friends, all of which if I attempted to answer, I must do nothing else. It is agreeable to me that you have cultivated the acquaintance of Æmilius and Macaranus, for both of them may improve you both by instruction and example. To such men attach yourself; but avoid like a pestilence the society of those who are of a different disposition. At your age nothing requires to be more carefully attended to than what company you keep. I do not, however, wish you to be rigid and sullen, and an enemy to every kind of pleasure. I only suggest this, that not those friendships should be sought which seem most agreeable; but that the mind should be brought to think those which are most honourable are also the most agreeable and delightful. Farewell again and again.

IV.

MURETUS.

True glory, then, according to his own definition of it, is a wide and illustrious fame of many and great benefits conferred upon our friends, our country, or the whole race of mankind. It is not, he says, the empty blast of popular favour, or the applause of the giddy multitude, which all wise men had ever despised, and none more than himself,but the consenting praise of all honest men, and the incorrupt testimony of those who can judge of excellent merit, which resounds always to virtue, as the echo to the voice; and since it is a general companion of good actions, ought not to be rejected by

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good men. That those who aspire to this glory were not to expect ease, or pleasure, or tranquillity of life for their pains; but must expose themselves to storms and dangers for the public good, sustain many battles with the audacious and the wicked, and some even with the powerful; in short, must behave themselves so as to give their citizens cause to rejoice that they had ever been born.

V.

MIDDLETON.

See how I love you: though I have received letters to-day from many persons, I thought I ought to do nothing before I answered you in preference to all the rest. Do not think, my Alexander, that you are dearer to your father than to me. And if you should ask what is the cause of this great love of mine towards you, may I die if I can assign any other than that I think I have discovered in you excellent talents, and if you choose to employ them, adapted by nature for the highest things. But do you reflect on this; that there are many things in their own nature indeed good, but which sometimes become very bad and pernicious by the fault of those who possess them. Wealth is good; but if any one does not use it aright, bad. Comeliness is a good thing; yet this good thing has proved the destruction of many. Of the same kind is talent: if you use it aright, scarcely any greater or more excellent gift can be bestowed on the human race; but if to good talent a bad disposition is joined, it will be the same thing as a sword in the hand of a

bad man -the better and sharper it is, the more mischief it will produce. I love you now because you have good talents. I shall cease to love you, if you begin to use your talents to a bad purpose; but I hope this will not be, and I trust that you will use them well, both of your own inclination, and because you seem greatly to like my affection for you, which you cannot preserve in any other way. Farewell; and if you love me, love virtue and learning: there are no greater blessings belonging to men.

more, farewell.

VI.

Once

MURETUS.

a

After this Tullus made war upon the Sabines, and gained a victory over them. But now, whether it were that Tullus had neglected the worship of the gods, whilst he had been so busy in his wars, the signs of the wrath of heaven became manifestplague broke out among the people, and Tullus himself was at last stricken with a lingering disease. Then he bethought him of good and holy Numa, and how, in his time the gods had been so gracious to Rome, and had made known their will by signs whenever Numa inquired of them. So Tullus also tried to inquire of Jupiter; but the god was angry and sent his lightnings, and Tullus and all his house were burnt to ashes. This made the Romans know that they wanted a king who would follow the example of Numa; so they chose his daughter's son, Ancus Marcius, to reign over them in the room of Tullus.

ARNOLD.

VII.

The constant tradition of antiquity declared that, among many prognostics of an impending catastrophe, his wife had revealed to him in the morning an ominous dream, and when she prevailed upon him to consult the sacrificers, the signs of the victims were fearfully inauspicious. Whether his own superstitious feelings gained the ascendancy, or whether he was overcome by the entreaties of Calpurnia, he consented at last to send Antonius to dismiss the senate, or to excuse his absence. At this moment Decimus Brutus came to attend him on his way to the place of meeting. When he heard the dictator's half blushing acknowledgment of his scruples, he was struck with consternation at the prospect of the destined victim's escape; for in the meanwhile the conspirators were in momentary apprehension of discovery. Brutus himself, tormented by fear or conscience, had been unable to conceal his agitation since he had embarked in the enterprise, and his nervous excitement was shamed by the firmness of his wife, who pierced her own thigh, and long concealed the wound, to extract from him the secret of his heart.

MERIVALE.

VIII.

As usual, I have kept you to the last, meaning to write to you a very long letter, and to say to you whatever I had left unsaid, and to say over again whatever I had said to them. And now I am so

weary and exhausted, that it is a wonder to me how much of these fine purposes I shall execute. I must tell you, because I have yet told nobody, how much his dispatch of yesterday is admired and approved, as well as the conduct it describes; nothing could be more able and judicious. With regard to public affairs, we cannot and must not disguise our situation from ourselves. If peace is to be had, we must have it ; war is out of the question; we have not the means; what is of all means the most important, the mind! If we are not at peace, we shall be at nothing: it will be a rixa between us and our enemies: a pulsation on their side, a vapulation on ours.

IX.

CANNING.

The emperor of the west, if his ministers disturbed his amusements by the news of the impending danger, was satisfied with being the occasion and spectator of the war. The safety of Rome was intrusted to the counsels and sword of Stilicho; but such was the feeble and exhausted state of the empire, that it was impossible to restore the fortifications of the Danube, or prevent by a vigorous effort the invasion of the Germans. The hopes of the vigilant minister of Honorius were confined to the defence of Italy. He once more abandoned the provinces, recalled the troops, pressed the new levies which were rigorously exacted, employed the most efficacious means to arrest or allure the deserters, and offered the gift of liberty to all the slaves who would enlist.