apply
the following language to the majority:--"As to the greater part of
the sect, it is, we apprehend, of little consequence what they study or
under whom. It would be more amusing, to be sure, and more reputable, if
they would take up the old republican cant and declaim about Brutus and
Timoleon, the duty of killing tyrants and the blessedness of dying for
liberty. But, on the whole, they might have chosen worse. They may as
well be Utilitarians as jockeys or dandies. And, though quibbling about
self-interest and motives, and objects of desire, and the greatest
happiness of the greatest number, is but a poor employment for a grown
man, it certainly hurts the health less than hard drinking and the
fortune less than high play; it is not much more laughable than
phrenology, and is immeasurably more humane than cock-fighting. "
Macaulay inserted in the Edinburgh Review of March, 1829, an article
upon Mr Mill's Essay. He attacked the method with much vehemence; and,
to the end of his life, he never saw any ground for believing that in
this he had gone too far. But before long he felt that he had not spoken
of the author of the Essay with the respect due to so eminent a man. In
1833, he described Mr mill, during the debate on the India Bill of that
year, as a "gentleman extremely well acquainted with the affairs of our
Eastern Empire, a most valuable servant of the Company, and the author
of a history of India, which, though certainly not free from faults, is,
I think, on the whole, the greatest historical work which has appeared
in our language since that of Gibbon. "
Almost immediately upon the appearance of the article in the Edinburgh
Review, an answer was published in the Westminster Review. It was
untruly attributed, in the newspapers of the day, to Mr Bentham himself.
Macaulay's answer to this appeared in the Edinburgh Review, June, 1829.
He wrote the answer under the belief that he was answering Mr Bentham,
and was undeceived in time only to add the postscript. The author of the
article in the Westminster Review had not perceived that the question
raised was not as to the truth or falsehood of the result at which Mr
Mill had arrived, but as to the soundness or unsoundness of the method
which he pursued; a misunderstanding at which Macaulay, while he
supposed the article to be the work of Mr Bentham, expressed much
surprise. The controversy soon became principally a dispute as to the
theory which was commonly known by the name of The Greatest Happiness
Principle. Another article in the Westminster Review followed; and
a surrejoinder by Macaulay in the Edinburgh Review of October, 1829.
Macaulay was irritated at what he conceived to be either extreme
dullness or gross unfairness on the part of his unknown antagonist, and
struck as hard as he could; and he struck very hard indeed.
The ethical question thus raised was afterwards discussed by Sir James
Mackintosh, in the Dissertation contributed by him to the seventh
edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, page 284-313 (Whewell's
Edition). Sir James Mackintosh notices the part taken in the controversy
by Macaulay, in the following words: "A writer of consummate ability,
who has failed in little but the respect due to the abilities and
character of his opponents, has given too much countenance to the abuse
and confusion of language exemplified in the well-known verse of Pope,
'Modes of self-love the Passions we may call. '
'We know,' says he, 'no universal proposition respecting human nature
which is true but one--that men always act from self-interest. '" "It
is manifest from the sequel, that the writer is not the dupe of the
confusion; but many of his readers may be so. If, indeed, the word
"self-interest" could with propriety be used for the gratification of
every prevalent desire, he has clearly shown that this change in the
signification of terms would be of no advantage to the doctrine which he
controverts. It would make as many sorts of self-interest as there
are appetites, and it is irreconcilably at variance with the system of
association proposed by Mr Mill. " "The admirable writer whose language
has occasioned this illustration, who at an early age has mastered every
species of composition, will doubtless hold fast to simplicity, which
survives all the fashions of deviation from it, and which a man of
genius so fertile has few temptations to for sake. "
When Macaulay selected for publication certain articles of the Edinburgh
Review, he resolved not to publish any of the three essays in question;
for which he assigned the following reason:--
"The author has been strongly urged to insert three papers on the
Utilitarian Philosophy, which, when they first appeared, attracted
some notice, but which are not in the American editions. He has however
determined to omit these papers, not because he is disposed to retract a
single doctrine which they contain, but because he is unwilling to offer
what might be regarded as an affront to the memory of one from whose
opinions he still widely dissents, but to whose talents and virtues he
admits that he formerly did not do justice. Serious as are the faults of
the Essay on Government, a critic, while noticing those faults, should
have abstained from using contemptuous language respecting the historian
of British India. It ought to be known that Mr Mill had the generosity,
not only to forgive, but to forget the unbecoming acrimony with which he
had been assailed, and was, when his valuable life closed, on terms of
cordial friendship with his assailant. "
Under these circumstances, considerable doubt has been felt as to the
propriety of republishing the three Essays in the present collection.
