Lost liberty indignant to survive,'

At Utica good Cato ceas'd to live;

1600

With his own sword he sought the peaceful shore,' Where prosperous tyrants could command no more. Driven to extremes, too oft the unhappy brave Found their sad refuge in a self-made grave;

9 After Pompey's defeat at Pharsalia, Cato is said never to have indulged himself at his meals in a recumbent posture. To sit, eating, was among the Romans a ceremony of mourning, and was practised in times of great affliction or calamity. After the unfortunate defeat at Cannæ, Terentius Varro always sat at his meals. It denoted an intentional mortification; but we cannot well judge what degree of inconvenience might have been suffered from this kind of voluntary penance, further than that the change of any habit to which men have been long accustomed, is for a time irksome. Without this consideration, it only seems to have been a resolution to discontinue swallowing horizontally, a sort of distress with which a modern does not well know how to sympathise. -acceptâ partium clade nihil cunctatus, ut fapiente dignum erat, mortem etiam lætus accivit. Nam postquam filium comitesque ab amplexu dimifit, in nocte lecto ad lucernam Platonis libro, qui immortalitatem animæ docet, paululum quievit. Tum circa primam vigiliam stricto gladio revelatum manu pectus semel iterumque percussit. [A. U. C. 708.]

I

R 2

FLOR. iv. c. 2.

Securing

Securing boldly thus the pass'd renown,

1610

1606
They scorn'd to drain life's loathsome chalice down;
Not shiv'ring on the verge of fate they stood,
But plung'd spontaneous in th' eternal flood;
Nor loiter'd on this mortal stage, to see
Their last sad scene conclude with infamy :
When hope's false meteor could delude no more,
They dropp'd the curtain, and the piece was o'er ;
And more to consecrate the daring deed,

Applause and admiration were the meed.

1615

No Heaven-taught precept then restrain'd the blow,
And, born to suffer, bade them bear their woe;
Not hurl back rashly on the giver's hand,
What the wise giver only might demand.

1620

Cato's great conqueror repining heard,
That death to his proud mercy he prefer'd;
And shun'd to see the splendour of his name
Obscur'd at length by that dark cloud of shame;
But, taught by Plato, the bright sphere explor'd,
Beyond a Cæsar's pity or his sword.

1625

A soul

+ Rare was Old Age in wasteful times like these,
Too fierce for safety, and too wild for ease,
At Nature's call/ scarce one retired to rest,
Orleftlife's Board, a saturated Guest,
The Tree with shaken fruit bestiered the ground
Mellow'd by Time alas! how few were found !
For in that land of Wonders, none could see
Asight more strange than Man's longevity.

A soul sublime, with ancient maxims fraught,2
His practice stricter even than Stoicks taught ;
While all their high-strain'd principles profess'd,
The clear example of his life express'd.3
Virtues, inherent in his honour'd race,

To him descended with a milder grace;

1630

Though some rude particles were smooth'd away,
The gem's true lustre suffer'd no allay ;

Yet, in his garb uncouth, and frequent frown,
The rigid Censor's lineage still was known.* 1635

Finxit enim te ipsa natura ad honestatem, gravitatem, temperantiam, magnitudinem animi, justitiam, ad omnes denique virtutes, magnum hominem et excelsum. Cic. [de Caton.] pro Muræna.

3 The whole conduct of Cato's life shews him a greater Stoick than the most rigid professors of that sect; or, however they might equal him in knowledge, it is certain he shamed them in practice. Kennet's ANTIQ.

4

+ Plutarch informs us, in his life of Cato the Younger, that when he was Prætor, he often came to the court without his shoes, and sat upon the bench without his gown; and that in this habit he gave judgment in capital causes on persons of the best quality.

si quis vultu torvo ferus, et pede nudo, Exiguæque togæ simulet textore Catonem,

Virtutemne repræsentet, moresque Catonis? HoR. Epist. l. i. 19.

But

+

But different shades of mind in each appear,
The first was cruel, and the last severe.

To root out guilt, the elder too intent,

Felt savage pleasure in its punishment;

Ardent like him, the younger lash'd the age, 1640

But pity temper'd his humaner rage:

The fierce-eyed Censor, Rome with terror saw;
His sage descendent with unwilling awe.

Their dates of life revers'd, fair truth might find
More difference in the times, than in the mind.
When honour's cause his glowing rhet'rick warm'd,
The worthless felt abash'd, though not reform'd;
And half-subdu'd by his reproving tongue,
Acknowledg'd what was right, though acting wrong ;
Yet no amendment from conviction took,

But hated less the crime than the rebuke.
Corruption all sound principle had min'd,
Nor left one frown of early Rome behind,
Save that, which unconforming Cato wont
To wear habitual on his low'ring front.

1650

1655 Virtue's

012 chat

+ Casar in his Consulship proposed an AgrZrian Law with some plausible arguments in its favour, which Pompey and Crassus like the propounder betted entirely for their own ambitious acquiesced afreiwards, and account was unjustly accused of temporizing and inconsistency. While there appeared opposed, but on finding his resistance fruites!oses. This 1210 CATO 21 first stienuously to be possibility of defearing the measure he opposed ir from principle, and exactly ar the time when such conduct Exposed him to danger. His obstinacy so incensed the evenrempered CESAT, who had always the Populace at his devorion, and was little inclined to break out into violence against individuals, that he ordered him to Prison.CATOS further perseverance could only have excited unavailing discontents and dangerous Sedition. Brave and inflexible she was, he thought allevils preferable to Civil War and he knew dar CÆSAY had art enough to frame occasions for subverting the Republick, and boldness like the good genius of the Commonwealth had his address in preventing abuses equalled sagacity in discovering them. Every Public Proposition in which the formidable Triumvirat urd roused his vigilance and awakened his suspicions. A new Popular law with 3

enough to push them to the Eatery This incorruptible Senator boud have stood

Virtue's cold frost-work vanish'd clear away,
Too weak for luxury's dissolving ray;

Her simple elements perverted quite,

Not Cancer to the Goat more opposite:

1661

Rome once was artless, sturdy, plain, and brave;
Now, smiling, soft, perfidious, and a slave.
In seasons rank with every mortal vice,
(Pride, lust, ambition, fraud, and avarice,)
Himself unstain'd, he wonder'd to behold
A venal people bartering truth for gold;
And talk'd of rigorous laws, and pristine days';
Fond themes of his unfashionable praise.

The useless text repeated lost its force;

1665

His morals chang'd not, but the times grew worse;
By manners like their own, mankind beguil❜d,
Yawn'd while he preach'd, or laugh'd if Cæsar smil❜d.
When rattling tempests sweep the angry skies,
The strong-bas'd rock their furious blast defies;
While humbler battlements, like slaves, conform,

Nod their indented crests, and own the storm :

-firebrand in its very denomination he knew coud be held our by such Personages only to ser the stubble of Rome in combustion So

He could ar once discern the rendency of a measure, and was eloquent in exposing it, but was utterly incapable of managing men or Parties. He talked to the children of of the ancient Constitution while they only of availing themselves of the

perspic.cityofsy. CATO'S warmly espousing any particular measure was to the

Pof Tully

never failing prognostick of its miscarriage. It should nor was to be found in the Senate and hot among the People har he thinks a badlaw be unobserved that the favour and popularity of the most rigidly virtuous man in Rome It is the duty of a good Citizen to oppose the passing of what he thinks a badlaw while iris in agitation, but after it becomes regularly the law he is bound to obeyir. No Mans single spirit shou'd be stronger than the law of his Country.