'alone remained unconquered by either; not only while young and ambitious, but in his age and gray hairs, after his consulship and triumph like a brave wrestler, who after he has come off conqueror, observes the common rules, and continues his exercises to the last.

He himself informs us, that he never wore a garment which cost him more than a hundred drachmas; that, even when prætor or consul, he drank the same wine with his slave; that a dinner never cost him from the market above thirty ases and that he was thus frugal for the sake of his country, in order to enable himself to endure the harder service in war. He adds that, having gotten among some goods, to which he was heir, a piece of Babylonian tapestry, he immediately sold it; that the walls of his country houses were neither plastered, nor whitewashed; that he never gave more for a slave than fifteen hundred drachmas, as not requiring in his servants delicate shapes and fine faces, but strength and ability to labour, that they might be fit to be employed as grooms and neat-herds; and these he thought proper to sell again when they grew old,(i) that he might have no useless persons to maintain. In a word, he thought nothing cheap that was superfluous; that what a man has no need of, is dear even at a penny; and that it is much better to have fields, where the plough goes or cattle feed, than fine gardens and walks, that require much watering and sweeping.

Some imputed these things to a narrowness of spirit, while others supposed that he betook himself to this contracted man. ner of living, in order to correct by his example the growing luxury of the age. For my part, I cannot but charge his using his servants like so many beasts of burthen, and turning them off or selling them when grown old, to the account of a mean and ungenerous spirit, which accounts the sole tie between man and inan interest or necessity. But goodness moves in a larger sphere than justice: the obligations of law and equity reach only to mankind, whereas kindness and beneficence should be extended to creatures of every species; and these still flow from the breast of a well natured man, as streams that issue from a copious fountain. A good man will take care of his

iHe himself says in express terms, "A master of a family should sell his old oxen, and all the horned cattle that are of a delicate frame; all his sheep that are not hardy, their wool, their very pelts; his old wagons, and the old instruments belonging to his husbandry; such likewise of his slaves, as are old or infirm, and every thing else that is useless. A master of a family should love to sell, not to buy." What a fine contrast there is between the spirit of this old stoic, and that of the liberal-minded and benevolent Plutarch! (L.)

horses and dogs, not only while they are young, but when old and past service. Thus the people of Athens, when they had finished the temple called Hecatompedon, (j) set at liberty the beasts of burthen that had been chiefly employed in that work, suffering them to pasture at large free from any farther service. It is said, that one of these subsequently came of its own accord to work, and placing itself at the head of the labouring cattle, marched before them to the citadel. This pleased the people, and they made a decree, that it should be kept at the public charge as long as it lived. The grave of Cimon's mares, with which he thrice conquered at the Olympic games, are still to be seen near his own tomb. Many have shown particular marks of regard in burying the dogs which they had brought up and cherished; and among the rest Xanthippus of old, whose dog swam by the side of his galley to Salamis, when the Athenians were forced to abandon their city, and was afterward buried by his master upon a promontory, to this day called 'the Dog's Grave'.(k) We certainly ought not to treat living creatures like shoes or household goods, which when worn out with use, we throw away; and, were it only to teach benevo lence to human kind, we should be kind and merciful to other creatures. For my own part, I would not sell even an old ox, that had laboured for me ;(1) much less would I banish, as it were. for the sake of a little money, a man grown old in my service from his usual place and accustomed diet; since he could be of no more use to the buyer, than he was to the seller. But Cato, as if he took a pride in these things, informs us that when consul he left his war horse in Spain, to save the public the charge of his freight. Whether such things as these are instances of greatness or littleness of soul, let the reader judge for himself.

He was, however, a man of wonderful temperance. For, when general of the army, he took no more from the public for himself and those about him, than three Attic medimni of wheat a month, and less than a medimnus and a half of barley for his horses.(m) And when he was governor of Sardinia, where his predecessors had occasioned the province enormous expenses for pavilions, bedding, and apparel, and still more by

j See Life of Pericles, vol. II.

k Cynossema. See the Life of Themistocles.

This, as M. Ricard justly observes, is surely carrying the prin ciple too far and would eventually do more harm than good. Gen tle usage during their useful life, and a gentle dismission from it, is all that humanity or Christianity claims at our hands, especially for such animals as are obviously intended for our subsistence.* m See the Life of Lycurgus, Vol. I.

the number of their friends and attendants, and their sumptuous feasts and amusements, he on the contrary was as remarkable for his frugality. He put the public, indeed, to no kind of charge. Instead of making use of a carriage, he walked from one town to another attended only by a single officer, who carried his robe and a vessel for libations. But, if in these things he appeared plain and easy to those that were under his command, in every thing else he preserved great gravity and severity. For he was inexorable in whatever related to public justice; and inflexibly rigid in the execution of his orders; so that the Roman government had never before appeared to that people either so awful or so amiable.(n)

This contrast was found not only in his manners, but in his style, which was elegant, facetious, and familiar, and at the same time grave, sententious, and vehement. Thus Plato informs us, "The outside of Socrates was that of a satyr and a buffoon; but his soul was all virtue, and from within him issued such divine and pathetic things, as drew tears from the hearers, and melted every heart."(o) And as the same may justly be affirmed of Cato, I cannot comprehend the meaning of those who compare his language to that of Lysias. This, however, I leave to the decision of such as are more capable than myself of estimating the several sorts of style used among the Romans; and, being persuaded that a man's disposition may be discovered much better by his speech than by his looks, though some are of a different opinion, I shall record some of Cato's. remarkable sayings.