But it has been determined, not without much hesitation, that they
should appear. It is felt that no disrespect is shown to the memory of
Mr Mill, when the publication is accompanied by so full an apology for
the tone adopted towards him; and Mr Mill himself would have been the
last to wish for the suppression of opinions on the ground that they
were in express antagonism to his own. The grave has now closed upon the
assailant as well as the assailed. On the other hand, it cannot but
be desirable that opinions which the author retained to the last, on
important questions in politics and morals, should be before the public.
Some of the poems now collected have already appeared in print; others
are supplied by the recollection of friends. The first two are published
on account of their having been composed in the author's childhood. In
the poems, as well as in the prose works, will be occasionally found
thoughts and expressions which have afterwards been adopted in later
productions.
No alteration whatever has been made from the form in which the author
left the several articles, with the exception of some changes in
punctuation, and the correction of one or two obvious misprints.
T. F. E. London, June 1860.
CONTENTS.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNIGHT'S QUARTERLY MAGAZINE.
Fragments of a Roman Tale. (June 1823. )
On the Royal Society of Literature. (June 1823. )
Scenes from "Athenian Revels. " (January 1824. )
Criticisms on the Principal Italian Writers. No. I. Dante. (January
1824. )
Criticisms on the Principal Italian Writers. No. II. Petrarch. (April
1824. )
Some account of the Great Lawsuit between the Parishes of St Dennis and
St George in the Water. (April 1824. )
A Conversation between Mr Abraham Cowley and Mr John Milton, touching
the Great Civil War. (August 1824. )
On the Athenian Orators. (August 1824. )
A Prophetic Account of a Grand National Epic Poem, to be entitled "The
Wellingtoniad," and to be Published A. D. 2824. (November 1824. )
On Mitford's History of Greece. (November 1824. )
MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS OF LORD MACAULAY.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNIGHT'S QUARTERLY MAGAZINE.
FRAGMENTS OF A ROMAN TALE. (June 1823. )
It was an hour after noon. Ligarius was returning from the Campus
Martius. He strolled through one of the streets which led to the Forum,
settling his gown, and calculating the odds on the gladiators who were
to fence at the approaching Saturnalia. While thus occupied, he overtook
Flaminius, who, with a heavy step and a melancholy face, was sauntering
in the same direction. The light-hearted young man plucked him by the
sleeve.
"Good-day, Flaminius. Are you to be of Catiline's party this evening? "
"Not I. "
"Why so? Your little Tarentine girl will break her heart. "
"No matter. Catiline has the best cooks and the finest wine in Rome.
There are charming women at his parties. But the twelve-line board and
the dice-box pay for all. The Gods confound me if I did not lose two
millions of sesterces last night. My villa at Tibur, and all the
statues that my father the praetor brought from Ephesus, must go to
the auctioneer. That is a high price, you will acknowledge, even for
Phoenicopters, Chian, and Callinice. "
"High indeed, by Pollux. "
"And that is not the worst. I saw several of the leading senators this
morning. Strange things are whispered in the higher political circles. "
"The Gods confound the political circles. I have hated the name of
politician ever since Sylla's proscription, when I was within a moment
of having my throat cut by a politician, who took me for another
politician. While there is a cask of Falernian in Campania, or a girl in
the Suburra, I shall be too well employed to think on the subject. "
"You will do well," said Flaminius gravely, "to bestow some little
consideration upon it at present. Otherwise, I fear, you will soon renew
your acquaintance with politicians, in a manner quite as unpleasant as
that to which you allude. "
"Averting Gods! what do you mean? "
"I will tell you. There are rumours of conspiracy. The order of things
established by Lucius Sylla has excited the disgust of the people, and
of a large party of the nobles. Some violent convulsion is expected. "
"What is that to me? I suppose that they will hardly proscribe the
vintners and gladiators, or pass a law compelling every citizen to take
a wife. "
"You do not understand. Catiline is supposed to be the author of the
revolutionary schemes. You must have heard bold opinions at his table
repeatedly. "
"I never listen to any opinions upon such subjects, bold or timid. "
"Look to it. Your name has been mentioned. "
"Mine! good Gods! I call Heaven to witness that I never so much as
mentioned Senate, Consul, or Comitia, in Catiline's house. "
"Nobody suspects you of any participation in the inmost counsels of the
party. But our great men surmise that you are among those whom he has
bribed so high with beauty, or entangled so deeply in distress, that
they are no longer their own masters. I shall never set foot within
his threshold again. I have been solemnly warned by men who understand
public affairs; and I advise you to be cautious. "
The friends had now turned into the Forum, which was thronged with
the gay and elegant youth of Rome. "I can tell you more," continued
Flaminius; "somebody was remarking to the Consul yesterday how loosely a
certain acquaintance of ours tied his girdle. 'Let him look to himself;'
said Cicero, 'or the state may find a tighter girdle for his neck. '"
"Good Gods! who is it? You cannot surely mean"--
"There he is.
