+ Not on the thirsty glebe ambrosial rain So opes its bosom for the teeming grain, As sweet religion's heaven-descended dews 200 Then holier shrines in mortal breasts are rear'd, Let hope and fear compact the moral chain, 205 The human will to good or ill to move: All virtue else in the tempestuous mind, 210 Who, without these the passions would command, • Bibulus was Cæsar's colleague in the consulship, and at first made some attempts to control him, but was soon obliged to desist, and to pass in entire insignificance the remainder of his nominal magistracy. This year of Rome was called the consulship of Julius and Cæsar. LUCIUS + Fleet as the Stag th unwieldy Steer shall run, Streams backwards roll, of shadows meet the Sun, Ere the foul mass of Man's imperfect kind Nor purged by Heaven, shall leave its dross behind, LUCIUS JUNIUS BRUTUS. Man's love of life beyond even life extends, Begins with breath, nor leaves him when it ends: Pleas'd with renew'd existence, he believes A second being in his heirs revives. 215 Yet see relentless Brutus, plac'd on high, Not instantaneous were the sufferers' pains; ' 7 Exuit patrem ut consulem ageret, orbusque vivere quam publicæ vindictæ deesse maluit. Val. Max. 1. v. c. viii. 8 παντα τα περι την τιμωριαν εθη και νομιμα φυλατίων, οσα τοις κακέργοις αποκείται παθειν, εν αγορα, παντων ορωνίων, αικιθεντας τα σωματα πληγαις αυτός, απασι τοις γινομενοις παρων, τότε συνεχώρησε τις αυχένας τοις πελεκεσιν αποκο πηναι, Dion. Hal. 1. v. Unmov'd Unmov'd he sat; while tears and groans confess'd The heaving pangs of every other breast. O heart of triple brass! can love of fame Extinguish nature, to exalt a name? Serenely could thine eye a sight behold, 230 Which chills the stranger's vital tide, when told? What praise, alas! can fortitude receive, 235 Which none would imitate, nor all believe? 240 9 Υπερ απαντα δε τα παραδοξα και θαυματα το ανδρος, το ατενες της οψεως και το ατεγκτου ην'---μονος οτε ανακλαυσαμενος ώφθη του μορος των παίδων, ετε αποιμώξας εαυτού της καθέξησης του οικον ερημίας. DION. HAL. 1. v. Posterity the dread award repeals; More for the traitors than the judge she feels; Stern justice turns a monster, so display'd. 255 TRIBUNES. 9 We find from Virgil, that even the hard-hearted Romans were divided in their opinion upon this most extraordinary transaction: utcunque ferent ea facta minores,-" Virg. Æn. vi. Manlius, however, presents another example of still more extravagant and unnatural rigour, when he condemns his son, a gallant young conqueror, to death, for a slight deviation from discipline. This barbarian, I after *. Thy Colle:que in thy power and office shard, What he might have condemn'd, thou shoud'st have spard, Indulging higour in its dire excess, Thou, striving to be more than man, ast less. yet ler not one outrageous Deed suffice Ere time's slow current in his gradual course 260 after exhorting the young man in an unfeeling declamation to bear his fate with magnanimity, ordered his head to be struck off, and looked on at the execution of the sentence. It is reasonable to suppose that the power of life and death given by the Roman laws to parents over their children, might, in some degree, have weakened the ties of natural affection, and substituted in their place ideas of severity, which led to excesses otherwise unaccountable. Parents had it in their option either to bring up a new-born child, or to suffer it to perish: thus, what would among us be considered as the most extreme proof of inhumanity, was then looked upon as a matter of indifference. The whole youth of Rome were in a state of actual slavery; with this difference only, that their masters were their fathers. Among Catiline's conspirators was A. Fulvius," senatoris filius; quem retractum ex itinere parens necari jussit." This parental order is mentioned by Sallust, whose words I have just now quoted. This is the state, from which declaimers are fond of taking their images of liberty. D. 2 Yet, Near the fair corse indignant see him stand Lucretia's dagger smoking in his hand, Annointed Heads! his Denunciation hear That chased from Rome a brutal Ravisher: Taught the proud Heirs of Royalty to own Man's Rights more sacred than a Tyrant's Throne, "That laws from Heaven derivd, are more than Kings"," |