Impell'd, repell'd, and in the conflict tost,

1845

More than the deed, the struggle was his boast.
He sought no more from slaughter'd Cæsar's grave,
Than nature, justice, and his country gave;
Revenge or jealousy inflam'd the rest,

1849

To aim their daggers at the conqueror's breast;

By principle alone was Brutus mov'd,—

He slew the tyrant, but the man he lov’d.'

• Cette faveur si pleine, et si mal reconnue,

Par un mortel reproche a tous momens le tue. CINNA, par Corneille. 9 Semper amavi, ut scis, M. Brutum, propter ejus summum ingenium, suavissimos mores, singularem probitatem, atque constantiam.

1

CIC. Epist. ad Famil. ix. 14.

In order to enhance the merit of Brutus in killing Cæsar, some have adopted the idea of his having been his son by Servilia, with whom Cæsar was known to have intrigued; but I acknowledge myself so poor a casuist as not to be able to imagine any situation in which it can be meritorious, or even justifiable, in a man to kill his father. To add to the interest of a tragedy in which Brutus is the hero, Voltaire has brought forward the circumstance of the filiation; Shakspeare, more judiciously in my mind, has passed it over without notice. The admirers of Brutus may, I think, be content to let the matter rest as it is. It is possible he might have been the son of Cæsar, but very far from a certainty.

PRODIGIES AFTER THE DEATH OF CÆSAR.*

A. U. C. 710.

Creation's frame seem'd passion'd by the event, Convuls'd and torn through every element. 1854 From Ætna's dread abyss, the affrighted world Saw rocks of fire with bellowing thunder hurl'd;" Saw the vast concave, once benignly clear, Like Jove's whole armament of wrath appear. Then too, the tainting east, the churlish north, On wasteful errands sent their tempests forth; 1860 Nor Caurus then, nor Auster lagg'd behind; Fierce to destroy rode every willing wind:

Rain, hail, and arrowy sleet, and lightnings blue, Athwart the expanse with sullen vengeance flew;

* See note C, at the end.

Quoties cyclopum effervere in agros

Vidimus undantem ruptis fornicabus Ætnam,

Flammarumque globos, liquefactaque volvere saxa!

VIRG. Georg. i. 471.

Huge

Huge promontories bow'd; nor ceas'd to glare 1865 Streaming above, a comet's endless hair;3

Portentous, dismal blaze! through Alpine woods

Bursting in tenfold storm, with ocean's floods,

(Woe to each prostrate field, and peopled town,)

Eridanus, the horny king, came down ;*

1870

Ausonia felt through every trembling shore

His furious tide, and unrelenting roar.
Ashes, no longer pent up in the urn,
Resuming forms of life, to earth return;
Ghastly, and grim, and terrible, they glare,

1875

The pallid murderer, as he stalks, to scare.

Fat blood in drops from rubent clouds fell down,
And shed their deep pollution on the town;
While indistinctly dreadful, through the air,
Battle's wild din bade Rome for war prepare. 1880

3 Non alias cœlo ceciderunt plura sereno Fulgura; nec diri toties arsere cometæ..

VIRG. Georg. i. 487.

• Proluit insano contorquens vortice silvas,
Fluviorum rex Eridanus,-, Idem. Georg. i. 481.

The sun himself, by lurid mists o'er-spread,
In dim suffusion veil'd his mournful head;
Through twelve revolving signs, a sickly gleam
From his chill'd orb, with faint ungenial beam,
Scarce warming earth's cold lap, dismay'd the swains,
Who droop'd desponding, and forsook their plains.
O fair Hesperia! O delightful land!
1887

Too oft, alas, by impious man profan'd!

O'er thy smooth rivers, and thy murmuring rills,
Thy fertile pastures, lawns, and pine-clad hills,
No tutelary power maintain'd his charge,

1891

But giant devastation stalk'd at large.

STATE OF ROME AFTER CÆSAR's DEATH.

No scheme beyond the hero's fall arrang'd,*
The state of Rome was not improv'd, but chang'd;
That bold atchievement the whole mind possess'd,
Nor left one thought to methodize the rest:

illa

1896

Quod scribis te nescire quid nostris faciendum sit, jam pridem me аподом solicitat. Itaque stulta jam Iduum Martiarum est consolatio. Animis enim usi sumus virilibus, consiliis, mihi crede, puerilibus. CIC. Epist. ad Attic. xv. 4.