"
Flaminius pointed to a man who was pacing up and down the Forum at a
little distance from them. He was in the prime of manhood. His
personal advantages were extremely striking, and were displayed with an
extravagant but not ungraceful foppery. His gown waved in loose folds;
his long dark curls were dressed with exquisite art, and shone and
steamed with odours; his step and gesture exhibited an elegant
and commanding figure in every posture of polite languor. But his
countenance formed a singular contrast to the general appearance of
his person. The high and imperial brow, the keen aquiline features, the
compressed mouth; the penetrating eye, indicated the highest degree of
ability and decision. He seemed absorbed in intense meditation. With
eyes fixed on the ground, and lips working in thought, he sauntered
round the area, apparently unconscious how many of the young gallants
of Rome were envying the taste of his dress, and the ease of his
fashionable stagger.
"Good Heaven! " said Ligarius, "Caius Caesar is as unlikely to be in a
plot as I am. "
"Not at all. "
"He does nothing but game; feast, intrigue, read Greek, and write
verses. "
"You know nothing of Caesar. Though he rarely addresses the Senate,
he is considered as the finest speaker there, after the Consul. His
influence with the multitude is immense. He will serve his rivals in
public life as he served me last night at Catiline's. We were playing at
the twelve lines. (Duodecim scripta, a game of mixed chance and skill,
which seems to have been very fashionable in the higher circles of
Rome. The famous lawyer Mucius was renowned for his skill in it. --"Cic.
Orat. " i. 50. )--Immense stakes. He laughed all the time, chatted with
Valeria over his shoulder, kissed her hand between every two moves, and
scarcely looked at the board. I thought that I had him. All at once
I found my counters driven into the corner. Not a piece to move,
by Hercules. It cost me two millions of sesterces. All the Gods and
Goddesses confound him for it! "
"As to Valeria," said Ligarius, "I forgot to ask whether you have heard
the news. "
"Not a word. What? "
"I was told at the baths to-day that Caesar escorted the lady home.
Unfortunately old Quintus Lutatius had come back from his villa in
Campania, in a whim of jealousy. He was not expected for three days.
There was a fine tumult. The old fool called for his sword and his
slaves, cursed his wife, and swore that he would cut Caesar's throat. "
"And Caesar? "
"He laughed, quoted Anacreon, trussed his gown round his left arm,
closed with Quintus, flung him down, twisted his sword out of his hand,
burst through the attendants, ran a freed-man through the shoulder, and
was in the street in an instant. "
"Well done! Here he comes. Good-day, Caius. "
Caesar lifted his head at the salutation. His air of deep abstraction
vanished; and he extended a hand to each of the friends.
"How are you after your last night's exploit? "
"As well as possible," said Caesar, laughing.
"In truth we should rather ask how Quintus Lutatius is. "
"He, I understand, is as well as can be expected of a man with a
faithless spouse and a broken head. His freed-man is most seriously
hurt. Poor fellow! he shall have half of whatever I win to-night.
Flaminius, you shall have your revenge at Catiline's. "
"You are very kind. I do not intend to be at Catiline's till I wish to
part with my town-house. My villa is gone already. "
"Not at Catiline's, base spirit! You are not of his mind, my gallant
Ligarius. Dice, Chian, and the loveliest Greek singing girl that was
ever seen. Think of that, Ligarius. By Venus, she almost made me adore
her, by telling me that I talked Greek with the most Attic accent that
she had heard in Italy. "
"I doubt she will not say the same of me," replied Ligarius. "I am just
as able to decipher an obelisk as to read a line of Homer. "
"You barbarous Scythian, who had the care of your education? "
"An old fool,--a Greek pedant,--a Stoic. He told me that pain was no
evil, and flogged me as if he thought so. At last one day, in the middle
of a lecture, I set fire to his enormous filthy beard, singed his face,
and sent him roaring out of the house. There ended my studies. From that
time to this I have had as little to do with Greece as the wine that
your poor old friend Lutatius calls his delicious Samian. "
"Well done, Ligarius. I hate a Stoic. I wish Marcus Cato had a beard
that you might singe it for him. The fool talked his two hours in the
Senate yesterday, without changing a muscle of his face. He looked as
savage and as motionless as the mask in which Roscius acted Alecto. I
detest everything connected with him. "
"Except his sister, Servilia. "
"True. She is a lovely woman. "
"They say that you have told her so, Caius"
"So I have. "
"And that she was not angry. "
"What woman is? "
"Aye--but they say"--
"No matter what they say. Common fame lies like a Greek rhetorician.