One day when the Romans were making an unseasonable clamour for a division and distribution of corn, to dissuade them from it, he thus began his address: "It is a difficult task, my fellow citizens, to speak to the belly, because it has no ears." At another time, complaining of the luxury of the Romans, he said, "It was a hard matter to save that city from ruin, where a fish was sold for more than an ox."(p) Upon

In His only amusement was to hear the instructions of the poet Ennius, under whom he learned the Greek sciences. He banished usurers from his province, and reduced the interest upon loans almost to nothing.

• Sympos. The effect of Socrates' eloquence upon Alcibiades is stated in the Life of the latter, Vol. II.

Lysias' character, which it is not requisite here to extract, may be collected from Cic. de Clar. Orat, ix. Dion. Halic. in his Life of that orator, and Quintilian x. i. The latter writer in particular compares his eloquence, not to the rapid course of a great river, but to the quiet flow of a limpid rivulet.*

Luxury was now rapidly making its way at the tables of Rome.

another occasion he observed, "The Roman people were like sheep; for as those can scarcely be brought to stir singly, but all in a body readily follow their leaders, just such (said he) are ye. The man whose counsels you would not take as individuals, lead you with ease in a crowd." Speaking of the power of women, he remarked, "All men naturally govern the women, we govern all men, and our wives govern us." But this is derived from the Apophthegms of Themistocles.(9) For his son directing in most things through his mother, he said, "The Athenians govern the Greeks: I govern the Athenians; you, wife, govern me; and your son governs you: let him then use with moderation that power which, child as he is, sets him above all the Greeks." Another of Cato's sayings was, "The Roman people fixed the value, not only of the several kinds of colours, but of the arts and sciences. For (added he) as the dyers dye that sort of purple which is most agreeable to you, so our youth only study and strive to excel in such things as you commend." Exhorting the people to virtue, he said, "If it is by virtue and temperance, that you are become great, change not for the worse; but if by intemperance and vice, change for the better: for you are already great enough by such means as these." Of persons perpetually soliciting for high offices he observed, "Like men, who knew not their way, they wanted lictors always to conduct them." He found fault with the people, for often choosing the same persons consuls; "You either (said he) think the consulate of small worth, or that there is but a small number worthy of the consulate." Concerning one of his enemies, who led a very profligate and infamous life, he remarked; His mother takes it for a curse, and not a prayer, when any one wishes her son may survive her.' Pointing to a man who had sold a paternal estate near the sea side, he pretended to admire him, as one that was stronger than the sea itself; "For (said he) what the sea could not have swallowed without difficulty, this man has taken down with all imaginable ease." When king Eumenes came to Rome, the senate received him with extraordinary respect, and the principal citizens strove which should do bim the most honour, but Cato visibly neglected and shunned him. Upon which somebody inquired, "Why do you shun Eumenes, who is so good a man, and so great a friend to

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Athenæus vi. 19. states, after Polybius, that salt fish from the Black Sea sold for nearly twelve guineas a piece! But see, for instances of still greater extravagance in Tiberius' time in epicurism, spectacles, furniture, &c. Suet. Tib. xxxiv.*

9 See his Life.

the Romans?“ That may be,” answered Cato, "but I look upon a king as a creature that feeds upon human flesh;(r) and, of all the kings that have been so much celebrated, I find not one to be compared with an Epaminondas, a Pericles, a Themistocles, a Manius Curius, or with Hamilcar Barcas. He used to say, that his enemies hated him, because he neglected his own concerns, and rose before day to mind those of the public. But that he would rather his good actions should go unre"warded, than his bad ones unpunished; and that he pardoned every body's faults with greater ease than his own." The Romans having sent three embassadors to the king of Bithynia, of whom one had the gout, another had his skull trepanned, and the third was accounted little better than a fool, Cato smiled and observed; "They had sent an embassy, which had neither feet, head, nor heart."(s) When Scipio applied to him at the request of Polybius in behalf of the Achæan exiles,(t) and the matter was much canvassed in the senate, some speaking in favour of their restoration and some against it, Cato. rose up and said; "As if we had nothing else to do, we sit here all day debating, whether a few poor old Greeks shall be buried by our grave-diggers, or by those of their own country!" The senate then decreed that the exiles should return home; and Polybius, some days afterward, endeavoured to procure another meeting of that body, to restore those exiles to their former honours in Achaia. Upon this affair he sounded Cato, who answered smiling, "This was just as if Ulysses should have wished to enter the Cyclops' cave again for a hat and a belt, which he had left behind!" It was a saying of his, "that wise men learn more from fools, than fools from wise men; for the wise avoid the errors of fools, while fools do not profit by the examples of the wise." Another of his sayings was, he liked a young man who blushed, more than one who turned pale and that he did not approve a soldier who moved his hands in marching and his feet in fighting, and who snored louder in bed than he shouted in battle." Jesting upon a very

r This jest is taken from the phrase in Homer, Il. i. 231. Cogs Cross, King, that devourest thy people.'

"that

Some ancients, says M. Ricard, particularly Aristotle and the stoics, placed the soul or understanding in the heart.

t The Achæans had entered into measures for delivering up their country to the king of Persia: but, being detected, a thousand of them were seized, and compelled to live exiles in Italy. There they continued seventeen years; after which about three hundred, who were still living, were restored by a decree of the senate especially enacted in favour of Polybius, one of the number. See Supp. xlix.3. VOL. III.

R