You might know so much, Ligarius, without reading the philosophers. But
come, I will introduce you to little dark-eyed Zoe. "
"I tell you I can speak no Greek. "
"More shame for you. It is high time that you should begin. You will
never have such a charming instructress. Of what was your father
thinking when he sent for an old Stoic with a long beard to teach you?
There is no language-mistress like a handsome woman. When I was at
Athens, I learnt more Greek from a pretty flower-girl in the Peiraeus
than from all the Portico and the Academy. She was no Stoic, Heaven
knows. But come along to Zoe. I will be your interpreter. Woo her in
honest Latin, and I will turn it into elegant Greek between the throws
of dice. I can make love and mind my game at once, as Flaminius can tell
you.
"Well, then, to be plain, Caesar, Flaminius has been talking to me about
plots, and suspicions, and politicians. I never plagued myself with such
things since Sylla's and Marius's days; and then I never could see much
difference between the parties. All that I am sure of is, that those who
meddle with such affairs are generally stabbed or strangled. And, though
I like Greek wine and handsome women, I do not wish to risk my neck for
them. Now, tell me as a friend, Caius--is there no danger? "
"Danger! " repeated Caesar, with a short, fierce, disdainful laugh: "what
danger do you apprehend? "
"That you should best know," said Flaminius; "you are far more intimate
with Catiline than I. But I advise you to be cautious. The leading men
entertain strong suspicions. "
Caesar drew up his figure from its ordinary state of graceful relaxation
into an attitude of commanding dignity, and replied in a voice of
which the deep and impassioned melody formed a strange contrast to
the humorous and affected tone of his ordinary conversation. "Let them
suspect. They suspect because they know what they have deserved. What
have they done for Rome? --What for mankind? Ask the citizens--ask the
provinces. Have they had any other object than to perpetuate their
own exclusive power, and to keep us under the yoke of an oligarchical
tyranny, which unites in itself the worst evils of every other system,
and combines more than Athenian turbulence with more than Persian
despotism? "
"Good Gods! Caesar. It is not safe for you to speak, or for us to listen
to, such things, at such a crisis. "
"Judge for yourselves what you will hear. I will judge for myself what
I will speak. I was not twenty years old when I defied Lucius Sylla,
surrounded by the spears of legionaries and the daggers of assassins.
Do you suppose that I stand in awe of his paltry successors, who have
inherited a power which they never could have acquired; who would
imitate his proscriptions, though they have never equalled his
conquests? "
"Pompey is almost as little to be trifled with as Sylla. I heard a
consular senator say that, in consequence of the present alarming state
of affairs, he would probably be recalled from the command assigned to
him by the Manilian law. "
"Let him come,--the pupil of Sylla's butcheries,--the gleaner of
Lucullus's trophies,--the thief-taker of the Senate. "
"For Heaven's sake, Caius! --if you knew what the Consul said"--
"Something about himself, no doubt. Pity that such talents should be
coupled with such cowardice and coxcombry. He is the finest speaker
living,--infinitely superior to what Hortensius was, in his best
days;--a charming companion, except when he tells over for the twentieth
time all the jokes that he made at Verres's trial. But he is the
despicable tool of a despicable party. "
"Your language, Caius, convinces me that the reports which have been
circulated are not without foundation. I will venture to prophesy that
within a few months the republic will pass through a whole Odyssey of
strange adventures. "
"I believe so; an Odyssey, of which Pompey will be the Polyphemus, and
Cicero the Siren. I would have the state imitate Ulysses: show no
mercy to the former; but contrive, if it can be done, to listen to
the enchanting voice of the other, without being seduced by it to
destruction. "
"But whom can your party produce as rivals to these two famous leaders? "
"Time will show. I would hope that there may arise a man, whose genius
to conquer, to conciliate, and to govern, may unite in one cause an
oppressed and divided people;--may do all that Sylla should have done,
and exhibit the magnificent spectacle of a great nation directed by a
great mind. "
"And where is such a man to be found? "
"Perhaps where you would least expect to find him. Perhaps he may be
one whose powers have hitherto been concealed in domestic or literary
retirement. Perhaps he may be one, who, while waiting for some adequate
excitement, for some worthy opportunity, squanders on trifles a genius
before which may yet be humbled the sword of Pompey and the gown
of Cicero. Perhaps he may now be disputing with a sophist; perhaps
prattling with a mistress; perhaps" and, as he spoke, he turned away,
and resumed his lounge, "strolling in the Forum. "
*****
It was almost midnight. The party had separated. Catiline and Cethegus
were still conferring in the supper-room, which was, as usual, the
highest apartment of the house. It formed a cupola, from which windows
opened on the flat roof that surrounded it. To this terrace Zoe had
retired. With eyes dimmed with fond and melancholy tears, she leaned
over the balustrade, to catch the last glimpse of the departing form of
Caesar, as it grew more and more indistinct in the moonlight. Had he
any thought of her? Any love for her? He, the favourite of the high-born
beauties of Rome, the most splendid, the most graceful, the most
eloquent of its nobles? It could not be. His voice had, indeed, been
touchingly soft whenever he addressed her. There had been a fascinating
tenderness even in the vivacity of his look and conversation. But such
were always the manners of Caesar towards women. He had wreathed a sprig
of myrtle in her hair as she was singing. She took it from her dark
ringlets, and kissed it, and wept over it, and thought of the sweet
legends of her own dear Greece,--of youths and girls, who, pining away
in hopeless love, had been transformed into flowers by the compassion
of the Gods; and she wished to become a flower, which Caesar might
sometimes touch, though he should touch it only to weave a crown for
some prouder and happier mistress.
She was roused from her musings by the loud step and voice of Cethegus,
who was pacing furiously up and down the supper-room.
"May all the Gods confound me, if Caesar be not the deepest traitor, or
the most miserable idiot, that ever intermeddled with a plot! "
Zoe shuddered. She drew nearer to the window. She stood concealed from
observation by the curtain of fine network which hung over the aperture,
to exclude the annoying insects of the climate.
"And you too! " continued Cethegus, turning fiercely on his accomplice;
"you to take his part against me! --you, who proposed the scheme
yourself! "
"My dear Caius Cethegus, you will not understand me. I proposed the
scheme; and I will join in executing it. But policy is as necessary to
our plans as boldness. I did not wish to startle Caesar--to lose his
co-operation--perhaps to send him off with an information against us to
Cicero and Catulus. He was so indignant at your suggestion that all my
dissimulation was scarcely sufficient to prevent a total rupture. "
"Indignant! The Gods confound him! --He prated about humanity, and
generosity, and moderation. By Hercules, I have not heard such a lecture
since I was with Xenochares at Rhodes. "
"Caesar is made up of inconsistencies. He has boundless ambition,
unquestioned courage, admirable sagacity. Yet I have frequently observed
in him a womanish weakness at the sight of pain. I remember that once
one of his slaves was taken ill while carrying his litter. He alighted,
put the fellow in his place and walked home in a fall of snow. I wonder
that you could be so ill-advised as to talk to him of massacre,
and pillage, and conflagration. You might have foreseen that such
propositions would disgust a man of his temper. "
"I do not know. I have not your self-command, Lucius. I hate
such conspirators. What is the use of them? We must have
blood--blood,--hacking and tearing work--bloody work! "
"Do not grind your teeth, my dear Caius; and lay down the carving-knife.
By Hercules, you have cut up all the stuffing of the couch. "
"No matter; we shall have couches enough soon,--and down to stuff
them with,--and purple to cover them,--and pretty women to loll
on them,--unless this fool, and such as he, spoil our plans. I had
something else to say. The essenced fop wishes to seduce Zoe from me. "
"Impossible! You misconstrue the ordinary gallantries which he is in the
habit of paying to every handsome face. "
"Curse on his ordinary gallantries, and his verses, and his compliments,
and his sprigs of myrtle! If Caesar should dare--by Hercules, I will
tear him to pieces in the middle of the Forum. "
"Trust his destruction to me. We must use his talents and
influence--thrust him upon every danger--make him our instrument while
we are contending--our peace-offering to the Senate if we fail--our
first victim if we succeed. "
"Hark! what noise was that? "
"Somebody in the terrace--lend me your dagger. "
Catiline rushed to the window. Zoe was standing in the shade.
